How to Write a Marketing RFP That Gets Great Responses

By idfive \ January 30, 2020

Many elements go into a marketing RFP because RFPs tend to be, well — really, really long. And because we’d all like a break from assembling 50+ page documents, this blog isn’t meant to be a “beginner’s guide” on everything a request for proposal should include. This blog is meant to take you from beginner to expert.

Such “beginner’s guides” (for example HubSpot, Forbes, or Template Lab) get most of the process right, but they tend to gloss over a few key sections of your marketing RFP that have a huge potential impact on your ability to find the best possible agency partner for your organization and project.

In our experience of reading and responding to hundreds of RFPs every year — and yes, we do mean hundreds — finding qualified bidders who can ensure your project is successful becomes much easier when you focus your RFP writing time on a few key sections. The rest can be slightly modified from boilerplate RFP templates that are always a Google search away.

Which parts make the biggest difference?

The following sections of your RFP will help you get responses from high-quality marketing agency vendors who will be active partners for your organization:

1. Targeted budget
2. Criteria for Selection
3. Noteworthy work examples from comparators and competitors (to set expectations)
4. Timelines for both the onboarding process and project delivery
5. KPIs, goals, and benchmark metrics
6. Scope of Work/Deliverables

In addition to the above sections, as you write your marketing RFP, fold in the following recommendations to ensure the entire process is as successful as possible.

TIP 1: Do your homework and self-select a handful of vendors

Writing an RFP is hard.

Responding to an RFP is hard.

Reading 50-100 responses from a good percentage of unqualified vendors is even harder.

Do yourself and your selection committee a favor, and select a handful of vendors that you’ve researched to send the RFP directly. If you’ve been discussing your website or marketing project for any length of time, your committee probably has numerous contacts or knows which agencies are most qualified to respond. Do a little digging on these agencies – look at recent work on their website, search them out on social media, and get a feel for how compatible they’d be with your brand.

Chances are if you don’t see any case studies on their website that are in your category, hate all the work they display, or if you don’t connect with the brand they project on social media, it’s probably not going to be a successful relationship.

If you are a state- or government-funded organization you won’t have the luxury to predetermine your vendors. Still, doing this preliminary research will get you thinking about what it is you’re looking for in a marketing partner and can inform your discussions and priorities.

TIP 2: Create a specific list of services vendors should offer (and not offer)

You may be working with a specialty provider for direct mail and not want your creative agency providing competing services. The same goes for digital vendors. If you need a website and are already working with a brand agency that has created a look and feel for your organization, it will be beneficial for vendors to know this before they submit a bid.

This is important beyond vendor partnerships, too. If you know you want a specific functionality on your website, list it. If you’ve looked at a particular service that you’d like to explore further to determine if it can be used in your project, list it. Try not to leave much to the imagination (but still leave room for creativity). Vendors will then be able to match their proposals with the solutions you are looking for.

TIP 3: Clearly state your goals and metrics that indicate success

If your board is looking to increase the number of video views, or RFI (Request for Information) form submissions from the website, list them in the RFP. A solution to drive video views is going to differ greatly from one that drives form completions. Any vendor wants to know where they are going if you intend for them to tell you how to get there.

TIP 4: Demonstrate how important timelines are

You’ll save yourself follow-up emails and calls if you provide deadlines for your RFP process, as well as your project. Include deadlines for questions from the responders, answers to vendor questions, when the proposals should be submitted, when you expect to notify bidders of a short list, and when you anticipate making a decision. Make sure to leave ample time for you to answer questions that vendors have. Unless you’ve started out with a small list (see item 7) you need enough time to organize and respond to hundreds of questions.

TIP 5: Provide examples, not just descriptions

Don’t anticipate anyone knowing what you are thinking. If you have competitors (or colleagues) that you want to be benchmarked against, let bidders know.

If there is creative work you’d like to emulate, vocalize that too. Feel free to look outside your industry. Are you a tourism board that likes the shopping cart functionality of Zappos.com? Are you a University that prefers the commercial styling of Microsoft? You aren’t necessarily looking for that exact solution but your bidders should have an idea of what you like and don’t like. You know what kind of brand you are, just like bidders know what kind of agency they are. Give everyone an opportunity to self-assess to ensure compatibility.

TIP 6: Be transparent on criteria to earn transparent partners

Include what criteria bidders will be judged against and what type of scoring will be used to select the winning bid. Technical merit/previous experience, price, and oral presentation (if there is one) are the minimum criteria that should be considered in your evaluation. Additional criteria that can be added include: Warranties/Terms and Conditions, References, and Proximity.

How the criteria will be ranked is equally important. If you rank proximity to your office as a high-determining factor it’s helpful for distant bidders to know that they won’t score as highly as an agency located down the street. This way, your bidders will self-select for agencies that fit every criteria as well as agencies with compensatory value propositions that are worth considering.

TIP 7: Include a budget

We can not emphasize this enough. A budget allows bidders to determine what services they should offer to maximize your budget, AND it allows you to compare “apples-to-apples.”

Without a budget, you are leaving something to the imagination (see point 6) and bidders do not have any frame of reference to create an accurate proposal. You’ll get a wide range of price proposals and either the solutions will not be what you expected, what you need, or worse yet, what you want. You are creating one more diversion point between vendors that you just don’t need. Give everyone the same pieces to the puzzle and see how they put it together.

Want more specific guidance related to your organization’s marketing RFP? idfive is available to consult, with experience answering (and winning) marketing RFPs in nonprofit, government, higher education, healthcare, local brands, advancement, and fundraising.

All you have to do is contact us.

For more marketing and advertising tips and tricks, explore idfive insights.