How to Produce Professional, Bid Winning, Web Design Proposals.

You can win proposals despite your hourly rate, your geographic placement in this world, and wether or not your a BIG firm or the one man show if you have the right sales pitch and an eye catching proposal. I admit my roots are more in design, strategy, and research then copy writing so when it comes to proposal writing it's not my favorite thing in the world, but I do understand it's value. So I've done a little research and put together some tips, templates, and resources to help you succeed in your daily account management work.

Before you start writing your proposal you will need to have a meeting with the prospective client to ask them some basic informational question. This eliminates a lot of research and unnecessary guessing on your part. Don't forget to take notes, the client will appreciate not having you ask them things three times, and you wont have to force yourself to have everything memorized. If possible have two people in the meeting one to take notes and fill out a list of needed question/answers and have the other person do the sales and client interviewing.

Prior to meeting with the client:

• You may want to ask the client to find some samples of designs or layouts they have seen in magazines, other websites, or to make rough sketches for their design style, favorite fonts, colors, and other features they know they would like included in the site. (This may change but its a great starting point.)
  

Some of your questions may include:

• The company name
• Who their clients/target audience is
• This should also cover weather or not they are B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer)
• Do they have multiple target markets?
  
• It may help to creat a persona
  
• What is the company's products or services? (Will they be selling online? Is an e-commerce site in the mixture?)
• What languages will the site need to be in?
• SSL and other security issues
• Know who your clients preferred point of contact is. In some companies you may meet with the CMO, CEO, and five other people. So determine who wants to be contacted, who doesn't, or if other members just want brief updates.
  
• Do they have programming preferances or will they need a CMS?
• How many pages will the site have? Try to get a fair idea of any specialty pages they need.
  
• Do they have more than one site, or mico-sites?
• What is the client's business goals?
• What does the client want this project to do for them?
  
• How will they consider their new website a success or a failure? (This question is more for you then the proposal. It will help you gauge customer expectations.)
• Make sure you get a business card or if its a long distance meeting try to get all of their contact information in an email. That way you will have it for the proposal and wont have to do a crazy directory search for their phone numbers.
  

The Executive Summary

To some account managers this could be considered the old school version of proposal writing, because you basically have to rewrite every section in summary. It's called the executive summary for the most obvious of reasons, the executives who will be reading your proposal may not have a lot of time and need to get the basic facts quickly. You can also get rid of this page worth of information and replace it with just a simple paragraph objective and summary.

Your Company or Personal Information

You should always begin a proposal the way your English teachers used to tell you to begin formal letters, with your name, company, website, and contact information. This should be followed by an optional brief background or company history, business qualifications, technical skills, past achievements and contact details.

Project Overview and/or Objective

In this section be sure to include a summary of the company you are submitting the proposal for, your understanding of their products and services, the target market, the goals of the web site and a rough outline of how you will achieve them. The best part about this section is, if the client reads it and thinks your summary is slightly off they may politely correct you, or since it is a signed contract and they don't correct you then you have documentation of both parties understanding of goals and expectations.

Project Theme

This goals back to our pre-meeting checklist where you can incorporate a description of the style of site you will proposal, the specific elements a client may have asked for, and additional reccommendations you may have. You will also want to try to incorporate current elements from the client's branding that have helped you to develop an understanding for their design style.

Platform and Special Considerations

You may need an additional section to include information the client may have specially requested such as language, special programming, CMS barriers, security or other issues pertaining to the business, additional sites, and target market(s) that will need to be addressed.

Flowchart of Web Site Architecture 

 This will be a diagram showing the different pages of the site and navigational structure.The reason why this is important is in situations where you may have a picky clients, someone who wants lots of revisions, or in the middle of the projects asks you to add or remove pages. This additional information or scope change is not a problem, but if you have how much additional pages will cost in your initial proposal it will help you when it comes time to bill the client. For example, say your client requested an initial 10 page site and you end up building them a 50 page site (which happens more often then not), or say they remove 5 of the original 10 pages (after they were already designed and coded) and request an additional 10 pages. Well you are going to want to be fair and bill them for your time, plus you need to remember all of these revisions will most likely effect your project timeline. Making a small project bigger should be a great thing, as long as you plan ahead, and make sure you have all your bases covered to prevent unhappy clients who may dispute paying for your additional services rendered.

