A Guide to Creating a Freelance Social Media Proposal

Freelancing refers to a system of employment in which an individual is not contracted for a long period of time by any particular employer. Instead, the freelancer works with various organizations on a short-term or contractual basis, without being explicitly committed to only one employer. Considering how freelancing requires you to work for multiple employers, building a network is an integral part of self-employment.

There are various methods using which freelancers network and market their skills. These include building a social media presence, blogging, improving your portfolio, pitching to potential clients, collecting referrals and reviews, using freelancing websites, etc. In this blog, you will learn how you can create a freelance social media proposal to find more clients and build better networks.

What Is a Social Media Proposal?

A social media proposal highlights your services, scope of work, and skills in the context of professional goals. The aim is to market your abilities as a good way of meeting the client’s possible requirements and having them hire you.

You can mention your experience and possible ways of helping the client reach their professional goals more efficiently. If you are a social media manager or work in a similar profession, a social media freelance proposal is the best way to pitch to prospective clients.

Why Do You Need a Social Media Proposal as a Freelancer?

A freelance social media proposal acts as a formal letter that highlights the ways in which you plan on using your abilities and skills for the client. This will ensure clear boundaries for both parties. It will give you a lucid range of the expected workload.

A proposal allows you to give reasons to your potential client why you are a better choice as compared to your competitors. You can share the extent of your expertise and abilities in the proposal. Any relevant past experiences can also be mentioned.

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The presence of a clear game plan and clarity acts as proof that you understand your client’s goals. This is bound to impress your potential clients better as compared to a sales call. This leads to an increase in the likelihood of you getting more clients. As a freelancer, you can use proposals to improve and expand your business manifold. Towards the end of the blog are a few freelance social media proposal templates to get you started.

What You Should Do Before Creating the Proposal

Before you set out making a proposal for your client, you need to do some background research and figure out ways in which you can further enhance their business. You can do it in the following ways.

The purpose is to show the clients that you have the abilities to meet their goals, and therefore, they should opt for you. When used correctly, social media freelance proposals can be a great tool to grow your network. In other words, the process can be as follows:

1. Determine the goals and requirements of your prospective client

Unless you address the needs of your prospective client, your proposal will not hit home for them. To do this, you must understand them first. By asking your prospective client certain questions, you can make this process easier for yourself.

Ask about the possible challenges that your prospective client might be facing. In what ways have they tried to solve these problems? Also, ask if they have a timeline in place to meet these goals. Finally, ask them about their budget. This stage is good for getting a feel of the kinds of problems you will be working on.

2. Find out about their audience

Once you understand your prospective client’s business and challenges, you can move on to understanding their ideal audience base. By doing this, you can find out whether your strategy will help your prospective client connect with their audience. Furthermore, you can make tweaks to your strategy to make it more effective for the prospective client’s audience.

3. Research their competitors

The next step is to find out your prospective client’s competitors or similar businesses that target the same ideal audience on social media. By doing this, you will get an idea of what they’re doing right and where your client needs improvement.

4. Analyze your client’s existing social strategy

Most businesses are already active on social media. Once you find your prospective client’s social media handles, you should inspect them and try to figure out ways to improve their marketing strategy.

You can start by finding out which social media networks they are active on, how often they post, which kinds of posts garner more engagement, whether they post any ads, etc. When you discuss your own marketing strategy, you can mention the areas you would like to change and the reasons why. And if your prospective client isn’t, you can skip this step.

5. Draft your first strategy

After you’re done researching, compile all the information and come up with an effective social media strategy. This strategy is what your freelance social media proposal is going to highlight. Include the whats, whys, and hows. You can add this to your proposal later, when you’re pitching to your client.

6 Tips to Create a Freelance Social Media Proposal

Before you send your proposal to a client, learn about their needs and business goals. This will allow you to personalize your proposal and highlight how your abilities will help them. Therefore, ideally, you should send a proposal after you have spoken to the client and understood their needs. Once that is done, you can get down to business. Here are a few steps to go about it.

1. Introduce yourself or your agency

You should begin by introducing yourself, the service you provide, and any teammates you are working with. Talk about your social media content creation services, expertise, and experience in brief. The purpose is not to copy your resume, but to summarize your abilities and professional experience. Here, you should aim to impress the potential clients with your skill set, and establish a reason why you are different from your competitors.

