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Do you already have the right business offer in mind but you just don’t know how to navigate your clients through their customer journey?
Or have you ever wondered how great businesses communicate their web design offer to their clients?
Either way, writing a great web design proposal isn’t rocket science. It just takes the right approach, sufficient know-how and the necessary tools to create an irresistible web proposal.
And we will show you how to do it. So let’s get started.
The 5 principles of an irresistible web design proposal
We know, you would probably prefer spending time creating and designing, rather than reading about how to draft a freelance web design proposal.
But here is the thing:
Creating an irresistible web design offer is crucial to convincing potential customers and winning your business.
Your work is not just about designing websites. It is about selling them. This is why we’ll show you which sections you should always include in your template for all your web design proposals.
A convincing web design proposal is problem solving
Your web design proposal should first and foremost address your client’s problems and needs.
Start by recognizing the client’s challenges and goals. Your prospects need to know that you have a deep understanding of their situation and you care enough to have their back. Giving your client the feeling of being understood and cared about builds trust and makes him have more sympathy for your web proposals.
The client’s core problem is what defines your responsibilities as a web design agency. And it also gives a vague outline of the scope of the web design project and therefore the proposal.
The answers to questions like:
- What problems do they want their website redesign to solve?
- What is the main goal of the project?
- What problems or challenges does the current website have?
- How much budget is available?
- What kind of audience do they want to target?
..will form the basis of your proposal. Now that you have a clear idea of the daily difficulties your customers are facing, you can start articulating the perfect solution that you bring to the table.
You need to state exactly what are the benefits of your solution. This is essentially why the client should work with you and can trust in your work.
It’s always helpful to include examples in your web design proposal so that they have a clear image of the possible outcome.
State the deliverables
Now it’s time to state the deliverables. This means that you give a clear overview of all the services you will provide. It should include a detailed scope of the project so the customers know exactly what is included and also what is excluded.
Be aware of scope creep. This refers to changes that continuously or uncontrollably make your project scope grow at any time after the project has started. This usually happens when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented or controlled.
To stay in line with the contract you need to make sure that all requirements are communicated throughout the whole project and nothing more gets added along the way, after starting to work.
Cost transparency in your web design proposal
Another key aspect of an irresistible website designing proposal is cost transparency. Ask your client to state how much is their budget so you can plan the entire proposal according to the financial means of the customer.
Discussing the budget out in the open and being transparent about all costs shows you whether the project is worth your time or not. After all, you need to put in a lot of hard work to develop the proposal and go through with the realization.
Make sure you outline the costs of your services in a clear and understandable way. Explain how your prices are calculated and if there are any additional fees. You can even state some of your deliverables as optional so the customer can decide if they want the upsell or not. Clients appreciate knowing what their financial obligations are from the outset.
Give an overview of the schedule of your work
A timeline is crucial to ensure your client doesn’t just know what to expect but when to expect it. In order to give a clear overview of the execution you need to:
- Describe the different steps you will be taking throughout the entire process
- Give a basic but realistic timeline that gives a time frame as well as key milestones and deadlines that you can actually stick to
- Include the expectations from the client so they know what their duties are in this project
- Explain what help you need from your clients so that the project stays on track
This will help your client track the progress of the project and ensure that all timeframe expectations are met. Every step of the process should be clear to all parties. At this point you should not leave any questions on what exactly will be happening through the realization phase of the web design.
Never forget the call to action
Now it’s finally time for the client to make the next step. Encourage your client to get in touch with you to clarify any questions, accept the quote or take further steps towards the project.A clear and inviting call to action can make the difference between a successful offer and a missed opportunity.
You can either ask for a confirmation email or give a link to a contract or any kind of binding document to finally accept the offer. Depending on the tool or document you are using you could also include a button that allows your customer to accept and sign the proposal right there from within it.
When using GREYD.Forms for example you can easily design and manage your forms for any kind of proposal. Whether it’s a simple informational form or a multi-level form with CRM connection and double opt-in.
You don’t even need to know how to code. By simply choosing from different blocks you can create your perfect sample for any web design proposal you want to use in the future. Believe it or not, these forms are also automatically responsive.
And even after your client took the desired action the follow up measures couldn’t be simpler. GREYD.Forms allows you to precisely define which actions should be performed after a form submission, while keeping track of all form entries.
This really helps to keep the process of creating a template for your web design proposal as well as the management of all additional forms as easy as possible. So you can focus on the most important part, the actual work of designing.
Pro tips for your perfect web design proposal
In order to make sure that your web design offer really showcases your skills and expertise, here are some pro tips that you might want to keep in mind.
- Make sure your client know about the legal affairs
Even though it’s not your duty or responsibility, in your proposal you can include some notes about the applicable laws for the project. When creating a website of any kind there are always legal requirements that need to be met.
From the simple cookie consent notification, to certain privacy policies, copyright laws or the European GDPR compliance. As a web designer you should be familiar with all of these legal affairs. So why not tell your client about them?
Also accessibility is a very important topic that should be discussed in this context, especially for web stores. There are certain criteria that have to be met, in order for an online shop to be accessible, such as:
- Magnifiability of text and graphics
- Alternatives for graphics and multimedia
- Dynamic components and structure
- Contrasts and colors
The more information you include in the proposal, the better. It seems more professional and customers will definitely appreciate the extra information.
- Use concise language
From complicated legal requirements to concise language. Although to you it might seem easy and normal to use jargon, try to avoid it in your offer.
If you think about how to write a web design proposal, think about the easiest way of explaining your work. Nobody wants an offer that they don’t even understand. Chances are they get bored and frustrated and don’t even read till the end.
Of course there are certain technical terms that are simply necessary to explain the process. Still, try to keep it brief and to the point with the explanations. You never know how familiar your client is with the subject of web design.
- The Kano Model
Ever heard of the Kano Model? It is a model for analyzing customer preferences. It basically tells you the relationship between customer satisfaction and the characteristics of your services.
Keep this customer satisfaction model in mind when creating your web design offer. Because customers’ expectations of the features and characteristics of your solution might vary widely.
Once you figure out the optimal basic features, performance characteristics and enthusiasm features according to the model, you will be able to convince every client with your proposal.
If you are interested in learning more about how to create the perfect web design proposal with GREYD and actually trying the features first hand feel free to download and test GREYD for free.