Flowchart Description

Describe what each page will represent, the information it may contain, and why it is important to the website. You may also want to include a description of how each page fits into the overall them and which project elements it may address. addresses. To again be on the ball you could use this section to also describe how each page could effect the site's SEO (Search Engine Optimization and Page Rank). An example of why that may be important is in some cases clients may just want a flash site, a homepage that is only pictures, or non-descriptive headers. Well if they know this may effect their overall marketing and site value they may be less likely to ask you to remove the about page from the list of pages you build.

Development Time line 

This is where strategy comes into play. Plan ahead and be sure to note potential growth and give yourself a healthy amount of time to complete the project. Remember it is better to consistently WOW your client by finishing early, then consistently needing to apologize for missing milestones. That does not mean you take on an extra 30 hours to your project, it just means be realistic with your estimates, it helps to compare your time line to past project (especially if you keep a daily timelog).

In this step describe each of the stages for the web projects' development, the estimated completion date and notes regarding client consultation and supply of information/feedback from the client. This may also include milestone payments for involved projects and site promotion activities. Make it clear that traffic takes time to build up after implementation and promotion should only occur after the site has been tested thoroughly. Improper implementation can cost months of traffic and a great deal of lost business. On another note, remember to tell the client and mention it in your proposal that if the scope of the project changes, you will need to modify this timeline. You may also want to note that if parts of the project are based on client deliverables and you don't receive them on time that will also effect the timeline.

For example, if you client insists on writing their own copy, coding their own site, or approving every page prior to programming add a deadline for each of those markers. If you are a freelancer this is where a timelog comes in helpful (even if you work on a per project basis vs. an hourly rate). Keep track of when you finish each step of the project and when the client delivers their portion. If the project timeline is then set back by two months, you can show on paper that you still met deadlines in reasonable timing, or at the same time you would have finished had the client met the timeline as well. If the project is delayed because of you, and not because of the client I like to offer my clients a discount in an effort to maintain a healthy relationship.

Cost Summary

This section is a descriptive breakdown of your pricing, how long each section of the project will take, and total of quote including an end date before the price will need to be re-calculated. This will include items such as domain name registration, hosting fees and outsourcing for sections of the site you will not be able to develop yourself. Ensure you take into account business related items including travel time, electricity, telephone and consumables. 

Factor in the cost of the development of the business proposal as well; a good proposal will take hours of your time and you should be compensated for that as account management time. In your eagerness to gain the contract, you may lose money if you quote too close to the bone. Bear in mind that things rarely go strictly to plan in web design and delays can be expected. Time is money. The going rate for web design services seems to be between US$25-$85 per labor hour at present; dependent upon the complexity of the task and the competency of the designer.Agencys will normally charge closer to US$110-$175 per hour, but that is because they need to cover building expenses, other overhead costs, an account team, project management team, programmers, and designers.

Terms and conditions:  

Expectations and commitments. It is not unusual for web projects to be delayed due to clients not supplying feedback or content necessary to complete sections. It is just as important to be clear in what you expect from your clients as well as explaining your commitment to them. Conflict resolution issues and feedback mechanisms should be described. 

Your clients will need to know what will occur if they do not supply information when requested, or request changes mid-stream and the action that you will take if you are running behind in the project yourself. You need to be clear on payment details and consequences of failure to pay for the services that you provide.

Mock-ups (samples). 

Be careful not to give too much away, just enough to give the client a good idea of what the site will look like. Ensure copyright notices and intellectual property statements are in place. You may want to just refer to sites you have already developed or your portfolio. Wireframes and sample designs generally are part of the actual project process.

Ongoing web site maintenance.  