You can also mention any awards or accolades won by you or your agency. Additionally, you can mention the names of some of your past or present clients. You can end the introduction by sharing some quick, fun facts or stories to break the formal monotone and build trust.

2. Mention solutions to client’s problems

Once you have established yourself as a trustworthy, capable professional, you can move on to talking about how you can contribute to the client’s business. Start by reviewing the needs of your client. The background research you did before can help you in this segment.

When it comes to the competition, mention the possible areas of improvement in the client’s business. You can give some reasons why the client is unable to reach their goals and the possible ways in which you can help them do so. The purpose is to make it clear that you understand what the client wants, and that you have the ability to troubleshoot the client’s problem areas. You must outline clear, achievable goals that you plan on pursuing if the client hires you.

3. Share the bare bones of your plan

Next, you can talk about your possible plan of action to tackle the client’s problems. Clarify the scope of work, expectations, and strategies you will be following. Your plan should include a rough schedule.

For instance, if you are a social media manager, you can talk about the different social media platforms you will be active on, the system of post approval, and a rough timeline of how frequently you will be posting content. You can talk about the content management process, which includes the creation of assets, any required copywriting, image curation, analytics, etc. All of these should together make up a handy management plan.

4. Set deadlines or milestones

In this segment, you can establish certain milestones, key performance indicators (KPI), and deadlines for better review and future analysis. These milestones can be based on the distinct needs and time-bound goals of each client. Here you can share the expected deliverables over a period of time or your reporting cycle. For instance, if you are planning on running a social media marketing campaign, you can mention the time frame you intend it for.

5. Talk about your past experience

The purpose of this section is to convince your client that you know what you are talking about, not only in terms of drawing up plans but also in terms of practicality as well. The best way to go about this is to share your past work experience or remarks from your clients.

You can do this by sharing past or present client testimonials. You can share case studies based on your previous work, where you can highlight how you solved problems and brought a change. Mentioning the ways in which you helped your clients achieve certain goals is also a good way of vouching for your expertise. Try to be specific by using facts, dates, or statistics.

6. Lay down agreement details

The purpose of the previous sections was to convince the potential client about your expertise, skills, and abilities. Having done that, you can move on to describing how the partnership would work. You can state your contract agreement that includes the terms of your payment (whether you will work on an hourly basis, project basis, etc.) You should make your billing cycle and terms of payment clear to avoid any miscommunication in the future.

Next, you can talk about how to communicate, how often you plan on holding meetings, your working hours, etc. Finally, you should mention the notice period that states the period of time of notice that either you or your client needs to give before ending the agreement. By putting your terms upfront, you can avoid adverse effects in case something goes wrong.

You may amend the proposal as and when required. Once both parties are satisfied, you can finalize the deal and build a working partnership. This can be done by asking the client to sign a contract, or by arranging a meeting. You can add hyperlinks to your proposal to make the process easier and more convenient for your client.

As a freelancer, networking and getting new clients is an important task. A good way of doing this is to share a personalized freelance social media proposal to pitch to your prospective clients. Using the guidelines mentioned above, you can make an impressive social media freelance proposal.

Top Social Media Proposal Templates to Try Out

In order to give you a better idea of all that has been discussed, we have put together a small list of freelance social media proposal templates.

1. Social Media Proposal Template – In Living Color by The Social Media CEO

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This is an 11-page template that allows you to include everything from your objectives and project timelines to payment terms and client testimonials. It is customizable, which means you can switch images, fonts, as well as colors. It also assists in placing the right information across the template.

2. Checkered Social Media Marketing Proposal Template by Venngage

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In this template, you can include important sections, such as project milestones, project goals, payment schedule, and terms of agreement. On Venngage, you can easily customize the template, and replace the existing elements with those that are unique to your brand. A unique thing about this template is the inclusion of the space for headshots at the end, giving the freelance social media proposal template a personal feel.

Key Takeaways

● Sharing a freelance social media proposal is a good way of getting new clients.

● A social media freelance proposal includes your past experience, testimonials, expertise, and ability to solve problems of your prospective clients.

● To make a freelance social media proposal, you must do some background research on your prospective client and their competitors, and come up with strategies to solve their problems.

● When you’re just getting started, you can seek help from freelance social media proposal templates.

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