How to write a perfect marketing contract

Business contracts are one of the most important elements in business relationships. They are the lifeblood of every successful business. Contracts bring clarity and transparency to your processes.

Business contracts can help strengthen your business partnerships. They can also help you build a better reputation, and ensure stable growth of your business. Also, they can help you protect your interests in an adequate way.

Yet not all business contracts are created equally. They need to protect the interests of both sides, set the stakes and expectations, and protect your rights. Contracts require pure perfection and nothing less than that. 

If you are working without any signed contract, your client probably won’t take you seriously and if there was any foul play it will be hard to prove. 

The importance of contracts in the digital marketing industry

Contracts play an important role in the world of digital marketing as well. If you are an aspiring company that is trying to find the best way to promote your digital marketing services, start with a perfect marketing contract template that will represent the foundation of your business. 

Since the competition can be very harsh, it is important what you are offering to your clients. Digital marketing consists of many different branches. 

Sometimes it is hard for clients to understand what you have to offer. Is it the increase in the organic visits to their website? Increased number of followers? More calls? Clients need to understand what you are offering, how the project timeline would look like, and what will they get in the end. 

If you are looking for a way to create a perfect marketing contract that will help you move your business to a whole different level, you came to the right place. 

Digital marketing contacts defined

To get your perfect digital marketing contact ready, first, you need to think about the basics. If you never got a chance to create a contract - we are happy to inform you that it is not rocket science. 

Contracts are binding agreements for the specified services you are offering. Both parties agree to the terms of the contract. For example - your client wants to get more leads and they want to run a 6-month campaign on social media. You agree on a budget for posts and on a fixed price. 

Some important elements every digital marketing contract need to contain in order to be enforceable by the law are:

• A detailed description of your offer. There are two sides  ‘’the offeror’’ and ‘’the offeree’’.There needs to be a willingness from another party to accept the offer. 
• Acceptance: ‘’The offeree’’’ accepted the terms and conditions of the proposal.
• Reaching a mutual agreement - both sides need to meet in the middle and reach a mutual agreement. 
• Consideration - the mutual exchange of goods mentioned in the contract.
• The contract needs to be inside the legal framework. 
• All parties need to have a legal capacity to enter the contract. Different rules apply to minors, mentally incompetent individuals, or individuals under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
• Payment details and payment options are also included.
• A complete timeline of your project, with all stages and the end date.
• Terms, conditions, and information about termination of the contract

Most important elements of a perfect marketing contract

So, it is time for you to sit down and turn all this information from above into something tangible. 

Start with the following:

Names and the contact addresses

It is good to start with the most basic information. You need to gather all the important info about all parties included in the contract. Double-check all the information about all sides before signing. 

Marketing timeline

In order for the contract to be enforced -  it needs to have a start date and an end date. Here you will give a detailed explanation of your contract, the scope of your project, deliverables, milestones, and a complete timeline. When the end date arrives - you will hand in all the results of your work in exchange for the final payment. 

Obligations of the parties

You need to address the obligations of both sides of the contract. For a pitch-perfect marketing contract, you need to be exact about your expectations and which obligations both sides need to undertake. 

Ownership of the important assets

In digital marketing, it is all about establishing trust with your client. For example - you will be advertising on the behalf of your client for several months. It will help with increasing the levels of trust if you list all the assets you’ll be using. That will help with increased trust and there will be no unpleasant surprises for your client.

Payment options

Both sides need to agree on payment terms. A marketing contract needs to contain a fixed amount that you will be paid. Payments can be made at the end of the month, after an important milestone, or at the end of the contract. It is also important to agree on the penalties if one party decides to violate the rules mentioned in the contract.

Protecting sensitive information

In your marketing contract, you will need to cover how you will handle working with sensitive information. Your client might request confidentiality, protection of intellectual property, protection of their trading secrets, or protecting the sensitive data about their employees or clients. 

Contract termination

As we mentioned, all contracts need to have the beginning and the end. Yet, sometimes things simply don’t go as planned, and sometimes clients just decide to terminate the existing contract. This leaves the other party in a sort of limbo. So a perfect marketing contract needs to be there to protect you from behaviors like this. 

In order for this to work you need to include the following information:

• How much notice you expect your clients to give you.
• The notice needs to be in written form so it can be traced.
• What will happen with your work in progress? 

Conclusion

Writing a perfect marketing contract is a very challenging process but it can benefit you in numerous ways.

With a perfect contract you are setting the rules, you are showing that you can be trusted and that you indeed want only the best for you and your clients as well.

With Plutio, you can set all your worries to rest because we can offer you contract templates that will fit your industry perfectly. Check out our templates and automate your contract management, no matter if it is time for signing a brand new contract or a renewal of the old one!