3 Keys to Effective B2B Website Redesign RFPs

White Horse | Whitepaper
3 Keys to Effective B2B Website Redesign RFPs A practical approach to RFP development and sample template By: Eric Anderson
WHITE HORSE 877.471.4200 www.whitehorse.com
Why Your Site Redesign RFP Approach Matters A recent report by research firm Outsell projected that B2B companies will spend $26 billion on website redesigns in 2010 - a significant uptick that reflects both the increased role of the Web in B2B marketing, as well as the need to upgrade features and functionality on badly dated sites. A good chunk of that $26 billion will be wasted before the first project meeting, as a result of poorly run RFP processes. Because B2B marketers engage agencies less frequently than their B2C counterparts, they often struggle with framing their needs for agencies in an RFP. As a B2B-specialized digital agency, White Horse has a vested interest in helping to solve this problem. White Horse principal and B2B strategist Jen Modarelli has written extensively about RFP best practices on her Ad Age blog, found here. And now for the first time, we've culled through the best of the B2B RFPs we've received over the years to develop an RFP template with the simple goal of helping B2B marketers get better responses from agencies. This whitepaper offers three tips and a proven template for RFP development that will lead to stronger results. B2Bs marketers can Ask only for what you'll use. save organizations We are in the era of the epic-length RFP, but asking agencies to time and money by exhaustively catalog their capabilities and case studies creates a mirrored problem: agencies are less able to highlight what following three basic they do best, and marketers are less able to glean what agencies do best from the morass of material. guidelines to RFP development. Set the stage. If you're not willing to share your business goals and pain points, you're not ready to talk to agencies. RFPs that describe functional needs without framing the business challenges are going to get boilerplate content back, and that process tells you nothing about how an agency really thinks. You can always ask agencies to sign a mutual non-disclosure before receiving an RFP, and they'll abide by it. It's what they do. Know your scope. The biggest obstacle to getting apples-to-apples bids back from agencies is the inevitable who-does-what confusion. Draw clear lines around whether your team or the agency's will create content, develop brand assets, conduct the technical implementation, performQA, etc. Do not user your RFP process as a tool for exploring these questions. You'll end up with apples-to-oranges, guaranteed. When in doubt, ask for the widest potential scope, find the right agency, and then work with them to get to the right place. We hope you'll find the sample RFP template useful. And, if you have any questions, email us at contactus@whitehorse.com. Whitepaper: 3 Keys to Effective B2B Website Redesign RFPs White Horse
WHITE HORSE 877.471.4200 www.whitehorse.com REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL [Client] [Date]
Summary [CLIENT] is accepting proposals to [very brief statement of redesign's scope and business goals]. The purpose of this RFP is to provide a fair evaluation for all candidates and to provide the candidates with the evaluation criteria against which they will be judged. The current [CLIENT] Web site is [brief background on site] [CLIENT] Background Our History [Brief organizational history] What We Do [Description of mission and services] Current Site Statistics and Key Applications [Description of site volume, proportion of business, and multi-channel function. Description of key interactive components of current site.] [Describe the site's role in lead generation and/or sales support. Specify current role vs. future, if applicable.] Purpose, description and objectives Purpose [Describe reasons for redesign in as much detail as possible, based on current pain points.] Description [Briefly describe intended agency engagement - what the client will do, and what the agency is expected to do. This may be high-level, as further detail is provided under Scope.] Objective Business goals to be achieved by the project, listed as bullet points SCOPE AND GUIDELINES Scope [This section provides the basis for the agency's bid, so it must b... [download for more]