Brand promotion: 15 tips for writing a good advertising proposal...

Writing an advertising proposal is essentially a process called "persuasion". So, how can we better convince the other party to choose our solution?

Based on some past failed experiences, I have summarized 18 tips for writing proposals. It includes two main parts: information arrangement and PPT presentation.

1. About information arrangement

1. Learn to tell stories, because we all love to listen to stories

Have you ever had this experience: when you read a long theory, you feel sleepy, but when you hear “A long time ago, there was a man…”, you become very focused.

Why is this happening? The reason is simple, when we hear "Once upon a time...", we know a story is about to begin.

Think back to the process of our proposal, isn’t it the same?

Therefore, when writing a proposal, we should learn to arrange the content in a storytelling way.

There are two core application scenarios for sharing stories in proposals, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort:

One is when deriving strategies.

Sometimes, in order to put forward a point of view, we will look for various data charts, development trends, and marketing theories on the Internet to support it. But this often doesn't work well, because you are guiding the other party into a rational logic, under which people are very serious . As a result, the other party may feel that there is something wrong with your data or argument logic.

At this time, perhaps an analogy story can have a good effect. Because strategy is essentially about choosing the best direction among many paths. What can make the other party feel that it is the best? Judgments are often based on cases or stories that have had similar situations.

For example: Jack Ma used storytelling at a Zhejiang Business Association meeting to convince everyone to be objective and calm when the economic situation is bad, and not to move forward blindly. Here’s what he said:

When the storm came, there were three people, one of them had a very good umbrella, one had a very good raincoat, and the other had neither an umbrella nor a raincoat. Finally, when the big storm came, the people with raincoats and umbrellas went out, and they felt they could get to that place. Finally, the rain stopped and the two men arrived. One broke his leg and the other broke his waist. But the man without a raincoat and umbrella just took the time to hide for two hours, loosen up his muscles, and when the rain stopped, he ran out, and he was still the first to arrive. So when the economic situation is bad, please be objective and calm, because we are a group of people who have to combine ideals and emotions.

Does it feel familiar to you? It’s like some of the stories we cited when we wrote argumentative essays in high school.

Yes, the method itself is a routine, but how to tell the right story under the right circumstances still depends on the planner’s own experience.

Another application scenario for storytelling is during the string execution phase.

We usually recommend that clients prepare a lot of different communication materials during the execution phase, and the feedback we often receive is: too many, too scattered, and not connected.

At this time, the best way is to use storytelling to introduce each stage of the execution and each communication material from beginning to end, and how they are strung together into a complete communication story.

2. Don’t easily make comments on the client’s “superstructure” unless you have studied it deeply enough

Many advertising planners like to talk a lot when they are laying the groundwork:

Write about the current state of industry operations, brand business strategies, business models, etc. I feel that my analysis is very reasonable, but to the other client, it is just child's play, not even half-baked, and sometimes it is even wrong.

Why? It's very simple. They are deeply engaged in this industry and their own business models every day; but most of us are just working in advertising and communication, or to put it more broadly, we are still just workers in the marketing field. Could it be that we, who have only casually read a few relevant reports on the Internet, know these things better than others?

That's impossible!

Therefore, it is recommended that advertising planners do not easily comment on these "superstructure" issues of clients in their proposals, unless you have really studied them more deeply, otherwise you will only make yourself a laughing stock!

We should be self-aware and focus on talking about things we are better at, such as:

Under the established business goals, how should the marketing end cooperate, how should the communication end undertake marketing goals, how should consumer touchpoints be managed, etc.

3. When writing about consumer insights, don’t just pile up data; write about them with heart or in an interesting way.

Consumer insights are increasingly becoming a formality.

Many of them rely on piling up data to support some obvious points, such as young people born in the 1990s and 1995s are increasingly pursuing individuality and trendy brands are becoming more and more popular among them...

First of all, this isn’t actually consumer insight!

Truly powerful insights are never derived from analyzing a few data tables. These may be helpful for media strategies or provide some trend guidance for business strategies because data is rational.

Consumer insights are internal and emotional. They may come from observations of daily behaviors, from psychology, or from inner monologues when you are alone at night.

Secondly, writing these so-called "insights" in the proposal has no appeal to customers because they are already clichés, so many customers just skip this part and get straight to the point.

So, how do you write consumer insights well in your plan?

Personally, I think: either be sincere or be interesting!

To be heartfelt means to really enter the emotional world of consumers, unearth some hidden emotions that can resonate with them, express them in words, and then add some powerful pictures. It's absolutely beautiful!

Interesting, it is a relatively easy way to interpret. For example, for many insights into consumers born after 1995 and 2000, we can use a lot of jargon and animated images to interpret their rich inner world, so it can also be understood as another form of heartfelt.

4. Avoid the "curse of knowledge" and sometimes write "spread out"

I believe that many people who do third-party advertising have had this experience:

While brainstorming, I came up with a creative idea that everyone thought was very interesting. After you finish writing and send it to the client, the other party does not find your idea interesting or even understand it.

This is the legendary "curse of knowledge".

