50 essential proposal writing skills for planners in 2020

During my time as Party B, I wrote hundreds of proposals , reviewed thousands of proposals of all sizes, and summarized some good methods and ideas .

When it comes to writing a proposal, it depends on personal opinion and there is no specific standard. It can just be used as a reference.

(1) Understanding needs, (2) Exploring needs, and (3) Confirming needs.

04. Competitive product analysis

Competitive analysis + self-analysis, analysis from the brand and product level. Collect data, visit the market, look at products, conduct interviews, and form a summary.

05. Case Collection

Case study means finding cases that can be used as reference. The logic of sorting out is background, goal, insight, creativity, and execution. Understand what to learn from and what to avoid.

06. Case accumulation

Accumulate more in daily life, think quickly and efficiently, and it doesn’t matter if you are short on time. After all, creativity is new combinations of old elements.

07. Model accumulation

The purpose is not to apply mechanically, but to exercise your own thinking.

08. Look at multiple options

Find various types of solutions through various channels, extract the essence of them, and form your own ideas based on other people's solutions.

09. Read more reports

A very core ability of an advertiser is to dig up information, read information, and analyze information.

10. Strategy first

Find the direction. Strategy is the direction and the rational explanation of creativity. Strategy is a feasible solution formulated to solve the problem.

11. Strategies have a source

Data support + data interpretation, the strategy is actually quite boring. After spending your brainpower to guess the conclusion, you also have to spend energy to dig up various data.

12. Data report presentation

There must be a source. It is not recommended for icon designers to take screenshots directly. It is best to make one yourself. First, it can avoid blurry screenshots or watermarks, and second, it can show your intentions.

13. Strategic expression has power

The strategy must be concise, and try to use short sentences instead of long sentences. Make sure that every sentence is included and touches people's hearts.

14. Good strategy, no word games

A good strategy is not just a logical deduction, but requires innovative insights and opinions. Sophistry is not a strategy.

15. The core of positioning

The core of positioning is, for whom? (Target consumer) What am I? (Positioning) What does it give you? (Consumer Benefit Points)

16. Get to know the founders

The brand's philosophy and the company's employees are inevitably influenced by the boss. Only by understanding the boss can one understand the business.

17. The final strategy should be streamlined

1-3 sentences, the strategy is conciseness, not narration. The strategy,generation process is very complex, but the output result is very simple.

18. Creative Divergence

Take strategy as the core and expand it. Strategy is the shackles of business, and creativity is the shackles of strategy. Only with constraints can there be a way to business.

19. What is creativity?

The underlying foundation of creativity is information; a good idea conveys a message.

20. Consumer demand

(1) Rational interests: the physical needs of consumers to purchase products;

(2) Emotional benefits: insights into the cultural attributes/inner emotions behind consumers.

21. Crowd Insights

Crowd portrait + crowd insight, first identify the crowd, then do crowd analysis.

22. Insight is conflict

If an insight does not have any contradiction or conflict, then this insight will not impress people at all. Emotional conflict is the potential energy for communication.

How to judge a good idea? (1) Whether the ideas are conflicting and remembered; (2) Whether the conflict is related to the product and provides guidance.

23. Big idea should be an action

One sentence for one news event, creativity should be a specific action, one sentence for one action. The big idea is to be spread, and what is spread is a thing, and a thing is an action.

24. E-commerce campaign three-piece set

(1) Super traffic (torchbearer/crowd diversion) (2) Super products (conversion hook/on-site acceptance) (3) Super events (marketing hook/topic dissemination).

25. IP selection for e-commerce campaigns

(1) Whether it is popular; (2) Whether the IP audience overlaps; (3) Whether it is related to the product.

26. The essence of e-commerce is still social

Communication must have content, and the content should revolve around the product.

27. Small creative logic

(1) Insight (deduction) (2) Marketing event (what is it, in one sentence) (3) Interactive gameplay (how to play) (4) Spread the topic (how to spread).

28. The difference between creative cases and execution cases

The creative case provides direction and gives reasonable imagination space, while the execution case makes people feel at ease and clear about your execution details.

29. Don’t repeat images

Do not repeat the pictures in a PPT because they express different things. Even if the expression is the same, do not use the same picture more than twice, as it will give customers a bad impression.

30. Solve 2 problems creatively

Why do it? Why should I do it? Why do something can cause it to be spread, and why I do it is in the process of being spread, letting others know that it is my company that does it. What they remember is not only the plot, but also the subject of the behavior.

31. If the idea does not fit the proposed strategy

Don’t reject it immediately. See if the idea can cleverly solve business problems. You can also go back and modify the strategy.

32. When writing a creative proposal, you should think about the implementation

Continuously increase the discussion of the topic and create news-making topics. Plant the plot in advance, spread the plot during the process, and escalate the plot afterwards. Multiple angles and discussion are a major criterion for testing creativity.

33. About Interaction

It must be simple and have a low threshold. Everyone is lazy, so don't discourage consumers.

34. Mind Map

First, clarify the logic of the case and take a preliminary look to see if there are any problems with the logic of the entire case.

35. Idea paper

Think about the content first, and then put up the PPT. Don't rush to put up the PPT. Think it through and then put it up quickly. The content goes through my mind and I write the copy as if I were divine.

36. Start with PowerPoint

Think clearly about the style and tone of the whole project, which is the dress of this plan.

37. Have a directory

The directory follows an inverted pyramid logic, listing the overall framework of the plan first, and then elaborating on each one. But there are also purely creative proposals that do not have a catalog, do not break the plot in advance, and explain the story in the form of a story.

38. Must have a demo

People are visual animals. Let your demo add points to your creativity. It will make your creativity more sexy.

39. One idea per page is best

Phenomenon + conclusion, draw conclusions based on the phenomenon. One page of PPT only expresses one core message.

40. Choose 1-2 campaigns and talk about them in detail

If it is a full-year plan, it is impossible to talk about multiple campaigns in detail. You only need to talk about 1-2 in detail.

41. Roadmap for communication

The roadmap is an overview, including the purpose of each stage, stage idea, content introduction, main topics, and main channels.

42. Consider not writing “Thanks” at the end

At the end, don’t say thank you to the customer. Instead, be careful and use a sentence or two to remember the key points of your plan, or even use a word to wish the customer the best.

43. Company Introduction

What type of company, what cases have been done, what results have been achieved? It would be best if the cases are worth learning from, that is, relevant to this case.

44. Service Team

The team is divided into several modules with clear functional personnel, who have a good background and are a good match, giving you peace of mind.

45. Keep your logic straight

You have to walk in a cool and logical way.

46. ​​Five key points in writing a case

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said that the five key points to making a speech lively and effective are: (1) a strong introduction, (2) focusing on one topic, (3) using simple and easy-to-understand language, (4) leaving a vivid picture in the audience's mind, and (5) a dramatic ending. This coincides with the logic of writing the case.

At the same time, you should pay attention to three points when writing a plan. What you write should be correct, well written, and memorable.

47. Explain the rhythm/gameplay

The plan should clearly explain the gameplay path, what are the 1234 steps respectively, and understand what you want to do and how to do it.

48. About cross-border

Cross-border is to increase the topic and discussion.

49. Explanation of the tone of the copy

First, look at the brand tone, second, look at the audience characteristics, and third, look at the publishing channel/platform.

50. Copyright is stated on the last page

In order to prevent clients from stealing proposals and writing fraudulent manuscripts to a certain extent, you can mark it at the end: "We reserve the right to take legal action against any unauthorized copying, misappropriation of proposals and ideas."

Author: Zang Feng

Source: Self-cultivation of strategic people

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