Video Production proposal template

A video production proposal template that lands you clients

If you want to win more video production projects, you need to wow them with your proposal. Here’s how to do it.

If you work in Video Production then you know that a competitive quote is not enough. You need to build trust in your skills and highlight the true value of your videos. It’s easy to promise story boards, post-production effects and 4k resolution but how do you convey this value before they sign on the dotted line?

With a compelling proposal that shows you understand your client needs and goals.

You’ll need to show you’ve understood the brief while showcasing your unique skills and talent. Whether you are a freelance videographer or a video production agency your pipeline is precious and you need to make every proposal count.

Use our template as a starting point but to reel in clients you’ll need to personalize it by adding your own clips & case studies. And this couldn’t be easier with Nusii. You can create and add new custom content at ease. Embed videos, add images and bring your proposal to life. You can also track when it's been opened and get sign off with an e-signature. That’s the Nusii way! So ditch the Word doc and send that next proposal online with our proposal templates.

How to create a Video Production Proposal from a template

Video is experiencing a golden era with many social media algorithms now favoring video over images, brands have been scrambling to produce more video. A lot of those brands need a little help and that’s where you step in.

If you are reading this you probably regularly send proposals for video production or at least are planning to. What we’re here to help you with is actually winning that proposal. If you just want to see the template click on the button above. If you actually want to customize it and learn how to maximize your chances of winning another video production gig, please read on! We’ll walk you through it in 7 easy steps:

1. Cover & title

Well you work with audiovisuals so we don’t need to tell you how important quality images are. The cover of your proposal template is no exception. Make sure you choose a strong, clean image that captures the essence of your services but also aligns with what the client might be expecting.

As for the title, it shouldn’t be too long or complicated. Our research suggests being to the point is much better especially if the client will be sharing the proposal with other colleagues. Your cover page image and title should set the scene and look very professional. It shouldn’t be confusing or difficult to process.

For this reason simple (but high quality) images and concise text works best.

2. Problem & goals

Okay, that was easy.

Now we start the proposal itself and you’ll need to begin with a statement of the problems you are aiming to address and the goals of your proposal. By problems we refer to the issues the client is trying to address whether that is a lack of in-house production capacity or the need to improve the performance of marketing assets. You can call this a statement of needs, if you prefer.

The best way to approach this is just to state succinctly what the needs are as they have been reported to you by the client in your conversations. If you didn’t have a conversation yet, we strongly suggest you go back and have a chat with the client before preparing a proposal. Asking the right questions to discover what they truly need and value is essential to producing a strong proposal.

Once you have them locked down you will also need to state the goals of the proposal. These should align with the problems or needs. What we’re doing here is saying, we’ve identified problems X, Y & Z and we aim to achieve goals A, B & C.

Let’s a do a quick example:

Problem: “The client requires cinema-like quality production for a brand teaser but does not want to invest in the technical equipment themselves”

Goal: “Shoot and deliver a done-for-you cinematic brand video complete with post-production”

Notice how the goal is the answer to the problem. Your client will feel you have both understood them and also have the solution to their needs. They are already liking you!

3. Proposed solution

This is the core part of any proposal and it’s where you will detail exactly what your service entails. That doesn’t mean you list a huge amount of tasks that you will undertake. Doing this will lean the client towards itemising the tasks and trying to put a value on individual lines such as storyboarding or subtitling. This is not what you want, you are worth more than a sum of tasks.

What you should do instead is to convey the value you bring. Highlight your experience with similar projects and speak with authority. Make sure your client knows that your crew is well-versed in these kinds of projects, that your equipment is state of the art and that you know how to source actors, backdrops or whatever else you will be needing.

If you have your own studios or post-production facilities this can be a differentiator and it should be mentioned to help build confidence in your ability to execute high-quality video.

Finally, be sure to talk about your process. This is another way to convey your professionalism. Every pro-videographer has a process and being able to clearly define it shows you are the real deal.

Remember throughout that you are selling your value to their brand as an experienced video production team. Stay focused on this and avoid being too salesy.

4. Scope

Video production in particular is something that can suffer from scope creep and costs can quickly spiral out of control if expectations have not been correctly set. That’s why we always recommend a short section to define the scope.

Are you including script-writing? Do you need to purchase stock footage or will the client provide this? What about the voice over artist? And the overlays? How many revisions are allowed?

You might even want to specify who covers transportation or lunch on the day of the shoot.

5. Benefits

Now that you’ve set expectations, you can state the benefits of working with you. The idea here is to get the client to see the value you’ll bring with extreme clarity. Don’t forget what their stated needs were and try to explain the benefits with that in mind.

For example if they had mentioned that they lacked expertise you might want to highlight how you are a 360 degree full-service agency with industry leading experts at all steps of the video production process.

Maybe you are specialised in exactly the kind of video that the client needs or maybe you have a track record with other companies in their niche. Don’t be shy to mention the benefit of working with an agency who understands exactly what is needed.

At this point the client should be convinced of your competence, professionalism and ability to execute.

6. Pricing

It’s time for pricing.

You might already have your standardised pricing tables or you might be the kind of agency that tries to gauge what the client budget is and adjust pricing accordingly. What is for sure is that your proposal won’t be the only one to hit the client’s inbox and pricing is an important factor in their final decision.

Pitch too high and you could blow it, too low and you could blow it too!

Our advice here is to adopt optional pricing. What we mean by that is to create, say, 3 packages with 3 different price points for the same proposal and let the client choose which one makes more sense for them.

For example, a lower price point might include fewer actors, fewer revisions, more basic editing or simply a shorter video (e.g. 30 secs instead of 1min). The highest priced package, on the other hand, would be your full service offering and if you’ve done well showing the value you can bring there’s a good chance they’ll pick it.

Optional pricing allows you to charge what you think you are worth while still offering a reduced price in case the budget doesn’t stretch. The best of both worlds!

7. Timeline and cta

The final part of the proposal is the timeline. Your workflow may not be entirely linear but there are certainly dependencies and these need to be clear. Clients can often underestimate the time it takes to undertake certain tasks such as editing or color grading so you should be clear on when they can expect their deliverables.

What we often suggest to our clients is to use the sign-off date as day 0 so that the rest of the dates are XX amount of days after sign-off. This means that there is an added incentive to go ahead and sign the proposal, yay!

Oh, and if you’re using Nusii, you can capture that signature right there in the browser. Awesome, right?