Approaching Contract Proposals for small business Marketing: Best Practices and Key Considerations

Transitioning from a corporate career to freelance consulting or contract work for small businesses presents unique challenges and opportunities. One crucial aspect of this transition is effectively communicating your scope, deliverables, and pricing to clients, ensuring clarity and mutual understanding. In this article, we explore essential considerations for creating transparent and efficient proposals tailored to small businesses and marketing agencies.

Defining Scope and Costs: Including or Separating Outsourced Expenses

When preparing proposals, a fundamental decision involves how to present costs related to external resources such as designers, ad managers, or other specialists. There are two main approaches:

1. Separate Listing of Outsourced Resources: Clearly outline your scope and associated costs, then specify additional vendors or contractors needed, along with their fees. This method provides transparency but may complicate billing and require detailed coordination.

2. Inclusive Pricing: Incorporate the anticipated costs of outsourcing into your overall proposal, providing a single, comprehensive figure. While this simplifies client communication, it necessitates careful estimation to avoid unexpected expenses and ensure your markup covers outsourcing fees.

For small business clients, the second option can be advantageous if you prefer to maintain control over project finances and receive payments upfront to cover outsourcing costs. However, ensure that your proposal explicitly states which tasks are outsourced and the associated costs to prevent misunderstandings.

Setting a Realistic Project Timeline and Deliverables

A typical marketing engagement for a new small business might span three months, covering setup and optimization of various channels. These may include:

• Google Business Profile setup
• Google Analytics and Ads configuration
• Listings on platforms like Apple, Yelp, and citation directories
• Social media account creation and initial content
• Website audit and content updates
• Research and strategic planning

Communicating the scope of work clearly, including initial research and strategic analysis, helps clients understand the value of your expertise and the time investment involved. To effectively sell research and planning phases, emphasize their role in laying a solid foundation for ongoing marketing success, highlighting how this upfront effort reduces costs and improves results later.

Managing Advertising Budget Expectations

Ad spend is a significant variable in Digital Marketing campaigns; however, clients often seek guidance on appropriate budget levels. Best practices include:

• Providing an estimated ad spend range, such as “recommended monthly budget of $X,” based on your experience and industry benchmarks.
• Clarifying that actual ad costs are variable and that your proposal covers management fees, with ad spend costs billed separately