Managed SMS pricing?

Danielm · 9th Jan 2012, 04:30 PM

Just wondering if anyone wants to share their pricing for managing SMS broadcasts for clients? Do you do it per subscriber or message? Price breaks at X number of messages/month, etc?

I know what MY costs would be, but I don't know what would be considered average/decent pricing for managing text broadcasts and appointment reminder services. I wouldn't want to come in at .05 a message and leave lots of money on the table or do the same and be considered too high and skipped over. For reference I tried contacting a few providers in my area but they seem to want to bundle other services in together and offer things like "unlimited messages" with their services which I have no interest in doing.

Thanks!

MitchKid · 9th Jan 2012, 08:56 PM

This is always tricky, as there are a lot of variables that go into it. The first thing I do when determining price is I try and come up with a ballpark of how many subscribers I think the business will attract (obviously this will fluctuate, so give yourself room for growth. I then multiply the estimated subscribers by 10 (10 messages per month or 2.5 messages per week).

This gives me a rough estimate of the amount of messages that the business will be using per month. I already know what the costs me per message, so I usually just triple that to come up with a rough number of what I should charge the client.

The hardest part with doing it this way is figuring out the amount of subscribers. Somethings you can do to help figure this out is check the business' FB (if they have one) and see how many fans they have. Usually, if they are already promoting stuff on their fb page, you can probably figure at the very least 50% of those people would opt-in a text list. Then, you can ask the owner/manager an approximate number of people that come in per day or week.

Anyway, I hope that wasn't too confusing, but its what generally works for me. Best of luck!

-Andrew

HypeText · 9th Jan 2012, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by MitchKid

This is always tricky, as there are a lot of variables that go into it. The first thing I do when determining price is I try and come up with a ballpark of how many subscribers I think the business will attract (obviously this will fluctuate, so give yourself room for growth. I then multiply the estimated subscribers by 10 (10 messages per month or 2.5 messages per week).

This gives me a rough estimate of the amount of messages that the business will be using per month. I already know what the costs me per message, so I usually just triple that to come up with a rough number of what I should charge the client.

The hardest part with doing it this way is figuring out the amount of subscribers. Somethings you can do to help figure this out is check the business' FB (if they have one) and see how many fans they have. Usually, if they are already promoting stuff on their fb page, you can probably figure at the very least 50% of those people would opt-in a text list. Then, you can ask the owner/manager an approximate number of people that come in per day or week.

Anyway, I hope that wasn't too confusing, but its what generally works for me. Best of luck!

-Andrew

10 Messages per month? 2.5 per week?

That kind of message delivery will cause a higher than acceptable number of Opt-Outs

Generally 4 to 6 per month is the tolerance. Anything above that will cause a serious hampering of the ability to build a list.

There are exceptions to the rule, such as people who are subscribing to receive daily specials, etc.

Managed Pricing is a relative arena. It will depend on what your market will bear and the type of business you are working with.

If you price too low you lose potential revenue and if you price too high Business Owners will feel you are over priced.

Many Mobile Marketing Firms will charge $250 a month for a managed account.

We have a tiered pricing model depending on the number of messages they want sent per month and what other services we are offering.

We generally do $149.00 for 4 unique messages or $199.00 for 6 unique messages. We then charge usage of the platform separately.

Of course that pricing includes signage and training of their staff.

I have seen other firms go with a Database Size Model where the price rises in relation to the size of the subscriber list.

Personally I don't like that model because it almost creates a mental barrier in the business owners mind as to how actively they want to add subscribers...and that is bad for business.

MitchKid · 9th Jan 2012, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by HypeText

10 Messages per month? 2.5 per week?

That kind of message delivery will cause a higher than acceptable number of Opt-Outs

I use that number to get a general idea to compensate the unknown amount of subscribers. And you are right, I only send at the very most 8 blasts per month, normally its closer to 4-6 like you said. I simply was describing the way that I come up with a rough price without knowing specifically the type of business daniel was targeting.

Depending on the type of business, volume of clientele and other factors, I charge my clients as much as $549 to as little as $99/month. Again, its all relative to what the biz needs.

-Andrew

HypeText · 9th Jan 2012, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by MitchKid

I use that number to get a general idea to compensate the unknown amount of subscribers. And you are right, I only send at the very most 8 blasts per month, normally its closer to 4-6 like you said. I simply was describing the way that I come up with a rough price without knowing specifically the type of business daniel was targeting.

Depending on the type of business, volume of clientele and other factors, I charge my clients as much as $549 to as little as $99/month. Again, its all relative to what the biz needs.

-Andrew

And in the grand scheme of things, doing what is best for the business is how we retain the client for the long term.

512 Designs · 9th Jan 2012, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by HypeText

We generally do $149.00 for 4 unique messages or $199.00 for 6 unique messages. We then charge usage of the platform separately.

So you charge $149 or $199 and then the text usage per month. Let's say you charge $.07 per text and the customer only has 20 opt-ins. Does that mean you charge $149 / $199 + $1.40? Or do you have a minimum monthly charge for text messages too?

Mike

HypeText · 9th Jan 2012, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by 512 Designs

So you charge $149 or $199 and then the text usage per month. Let's say you charge $.07 per text and the customer only has 20 opt-ins. Does that mean you charge $149 / $199 + $1.40? Or do you have a minimum monthly charge for text messages too?

Mike

Their Setup Fee covers the first 30 days during which time we are working with them to build their subscriber list. By the time they hit their second month their list is ALWAYS much larger than 20 subscribers.

We also don't charge 7 Cents a Text...thats a bit too much. We arent turning a profit on Text Messages.

Keep in mind that I did say "Generally"...thats for a fully managed account with a subscriber base.

Legacy3 · 10th Jan 2012, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by HypeText

Their Setup Fee covers the first 30 days during which time we are working with them to build their subscriber list. By the time they hit their second month their list is ALWAYS much larger than 20 subscribers.

We also don't charge 7 Cents a Text...thats a bit too much. We arent turning a profit on Text Messages.

Keep in mind that I did say "Generally"...thats for a fully managed account with a subscriber base.

I'm curious as to why you don't turn a profit on individual texts too. It seems to be a good idea to have some cushion built into the texts as well at least for admin side or incase you need to switch providers.

BTW Hypetext, after seeing your posts in several other threads I just went to your site. You did a great job and I also like your implementation of the QR Code. You may, however, want to take a look at your mobile site. When I visited your m site from my iPhone it was very tiny. Even though I could clearly see it was intended for mobile, there seems to be something there that makes your page to wide and thus too small to view without pinch and zoom.

HypeText · 10th Jan 2012, 11:28 PM