If the first rule of PR is making sure to be masterful with words, you surely want to replicate that in your PR proposal. This rule applies no matter the objective (a single PR campaign proposal or an offer for an ongoing PR strategy), and the client.
The truth is: Working on someone’s image and reputation is a lot of responsibility. Your future clients will expect you to conduct yourself and all business relations in a certain manner, as well as to go the extra mile when needed. Since your business relationship is likely to start with a PR proposal, you might want to pay attention to how you design and write it. To make this an easy task for you, we’ve gathered 5 easy steps with additional tips and tricks to help you write an amazing PR proposal.
Let’s dive right in.
Writing a PR proposal step-by-step
Step 1: Discovery meeting
Before you start writing your PR campaign proposal, you should have a discovery meeting, which is the foundation of all your future work with that client. A discovery meeting is essentially a meeting in which you ask your future clients questions to figure out who they are and what exactly they want.
Before you venture into your discovery meeting, do some of your own research and find out as much as you can about your future client. Take a look at their media coverage so far and figure out what your best course of action should be.
The reason it’s so important is that the client often doesn’t realize all the problems and obstacles they face. You should use your discovery session to figure out what their goal is and why do they need your services.
Once you get them talking about their objectives, find out when they first figured out they have a problem that needs to be solved and if they tried doing anything about it on their own accord. Ask them if they have a rough estimate of how much money they lost because of it. In PR this can translate into stock values, losing their customers/clients to competitors, and missing out on deals.
Speaking of money: at a certain point, you should start discussing it. Clients usually don’t have a realistic budget in mind, so this portion of the conversation is completely up to you and your experience. You can present them with a usual budget a project like yours would entail and see how high they’re willing to go.
End your meeting with projections for the future and agree on the time you want to start your project. Give them an estimate on when you’re going to send your PR proposal and get straight to work on it.
Step 2: Think your PR plan through
Simply put, a PR proposal is a written proposal in which you present your plan of action to help your client with a problem they’ve encountered (i.e. the lack of media presence or a PR crisis they need someone to handle).
If your client is coming out with a new product or service, they’ll likely request a PR campaign proposal instead to see how you plan on running their media campaign, raising awareness, and reaching their target audience within a specified time period.
Whatever the case may be, your PR proposal should start with an executive summary. This is an introduction to the main points of your offer. It should include only an overview of the problem you are going to fix and a short summary of your action plan. Save paragraphs about you, your company, your company’s vision, and values for a different chapter, if at all.
Then, make an outline of your PR proposal. Include all the stories you want to push into media and add dates, key messages, the audience you’re reaching, the type of media, and the budget you have for each story. This will help you organize your long term plans and redistribute your budget in a more efficient way.
Now that you have your outline, write your proposal by expanding it and highlight your ideas without giving too much away. This will protect you from the possibility of your client taking your ideas and working on them themselves.
Your client will be interested in the ways you will reach their target audience since that is usually the goal they struggle with the most. People outside of PR and marketing often have the mindset “I’ll let my work speak for me” and don’t understand the importance of creating and shaping their presence in media, establishing brand awareness, frequent posting and ideal times to post on social media, attending fairs and conferences, or even the value of public positive reviews.
Include different tactics to achieving your goals and make sure to slice your text into easy-to-read paragraphs and include pictures related to the topic. That way, your campaign proposal will look presentable, while still being easy to read.
Last, but definitely not least: Make sure to include the outcomes of your market research when writing your PR proposal as well. It’s essential to show your understanding of the client’s industry and needs. After all, every aspect of your PR plan should be catered to the target audience. From the stories you wish to tell, to channels and key messages, all the way to the budget.
Step 3: Social proof
Once you finish your PR plan, move on to the next step, which should be social proof. This could be a stripped-down case study or a few testimonials from your clients. Either way, make sure to incorporate real people and brands and show specifically how they prospered from your help.
If you’re going the case study route, present the challenge your client had, and a timeline in which you helped them, concluded with the results (ROI). Finish off your social proof chapter with a positive review or quote from your client.
This chapter’s significance lies in two factors – the proof that your strategy works and the praise that comes from a third-party source. It’s not crucial to write about yourself and your company’s accomplishments in your proposal. However, your previous work should get featured and the best way to do so is through your client’s words.
Step 4: Let’s talk about pricing
The more value you put into your PR proposal, the easier it will be for your client to look at your pricing table with an open mind. Our suggestion is to split the cost into a content table with every section’s cost shown individually.
Show the value of every item on your PR plan and the total at the end. That way, you won’t scare your client off with a big number. Since PR isn’t as predictable and exact as creating a website, for example, you’ll need to include a second table that shows all those unforeseen services like crisis communications.
While some PR agencies charge hourly or by results, we don’t advise that. Instead, try calculating a retainer fee. It’s a fixed monthly or quarterly fee charged for a contractual commitment. Most of the time, retainers are paid in advance since they ensure clients will receive a certain level of PR services during the contractual time and have a dedicated team working on their account throughout the month.
Once you figure out the value of your services, based on the amount of time you’re going to spend on your client, seniority, and the price of advertising in the selected media, you can easily come to the price of your retainer.
The reason is very simple: the true value of PR can’t be calculated. Period. PR is based on building trust between a brand and customers and you never know how much value a single piece of PR can present in the future.
Of course, there will be months when the work for your client will take more hours than estimated, but it will balance itself out in the months when there is less to do on the account. A retainer is a show of trust and it’s important for your clients to trust you and see the value in your services.
Close up your proposal with a CTA, urging your client to get back in touch with you soon.
Step 5: PR proposal design
Now that you’re done with writing your PR proposal, it’s time to think about designing it. Make sure it’s visual! You don’t want to send a Word document that is hard to read and doesn’t showcase the focal points of your PR proposal. You’ll want to display all your sections in a distinctive way and keep the reader’s attention for the whole duration.
Also, remember that one of the first things your client sees is your cover photo, so design it wisely. It should grab attention and compliment your proposal nicely. Make sure to use original photos as much as possible.
How to design a PR proposal, then? You can easily create a PR proposal with graphic design tools like Canva, or even Google Slides. However, if you want a guided PR proposal template, feel free to use Better Proposals’ PR proposal campaign template. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.
Not only will you be able to create a proposal in half the time, but you can also keep track of when your client opened your proposal, which part they spent the most time reading, they can also sign it easily and even pay your first fee with amazing payment integrations.
Ready to design and write your PR proposal?
Cover photo by Arnel Hasanovic
