How Do I Gauge What To Charge?

My contracts are monthly, sort of. The price is locked in for one year, but either myself or the business owner can back out at any time with 30 days notice. I've never had anyone back out.

I know some people like to throw a year or 2 year contract out there. I think business owners are going to be a little hesitant to lock into anything long term until they can see some results.

As far as what to charge... it depends on the size of the company, the size of their market, the potential business you can bring them, etc. For example, I'm charging one local business $1200/month for SEO work (about 8 keywords), Facebook marketing, YouTube marketing, Twitter marketing, and a monthly newsletter. All of this is focused on the local market, which is a county of about 350,000 people. Not real big, but not tiny. Now after a few months they want to setup a second site to market their products nationally. I'm proposing a fee of $1000/month for the SEO work alone on that site because it is going to be a lot more work, but also a lot bigger return for them.

For most businesses, somewhere in the range of $500/month for SEO work is probably a decent target point for you. For Google Listings, it depends on the client. If I know it is going to be a big contract, I throw it in for free. For a smaller company, I charge in the neighborhood of $200 to set it up.

Hope that helps.

Here's a good model I've done before for your one-man marketing army:

1. Do the optimization yourself for a friend's site or a side business. Keep track of all the time it took you to do the work.
2. If you had to pay for directory submissions, etc... write down your hard costs.
3. You should have your time and your hard costs total.

Now, just figure out how much you want to make per hour and then add that to your hard costs and you'll have your package price.

The basics of pricing:

1) Work out what is the minimum you can do the work for (never go lower then this)
2) Estimate what one lead/client is worth to your customer (if it's worth 40k, then naturally you not going to charge 250dollars for a lead)

Your job is to get as much money as you can out of the client... not to state a fair price. Microsoft etc did not get rich by selling fairly. If your service is of value to the client and they are prepared to pay way more then another client, THEN IT IS OK. Your client is willing to pay as it is worth it for them, and they make a lot more money back from your lead.

The real question is not what can i charge - BUT WHAT IS MY CLIENT WILLING TO PAY

You work that out by asking:
1) What is your current marketing spend (Mask the question by asking what marketing activities they have first)

2) How much a customer is worth to them over a year (what they sell to them including aftersales) - again mask this question by asking if thy have consider the lifetime value of a customer and if thye upsell the customer.

3) How many extra customers they can handle - no need t mask this, this is the semi arrogant 'I can deliver statement - but can you handle the avalanche I am about to send your way'

These three questions set my price everytime. When i found a client who can't answer these questions I explain why it is so important - and they often pay me $500 for the two hours work to find the answer for them.

I still do the same process and then outsource it. That's the cost to work with me and my team, who are trained and qualified, under my supervision - so the hourly stays consistent with MY rates.

Okay, I believe that what I am going to do is have three packages:

Package A: 6 months of promotion for 4 keywords @ $220 a month
Package B: 12 months of promotion for 4 keywords @ $210 a month
Package C: 24 months of promotion for 4 keywords @ $200 a month

Google Places verification and optimization $497 (this will include images and video)

Am I on track here or completely hopeless? :p

@ bronke13

Where can we go to find someone to outsource the SEO?

Keep in mind that many people undercharge, according to seven figure experts such as Christian Mickelsen and Kathleen Gage. (Both of them have substantial success in offline and online marketing.)

Also, remember that your customer isn't just buying a product; he/she is also paying to save time and take advantage of your years of training and expertise.

But you need to be cognizant of what your market will bear; doing research or hiring a VA to research for you regarding your competitors' prices is key especially when you're still building an expert reputation in your niche.

Peace,
Stephanie

Below pricing is from Kevin Wilke's Local Business Money Machine

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Site Design -$695+
Landing Pages -$300+
Content Creation -$300 minimum
Video Creation -$495 minimum
Video Marketing -$225 per keyword
Article Marketing -$225+ per article
Directory (Business) Submissions -$225 for top 5 or 10
SEO/BacklinkGeneration -$500+ per month
PPC Management -Monthly charge plus % ad spend
Social Networking Setup -$395+
Email Marketing Setup -$495+
General Marketing Consulting –Per Hour or Package