Lets face it there is no enjoyment in writing a proposals. You became a web designer to build web sites, no one thought to mention anything about the processes you would have to follow to find new contracts and clients. Unfortunately, web design proposals are one of those essential processes you have to learn, and learn well.
The biggest question I have asked myself in the past is – "Are they really worth all this hassle?" The answer sadly is YES, they are.
A client contacts you regarding a new web site, you will discuss it first, you will then ask him to fill out a project questionnaire, and then they they will no doubt ask “How much will that cost?”. You will have to explain to them that you will have to analyze the details of the project and that you will be in touch in a few days with the report.
Now, it is those details that clients like. It is those details that will decide whether you get the contract or not. Not only will you have to convey, within the proposal, a comprehensive account of the processes involved in developing the project, you will also have to convince them that you know exactly what you are doing and that you are the best person for the job. It has to build your clients confidence from the start and allow them to trust your expertise.
In this post you will find resources to help you write a successful web design proposal, that will help you to win contracts every time…. or at least most of the time!
What are your thoughts on web design proposals? What tips do you have? Please leave a comment and share your experiences.
Writing a Website Design Proposal
A website design proposal is a fancy way of saying quote. Often a potential client will come to you asking, “What will this kind of site cost me?” You should do some research, using a client questionnaire before giving the client a quote and submitting your proposal.
Website design proposals can take all forms – there’s no set way to create one. There will be some things you’ll see in all design proposals they are a must, and the author lists the most common, and adds a fair few insightful new sections.
Writing a Website Design Proposal »
Tutorial – How to Write a Basic Web Development Proposal
Knowing and understanding what exactly you should include in a proposal is the first step to convincing clients and winning contracts.
A professionally presented and well written development proposal more often than not decides whether you will win or lose the project. The proposal can also decreases the incidences of misunderstandings between yourself and your clients when the project is under way and acts as a basis for a formal contract.
Read this article for an in-depth analysis of what should and is expected from a web design proposal.
Tutorial – How to Write a Basic Web Development Proposal »
7 Tips For Writing A Winning Web Design Proposal
If you’re soliciting web design work in traditional ways, a major step in winning jobs is the proposal phase. There are certain things you can do to put yourself, your capabilities and your company in the best possible light, whether you’re outlining what you have to offer in an e-mail message, or submitting a complete proposal.
What would you put in a proposal?
In this article they outline in detail seven very useful tips for designers of any level and background and help you improve your proposal process.
7 Tips For Writing A Winning Web Design Proposal »
How to Write a Web Design Proposal – Anatomy of a Persuasive Proposal
If you plan on paying the bills, you can’t avoid the painful activity that is web design proposal writing. What you need to do is become more efficient and better at writing them. Outsource what you can and hack the rest!
Before you can quickly and efficiently write amazing proposals, you’ll need some basic background on what a persuasive proposal is made of. A proposal has to be persuasive, it must convince the reader that you are the absolutely best person for the job.
How to Write a Web Design Proposal – Anatomy of a Persuasive Proposal »
Five Steps to Writing Proposals That Sell [Find Clients]
In today’s market, if you can’t write good proposals, you won’t be able to sell. Its a simple fact.
Let’s face it: we’re in a buyer’s market when it comes to freelance services. For every job you bid on, you’re competing with five, ten, or even more other freelancers.
When you’re stuck in a crowd like that, you’ve got to find a way to set yourself apart, or face 20:1 (or even longer!) odds on winning that contract. How do you do that? How can you beat the odds?
Even if you have a prior relationship, a good proposal helps reinforce your ability to deliver. And if you’re part of a cattle-call, a good proposal can push you to the top of the stack.
If the thought of writing fills you with trepidation, this article covers in five simple steps you can follow to write proposals that sell. The steps they cover are:
1. Steal a proposal that works
2. Understand (and flatter) your target
3. First the end, then the means
4. Use simple words
5. The price is right (and this is a buyer's market)
Five Steps to Writing Proposals That Sell [Find Clients] »
Writing A Project Proposal – Don't Give Up!
