How To Write a Marketing Proposal: 8 Steps To Make Campaigns Happen (2024)

One of the most energizing parts of running a retail business is coming up with fresh marketing ideas. You might dream up an influencer marketing blitz for your new athleisure collection or envision a dorm makeover contest for your affordable homeware brand. Turning these creative campaigns into reality isn’t just about imagining—it requires investment and team resources.

A well-crafted marketing proposal can turn bold ideas into real-world campaigns. Whether you’re seeking sign-off from leadership, aligning multiple departments around a common goal, or reaching an agreement with collaborators, your proposal should tell a compelling story backed by numbers.

This article will help you create a marketing proposal that sparks curiosity and demonstrates clear business value. It includes a practical template you can adapt for your own campaigns based on the kind of business you run. You can also use the digital marketing proposal template included below as a jumping-off point for writing your own.

Table of contents

What is a marketing proposal?
How to write a marketing proposal
Marketing proposal FAQ

What is a marketing proposal?

A marketing proposal is a document that presents your budget, resource requirements, timeline, expected outcomes, and detailed implementation plans for a marketing campaign.

If developed for internal stakeholders like leadership in your marketing department, marketing proposals explain how your team will spend money on specific tactics—from digital ads and events to email campaigns—to acquire new customers or drive product adoption.

External marketing agencies use marketing proposals to turn prospective clients into customers, laying out their recommended strategy for your goals—whether that’s a fresh brand strategy or a completely new creative direction.

There are two different types of marketing proposals: One helps marketing agencies win new business and another secures internal approval for your campaign plans. When agencies pitch potential clients, they typically include additional sections like an About Us page, pricing, and terms and conditions—elements you won’t need for an internal proposal.

Regardless of which type you’re working on, these steps can help with writing marketing proposals that impress senior managers or other decision-makers:

1. Write a focused executive summary

Your executive summary captures the gist of your marketing proposal, briefly outlining the primary points of your campaign. Every good marketing proposal starts here, providing the foundation for what’s to come.

Craft this summary specifically for your readers—whether that’s your leadership team, the head of marketing, or marketing team members. Give them an overview of your marketing strategy without drowning them in details.

This section should touch on:

The challenge you plan to resolve
A proposed solution
Details on how you’ll reach your target audience
Expected timeline
Resources and budget needed
Anticipated results and/or return on investment

Think of it as your proposal’s highlight reel. It should give decision-makers enough insight to understand your vision while encouraging them to dig deeper into the details that follow.

2. Present the core business challenge

Before jumping to solutions, clearly articulate the challenge you’re trying to address. Start by sketching a clear picture of the current situation and areas for improvement. Emphasize any troubling metrics and tangible business impacts, highlighting why action is necessary now.

Here are two hypothetical problem statements:

Our social media efforts are underperforming. We have only 2,300 Instagram and 1,700 Facebook followers, despite being in business for three years. This limited reach hurts our ability to promote our latest releases and connect with new customers online.
A mishandled customer-service incident went viral online last month, damaging our brand’s reputation, particularly among our core 18-24 age demographic. Surveys show a 15% drop in brand trust, and we’re seeing this reflected in a slowdown in new customer acquisition.

Lead with data that highlights the specific challenges and their business impact. Your solutions will come later. Your first order of business is to ensure that decision-makers understand what needs to be addressed and what’s at stake.

3. Map out a proposed solution

In this part of the proposal, lay out your solution. Include elements like target channels, content themes, and key partnerships. Map out major campaign features—whether photo contests, influencer collaborations, or PPC ads. Detail how everything works together while saving granular timelines and specific execution steps for the implementation section.

For example, if you’re facing dwindling social media engagement, a user-generated content campaign could spark conversations and boost community participation. Build confidence by showing how each tactic will help solve your stated business challenge. Consider including mockups that illustrate your planned campaign materials and what you’re trying to achieve.

4. Detail implementation and timeline

This section transforms your solution into a concrete action plan. It’s like opening your brand’s Trello board or Asana workspace to show exactly how your marketing project will unfold. Map out your execution timeline for all the essential pieces including:

Key phases and major milestones
Critical tasks
Team responsibilities and handoffs
Resource allocation timing
Content creation deadlines
Review cycles
Test periods
Launch date and rollout schedule

For example, if you’re planning an email series, outline when you’ll determine audience segments, develop message flows, design templates, and write copy. Each task should have a clear owner and deadline, showing decision-makers you’ve planned every step. Consider including a snapshot of your actual project management tool to show your organized approach to execution.

5. Define success metrics

Every stellar digital marketing proposal needs measurable targets that demonstrate success. Your marketing team should outline specific and attainable goals.

Here are three examples:

Scale our content marketing program to drive 6,000 newsletter signups in Q1 through our new industry research series and expert interview campaign.
Complete an SEO audit and revamp our search engine optimization strategy to rank in the top three search positions for our 20 highest-value keywords within six months.
Launch an integrated digital marketing campaign across social, email, and paid channels to generate 1,200 qualified product demonstration requests by the end of September.

Each goal should include specific targets and clear timeframes, giving stakeholders concrete ways to understand and measure your campaign’s impact.

6. Specify required resources and budget

A successful proposal will include a realistic outline of anticipated costs and necessary resources, from marketing collateral to software subscriptions to team allocation. The difference between approval and rejection often comes down to how thoroughly you’ve mapped out these requirements. (This is where a marketing agency would include information about its pricing tiers.)

Start with your core team requirements. Chart the hours of work needed from teams like design, content, and campaign management, including how this might affect other projects. Being transparent about resource trade-offs helps decision-makers understand the full scope of commitment needed for success. Factor in additional marketing services you may need to outsource, from ecommerce photography to paid media management.

Next, detail your production costs. This might mean market research tools, analytics platforms, automation software, and physical materials. Don’t forget practical elements like event space rentals or promotional items. Add up every line item to present a clear, total budget.

7. Outline the anticipated campaign impact

This last section of your report is where you justify your budget by showing how your investment will drive returns on investment. A winning marketing proposal demonstrates not just costs, but value.

Present a positive ROI case—breaking even often isn’t enough. If you’re seeking $15,000 for a campaign, show how it could generate $25,000 in new revenue through increased conversion rates and customer lifetime value. For harder-to-quantify initiatives like brand awareness campaigns, tie your key performance indicators to concrete business metrics. For example, connect social media sentiment improvements to reduced customer service costs or link increased brand visibility to shortened sales cycles.

Although it’s challenging to put an exact dollar return on marketing efforts, you can still measure success through proxy metrics. Factor in long-term benefits like improved customer loyalty, stronger market positioning, or increased brand equity—just specify how you’ll track these softer returns.

Marketing proposal FAQ

How do I write a marketing proposal?

Explore marketing proposal templates to get started—they’ll give you the right structure for your document. You can start with Shopify’s digital marketing proposal example and focus on these core sections: executive summary, business challenge, proposed solution, implementation plan, success metrics, budget and resource needs, and expected impact.

How many pages should a marketing proposal be?

A strong marketing proposal should be concise yet thorough, typically running six to 10 pages—long enough to cover all key details but short enough to hold attention.

How long does a marketing proposal take to write?

Although the actual writing might take just a few hours, developing a solid marketing proposal often requires several days to gather pricing quotes, align team responsibilities, and refine campaign specifics.