Someone once told me, working in design and marketing we often give a lot of our talent away for free because people don't always value an artistic trade. As a metaphore marketers, designers, account executives, and project managers you are like a water faucet and can give your clients all the time in the world. To turn that water faucet on is as simple as approving a proposal or calling you to ask questions for two hours. In the end if your client uses the water (your time), they should know that they will need to pay the water bill. I'm not telling you to take this to the extreme and not offer generous free advice to your clients that will inevitably make you friends or build a strong customer relationship where they trust you. I'm simply saying your time is worth something and if you value it so will your customers.

Finally in this section summarize an offer of ongoing site maintenance or the implications of the client deciding to update or maintain the site themselves after it has been established.

The above points are usually sufficient to put together a professional web design proposal for a small to medium project. If drafting a business proposal based on criteria given to you by the prospective client; be sure to address all the points. 

If the client suggests the proposal documentation be a certain format, respect that. In the culling process, the first proposals to be binned will be the ones that do not address all the criteria the client has laid down.

Bear in mind that not all the web design proposals you submit will be accepted. Be prepared to do some heavy revisions to satisfy your clients and to find a middle ground where all parties feel comfortable. A prospective client asking for revisions is a good sign - they are genuinely interested. 

Also remember that some companies will ask you for proposals purely to use as a comparison against another designer that they are interested in utilizing; so try and limit the amount of time you spend on the draft until the client gives indication of serious interest.

If you would like some information on where and how to locate freelance web development employment and projects; follow this

Resources:

• Sample Template
• Sample Template
  
• Taming the Beast
  

Trust Agent, Community Managers, Social Media Marketers, Interactive Marketing Strategist.... industry jargon

Bottom line each of these titles does basically the same job. At the end of the day they are just titles, like social media, and people just use these words to try and help explain what they do, why and how they do it. In communication having common terminology and jargon just speeds up the understanding process. In social media we are explorers and scientists in a new field pioneering the murky waters trying to understand what makes the difference between success and failure. The problem is, since all of these buzz words are just new shiny objects that we use and sometimes quickly discard like children in a toy fad, well our customers can't and don't want to keep up. I have hundreds of friends spanning from teens to late 60's who love technology or hate it. Who want to understand it, but don't want to put the time into figuring out even the simplest of terms (or so we like to think).

My guess is that most people reading my blog are in one of the following industries or take a large interest in those industries (correct me if I'm wrong): PR (public relations), Marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), Designers, Web Developers, Social Media, Information architecture, software developers, entrepreneur, traditional media, and every other interactive/advertising agency position -- like account executives etc. Why is this important? Because you know my jargon. Now go out into the real world and meet a friend who works at target, a friend in promotions, a plumber, an engineer, or a handyman. All of these people may or may not be intelligent, but they have their own termonology and do not understand your accronyms. You want a prime example of this? Try reading any military paper work-- or hell just read their monthly newsletter. It is so full of this kind of verbage that if you haven't been in the service their is no way you could even understand the first sentence.

So what am I getting at? Well, think back to when you first joined the industry. Did you know what interactive meant, or how about PR, SEO, the difference between an art director and a creative director, what is a press, who the hell does information architecture or social media? Or hears an easy one, say twitter to a stranger and see if they think your crazy just explaining it. Now those were just the easy ones imagine explaining the difference between search engine marketing and search engine optimization, or brand management, your designs, design testing, design optimization, reputation management, html coding, flash coding, optimizing a press release, what 101001 means, why someone should use or benefit from social media, or what a flight line is. Okay, I just threw in the last one for my pilot friends and to through you off.

Anyway point is we all come from different backgrounds. Even within an agency designers and programmers often have translation troubles. Worse yet is if you don't read blogs, books, magazines, and other industry articles you can quickly fall behind in your own industry. I hate to just call someone out, but for example sake, the PR industry has been a prime example of falling behind. Many don't know very much about social media, seo, optimizing press releases, online press releases...and the list goes on and on. The true victim here would be your clients. So continue to learn, attend industry events, join networking groups, join professional affiliations, volunteer, read, write, and contribute to your industry. You would be surprised at the heights you can reach with a little motivation, networking, and some effort on your part. Oh and when your explaining things to people in other industries, be curtious and remember the old saying: "Keep it simple, Stupid."