The curse of knowledge, simply put, is that once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge "curses" us. It becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others because we cannot easily recreate the mindset of our audience.

Therefore, when writing proposals, especially some creative proposals, we must try our best to avoid this damn "knowledge curse". How to do it?

My experience is: spread out and write!

In contrast, it is written in concise words: we want to do this, this, this...

Without telling the other party: Why do you want to do this? What is the connection with the brand/product? What’s so interesting about this approach? What discussions will consumers probably have when they see this?

Therefore, the purpose of writing in detail is to interpret!

Especially when writing creative ideas, interpretation is very necessary. It is better to spend a few more pages of PPT to interpret an idea well, rather than writing it down in a general way so that the other party will not remember anything in the end.

Regarding how to interpret, in addition to spending a few more pages of PPT to write about the questions I mentioned above, there is another very important point: use more visual things to present! Text combined with visuals is far more effective in breaking the curse of knowledge than text alone.

5. It is not recommended to put the roadmap at the beginning, it should be reviewed at the end

After writing the big idea and preparing to introduce the execution part, many people will put a roadmap at the beginning, and put all the execution content to be discussed later into a "house model" with different time stages as an overall execution overview.

I personally don't recommend doing this.

First of all, this will reveal in advance all the creative ideas for execution that we are going to talk about later, and as a result, the other party will lose their expectations when they hear the rest.

Secondly, a page filled with so much information would be very difficult for the other party to read or for us to explain.

Only when all the execution parts have been explained and the other party has a general understanding of what to do, it is reasonable and effective to put such a page at the end as a systematic review.

Therefore, it is not recommended to put such a roadmap page before entering the execution introduction.

Instead, we should use a one-page storyline to introduce the overall execution rhythm as we mentioned in "Point 1". However, there is no need to write here what to do specifically at each rhythm.

6. Incorporate “Purpose & Relevance” thinking throughout the entire proposal to make it impossible for the other party to refuse

One of the most common reasons I hear people use to challenge an idea in a proposal is:

"What does this have to do with us?"

The word "relationship" in this sentence can be broken down into two meanings:

One is, its relationship with the goals that can be achieved by doing this wave of activities, that is, what is the purpose of doing this?

Another is its relationship with the brand proposition or product selling point, that is, what can be conveyed by doing this?

These are the two most important dimensions for brands to measure an event.

As planners, when writing a plan, we should always reflect the "purpose & connection" thinking. From the biggest activity idea to every execution action, we must clearly tell the other party:

First, what purpose can be achieved by doing this and how will it contribute to the achievement of the overall goal;

Secondly, doing so can convey the brand’s proposition or the product’s selling point, and it is best if only the brand can do it.

The advantage of this is that it makes it impossible for the other party to refuse!

7. Learn to summarize the entire proposal with a few key highlights so that the other party can remember them

A normal proposal will have at least 30 to 40 pages of PPT. After the human brain has read so much information at once, it will often only pick out some of the information it wants to remember and store, and use it as the final evaluation criteria.

Sometimes after reading a proposal, the other party may only remember one page, one sentence, or one word. Of course, it is also possible that they remember nothing.

Therefore, we must learn to use a few core highlights to summarize the entire proposal and help the other party remember.

The premise for doing this is that the plan really has highlights to present. If the whole process is just looking for KOLs to post articles, bargaining and group buying interactions, which sound like something novel, then naturally nothing can be summarized in the end. You have to go back and think again about how KOL posts can be made different, what gimmicks can be packaged for bargaining and group buying, etc., to give the plan new highlights.

Don’t put every execution as the highlight of the final summary, as this will dilute the memory.

8. If you are not happy with what you are writing, it is recommended that you stop and rethink the content or sort out your thoughts.

I have a personal experience that if you write a proposal that you are excited about during the writing process, the quality of the final output will usually not be too bad.

What does it mean to write yourself into something exciting?

Even if I write until late at night, my brain is clear and even excited;

If I am delayed by other things, I will look forward to going back to open the PPT and continue to complete it;

The writing is very smooth, and every blank page of the PPT seems to have been annotated with what to write in advance...

If, on the contrary, you are not happy with your writing and often get stuck, deleting one page after writing it, then it is recommended that you stop.

Because at this point, most of the time, either the thing you are thinking about is not interesting in itself and you have no interest in expressing it; or you have not figured out the story framework and narrative logic of the entire plan.

2. About PPT presentation

1. Don’t just write “XX Project” on the cover page of your proposal. Give it a “Speech Topic”

A good proposal can also be thought of as a speech. Since it is a speech, its theme cannot be just "XX strategic plan" or "XX creative plan".

Instead, you should have a speech topic that can attract the audience's interest and is related to the core content of the program .

Just like writing a title for a public account push, a good title is the first step to attract more people to open and read your article. The same goes for the theme on the proposal cover.

2. Never write a luxury product proposal in the same way you write a fast-moving consumer product proposal

We know that different industries and categories have very different styles of marketing communications.

For example: fast-moving consumer goods are very "fun", luxury goods are very cool, home appliances need to be grand, and cosmetics need to be cool...

