Okay, so let’s say you are a freelancer or an agency looking to start making money by offering your copy services.
This is great! You had a sales call or a text conversation with a prospective client, and they are now looking for you to send a proposal their way.
You will start working, and in exchange, your new client will pay you for your services.
The truth is, that crafting a good service proposal is EXTREMELY important.
If you make mistakes at this stage, not only you will look like an amateur, but you may lose the business since this is where you CLOSE the deal.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through exactly how to write a proposal so you can close your first client. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of service proposal templates online. You may download the one you like the most, but we still wanted to provide you with the overall guidelines.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE:
This blog is NOT legal advice. If you require help or have any legal consultations to write the terms of the contract, please consult with a professional and qualified attorney or lawyer.
ADDITIONALLY:
Anything that you write in this proposal will be the terms that you set with your client, so make sure to be AS CRYSTAL CLEAR AS POSSIBLE.
1) Cover Page Section
The cover page of your proposal should have basic information about you as an individual or your company. You should include:
– Descriptive title explaining the service. For example “Copywriting Proposal”
– Date
– Address
– Name of the freelancer, company, or agency.
This will give the prospective client an overview of who you are, and what the proposal is about.
2) Background Section
In this section you will write WHO the client is, WHAT they asked for, and WHICH documents/reference materials they provided for you to work with.
This is our boilerplate text:
XXXX, herein referred to as the Client, is requesting freelance copywriting services to increase brand awareness through copy editing and copywriting. The topic of the content is related to ___________________.
The type of content could include emails, ads, website copy, blogs, infographics, and longer-form content such as case studies, data sheets, and white papers.
For this purpose, the Client may provide website links, bullet points, detailed reports, marketing collateral, and any additional information.
2) Scope of Work and Payment Schedule
Here you want to describe WHAT you will do, WHEN you will do it, HOW much you will charge for, and HOW you will bill your clients.
Here’s our boilerplate:
The work will consist of recurring copy editing and copywriting work, for which a monthly retainer of $XXXX USD/month is herewith established. The cost of the copy is an addition to the retainer for a cost of $XXXX per word for any copywriting work. Furthermore, the rate for any copy editing work is $XXXX per word. An invoice will be sent to the Client outlining the cost per word for every piece at the end of every month with payment terms of NET 30.
NET 30 terms means that the client has up to 30 calendar days to pay. You can change this to 7 days, 15 days, 30 days, or whatever period you deem reasonable. Although, 30 days is usually standard.
You can also choose other ways to bill your clients, such as fixed-fee, time and materials, etc. We talk about how to charge clients on this blog.
In the remaining of the scope you will want to answer these questions:
Is there a deadline or timeline?
What are the deliverables?
How will you charge them?
What about the confidentiality of the data?
Will there be graphic design or other services involved?
We suggest that you also complement your proposal with ChatGPT as it can be a great tool to help you structure a standard proposal.
3) Additional Considerations
Do you have any other notes?
Will you send the client a Non-Disclosure Agreement for confidentiality purposes?
What are the terms for terminating the contract? How should the client notify you?
4) Signature Field
At the end of the contract you should include a field for the Client to put their name, date, and signature.
That’s it! Then you can simply send out the document for your client to review, and adjust it according to their feedback.
Once your proposal is drafted, make sure to proofread it thoroughly. Ensure it’s free of errors and clearly communicates your value proposition. The design and presentation of your proposal also matter, so consider using professional templates or software to give your proposal a polished look.
If everything looks good to go, and they don’t have additional comments, we suggest that you send the final version of the document via Docusign or other digital signature platforms to make life easier for them.
Finally, guide the client on what they should do next if they wish to proceed.
This could be setting up a meeting, sending a signed copy of the proposal, or making an initial payment.
We suggest to ALWAYS follow up with an EMAIL suggesting a time to meet on a video call to define the next steps and get the service started (kick-off meeting).
We hope you found this helpful, and best of luck with your clients!
If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out through our contact section.
