Do Your Strategy Proposals Have Ghost Deliverables?

What are the ghost deliverables in your proposals? 

You know, the value you provide as a freelance content strategist that you haven’t included in a proposal (or priced in your fee). 

A ghost deliverable is a service or offering that doesn’t show up in your proposal’s scope of work. But it’s value you provide nonetheless. 

Not including these deliverables leaves a missed opportunity for your client to see ALL you help them with. It also leaves money on the table that could be yours. 

DIscovering my biggest ghost deliverable was a major ah-ha. 

It was my first year of working independently. 

I was doing so much research to inform the content strategies I presented. But clients only saw the content strategy deck at my presentation.

They didn’t know the thought that had gone into it.

I didn’t mention any research in my proposals — and didn’t charge for it either. I didn’t share any research with my clients. And I didn’t workshop learnings with my clients. 

But here’s the kicker. I still did the research. I still workshopped the learnings with myself. 

I still provided the client with research-based thinking. They just didn’t know it — or pay for it. 

All the research that goes into building a content strategy is part of the deliverable. 

Once I included research in my proposals, my clients were much happier. They saw what was informing my strategies. They trusted the strategy more, as a result. 

And I earned about 3x more for my strategies too. 

I hope you learn this lesson sooner than I did 🙃

For reference, here is a high-level overview of a content strategy project I often offer to clients. 

If you’d like the full list of deliverables I include — and price against — then check out my content strategy toolkits. Or, subscribe to my free email course on content strategy.