Home / Blog / How to create a marketing proposal

How to Write Marketing Proposals That Get Deals Done

Learn how to make a marketing proposal that differentiates your plan, strategy, and services. Write marketing consultant and agency proposals that win (+Templates).

Author Amotz Harari, Head of Marketing

5 minute read

how to write a marketing proposal

helped business
professionals at:

WorkDay IHeart Meta Nice American Cancer Society Xerox

Short answer

How to write a marketing proposal?

  1. Research the client’s competitive landscape
  2. Analyze the client’s marketing activity and find critical gaps
  3. Identify the client's needs
  4. Communicate with the client to validate their challenges and objective
  5. Build a tailored marketing strategy and game plan
  6. Used a marketing proposal template to create your proposal
  7. Have your champion review the proposal and provide feedback
  8. Send the proposal to decision-makers or schedule a meeting to walk them through it

Read on to learn how to write your proposal slide-by-slide ⤵

Get pitch deck templates
Try our AI pitch deck creator

What does a marketing proposal look like?

A marketing proposal traditionally looks like a simple PDF with dense text and minimal design. But it is hard to stand out and differentiate your offer using this format.

For this reason, leading marketing agencies and service providers have been transitioning to interactive web-based proposals which are more engaging, convert better, and come with invaluable analytics built-in.

Check out the example below to see what I mean.

Make yours with AI
Open in new window

What are the main types of marketing proposals?

The definition of a marketing proposal really depends on the type of services you offer. There are various types of solutions provided in various forms, such as a project, retainer, or consultation.


7 main types of marketing proposals:

  • Marketing strategy proposal - Offers a comprehensive plan for reaching marketing objectives, including how to position in the market, identify the target audience, and select the best marketing channels.
  • Market analysis proposal - Suggests an in-depth look at the market to spot trends, analyze competitors, and understand potential customer needs, helping shape informed business strategies.
  • Marketing project proposal - Details a particular marketing project with its goals, required resources, timeline, and the anticipated benefits for the business.
  • Marketing campaign proposal - Describes the aims, strategies, schedule, and expected results of a specific marketing campaign, with a focus on targeted promotional efforts.
  • Marketing budget proposal - A financial outline that specifies how funds will be distributed across different marketing activities, highlighting cost efficiency and expected return on investment.
  • Lead generation proposal - Concentrates on methods and strategies to attract and convert potential customers into leads, including the tools and approaches for successful lead gathering.
  • Performance marketing proposal - Targets marketing strategies with a focus on tangible results, underlining quantifiable achievements like conversions, sales, and return on investment from specific marketing actions.

What is the best marketing proposal format?

The most common marketing proposal format is a static PDF, but that’s also the least effective. A PDF format makes it practically impossible to stand out from the crowd or convey information in an engaging way.

A promising PDF alternative is the new interactive web-based proposals. This new format lets you include live data and multimedia, embed e-signature widgets, and lead forms, be easily read on mobile, and easily shared via a regular web link.

How to write a marketing proposal slide by slide

Based on our analysis of marketing proposal performance, with over 100K reading sessions on Storydoc, we’ve come up with an optimal content structure for a marketing plan proposal.

This marketing proposal format works well for marketing agencies or consultancies looking to persuade prospective clients but also for internal teams seeking to promote their marketing projects internally.

Stick around to learn how it’s done.

But if you’re not looking for information, but more along the lines of inspiration, go check out our marketing proposal examples.

What to include in a marketing proposal?

  1. Cover
  2. About us
  3. Market challenges and opportunity
  4. Objectives
  5. Strategy and game plan
  6. Results tracking and KPIs
  7. Timeline
  8. Budget
  9. Case study
  10. Next steps
  11. Contact and Call-to-Action
  12. Terms and conditions, approval, and sign-off

1) Cover

The cover is your best chance to stand out from other proposals on your prospect’s desk and grab their attention long enough to persuade them you’re their top choice.

It’s critical to make the cover highly relevant at a glance. To do this use your title and tagline to communicate your value proposition. Make it short and sharp.

