How Creative Nexus won 60% more pitches with interactive proposal portals
This boutique digital agency transformed how they pitch to clients and achieved a 90% client satisfaction score.
About Creative Nexus
Creative Nexus is a 25-person digital agency specializing in brand strategy, web design, and content marketing for mid-market B2B companies. With typical project values of $50K-$150K, winning new business pitches is critical to their growth.
The Challenge
Creative Nexus was creating beautiful PDF pitch decks, but they looked the same as every other agency's proposals. In competitive pitches, they were losing to agencies that presented more engaging, memorable experiences.
The team spent days customizing each proposal, yet prospects would ask the same questions over email because information was buried in 40-page PDFs. This led to lengthy email threads, delayed decisions, and lost momentum.
Most frustratingly, they had no visibility into whether prospects were actually reading their proposals or which team members were involved in the decision.
The Solution
Creative Nexus adopted Nocean to create interactive, branded proposal portals that wowed clients and streamlined their pitch process:
1. Stunning Visual Presentations
Instead of PDFs, they created beautiful web-based portals with video intros, portfolio showcases, interactive timelines, and embedded case studies. Their proposals became experiences.
2. Organized Information Architecture
They structured portals with clear sections: About Us, Our Approach, Team, Pricing, Timeline, and FAQs. Clients could jump to exactly what they needed instead of searching through pages.
3. Proactive FAQ Section
They included comprehensive FAQ sections addressing common questions upfront, reducing back-and-forth emails by 70%.
4. Real-Time Engagement Insights
The team could see which stakeholders viewed the portal, what sections they spent time on, and whether they shared it internally— enabling perfectly timed follow-ups.
The Results
Creative Nexus saw immediate impact on both win rates and client relationships:
Nocean portals have become our secret weapon. Clients tell us our proposals stand out—they're not just reading them, they're experiencing our work before they even hire us. We're winning pitches we would have lost before, and clients are happier because all their questions are already answered.
Key Takeaways
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First impressions matter: Interactive, beautiful portals make agencies stand out in competitive pitches.
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Good IA reduces friction: Organized, navigable proposals reduce client questions and speed up decisions.
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Proactive FAQs save time: Answering questions upfront prevents endless email threads.
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Show, don't just tell: Embedding portfolio work and case studies directly in proposals demonstrates capabilities powerfully.