Digital marketing can be a daunting prospect for many business owners. We are well past the time when a business could find some success with a simple advertising campaign. The process has become far more sophisticated now and a digital marketing RFP is a central feature of a modern marketing campaign.
A digital marketing RFP is a crucial step in ramping up your marketing strategies. When you begin the process of working out ways to market your product or service, you will need to find professionals who can implement marketing plans that cover a wide range of channels. A digital marketing RFP is a key method for how to go about this process.
As you look for a marketing firm that can express the values, ideals, and goals of your business or organization, a digital marketing RFP allows you to gather proposals that will meet these needs. You are in the business of running your business. Marketing professionals are in the business of helping you succeed. This is why you need to understand a marketing RFP.
What is a digital marketing RFP? What are the steps in developing a digital marketing RFP? And what are the advantages of a digital marketing RFP. This guide will introduce you to the key information on the digital marketing RFP.
What Is a Digital Marketing RFP?
An RFP is a request for proposal. This is a document that details the objectives and goals a company has for its marketing needs. A digital RFP opens the door for marketing agencies to bid on projects that will fulfill your digital marketing needs and goals.
Some digital RFPs are very general. They outline the kinds of things a business or organization would like to accomplish through a digital marketing campaign. These kinds of digital marketing RFPs allow marketing professionals to showcase the kinds of things they do best and the ways they can help a business or organization meet its goals.
Other types of digital marketing RFPs are more specific. These focus on a particular marketing issue. For example, some businesses or organizations may need to focus on things like SEO, social media exposure, or search engine rankings. A digital marketing RFP that details these kinds of needs will allow marketing agencies to address them in their bids.
Steps of the Digital Marketing RFP Process
Digital marketing RFPs can differ depending on your needs. As noted above, a digital marketing RFP can be for general marketing purposes or for highly specific needs. But a digital marketing RFP does follow the same steps no matter the objectives. The steps to assembling a digital marketing RFP include:
Overview of your business or organization:
The first step to a digital marketing RFP is to define and describe what you are and what you do. This includes company or organization details, your values, location, the size of your company, and the stakeholders in your business or organization. Whoever bids on your RFP needs to understand what you do and what you are about. A good example of today’s market is green technology. If your company provides green technology, or if you are involved in supporting green technology, it is crucial that you make it known that this is your business model and that your values reflect this area of the market.
Your business goals:
What is the overall aim of your business? How does your product or service reflect these goals? Offer details on the kinds of things you are trying to portray to the public and how your products or services have tied these ideas.
The present state of your digital presence:
Take stock of your current digital marketing strategies. Examine your social media analytics and get a detailed picture of the kinds of activity on your social media. Make a list of the forms of digital marketing techniques you are currently using and take stock of how effective they are. This kind of information can help marketing professionals know where and how to start with digital marketing strategies.
The scope of the work:
This is a critical phase in drafting a digital marketing RFP. Describe and define the scope of the work you would like to have done by digital marketing professionals. This will allow them to direct their efforts toward your needs. This also helps them offer you pricing and rates that are accurate. Finally, the scope of work section will help you and your bidders get an accurate sense of the time to completion of the work.
Project objectives:
This is the step in which you provide details on your objectives. What kinds of things do you need to accomplish? What is your timeline for completion and meeting these objectives? For example, you would include things like a specific increase in traffic to your website as one of your objectives. This can help marketing professionals to design strategies for this specific objective.
List of your competitors:
Do some research on your competitors. Find out the kinds of digital marketing strategies they are using, and which seem to be working. You can use this information to add detail to your digital marketing RFP.
Your target audience:
Who is your target audience? Determine the demographics you are already reaching, and from here you can locate other demographics that you need to reach. If you have a good idea of what your target audience already is, you can determine ways to reach a larger or additional target audience.
Timeframe:
The amount of time you want to spend on these projects needs to be spelled out in your digital marketing RFP. Timeframes and deadlines help everyone, including you, to keep the projects moving toward completion.
Budget:
Your budget is an absolutely essential step in your digital marketing RFP. A marketing agency cannot offer you details on services or an accurate picture of what they can do without having a detailed understanding of how much you can spend on these projects.
Selection criteria:
The important final step in a digital marketing RFP is to provide details on how you will be selecting a suitable agency for your digital marketing needs. This is something that works toward transparency, and it helps agencies understand the best ways for them to craft their bids.
Of course, you need to provide contact information. Provide the names and contact information of the people on your end who will oversee the RFP and bidding process.
