Tender and Bidding Copywriting

How do trades and suppliers get a builder contract? I give insights into writing marketing copy so you can build your brand, and to gain more contracts.

Contact me for more info on customized copy solutions for your tender and bidding packages.

We will focus on your tendering and bidding packages because they are grossly underutilized marketing copy. Like taxes, financing, or servicing tools, you can complete it yourself. Below we will work through the process of marketing copywriting with the goal of improving your tendering and bidding packages. Throughout, I reference Ian Laurie training. He is a “marketing nerd”, an accomplished writer, and the founder of portent.com. Ian Lurie’s LinkedIn Learning course, Learning to Write Marketing Copy.

“Marketing copy is the first product a customer buys” 

”Lurie, I. (2020). Learning to Write Marketing Copy. LinkedIn Learning.

Overview of Marketing Copywriting

Like marketing (Lurie, 2020), your business must provide a value to the builder when they need it most. Your tenders packages are not an exception. Your packages are more that a spreadsheet and a scope-of-work (SOW), they also help sell your business (marketing copy). So, if you want to compete on more that just base price you need to sell your value.

Lurie says most people will meet your brand through your marketing. “It’s like a firm handshake to build your reputation . . . Marketing copy is the first product a customer buys”  (Lurie, 2020). Your tendering and biding packages are marketing copy. My friend Dan Basso of, Ossab Construction offers some insight, “I never considered how tender packages could be marketing to the builders.” We approached Dan’s next tender in the steps below.

Excellent marketing copy will:

• Plan ahead.
• Add Value to the Customer.
• Call to action.
• Write and Edit for Clarity.
• Adjust for Print and Non-print.

Writing Copy

I can’t write unless I prepare to write. Which starts with preventing and removing distractions. I do this by escaping to the “office” in my unfinished basement (where no one else likes to be). You could use your truck. Making sure you are not interrupted for at least an hour. Phone, email, and site managers that are social will destroy your concentration. Turn off the phone and send the site manager away. After an hour I need a break, so that’s when I return calls and grab a coffee.

If Twitter is too much temptation. Anna Borges has a 2020 list at self.com of options to help focus that sound more fun than they should be. I am trying https://coffitivity.com/premium.

Plan and timing:

When starting to plan don’t over do it. Use only 30 minutes to plan, and don’t worry about it being too detailed. It will change as you go, so be adaptable. Dan is focusing on a large builder that has a project out for tender.

Dan’s tender is digital with all the pricing being submitted into the builders site. He was required to sign and submit a SOW via email. Digital and physical tender packages will be treated different with how you address the copywriting.

Who is your target customer? Be specific.

Focus on the people that manage the operations; Estimators, Designers, Construction Managers, Operations Managers, Project Managers, Service Managers, and Sales Managers. Dan is focusing on the estimator as primary audience and construction manager as secondary.

Most GM’s, VP’s, and CEO’s will not be developing many NEW trade relations unless they need to. Who are the ones that determine the need? The same managers, I suggested. So focus on the managers.

What would be helpful for them to get from your marketing? (This is usually information)

There is no clear tool to pick what is of value to a builder. Think of why you are writing the carefully choose. Don’t drop a pallet full of statistics and price-lists when you are introducing yourself. Focusing on the estimator, Dan is offering additional scope as package as well as quick turnaround for custom quotes. This is expected to be valuable to the estimator and so should want to call (call to action).

What are all the pieces of marketing you are creating?

Tender and bidding documents are some of the worst copy I’ve seen. Brochures are next in line and have ruined otherwise good introduction meetings. Product descriptions complete the top place and are given to designers, planners, and builder sales. John Hall has a great article on Forbes, on selecting the right medium. Because this is an online tender Dan is focusing on the email as his copy.

Writing

Ian Lurie and Jeff Bollow of FAST Screenplay both explain the value of freewriting as a way to overcome writes block.

Freewriting is a technique to start developing an idea. The strategy is to write all your thoughts. Sustain this for ~ 5-10 minutes, then take a break. When you return from your break and have wipe the paint off your hand, review your notes and highlight the ideas or words or thoughts you like. You will build off the ones you want. My freewriting looks like chaos on a page.

First draft writing is done easier by working from the inside out. If you know what the value is, to the builder, start with that. Dan provided me with his standard email he would send with some ideas that we developed. This allowed me to focus on the key points inside the email. I then turned to the beginning, then the end, and last the subject line. Through this process We captured some great ideas that will not work for this copy but could be used for others.

When Copywriting follow George Orwell’s (n.d.) and Lurie’s (2020) advice below:

Call to Action

All your marketing needs to have a call to action. The call to action is the way your marketing pays you. Imagine you get a billboard, and you have a great ad; it’s eye-catching and tells customers they get a free tablet. Wow! You would have everyone coming to you. Well, maybe not if you don’t have a call to action like “visit us to” or “turn here to,” etc.

All copy should have a call to action that is clear. Dan and I used the simple request of “call me for details” in his email. This matches Dan’s goal to develop a relationship that’s beyond price.

Eddith, Eddit, Edit

Nothing will break the fragile trust you are building faster than poorly written marketing. Bad marketing is careless, like leaving a job half completed. It shows a lack of detail and care. I’ve received documents with obvious spelling errors, grammatical issues, math issues. I doubted the information it was trying to say. Grammarly is my favourite first editor. Next, I ask my best friend (English teacher) and my wife (elementary teacher).