Additionally, add in personalization by including the prospective client’s logo, brand colors, and relevant industry imagery, and address your point of contact by name.0

TIP: It’s good practice to provide the projected reading time to help the reader assess the time and effort involved in reading your proposal.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
marketing proposal cover slide

2) About us

This should be a brief description of your company in the context of the marketing services offered.

The point is to position your company as an authority and leading provider of those services.

Focus the description on what you do, how you do it different, and who you do it for, NOT on details like the year you were founded, number of employees, and office locations.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
marketing proposal introduction slide

3) Market challenges and opportunities

An analysis of the current market environment, including key challenges and competitors in the arena. This is where you leverage your market research to showcase your diligence and professionalism.

Detailed profiling of the target audience, including IT managers, software developers, tech startups, and IT consultants. Effective target market segmentation is crucial for tailoring marketing efforts.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
marketing proposal challenge and opportunity slide

4) Objectives

The objectives should be the North Star guiding your strategy and marketing efforts.

Align your objectives with your prospect’s business goals. Ask yourself and your contact person what they’re aiming for and what metrics are most appropriate for measuring it.

Objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART).

You can set your objectives as single KPIs or write them as mission statements each involving multiple KPIs as a measure of success.

Example marketing objectives:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Increase sales
  • Generate new leads
  • Launch product
  • Increase website traffic
  • Increase revenue
  • Improve customer retention
  • Increase market share
  • Break into new markets
Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal objectives slide

5) Strategy and game plan

Your marketing strategy is your chance to distinguish your offering. Outline your strategic approach for product differentiation, content marketing, community building, influencer marketing, and partnerships.

Your game plan should detail the tactics for each strategy, in marketing channels such as PPC, SEO, social media, YouTube, traditional advertising, and brand collaborations.

In your game plan, detail how you will the specific actions you’ll take to fulfill your strategy and reach your objectives.

Critically, tailor your strategy to the client’s target audience, or a smaller subset that is most likely to convert and get you closer to your objectives (based on your market research).

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal strategy slide
Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal game plan

6) Result tracking and KPIs

Clients want more than promises. They seek tangible results, and they expect you to demonstrate accountability.

So give them concrete measurable KPIs and a clear forecast of the results you aim to deliver.

This enables decision-makers to weigh the investment against what they stand to gain, or in other words, calculate your service's ROI.

Nail this, and the deal is most likely yours. Just make sure the KPIs align with the objectives. And make sure you can monitor marketing metrics in real-time so you can make adjustments to your plan as you go.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal results tracking slide
Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal KPIs slide

7) Timeline

A timeline is a critical tool for maintaining structure and pace, keeping to deadlines, and avoiding confusion and misunderstandings.

This is especially true for project proposals or if part of your services takes the form of projects, like website development, or rebranding.

Your timeline should detail important events, activities, and milestones that concern your prospect, such as onboarding on a new tool, designing a website, launching a campaign, reaching a certain benchmark, or entering a new market.

How to present a timeline slide:

To establish a timeline effectively, break down major phases into manageable tasks. Use a visual timeline in your business document like a Gantt chart or an interactive timeline slide like in the example below.

This visual aid helps clarify the project timeline, including the specific hours dedicated to each task.

Example timeline structure:

  • Market research phase - week 1-2
  • Dedicated content creation - week 3-6
  • Content distribution and promotion - week 7-10
  • Bi-weekly check-ins with the marketing team - week 11-20
Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal timeline slide

8) Budget

The budget slide details the cost of various marketing activities and deliverables.

The budget or investment slide is best presented as a table with a breakdown of the marketing services you are offering or distinct parts of a marketing project.

Each budget list item should be accompanied by a clear description of the value it brings. This helps buyers justify and rationalize the expense.

It’s also important to outline payment terms as straightforward as possible and specify the payment schedule, including any deposits required and the preferred payment methods (this information can be hidden and exposed only when clicked on).

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal pricing slide

9) Case study

Include case studies or success stories of happy clients. They will provide proof of your expertise and ability to deliver results.

