How to Write an RFP for Marketing that Will Have Top Agencies Clamoring to Work With You

Posted by Anya Sleezer << back to blog

Last Updated on September 24, 2024

We’re no strangers to receiving Requests for Proposals (RFPs). As a marketing and advertising agency, we get quite a few of them every month. After seeing so many RFPs come through our office, one thing’s certain – not every marketing RFP is created equal.

If you’re crafting an RFP and want top agencies as bidders, ensure it meets these criteria. Keep reading for more tips on how to write an RFP for marketing that stands out and attracts the cream of the crop.

Clearly Defined Goals and Objectives

When writing an RFP for marketing services, one of the first steps is to narrow down and fine-tune your project goals.

We recently received an RFP that outlined 13 objectives, and some of these were out of the agency’s area of influence.

Too many objectives are a red flag that a project needs more focus. As a business owner, you understand how important it is to stay within your budget to keep the bottom line in the black. When there are conflicting goals, it can make agencies wary that a project may drain valuable resources through ever-changing evaluation criteria. With broad, unfocused goals, honing in on what truly matters to our client becomes almost impossible, and we can both quickly spread ourselves too thin, leading to diluted results.

We recommend including no more than three clear, concise KPIs in order of priority that target an agency’s actual sphere of influence.

A clear understanding of what you want to achieve is essential for attracting the right agency and ensuring a successful partnership. To create concise and compelling marketing objectives in your RFP, consider the following tips:

What’s The Biggest Goal?
Prioritize your top objectives to avoid overwhelming agencies and leading them to turn away your RFP. Show a clear pathway to success by prioritizing your most important marketing objectives.
How Can We Measure It?
Ensure your objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, instead of a vague goal like “improve brand awareness,” you could state, “Increase brand recognition by achieving a 30% increase in brand mentions on social media within six months.”
Keep Time in Mind
Communicate your desired timelines in your RFP. Whether you need a three-month sprint or a year-long collaboration, ensure an interested marketing company knows what you have in mind and that it’s realistic. If you’re not sure, get some advice from a seasoned marketing professional you trust.

Having your goals outlined clearly at the start of your process not only simplifies your RFP creation process but should enhance the number and quality of responses you receive.

Realistic Budget and Expectations

Another common issue with a marketing RFP that can discourage an agency from responding is an unrealistic budget. A realistic budget is crucial to an attractive RFP.

Think of it like this. If you had $50,000, you wouldn’t expect to walk into a Ferrari dealership and drive off with a brand-new car, right?

The same principle applies to marketing budgets.

If your budget doesn’t reasonably cover the amount of time and attention your project will take, you can expect slim pickings of prospective partners.

While marketing budgets can cover a wide range of prices, only you know how much you can realistically afford to spend. Marketing firms can charge anywhere from $50 to more than $500 per hour, while the average is somewhere in the middle. If you’re wondering if your RFP is reasonable, here are some marketing price ranges to consider.

Marketing Service	Average Cost-Per-Month
Social Media	$2,000 – $20,000
Content Marketing	$2,000 – $10,000
E-mail Marketing	$500 – $12,000
Search Engine Optimization	$500 – $5,000

Getting the best proposal for your budget also ties back to why being specific about your objectives is so important. If an agency understands your goal, we can offer creative solutions to help you stay within your budget and significantly impact your spending. This is our area of expertise; we know which ingredients pack the biggest punch.

Remember, the size and complexity of your marketing campaign or project will influence the budget. Being upfront about what you can afford attracts potential vendors that can work within your financial boundaries and deliver outstanding results based on your needs.

Eliminate the Unknowns

Eliminating uncertainties can catch the attention of many agency owners who just don’t have the time to play a guessing game. Providing clear information in your RFP is crucial to attracting quality agency responses.

The more questions and unknowns left unanswered, the higher the risk for agencies – and the more likely your RFP will go without a response.

To ensure clarity and increase the chances of finding the right agency, a marketing RFP should include specific details and additional information.

Let’s go over a few key elements to include:

Direct Sales Team
Provide information about your direct sales team, including who they are, their roles, how many team members there are, and how they engage with potential clients. Structural information helps agencies understand the structure and capabilities of your team.
Team Agency Contact(s)
Introduce the key contacts within your team, including their names, roles, and areas of expertise, to help agencies know who to contact for specific inquiries or collaboration.
Current and Planned Marketing Efforts
Outline your existing and upcoming marketing initiatives in detail. Include information about brand strategy, apps, digital marketing strategy (including website redesign, social media, reputation management, and content marketing), media buys, public relations activities, strategic partnerships, visitor services, and conferences attended or hosted.
Past Successes
When you share insights about your current marketing efforts, you can sprinkle in some concrete examples of successful campaigns to give agencies a deeper understanding of your brand and what’s resonated with customers in the past. This valuable context enables agencies to propose tailored solutions that align with your brand’s values and capture the attention of your target market.
Preferred Execution Methods
Be clear about your preferred execution methods, if you have any, to help agencies propose solutions that align most with your expectation. If you have influencer collaborations or experiential events in mind, communicating this in the RFP can save everyone time and money in getting you to your goals.

Remember, the more transparent and thorough you are in your RFP, the more likely you are to attract agencies that are well-aligned with your objectives and can provide the best solutions for your marketing endeavors.

A Clear and Realistic Project Timeline

Agencies love clarity as well as the potential for long-term relationships and future opportunities.

Outlining a long-term commitment or multi-year contract can reduce risks for our businesses, make the initial investment more worthwhile, and set a foundation for success on your specific project.

The discovery and setup phase alone typically requires a minimum of 3 to 6 months, involving a significant investment of time and resources to develop a mutually agreed-upon strategy.

Following this initial phase, another 3 to 6 months should go toward execution and generating initial results. Foundational aspects such as web design, SEO optimization, and creative production for collateral, email marketing, digital, print and social media can further extend the timeline.

A timeline of 6 to 12 months is necessary for most marketing projects to maximize results. For many agency owners, a minimum commitment of 1 to 2 years is preferred by most agencies.

If you’re willing to enter a long-term contract, clearly express it in your RFP document. Most agency owners already understand the benefits.

Write a Winning RFP

Preparing a marketing RFP that gets results takes time and consideration of many factors. Creating a clear and concise RFP that aligns with the expectations of a reputable marketing agency can attract better potential vendors and increase your marketing campaign’s chances of success. Start by defining your goals and objectives, ensuring they are realistic and measurable. Be mindful of your budget and set realistic expectations. Eliminate uncertainties and unknowns by providing comprehensive information in your RFP and express your commitment to a long-term partnership.

By incorporating these elements into your RFP, you’ll create an attractive proposition that captures the attention of leading agencies. Not all RFPs are a great fit for every agency, but by following these tips, you can stand out and attract the most equipped and reputable agencies to collaborate on your marketing and creative endeavors.

Anya Sleezer

Anya Sleezer is the owner of Levo, a full–service marketing agency, focused on helping companies from all industries who are concerned with their marketing results, traffic, branding, advertising, or websites.

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