How Long Should The Digital Marketing RFP Be?
Most experts agree that a digital marketing RFP should be as brief as possible. This is not a document on which you should indulge in unnecessary narration. Provide only the necessary details.
Each section should have a clear header. While a digital marketing RFP can be several pages, depending on the scope and detail of your project, it is best to keep the text to as few words as possible.
Advantages Digital Marketing RFP Provide
Composing a digital marketing RFP can seem like a major task that is distracting from the work you are in business to do. But there are real advantages to digital marketing RFPS, and this is why they have become standard practice for successful businesses. Some of the advantages of digital marketing RFPs include:
Efficient and effective
The reason digital marketing RFPs have become standard business practice is that they are efficient and effective ways of obtaining sound marketing plans that generate profits. Digital marketing RFPs allow you to open the field to multiple marketing firms so that you can find the best marketing plan for your business goals. There are no shots in the dark; just an open and honest request for a proposal that you can evaluate to achieve your business goals.
Great starting point
Digital marketing RFPs can be a great way to begin a conversation with digital marketing agencies. They open the door to further cooperation between your business or organization and marketing professionals. Companies that have begun using digital marketing RFPs can establish working relationships with digital marketing professionals that are beneficial to everyone. Since a digital marketing RFP is relatively short, it operates as a great and concise introduction to your business and to the marketing agencies that can provide services for your business.
Provide a fair environment for potential marketing firms
By making your request for proposal open and clear, everyone understands from the outset what the requirements are and how the bids will be evaluated. Nothing is kept in the dark, and this makes for transparency and fair business practices. These are things that build trust among marketing firms and key stakeholders.
Reveals the process to stakeholders
In a similar line as above, digital marketing RFPs make everything clear to key stakeholders, all of whom have opinions on how these processes should work. When all the information is open and clear, they all can have access to what is happening within an organization with which they hold interest.
Evaluating Responses for Digital RFP
Evaluating the response to a digital marketing RFP is obviously entirely up to you and your stakeholders. However, there are some standard things to think about:
Experience:
A marketing firm with extensive experience is always a good idea. You definitely want marketing professionals who know the field and have established records of success. That said, you do not want to get blinded by this criterion and miss out on a less experienced marketing bid that is nearly perfectly lined up with your marketing needs and goals.
Market experience over track record:
Evaluate bids based on experience with specific kinds of projects rather than overall experience defined as time in the field of marketing. If you need work in the area of SEO, you will want to favor a newer marketing firm that may not have the overall achievements of some firms but stands out for its SEO success.
References:
Definitely follow up on references. Get a sense of how other businesses who have worked with a marketing firm feel about their experiences.
Cost and efficiency:
You do need to consider your bottom line. What are the costs involved with each agency, and what is their track record for completing projects on time? In the final analysis, you gain little from taking on a marketing agency you cannot afford, and missed deadlines become cost overruns.
Digital Marketing RFP FAQS
What Is a Digital Marketing RFP?
An RFP is a request for proposal. This is a document that details the objectives and goals a company has for its marketing needs. A digital RFP opens the door for marketing agencies to bid on projects that will fulfill your digital marketing needs and goals.
What are the steps of the digital marketing RFP process?
Company description, digital presence, scope of work, objectives, target audience, timeframe, and costs.
How long should the digital marketing RFP be?
Most experts agree that a digital marketing RFP should be as brief as possible. This is not a document on which you should indulge in unnecessary narration. Provide only the necessary details.
If you need a marketing agency, or if you need professionals who know how to write excellent marketing RFPs, HeyDay Marketing can provide Marketing Agency Service Integration to help you assemble the correct things you need to formulate a successful marketing RFP.
As you can see from this guide, there is a lot that goes into a marketing request for a proposal. To get the results you need to launch a successful marketing campaign, you can leave things to professionals who are knowledgeable and will invest themselves in the success of your company. HeyDay Marketing Services provides public relations services that will help your business grow with professional and knowledgeable Marketing Agency Service Integration.
HeyDay Marketing Services can build a Marketing Agency Service Integration that will allow you to find the kind of marketing agency and marketing strategy that will build your company. Whether you need help with SEO, social media exposure, or to increase your visibility on web searches, HeyDay Marketing Services and Marketing Agency Service Integration can help you position your business for increased growth and profit.
HeyDay Marketing Services offers Marketing Agency Service Integration that works for your company. We understand that one size does not fit all. For sound public relations strategies that work, allow HeyDay Marketing Services to take over the public relations for your business.