However, make sure to only include case studies relevant to the client's industry and specific challenges. The more the client sees themselves in the case study the stronger the impact.

To save space you can use tabs to house multiple case studies on a single slide.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal case study slide

10) Next steps

The next steps inform the client about the immediate actions they should take and the event taking place after accepting the proposal.

If the proposal is intended to close a meeting with decision-makers to sign a contract then the next steps could be sending them a contract for review, correction, and sign-off.

If the proposal includes an e-signature box, then the next steps will detail the first few steps in the client’s onboarding process.

For a SaaS product, for example, these could be meeting the team, creating user accounts, a training session on using your system, etc.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal next st

11) Call to action (CTA)

The contact slide is meant to help buyers and decision-makers easily contact you when they need to, for inquiries, requests, or comments.

In cases where the goal of the proposal is to book a meeting with the board of directors or any other meeting to finalize the deal, then your CTA should be a link to your calendar.

In cases where the goal is to hand over the contract for review, the CTA should be a button to download the contract or a link to review it online.

Whatever your goal is, the CTA should be the next simplest step toward materializing that goal.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
Marketing proposal CTA and contact slid

12) Terms and conditions, approval, and sign-off

When sending your last and final proposal it’s best practice to include the terms and conditions and the approval sign-off within the document.

Digital proposals like the ones you can make with Storydoc let you embed an e-signature in your proposal and enable your buyer to sign the agreement right then and there.

Create my marketing proposal with AI
marketing proposal terms and conditions
Create my marketing proposal with AI
marketing proposal approval and sign-off slide

Marketing proposal templates that close deals

You want to spend your time closing deals, not making proposals.

To help you save time and reduce the significant effort involved in making an effective proposal, I brought you some of our best marketing proposal templates to get you 80% of the way.

These templates are optimized based on what we’ve seen work for Storydoc clients time and again.

You don’t have to understand why they work, just be happy they do.

Grab one!

No templates found

How to prepare for your marketing proposal

To present a compelling marketing proposal you need to do a lot of leg work leading up to it.

Doing your research and deeply understanding your client and their market will help you prepare a well-informed marketing strategy.

Based on your findings you can deliver a compelling proposal that harnesses the client’s brand’s strengths, speaks their language, addresses their deepest concerns, and offers to impact their most important KPIs.

1) Research the client’s competitive landscape

Look for information on the client’s industry challenges, market share, target audience, competitors, risky trends, and possible opportunities.

2) Analyze the client’s marketing activity and find critical gaps

  • Start with the company’s public face, including its website, press releases, and published interviews, to grasp its market position.
  • Audit their SEO, PPC, and other significant marketing channels.
  • Assess their activity on their social media accounts and analyze their customer engagement strategies.
  • Look at what your target client’s competitors are doing successfully. It will also help uncover gaps that can be transformed into opportunities.
  • Look into how they showcase their products, their unique value proposition, and differentiation.

3) Identify the client's needs

  • Take a direct approach and communicate with your prospects about their goals and pain points.
  • Involve project stakeholders in these discussions since they can provide other perspectives that might otherwise be missed.
  • Deduce from similar past clients what your prospect is struggling with and validate your assumptions with them.
  • Assess critical risks or major opportunities based on your research of the client's competitive landscape and their marketing activity.
  • Get data and insights from your prospect’s reports and case studies to help you understand their industry trends and consumer behavior.
Amotz Harari

As the Head of Marketing, I lead Storydoc’s amazing content-ops team in our fight to eradicate Death-by-PowerPoint wherever it resides. My mission is to enable decision-making by removing the affliction of bad content from the inboxes of businesses and individuals worldwide.

Table of contents
What does a marketing proposal look like? Main types of marketing proposals Best marketing proposal format How to write a marketing proposal slide by slide What to include in a marketing proposal? Marketing proposal templates How to prepare for your marketing proposal
More on this topic
Grab a marketing proposal template
Engaging decks. Made easy

Create your best proposal to date.

Stop losing opportunities to ineffective proposals.

Create free Book a demo