Create a Social Media Marketing Proposal [Free Template]

Now let’s take a look at what you should include in each of these sections, and example content. 

Brief overview

The first main slide (right after the title slide) should be a brief overview of the content of the entire proposal. Highlight the problems, goals, scope of work, target audience, channels, and campaigns. Use this opportunity to capture attention by being highly specific. 

Here’s an example:

X Brand is bold and inspiring but has struggled to build a real audience on social media in the past. With X Agency, X Brand will grow an audience of middle-aged women who want more comfort in their professional lives. Utilizing Facebook video, Instagram, and Pinterest, X Agency will curate user-generated content and produce a humorous content campaign featuring uncomfy office wear versus X Brand, and grow audiences to a combined 500,000 followers.

If you prefer, you could put this same information in bullet points! That’s partly up to the brand style of your agency.  

Problems and opportunities

Next up, you should outline both problems and opportunities. Many social media marketing proposals fail to do this, and that’s a huge miss. 

One of the top-selling techniques known to man is to accurately diagnose the prospect’s problem. If you don’t attempt to diagnose the problem, the prospect may not feel understood by you.

Here are some example problems:

• Lack of social media audience on any platform
• Large social media following, but engagement rates are low
• Social media following exists on the wrong platform
• Social media following doesn’t target the right audience
• Lack of custom content is harming brand authority
• Can’t keep up with brand monitoring and community management

After you’ve written a few sentences or bullet points with the problems, you should then do the same for the opportunities that exist. These opportunities could be reversals of the problems, or they could be new information. 

For example, a lack of UGC might not really be a problem that the brand is experiencing, but it is an opportunity to humanize the brand. 

Goals

Any good example of a social media marketing proposal should include goals. Executives and inhouse marketers have long bemoaned that social media exists largely for the sake of itself.

If there’s not a measurable reason why a business should invest in social media, you’ll undoubtedly encounter naysayers who will shoot your proposal down in seconds.

Aim to include 2 – 5 goals in your proposal. 

For each goal, do the following:

• Goal name: Grow sales from organic social media by 150%
• Goal description and reasoning:
• How the goal will be measured: Google Analytics referring report and Enquire (a tool for accurately measuring eCommerce marketing attribution)

Check out another example goal in our marketing template.

Timeline and scope

On this slide, you should include a sentence or two about the timeline. Maybe you’re doing a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month agreement, or maybe you’re laying out a monthly service with no contract. 

You should use bullet points to detail the scope. If certain parts of the project only take place in certain timelines, then you should make sure that’s clear. 

Here’s an example:

Month 1:

• Social listening and customer surveys to inform content
• Video, image, and text content creation
• Profile optimization

Ongoing:

• Content curation
• Posting schedule
• Account growth
• Brand monitoring
• Engagement and results reporting

Scope details

This section of your proposal might require multiple slides. Essentially, what you want to do is clarify what each service entails. Clients won’t necessarily know what influencer marketing, UGC curation, or social listening are. 

You don’t need to give long definitions, but you should provide the “why” using results-focused language. 

For example, let’s say you have a slide for UGC curation. Here’s an example of what you might include on that slide:

• An explanation: User-generated content is legally sourced from your customers and helps to forge a strong bond between your brand and your audience
• What you will offer: We will create UGC content campaigns and contest, and post 10-20 UGC per month
• Photos: Include example images and screenshots of UGC you’ve managed in the past to make it crystal clear and enticing—bonus points for screenshots with great engagement!

Milestones

When will clients measure success? How will they know that the project is proceeding according to plan? 

The most common complaint about agencies of any kind is a lack of transparency. Even though they don’t want to be actively doing the work, clients also don’t want to be stuck in the dark, wondering and waiting about results.

On the milestones slide, give them an understanding of what will be achieved by when. Here are some examples:

• User-generated content contest launched on [date]
• Instagram account grown 75% by [date]
• YouTube channel launched by [date]

So many agencies fail to clarify expectations. Do this, and you’ll stand out instantly. 

Agency selling propositions

By this point in the social media marketing proposal, you’ve detailed almost everything about the project. 

Now it’s time to sell yourself as an agency before moving onto the pricing. 

Here’s an example of the unique selling propositions you could include on this slide:

• Responsive: respond to all client requests within 24 hours, and all social media comments within 12 hours
• Results-oriented: focused on growing not only engagement and following, but sales and leads
• Passionate: in love with building community, getting truly social, and helping our clients’ target audience

Not sure what makes you stand out? Survey or interview former clients to help you decide on your messaging. 

Agency case studies and previous results

While the previous slide is about your messaging and brand differentiation, on this slide, we need to see real proof. 

Preferably, you already have case studies on your website that you can repurpose. Make them shorter, and write 1 – 2 sentences for the before and after sections. 

If you don’t have case studies, then include testimonials (hopefully those with metrics and results in them, not just compliments).

Payment and terms

Time to get into the pricing. If you’re unsure on this part, make sure to check out our guide on how much to charge for social media management. 

Depending on how you charge, you might need to outline one flat rate for the entire project, and break it down into 2 – 4 payment installments. Or you might give monthly pricing packaging options, say the small, medium, and large option (but with on-brand package names).

Or you might have one flat monthly management fee with add-ons for the different services.

By this point, you should have done some discovery during your sales call and you should know what is likely the best option for your client. Most proposals will have just one price option. However, you can include up to 3 if needed.

As for the terms, here’s an example of what you might include:

• The client may cancel the agreement with a 30 day written notice
• Invoices are sent at the end of the month
• We’re available during EST business hours and usually respond within 4 – 8 business hours

Keep reading: How Much to Charge for Social Media Management

Next steps

What do you want prospects to do after they read this proposal? The best way to write this slide is to act as if they’ve already decided to work with you.

Donald Miller of StoryBrand teaches that a lot of businesses lose money because they don’t make the next steps super clear. Always assume the sale.

Here’s an example of what you might write:

Once the terms are agreed to, we’ll set up a kickoff call to dive deeper into strategy and the desires of X Brand’s target audience. Then we’ll show you a content campaign for your approval, and get started on content creation. In the meantime, we’ll keep your accounts active with content curation and community management.”

Or you could use steps like this:

1. Choose a monthly engagement option
2. Pay initial deposit
3. Book strategy call
4. Grant access to all accounts (we’ll show you how)

Contact information and team

Don’t just put your mailing address and your basic contact@domain.com email address. 

Use this opportunity to really stand out and include some of the following:

• Names, job titles, email addresses, and phone numbers for key points of contact
• On-brand team or company photos
• Your company logo, slogan, and/or favorite quote
• The best testimonial you have for your company

When done right, a social media marketing proposal can help you win over a new client. Just make sure that you write it in a way that removes any doubts the prospective client might be having. Also, be sure to showcase how your proposed project will produce real business value.