If you have anything to add to this feel free to comment below, or contact me on twitter @desaraev. My personal website is http://www.dveit.com if you need an "industry person" to help you out with your marketing, social media, or design needs. As always feel free to take this article and redistribute it as you like, but remember to link back to my blog. It's polite ;)

Spark Some Fun and Creativity with this Inspiration for a Holiday Party Planner

Guest Article by: Lisa Kothari owner of Peppers and Pollywogs, a web-based business All About Kids' Parties.

One of my absolute favorite times of year is Halloween. You can imagine the fun and creativity that a holiday like Halloween sparks in a kids' party planner's mind! Halloween is a perfect holiday to include the entire family in spooks and haunts at your own Monster Mash!

Owning a web-based business in the kids' party industry is excellent for so many reasons, particularly to share Halloween ideas with website visitors, like through my Party Ideas Blog. Answering questions from visitors who have a party-related questions and then adding this content to a library of similar information helps build site content while building a business as a helpful resource. If you offer readers the opportunity to contribute to the party planning ideas they've used for their kid's parties (or ideas for your industry) you both benefit from the new perspective.

Social media tools like Twitter (where I met @desaraev) are also an excellent way to syndicate party ideas beyond your own site. By directly asking the social media community if they could use any Halloween content for a family party, people can directly reach out to people like you and request more information. Syndicating the content will also help you share the information to other sites faster then just promoting yourself on one outlet , like your website, and you can do it on lots of different topics, e.g. spooky snacks, treasure hunt clues, budget-friendly decorations, recycled crafts, etc. people can pick and choose from a variety of topics to showcase to their website visitors. This also spreads the word about your own site and builds up brand reputation and expertise to larger number of people then you would ever reach just leaving information on your own site.

Additionally, it helps to utilize sites like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to answer any media/press queries on the topic of kids' parties. I am very specific in the way that I respond to a query to give my company the best chance to be featured. Often, these media inquiries are for other on-line publications. Again, being featured in new media press outlets is another way to drive traffic to your website and increase visibility of my expertise.

These strategies don't begin and end with Halloween, however. As an expert in online party planning, I continually utilize my website, press, media relations, and social media tools to drive promotion of my party ideas. It is a great time to have a web-based business because if you utilize these online tools on a consistent basis the cost of promotion is minimal.

Happy Haunting on the web and beyond!

Remember if you have any social media, marketing, or design question you can always find me on twitter @desaraev

Top 20 Tips for a Successful and Quality Informational Blog

Many marketers will come to companies with a strategy for there marketing, social media, strategy... and so on. In this "strategy" they will include a blog, but a blog is not a means to an end, at least not in itself. You need to know the company's GOAL. Your goal can be to have fresh site content, to inform your readers on a specific topic, to give your customers service tips, to help your potential clients better understand who you are and what you do, or it can be less professional and more personal like a diary.

Who is the company and who will be writing it? Is the company conservative, fun, cynical, corporate, extremely liberal, funny, comical, or just dull and plain? Knowing how they would like to be portrayed will keep you from writing a funny line about the company's services, when you should really be writing an educational piece or a creative how-to. Don't stray from this, you can't one day be snide, the next educational, and five months down the line surprise your readers with a monotone article; well you can do this, but you will likely lose readership.

Do you know why people trust blogs sometimes more then commercials, newspapers, or television? People can begin to trust you and your blog more then traditional media because you are a REAL person. Not that the people behind traditional media outlets are not real, but lets face it when you're writing your opinion it comes across as very personal, passionate, and shows parts of your character. While commercials sometimes feel like people are talking at you and not telling you a story. Newspapers and television will allow you to write in or send them an email, but the editors rarely write back anything that is personalized, if you're luck you could end up in next months editors section for a magazine. With a blog, if anyone writes a comment, I or you can immediately respond to your reader's comments with another comment or a personal email addressing their statement. If the person or company's blog is connected to a personized system of social networks like linkedin, a facebook profile, a twitter account, or has an email address easily available to the readers then they can even privately express themselves to you, the blogger.

Stay focused and be consistent.

