How do you build an AI proposal workflow for your marketing agency?

Proposals keep coming back to your desk. Every new prospect means another discovery call written up, another diagnosis, another scope and price typed out from a template that never quite fits. You want the first draft done faster, without sending a client something that misstates your own numbers.

You build an AI proposal workflow by writing your proposal's five inputs, context, task, source, rules and output, once, then running each new prospect's discovery notes through them and checking the draft against the source material you supplied.

We help your team agree on the source material, instructions and review process for a repeated task. We help you build and test a workflow you can use again.

Key takeaways

• A proposal repeats the same shape for every prospect: the discovery notes, the diagnosis, the recommended approach, the scope and the price. 1 That shape can run as a structured, automated sequence of tasks with AI tools built into it, rather than being rewritten each time. 2 In our own business, Searchmaxxed, we built AI workflows for creating blog posts, doing SEO and preparing custom proposals.
• Proposals sit among the five workflows to automate first at a marketing agency, alongside reporting, content, research and lead research. 3 Time saved varies by team, but each of these can save several hours of work per week. 4
• The workflow is built from five inputs: Context, Task, Source, Rules and Output.
• Every draft is checked against the notes, prices and figures your agency supplied before it reaches the client.
• The next step is four hours on one repeated business task, where you keep the instructions and the example you tested.

What is an AI proposal workflow for a marketing agency?

An AI proposal workflow is a structured, automated sequence of tasks with AI tools built into it, aimed at a specific marketing objective. 2 For an agency, that objective is a proposal a prospect can read.

The proposal is a shape you repeat for every prospect: the discovery notes, the diagnosis, the recommended approach, the scope and the price. 1 Because the shape holds, you can write the instructions once and feed each new prospect's notes through them.

We teach business owners and teams how to use AI on the work their business repeats. In our own business, Searchmaxxed, we built AI workflows for creating blog posts, doing SEO and preparing custom proposals.

Why should proposals be one of the first workflows your agency automates?

Because proposals sit in the top five. The five workflows worth automating first at a marketing agency are client reporting, content creation and repurposing, research and briefs, proposals, and lead research. 5 Roughly in that order. 3

Time saved varies by team, but each of these can save several hours of work per week. 4 Running even two or three of them consistently can hand back ten or more hours to your team. 6

Your business task determines the training example. If your proposal process includes several stages, choose the drafting step first. You can build the instructions for that step without connecting every system in your agency.

How do you turn your proposal into a five-input prompt?

You write the five inputs: Context, Task, Source, Rules and Output.

• Context describes the business, customer and situation. For a proposal, that is your agency, the prospect and where they sit in your pipeline.
• Task names the job the AI assistant needs to do. Turn the discovery notes into a draft proposal.
• Source supplies the notes, documents or approved facts for that job.
• Rules set the limits and identify missing information to flag.
• Output describes the format and information the finished draft needs to contain.

The five inputs describe the job and give you a basis for checking the draft. Write them before adding your source material. Once they are written, a new prospect only changes the source.

Which source material does the proposal workflow need from you?

The notes, documents and approved facts your agency already holds. Source supplies the notes, documents or approved facts for that job, so for a proposal that means the discovery call notes, your service descriptions, your scope wording and your price list.

We build training around your business tasks, source material and the output you need. A service business preparing a quote works the same way: supply the site notes, the measurements and the attached price list, tell the assistant to use only those, itemise labour and materials, keep the supplied prices unchanged, flag missing information, and return a scope summary, an itemised table, a total including GST and questions for you to check.

An agency proposal swaps site notes for discovery notes and measurements for scope. The rule about prices does not change.

How do you tailor each proposal to the prospect without rewriting it?

You change the source, not the instructions. The context, task, rules and output stay put, and each prospect's discovery notes go in fresh.

Personalisation is not optional; 96% of marketers believe tailoring content boosts sales, yet creating bespoke messages for each segment can be a massive time sink. 7 Instead of writing each version from scratch and flipping through persona documents, you spend roughly thirty minutes refining a prompt and editing the outputs. 8 AI can create personalised content, offers and timing for your communications based on how customers act, including their preferences and prior interactions with your business. 9

The tailoring comes from the prospect's own words in your notes. That is why the source rule matters more than any instruction about tone.

What should the finished proposal look like when it reaches the client?

Whatever your Output input says it should. Output describes the format and information the finished draft needs to contain, so name the sections, the tables and the figures you expect back.

You are no longer limited to a clunky slide deck or a PDF. With AI you can turn the same content into a polished, interactive web page that the client clicks through from the first impression on. 10 Humble&Brag now send proposals as branded web pages rather than decks, and building that page is a job AI handles in minutes. 11

Decide the format before you build the workflow. The output format changes what you ask the assistant to produce.

How do you check an AI proposal draft before it goes out?

Against the information your business supplied. You check the output against the information your business supplied, every time, before the prospect sees it.

Compare names, dates, figures and claims with your source. Recalculate totals. Check that the draft answers the request and stays within your scope. The person responsible for the work approves the final version. Keep supplied prices unchanged and flag missing information.

Participants test the workflow on a safe example and check the result against their source material. What you learn in that check goes back into the rules. The feedback loop that sits inside an AI marketing workflow keeps updating and improving the content you produce. 12

Which other agency workflows fit around the proposal one?

Reporting, content, research and lead research. They use the same five inputs with different source material.

For research and briefs, AI can analyse large volumes of data, from top searches to competitors' content to viewers' tastes and preferences, to identify emerging content angles and suggest SEO keywords. 13 For content, natural language processing models generate any type of text-based content, from social media updates and website content to email drafts and full article-length content. 14 Repurposing that content across platforms might take a content marketer two to three hours by hand and minutes with AI. 15 More than half of small business owners who use AI to repurpose content save several hours per week on marketing work. 16

For lead research, AI can analyse complex segmentation data and suggest which leads or customers fit which persona, which saves marketing ops time on list prep. 17 After content is live, AI can measure its performance and show where it needs work on readability, engagement and SEO performance. 18

How do you get your whole team running the same proposal workflow?

You build the workflow together and agree on review rules. One person's private prompt does not scale to an agency; a written workflow your team runs the same way does.

We bring private AI training to your workplace. We scope private training around your team's tasks, experience and location. Private sessions are scoped for roughly 4–20 people, and larger teams can be split across sessions.

We helped automate Radiant Roof Repairs' internal processes using AI. We used AI to automate SEO, enquiries and admin for Glen House Homoeopathy. The pattern is the same across industries: agree on the source material, write the instructions, agree who checks the draft.

Where can your agency build this workflow with hands-on help?

At our public Sunshine Coast workshop, or at your own workplace through private training. The public workshop gives you four hours to work on one repeated business task. You build on your own laptop with hands-on help, and you keep the instructions and the example you tested during the session.

Private onsite AI training is available on the Sunshine Coast and in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Noosa, Moreton Bay, Logan, Redlands, Toowoomba and Gympie. Sunshine Coast onsite training covers Maroochydore, Caloundra, Mooloolaba, Buderim, Birtinya, Nambour and Coolum. You can also travel to the Sunshine Coast for our public workshop.

After your enquiry, we discuss your team's tasks, location and experience. We agree on the training scope and prepare a fixed quote. Team size, session length and travel determine the price.

Frequently asked questions