Having 100% of project proposals accepted usually means that a freelance developer has had very few clients. Low percentage rates usually mean that proposals are being sent to people who didn’t ask or the proposal writer simply needs a few good “getting warmer’s” in the right direction.
The tried and tested tips, in this article, are to encourage the 100%ers to write more proposals and the low raters to take heart and give it another try.
Writing A Project Proposal – Don't Give Up!
The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time
Turning a prospect into a client is a process-based on a system. Identifying deliverables and executing campaigns for a client is a series of tasks based on a system.
Create the right system and you can almost flawlessly guarantee success and satisfaction every time.
In this informative and eye-opening article, the author not only writes about his experiences as a freelancer but also how they stumbled upon a system for winning over clients (nearly all the time) by simply outsourcing…
The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time »
How to Make a Positive First Impression with Potential Clients
For clients, choosing a designer for their project is often based on their comfort level with the designer and their confidence that the designer will do a great job.
First impressions make a huge impact here and can either get you much closer to landing the job, or they can lead the client to eliminate you from consideration.
In this article they look at 11 significant factors that may influence the early impressions from a potential client. These are things that you should focus on to show that you should be considered for the work and that you are more than capable of giving them an excellent website that will be effective for their business.
How to Make a Positive First Impression with Potential Clients »
The Ultimate Design Brief
Your design can only be as good as the brief you worked from. The best projects are borne from briefs that are open enough to inspire ideas, while being specific enough to feel workable.
Unfortunately, clients who aren’t familiar with the design process don’t see carefully-written briefs as a high priority. This may be because they don’t have time. Quite often, it’s because the client hasn’t made fundamental decisions about the objectives of their marketing collateral.
This article talks about how to influence potential clients into writing detailed briefs that will allow you to write a winning proposal.
Downloadable Web Design Proposal Samples
The first thing to make clear is that the below samples are not templates. Meaning, you can't just take them and use them for your own proposal.
What they do is demonstrate how to effectively and professionally write a winning proposal.
Website Proposal for Company X
Rogue Element Sample Proposal
Sample Website Proposal
Gold Sample Proposal
Professional Web Design Proposal Sample
Sample Web Design Contract, Budget, Timeline & Proposal
A Sample Web Design Proposal: The Designer's Blueprint for the Site
Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (I)
Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (II)
Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (III)
Proposal Apps and Services
Using a web based app to create your proposals is perhaps an option you should consider. There is of course, a trade-off in terms of customizability and originality when you compare templates to your own original documents, but what you get back in time saving may make it worth your while.
Below you will find the best online services for generating professional web design proposals.
Bidsketch
Bidsketch is a proposal-writing tool created specifically for designers. With Bidsketch, you can quickly and easily create elegant, customized proposals and send them to clients. You can also use Bidsketch to keep track of both existing clients and potential clients, so you can find the work you need to stay in business.
There are several professional-looking templates available for proposals, and you also have the option to create a custom template with a little HTML knowledge.
Bidsketch is not free, but you can try it for free for 30 days. The Premium plan costs $19 a month and the basic plan is only $9.
Proposalware
Proposalware has been developed and can be customised for almost all types of industry, so is not only restricted for web design proposals.
You can use this app via your computer or any smartphone, allowing you to send proposals quickly and timely and not wasting precious time preparing complicated forms and documents for every single contract.
This service offers a 60 day free trial and the premium package cost $10 per month and $100 per year.
Video – iPhone Proposal Web Application ProposalWare.com
ProposalPad
ProposalPad is a unique system developed for web designers and graphic designers that makes it very easy to create FREE (with premium options) professional graphic and web design project proposals.
Its a very easy to use free service. All you have to do is upload your company information, color scheme, and logo initially, and you're good to go.
Flowlett
Flowlett is a complete proposal management system that goes beyond traditional CRM and messaging systems to streamline customer interactions around proposals. Once you create a business proposal (example: Quotes, Agreements, Marketing Creatives etc.), you can use Flowlett to route it internally for reviews and approvals, using serial, parallel or hybrid workflows that you define dynamically.
Once ready to present to the client, you can use Flowlett to securely collaborate with your client to finalize it. Once finalized, your client can securely approve it online.