Be consistent in your writing and in how often you write. If you know you will be on vacation for a week or a month, write enough posts that you can consistently put out a post a day. If you think a post a day is too hard for you try for at least 2-3 per week. This will keep your readers engaged and wanting more, but they will also understand your not quite their yet to do it daily. Posting regularly will also be good for your search engine optimization (SEO) if your blog is connected to your website or if you link back to your website.

If you have a lot of great things to say, but are like me and could use some (or a lot) of help in the spelling/grammar department; Ask for help. Maybe someone in your company is a journalism major and can proof your posts, always use spell check, do your best to read your work over at least once prior to posting, and if a friendly reader offers you advice or tells you that you made a journalistic or grammatical error, take the advice and edit it. The wonderful thing about a blog versus a newspaper or a book is that once you've posted something it never has to be permanent. So learn from your mistakes and edit them.

Read other peoples blogs. Find the top bloggers, the top bloggers for your industry, and the top bloggers about copywirtting or blogging and READ, READ, READ, and LEARN. It's like a second or third college degree advice FOR FREE. A few good places to find new articles is by sharing articles with friends in google reader, digg, or cullect. You can also find new blogs by asking your friends on twitter, searching technorati, the encyclopedia for social media SNIKI, blog pulse, or just simply by asking your favorite blogger who else you should read.

Do you know why people trust books and newspapers more then bloggers? Because journalists are held to a higher standard of honesty. If they make a mistake and do not take swift action to rectify their mistakes; they can lose public trust, lose their job, or be fined  or sued for things like defimation of character. Show that you have integrity, earn your audience's trust, referance articles or books that helped you write your articles, and if you make a mistake not only correct it, but feel free to write another post or comment on your mistake so that all may learn from it or understand why you made the edit.

If you find a post you like comment on it and link back to any articles that you've written that can referance your points. This could bring you more readers, SEO for your blog (relevant link building), and lets your favorite blogger know that you appreciate their work.

If you have written a great post, make it easy for people to share that information. Adding things like Addthis, feedburner, rss, a subscribe to my blog via email button, or share this on digg button can increase your traffic, let your readers share how much they like you, and overall just makes it easier for them to read your blog in the convenient way THEY want to read it. It's all about them in this case, not you. At least not if you want to keep your readers.

Thank anyone who comments about your posts, or helps you promote it.

Don't just post your articles and hope that they promote themselves. Tell your twitter followers (but don't annoy them with this-- but that's another article on not being self serving). Add your blog to DMOZ, Google, and digg.

Track your blog with google analytics, check how you rank on technorati and blog pulse, if your a company track who is talking about you and your articles using things like techrigy and radian6. If one article or theme gets more readers and comments then another. Obviously write more on this topic, or something similar without beating a dead horse. When a them is definately not working for you, adjust. If you are a plumber obviously don't make your whole blog about landscaping tips. Stay Focused and if you have more then one interest have more then one blog.

Was this article helpful? Did I miss anything you think is important? Let me know if I should add any more tips or just find me on Twitter.

1. Have a Goal.
2. Determine the company's voice and you will determine the blogs theme.
3. Don't bounce around on themes
4. You are a real person. So act like it.
5. Make yourself available to your readers and respond to their comments.
6. Add links to your social media profiles on your blog.
   
7. Be consistent and post regularly. For beginners 2-3 times per week. For professionals daily. 
8. Use a Wordpress blog that is a part of your site, or link back to your site to give your site SEO point for fresh content.
9. Check your Grammar, Spelling, and edit your mistakes regularly.
10. Read other people's blogs.
11. Earn your audience's trust.
12. Referance books, blogs, newspapers, and articles that you've learned from or have helped you write your article. Try to be as specific as possible.
    
13. Search for new blogs or ask a friend what else you should read.
    
14. Comment on other people's blogs.
15. Add buttons so your readers can share your great articles.
16. Make your articles convenient to subscribe to.
17. Show your appreciation.
18. Promote your blog.
19. Tracking and Analytics are key.
20. Figure out which themes or articles ar the most successful with your readers and adjust to write about what your readers seem to like the most.
21. Stay focused on who you are.
22. Ask for input.