How to Win Contracts 101: Building a Content Library
Many businesses struggle to identify how to win contracts or how to win more tenders. While there’s no one perfect answer, winning a tender can be easier than you think.
The best way to start is by getting ahead of the game. How? By building a bid content library.
Which is what, exactly?
We always use this analogy: think of a bid library like a pantry in your kitchen. If you bake a lot, having a well-stocked pantry means you don’t have to run to the store every time you want to make a Red Velvet. You already have the ingredients you need.
A bid content library works the same way. It’s a digital space where you keep everything you need to submit a bid.
Why does it matter?
Tender deadlines are getting shorter. You might only have 4 weeks to put your bid together, if you’re lucky. That means you must write your responses, price the work, and fill out the compliance section. If you don’t have a bid library, you’ll have to gather all the documents quickly, too.
By keeping everything organised and in one place, you give yourself a head start.
In this article, we’ll explain:
- What a content library is
- How it helps you win tenders
- How to create it and keep it updated
What is a bid content library?
A content library (also called a bid library or knowledge base) is a place where you keep important information and documents that you often use when writing bids.
Think of it like a well-organised filing cabinet, but online. It holds things like templates, answers to common questions, company policies, and case studies.
Specifically, you will find things like:
- Case studies
- Company charts (Organigram)
- Marketing materials
- Past responses to bids
- Pricing lists
- Service lists
- Staff CVs
- Training records
- Proof of accreditations (ISO, CHAS)
- Legal, insurance, and financial documents
- Company registration info
- Answers to common questions
- Standard policies and procedures (health and safety, quality management, environmental, social value, staff training)
Winning a tender often comes down to being well-organised. When done right, your content library helps you quickly find and reuse important documents, making it easier to write future bids.
The benefits of a well-built bid library
Without a good bid library, you’re wasting time, money, and energy every time a new tender comes in. Here’s what a well-organized content library can do for you:
- Save a scary amount of time
Typically, it takes 12 to 15 days to complete a tender from scratch. This can be shorter or longer, depending on the complexity and length of the tender. But with a good content library, you don’t have to start from zero each time. Instead, you can use past answers and documents to speed things up.
This can cut your bid writing time down to 5 to 8 days. That saves at least 4 full workdays per bid. Over the course of the year, that adds up to weeks of saved time.
You can use that time to work on other tasks or take a break.
- Cut Costs on External Consultants
If you hire outside help from a bid writer, you pay them by the hour or project. Without a content library, they’ll waste time collecting info and writing from scratch, which you’re paying for.
But with a well-organised library, they can get straight to work. For example, if you usually pay £5,000 for consultant help per bid, cutting your time in half could save you £2,000 or more each time.
- Boost team morale
Ever had a team member frantically searching emails for that one policy document or trying to recall how you answered a compliance question last time? A content library stops all that chaos.
With everything stored in one place, your team will:
- Avoid duplicated effort → no more writing the same answers from scratch.
- Communicate faster → no more endless email chains asking, “Do we have this document somewhere?”
- Submit stronger bids → because everyone is working from consistent, approved content, instead of rushed last-minute answers.
- Improve Quality and Consistency Across All Bids
When you’re considering how to win contracts, your priority should be to present your business in the best possible light. A strong content library means:
- Your answers are refined, tried and tested (with past scoring data to prove it)
- Your branding, messaging, and evidence are consistent across all submissions
- You can polish your bid strategy by focusing on tailoring responses, rather than just getting the basics down in time
- Free Up Your Time to Focus on What You’re Good At
If you’re spending several days gathering information for each bid, that’s time you could have been spending on networking, business growth, client relationships, or strategic planning: you’re just firefighting.
A content library puts you back in control, making the bidding process faster, smoother, and far less stressful.
How to build and maintain a content library
Don’t get us wrong, it takes careful planning and effort upfront. But the benefits will more than make up for the initial investment. Here are the key steps to create one:
- Gather Your Existing Content
The first step is to take stock of the documents and information you already have. Review past tender submissions, marketing materials, project case studies, and any other resources that may be useful in future bids.
You’ll want to focus on collecting content that tends to be repeated across multiple tenders, such as:
- Company introductions and executive summaries,
- Policies,
- Social value statements,
- Answers to frequently asked questions in tenders.
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Pro tip: Start with content that received good feedback in past bids, and avoid using anything that got low scores until it’s been checked and improved. |
- Organise and Categorise Your Content
After collecting your content, organise it in a way that’s easy to navigate. Use categories, tags, and folders so your team can quickly find what they need. For example, you could set up sections like:
- Policies and Certifications: Health and safety, environmental policies, equality and diversity
- Project Case Studies: Sorted by sector, client type, or project size
- Frequently Used Answers: Reusable content for common tender questions, like quality assurance and customer satisfaction
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Pro tip: Gather your proposal team and decide the best way to organise the folders and subfolders. Keep it simple and logical so everyone can find what they need easily. In addition, create a template of the structure to help new team members or outside resources get up to speed quickly. |
- Keep It Updated, Regularly
A content library is only helpful if it stays up to date, just like your baking pantry. If it features outdated content, you risk ruining the bid you’ve worked hard on (like ruining your cake). Make it a habit to review and update your library after each submission to keep it current with your company’s latest achievements, certifications, and lessons learned.
If keeping the library updated feels overwhelming, especially with your busy schedule, it’s a smart and efficient move to reach out to experienced bid managers. For example… Us!
The bad news and the good news
We’ve got bad news and good news. The bad news is that creating, organising, and upkeeping your bid library is a time-consuming task.
When you’re trying to manage the day-to-day business, respond to tenders, and carve out time for your personal life, it can border on impossible.
The good news is that we are uniquely aware of the challenges SMEs face when writing bids, submitting tenders, and wrestling with strategies on how to win more contracts.
As a result, we offer to manage the entire process for you.
Here’s what our experts will do:
- Conduct a content audit to identify gaps and opportunities
- Organise your content in a user-friendly structure
- Develop any missing content
- Create high-quality templates and reusable answers
- Regularly update your bid library, should you need us to
For this service, you can expect to pay a one-time fee of around £5,000. That will include our full end-to-end support and creation of any documents you need.
If you have existing material with only a few gaps, the price will be considerably cheaper. We’ll assess and tailor a quote for each business’ needs.
Key takeaways
A content library is more than just a collection of documents, it’s a strategic resource that makes the difference between submitting a rushed proposal and winning a tender. By organising your team and documents ahead of writing the bid, you give yourself the best chance of writing winning responses.
If you would like any more information on what’s included in our bid library creation package, contact us to organise a call.