Headline

Only write your headline AFTER you have written the copy.

Writing the headline last will ensure that it describes your writing and not the other way around. It’s not a tag line, but something that accurately describes your copy. Using Dan’s sample if his email subject line (headline) said “Read more if you want happy customers, while still making money and having time with your family.” It could be a great headline. Only if they will find that information. It’s a terrible headline if Dan’s email only provides a price, number for a cleaner, and a link to HowToGetHappyCustomers.com.

Write a lot of headlines so you have choices, and then you can test them.

Lurie’s Headline writing rules:

Testing

Pick the headlines you like and test them. Lurie suggests paid advertising to accomplish this. Google surveys, Google AdWords, or Facebook ads. The idea is to pick 2 or 3 and find out what one gets better results. A free way is to use email by dividing your email list into two and then sending half one headline in the subject line and half the other. Track the rate the emails are “read”.

Writing for Various Media

Your Facebook posts, brochures, and website need to have different copywriting. They have some key differences. Typography is selecting the layout font style and size etc. just like architects and designers do for buildings. This is its own specialty so following Lurie’s advice:

• Max 6 lines long for paragraphs.
• Max 13 words per line.
• Max 3 paragraphs before a break image or sub-heading
• Lists should be lists with bullets’ or #’s

Online is editable, testable, and can have the most extensive reach. It lacks context and needs to pass a blank sheet of paper test.

Simple rules for Online

• Simplify for clarity.
  • Blank sheet of paper test.
  • Use bullets or lists.
  • Link only when useful.

*Social media target 80% non-promo 20% promo

Print covers everything else and is permanent. Once you send it out, you cannot edit it. It’s difficult to take out of context.

Simple rules for Print

• EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. It’s permanent!
• Call to action early
• Let images dominate

Pro-Tips

Add an Editorial Calendar and content schedule to your plan. Just like your schedule or business plan, the further ahead you plan, the better you will be. Professional marketing companies prepare a year in advance. Vertex42.com has a tremendous excel template use it for year-long planning. If you are focusing on your social media game. In that case, Hootsuite is a premium content schedule program that will help you plan and schedule multiple platforms. They have a free 30-day trial

Monitor performance: Knowing what works, or more specifically, what didn’t, you can adjust. Continuing with the roofing company example. If you write a social media ad that calls townhouse a unit and the click-through-rate is low, you can adjust to home or house. If the click-through-rate improves, you learned that your customers don’t like their houses being called a unit.

Keep everything. I have to admit. I keep almost everything. If you have notes, copy, or results, save them to refer to them later. You might have an idea that fits something you wrote down a year ago. I cannot count how many times I have looked back at past work to remember a phrase I liked. Dan and I kept all our notes and highlighted some exciting phrases. The title should be clear when keeping things: Ideas for email tender package targeting large builder.

Conclusion

Copywriting requires effort to be great, but everyone can do it following Lurie’s teaching.

Steps for good Copywriting:

• Plan ahead.
• Add Value to the Customer.
• Call to action.
• Write and Edit for Clarity.
• Adjust Approach for Print and Non-print.

You can write excellent copy too. I have seen terrible copy used when meeting a company or through bidding and tendering. I challenge you to improve your brochure or tender package by following Lurie’s advice above. Once you do, share in the comments below. Let me know what parts worked and what areas didn’t.

Contact me to talk about copywriting or Connect on LinkedIn: Real LaFrance

Readability: Grade 5.

Keywords: Bidding and tendering, bidding

References

Borges, A. (2020, September 28). 11 Apps, Websites, and Extensions That Will Help You Focus. Self. https://www.self.com/story/apps-for-focus

Hall, J. (2014, April 20). How to Choose the Right Medium for Your Message. Forbes Magazine, https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhall/2014/04/20/how-to-choose-the-right-medium-for-your-message/?sh=331d111f2932  

Hannah, J. (2020). What Is Typography, and Why is it Important? A Beginner’s Guide. Career Foundry. https://careerfoundry.com/en/blog/ui-design/beginners-guide-to-typography/#:~:text=In%20essence%2C%20typography%20is%20the,emotions%20and%20convey%20specific%20messages.

Lurie, I. (2020). Learning to Write Marketing Copy. LinkedIn Learning. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-to-write-marketing-copy/writing-copy-for-a-product-description?u=2109516

Lurie, I. (2016, March 28). 14 Little Things to Make Your Content Better. Portent. https://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/15-little-things-make-blog-post-content-better.htm

Orwell, G. (1946/n.d.). Politics and the English Language. Queens University. https://www.queensu.ca/academia/leuprecht/sites/webpublish.queensu.ca.acadleupwww/files/files/Writing%20Tips/writingOrwell.pdf

Peterson, S. (2019, June 30). 51 Headline Formulas To Skyrocket Conversions (And Where To Use Them). Sumo. https://sumo.com/stories/headline-formulas

Vertex42. (2020, May 5). Content Calendar Template. Vertex42. https://www.vertex42.com/calendars/content-calendar.html

Image credits

[Planning] Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

[Kid yelling] Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

[Pointing to paper] Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

[Desk] Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

[Suit] Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash

[Practice Makes Perfect] Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash