Intelligent Design: 5 Tips to Ensure You Never Lose Your Reader

Key Points

• An easily navigable document creates a buying atmosphere
• Use navigational elements to tell the reader "You Are Here"
• Ensure easy PDF navigation with bookmarks and hyperlinks

"You Are Here" - three words that turn a sprawling city map into your best friend. Writers of successful tenders know that making documents easy to navigate puts the prospect at ease and creates a positive buying atmosphere.

Tender responses are rarely read cover to cover like a novel. In fact, often a revolving cast of Subject Matter Experts read only the parts relevant to them. Leaving a team of reviewers to stumble around the structure of a complex document is tender suicide!

However, if you make your document easy to navigate, the reader can concentrate on the quality of the offer. And, it will suggest to them that beyond the printed page, your company is mindful of their needs and easy to work with.

Thankfully, making a document navigable isn't rocket science. Here are our top five tips to ensure you never lose your reader:

1. Include Consistent, Accurate Page Numbers

This may sound obvious, but a frightening number of submissions fail here. One submission we reviewed had a large table of contents, but no page numbers: it meant that the reviewers had to count or flick pages to find what they were looking for. Unsurprisingly, the bid was unsuccessful.

With the reviewer relaxed, your proposal can convince and persuade without distraction.

Adding an updating current page number is very easy in a Word Processor or page layout application. When you do add them, make sure that it is placed within the printable margins of the page and that it works even for large numbers, if your submission is sizable.

If your document is to be submitted in PDF format, always check that the page numbers appearing on the pages match the electronic PDF pages - a mismatch between the two is very frustrating.

2. Provide a Table of Contents and/or Document Bookmarks

A Table of Contents (or TOC) may well be the most-read page of your submission, and is often invaluable to a review team. A TOC is used like a master map to find content of interest, so it must be accurate and helpful.

The size and complexity of the response will determine whether to simply use Parts and Chapters, or to break the TOC down further into Headings and Subheadings. Usually, it's best practice to mimic the structure of the Request for Tender / Proposal (RFT/RFP).

For PDF submissions, providing a full set of nested 'bookmarks' is a great idea. It allows reviewers to quickly navigate around the document with a few clicks. Adobe Acrobat Professional lets you customise the PDF so that the bookmark pane is available to the reviewer at all times.

Of course, it's sensible to double-check the accuracy of the TOC and bookmark links just before final submission.

3. Use Dynamic Headers, Footers and Margins

Headers and footers are valuable page 'furniture' which appear throughout your document. You can use them to provide essential 'You Are Here' information to the reader. The following example shows a submission with the RFT/RFP Reference and current section / chapter visible at all times:

You can easily create dynamic labels which automatically update like these using a professional page layout program like Adobe InDesign.

4. Create Document Hyperlinks

If your submission document will be read electronically, hyperlinks are a must. These allow the reader to flick quickly between sections, references and related content with ease. If a table or reference page is referred to frequently, consider adding a "Back" button to the page to allow the reader to easily return to wherever they were prior to the link.

Naturally, as with all elements of your document, it is important to double-check all of the links prior to submission.

5. Include a 'How to Read This Document' Page

We've yet to encounter a submission that hasn't been lifted by the inclusion of this page. Providing a short instructional paragraph or two on the structure of the document and its navigational features is like putting out a welcome mat for the reviewer as they enter the world of your response.

As someone familiar with the document, creating a page like this will take you very little time and effort, but can make all the difference to a reviewer. Not only will they feel at ease, it demonstrates that even at this early stage, your company has their needs foremost in mind.

Ensuring that your reader doesn't get lost is as easy as using the simple navigational techniques detailed above. And with the reviewer relaxed, your proposal can convince and persuade without distraction.

Matt Milgrom is a principal consultant for Tender Success and has  helped a brace of Australian organisations develop persuasive, reader-friendly tender submissions.

Contact Tender Success to ensure your next response is a success.