They do give a 30 day FREE trial, where after you can choose between the Standard Plan ($15 a month) or the Plus Plan (from $50 a month).
Video – Introduction to Flowlett
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- Useful Web Design Proposal Resources, Tools and Apps – Speckyboy Design Magazine | Rumball Motors Interactive
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18 Jan, 2010
hay!
Thanx for the useful tips.
Regards,
Web Design Company London
18 Jan, 2010
Nice collection here, thanks!
18 Jan, 2010
Excellent set of resources for teaching my students about setting up proposals. Cheers
18 Jan, 2010
Great article, thanks for sharing.
19 Jan, 2010
Thank you for sharing such cool tips on web design proposal resources and tools. very informative…
19 Jan, 2010
Writing proposals is the best and worst things to do. If you don’t do one or you slack on it, you might lose the chance for winning the new project. And at the same time the time spent in researching and trying to get everything outlined can be a real pain. Each hour I spend on writing a proposal I get stressed being that there is no real guarantee I will get the project.
I aim to try and give plenty of information detailing not only what they will get but resources on what to expect. And to protect myself, by documenting each project I do, in MS project, where I can help outline the process and how long each step takes so when I have the chance to do the project again I can quote accurately.
How many times have you guys agreed to do a website for as low as $1,200 to only find out it was $3,000 worth of work.
The business end of our business isn’t fun but we have to be able to tame the beast if we are to succeed.
I can’t wait to see how some of these tips and resources can help streamline my proposal writing process…
–
Thanks and Regards
Noel for Nopun.com
a graphic design studio
19 Jan, 2010
thank you . amazing information about proposal of web developement
20 Jan, 2010
Love the post, and although it’s definitely not anyone’s favorite part the proposal is definitely a make or break on any job.
21 Jan, 2010
useful post!! Thank you
21 Jan, 2010
Awesome list.
Cheers
22 Jan, 2010
Great article. Thank you.
5 Feb, 2010
I am using BidSketch … Good article.
5 Feb, 2010
I love when you google something, with a dream result article in mind and you actually find that article. Great job!
I’ve written proposals every which way, for my own sole proprietorship and for larger design firms and now long for a really simple and modular tool to help me. The hard part of the proposal should be thinking through the strategy for the project and offering the client the best methodology, timeline and price you can — not the actual logistics of crafting the proposal document itself!
I’ve created fairly modular, reusable proposal templates in InDesign, but even that is getting frustrating for me — so I’m very interesting in checking out the software you have listed above. If I get ambitious, maybe I’ll even write up my findings for each and any others I come across.
What I really want is a piece of 37signals style software for proposals that integrates with project management all the way through invoicing. How cool would that be? (I’m sure some of the design studio behemoth software packages like Clients and Profits have stuff like that, but they’re bloated dinosaurs with crazy learning curves.)
Again, great article!
5 Feb, 2010
Hm… BidSketch looks pretty awesome. (And very 37signals-like). Perhaps what I was looking for!
6 Apr, 2010
Thanks for the great post. I found exactly what I was looking for.
17 Apr, 2010
This is marvelous……….
27 Apr, 2010
Great article, very informative.
24 May, 2010
It’s impressive when you find yourself at the same Web site time and again when searching for resources.
Here’s my contribution — the link for “Website Proposal for Company X” seems to be broken at the moment.
2 Jun, 2010
Broken link – http://richardquickdesign.com/web-design-resources/assets/proposal.pdf
24 Jun, 2010
These are all really great proposal resources, but most I’m not familiar with (until now – Thx!).
We have previously used the developer agreement package from http://www.contractedge.com/webdesign.html
Has anyone else used this one before?
These have proven to be very reliable and we’ve never had any disputes with clients, because the agreements spell out all the deliverables clearly. The agreements were also created by attorneys who specialized in the “IT” field so they are perhaps a step-up from some of the other “create your own” template style resources out there.
8 Aug, 2010
I appreciate a lot Lets face it there is no enjoyment in writing a proposals. You became a web designer to build web sites, no one thought to mention anything about the processes you would have to follow to find new contracts and clients. Unfortunately, web design proposals are one of those essential processes you have to learn, and learn well.More power to your site! G-d bless :-)