When writing a proposal, the PPT style of the presentation is also important.

It is best to follow the tone of the brand, or at least follow the tone of the category.

For example: You cannot write a luxury product plan in the same style as you write a fast-moving consumer goods plan.

When writing a plan for fast-moving consumer goods, you can use all kinds of hot memes, jargon, and emoticons. Most of the time, just make them as fun as possible, and use the most lively layout and colors.

But if you apply this kind of "ruffian" spirit to writing luxury product proposals, I'm afraid the results will be bad.

At least the luxury solutions I have seen are all the same as the brand tone, exuding a sense of aloofness, from the choice of words and sentences to the use of colors, fonts, and pictures.

Fast-moving consumer goods VS luxury goods, this is a more extreme example, and the same is true for some other categories. After all, when there is no better way to present your solutions than PPT, PPT is your facade.

Therefore, when you start to code the PPT, you can first take a look at some of the brand’s previous visual tones to get a rough idea of ​​the degree. Don't let small things affect the overall situation.

3. Pictures are very important. Good pictures can speak for themselves.

Earlier in “Point 4”, we talked about how the best way to deal with the “curse of knowledge” is deduction.

From the perspective of information interpretation efficiency, pictures are obviously superior to texts.

Therefore, when writing a proposal, it is very important to provide pictures. Do not underestimate the tedious task of finding pictures.

A good picture has emotional appeal.

This is why many 4A companies like to use a large picture and a few words when laying out consumer insights at the front, because this can strengthen the information tension and better interpret the ideas we want to convey.

Therefore, finding pictures is also a technical job.

It requires you to have a certain aesthetic sense and to be able to use precise keywords to find pictures that convey this information.

At the end of the article, I will recommend some niche photo gallery websites that I have personally tested and found to be useful.

4. The title of each page of the PPT is the key. Don’t expect people to read the small print.

I believe that when most people look through a PPT plan, they first and mainly look at the largest title, and just glance at the small words.

Therefore, when writing each page of PPT, it is best to arrange it according to the "general-specific" structure.

The so-called "general" refers to the core idea in the title, and "specific" refers to the different arguments supporting this idea.

5. Use some transition pages appropriately to connect the previous and the next and guide everyone's thinking

When making a proposal, what I fear most is that the other party gets lost while listening, and has no idea what the connection is, or even where I am at.

This happens often because the person who reads the proposal is not so clear about the logical framework of the person who wrote the proposal. This is ultimately a kind of "knowledge curse."

At this time, you can use more transition pages to solve the problem.

The transition page can be a highlight of the corresponding part in the directory page, or it can be a question using some connecting words.

For example: "Faced with goals and challenges, how can we break through?", and then naturally lead to the following solution ideas;

Another example is: "The previous part is fanning the flames, so how do we make the fire bigger next?" This can better connect the previous and the next part, allowing the viewers/listeners to follow our thinking framework.

6. It is actually very simple to visualize text. Compare the logical relationships of these 6 types of content

It is a taboo to use long and empty text in the PPT used for proposals. Because it simply doesn't arouse people's interest in watching it, and the information transmission is greatly reduced.

At this time, visualization becomes very important.

The first step in converting text into graphics is to clarify the logical relationship of the content.

Ultimately, all text content has six main logical relationships, namely parallel relationship, progressive relationship, circular relationship, inclusion relationship, contrast relationship, and radiation relationship.

What we need to do is to break down large passages of text into one or several of these six relationships through understanding.

The second step is to extract the corresponding keywords through simplification. Just use the keywords as the core content of the diagram. The small fonts can be reduced accordingly or placed in the PPT notes.

The third step is to find corresponding shapes, icons, flow charts, etc. based on the logical relationship and keywords of the content and put the text in them.

At the end of the article, I will recommend some websites that have proven themselves to be useful for shape chart materials.

7. Don’t just write “THANKS” on the last page. Your speech should have a closing statement.

Just like you shouldn’t just write “XX plan” on the cover page, you shouldn’t just write “THANKS” on the last page of the plan, because this is nonsense and many people won’t even read it.

Since we regard the entire proposal as a speech, with a speech topic at the beginning, there should be a closing statement at the end, not just a "THANKS".

On the last page, we can echo the theme of the cover page. For example, if the theme of the cover page is a question, we can answer the question on the last page to achieve a connection between the beginning and the end.

It can also be some good wishes for the brand based on the theme of this proposal;

Or they can summarize their own service advantages and express their confidence and expectations for cooperation between the two parties.

The above is written for myself. Also write to those who need it.

Attachment: Some useful material tools and website recommendations

Alibaba Icon: You can enter keywords to find the icon you want, and the color of the icon can be customized.

（https://www.iconfont.cn）

Find elements: In addition to regular pictures, you can also enter keywords to find icons and PNG pictures without background

(https://picjumbo.com)

Pexels: A high-quality niche image website

(https://www.pexels.com)

Pixlr: Online Photoshop Photo Editing Tool

(https://pixlr.com)

Color Scheme: various color schemes

（http://www.peise.net/tools/web/）

Author: js planner

Source: Planner2333