RFP in marketing that you can send this week and score fairly

When an RFP is worth the effort

An RFP costs time on both sides. Agencies spend days answering one, and good agencies decline RFPs that look like box ticking. Use the format when at least one of these is true:

• The engagement will run for a year or more at a significant monthly fee
• Three or more people on your side need to agree
• Your procurement or legal team requires a documented comparison
• You are replacing an incumbent and need to show why

For a smaller, faster decision, a short brief does the same job with less friction. Our marketing brief template covers that case.

How to keep an RFP short enough to answer well

The best RFPs are under six pages. Every question should change how you score an answer. If a question would not change your decision, delete it. Agencies give better answers to fewer, sharper questions, and you will read every answer instead of skimming.

Give a clear deadline, usually two to three weeks, a single contact for questions and a promise to share answers to clarifying questions with all bidders. That keeps the process fair.

Start with who you are

• Company, product and customers in one paragraph
• Current marketing team, who does what, and what tools you use
• Channels in use today and what each one produces, with numbers you are comfortable sharing
• What has been tried before and why it stopped

Define the goal and the scope

• The business goal for the next 12 months, in one sentence
• The marketing goal that serves it, for the first 90 days
• Channels in scope and channels explicitly out of scope
• Markets, languages and regions
• Work fee budget range and ad spend range, stated separately

Specify what the response must contain

Ask every bidder to answer in the same structure. It is the single most useful instruction in the whole document.

• Your understanding of our goal, in your own words
• The team, with names, roles and the share of their time on our account
• A 90 day plan, week by week, with what you need from us
• KPIs you propose, with definitions and reporting rhythm
• Pricing, as a fixed monthly fee, with everything included and excluded listed
• Contract terms, minimum term, notice period, account and data ownership
• One example of comparable work and what you would do differently today

Set the process and the timeline

• Deadline for questions and for responses
• How answers will be scored, at least the weights
• Who decides, and the date of the decision
• Expected start date

The scoring sheet

Share the weights with bidders. It improves answers and makes the decision easier to defend.

Score each criterion from one to five, multiply by the weight and add up. Have at least two people score independently, then compare. Large disagreements are worth a conversation before anything is decided.

Questions that reveal real capability

Some questions separate experienced teams from good presenters better than others. Add two or three of these to section 3.

• What would you stop doing in our current marketing, and why
• Which of our KPIs would you change, and what would you replace them with
• Describe a test you ran that failed and what you did next
• What do you need from us in the first two weeks to start properly
• Under what conditions would you advise us not to hire you

The last question is the most telling. A confident team names situations where it is the wrong choice.

Common RFP mistakes

• Asking for free strategy work. A full plan before a contract is unpaid consulting, and the best teams will not provide it. Ask for an approach and a 90 day outline instead.
• Hiding the budget. Bidders then guess, and the proposals cannot be compared. A range is enough.
• Too many bidders. Ten responses cannot be read carefully. Shortlist to three or four before sending.
• Scoring presentation instead of substance. Glossy layouts do not run campaigns.
• No decision date. Agencies prioritise RFPs that will be decided.

After the responses arrive

Read every response in the same order, score it, then shortlist two. With the finalists, ask written follow up questions on whatever scored lowest. Decide by the date you announced and tell every bidder the outcome, including those who were not chosen. It keeps your reputation good for the next round.

Turning the winner into a contract

Attach the winning response to the contract as the scope. The team names, the 90 day plan, the KPIs and the terms in the response then become obligations rather than intentions. Add the checkpoints at day 30, 60 and 90, and the notice period. Our guide on how to choose a digital marketing agency covers the onboarding that follows.

How many suppliers to invite

Three to five is the useful range. With two, you have no real comparison. With ten, the best suppliers often decline, because their chance of winning no longer justifies a careful response, and your team spends weeks reading. Invite suppliers whose size fits the budget in your RFP, so nobody answers a job that is too small or too large for them.

Writing the scope so prices are comparable

Scope is where most RFPs fail. "Manage our paid media" gets prices from 1,500 to 15,000 USD a month, because each supplier imagines a different job. Write scope as outcomes and boundaries instead: which channels, which markets, how many campaigns or pieces of content per month, which reports, which meetings, and what is explicitly outside the scope. Ask every supplier to price that same scope first and to list any recommended extras separately. You then compare like with like, and the extras show you how each supplier thinks.

Handling questions during the RFP

Set one deadline for written questions and answer all of them in a single document sent to every supplier, without naming who asked. This keeps the field level and stops the RFP turning into private sales conversations. If a question reveals a gap in your RFP, correct the document for everyone and, if needed, move the response deadline.

Weighting the scoring sheet for your goal

Default weights rarely fit every company. If the goal is pipeline within one quarter, give the 90 day plan and the team more weight than creative ideas. If the brand is the problem, raise the weight of strategy and creative samples. If the budget is fixed, score price on how much scope it buys, not on which number is lowest. Agree on the weights with the decision makers before the responses arrive, write them into the sheet, and do not change them after you have read the proposals. Changing weights afterwards is the most common way an RFP ends up confirming a choice made in advance.

Budget lines worth asking for separately

Ask suppliers to show the monthly fee for the work, any one time setup cost, tool costs and recommended ad spend as separate lines. Bundled prices hide where the money goes, and separate lines let you compare the work itself across proposals.

Telling unsuccessful suppliers

Send every supplier who answered a short, polite note when you decide, with one or two sentences on why another proposal fit better, such as price, team or approach. It costs ten minutes, keeps the door open if the chosen supplier does not work out, and makes good suppliers more willing to answer your next RFP. Do not share the winning price or proposal with the others.