My Employer Asked Me To Do Their Marketing, What To Charge?

7 replies
Hey Warriors,

My employer is unhappy with their current company they have doing their IM for them.

They know I do IM and asked me what I could do with what they have and what I would charge to do so.

Here is the deal though..

I promote my own products or affiliate products. I don't do SEO or work with those "Brick & Mortar" style longer landing pages and such. So at this point they would use someone else for that. If you happen to know of a good WSO for that let me know.

So what they have asked me to quote on is setting them up with the capability to do email marketing, both to their current database, and for email lists they want to buy. They would like to have some list segregation as well.

I would have to manually take all the emails from their database and bring it over into the new one. I use Aweber, any other recommendations?

Also keep up with their social networks and make some youtube info videos as well.



What do you feel would be a fair price for this work and do you charge any up front set - up fees?

Also, do you know of any good WSO's that would go into
the offline marketing business?

Thanks,
Keith
#asked #charge #employer #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Centurian
    What were they paying their other company?

    If you can't find out, then contact the company for pricing on the same services for some perspective. Get someone else good to do this for you if needed.

    Depending on your relationship, you may be able to charge more.

    I'd recommend you putting together a list of services like you were running your own consulting operation and price these accordingly. Then offer them as a package.

    Think through all the steps you will be doing and price them out.

    Get paid upfront and monthly for maintenance.
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    • Profile picture of the author dancorkill
      Charge based on how much money you can make them (should be easy to work all that out because you work there). If you have a good relationship I would charge upfront and a % of the extra profit.

      Aweber will not be a good solution, as all your businesses email subscribers will have to opt in again. Depending how active they are, you can probably get 40% to opt in at the very most. For most businesses I suspect they could get less than 10%.

      What Should I Consider When I Import Subscribers? :: AWeber Knowledge Base

      Mailchimp doesn't have a requirement like this, although you will have to manually add any info@ sales@ type addresses.
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      • Profile picture of the author Centurian
        Originally Posted by dancorkill View Post

        Charge based on how much money you can make them (should be easy to work all that out because you work there). If you have a good relationship I would charge upfront and a % of the extra profit.
        Yes, I was also going to suggest a plan based on performance. The key issue is a way to track this. Based on my experience, I would be sure to get paid upfront for your work and then a profit sharing or commission program you can track.

        One commission option is a flat fee per new customer based on average sale. Another is an actual commission percentage based on actual sales. Obviously, you need a clear tracking mechanism.

        Your two main challenges will be tracking and getting paid. You cannot go ahead with this without a clearly defined, detailed agreement. Otherwise one or the other of you are going to get upset when things don't work out how you planned.

        When I first read your thread, red flags went up everywhere. You have a potential problem for one or both of you with this relationship because you will both have different expectations. This is why you must spell it out all in detail.

        It must be done before you start. Your best day and value is often the day you're hired. You're not in control of all the variables as an employee. The company may not give you resources or time to do this work.

        That is unless you don't care about doing extra work for nothing. Ultimately, you will. That's why you must get paid something upfront. If you never earn a dime of extra compensation you'll at least have pocketed something for your time.

        Several years ago, I was hired as a V.P. of Marketing to help raise a company ship. Salary plus commissions. When my profits started piling up, the president had his secretary deliver me a new agreement when he was out of town.

        Relationships sour over money. If you're making them a lot they'll be happy. Or visa-versa. If they are struggling, they'll resent you making more than they want to give.

        The other problem you may have is your employer keeps you busy doing your old job, but never gives you time to do the marketing. Then he comes back and says you're doing a lousy job marketing. Now he hates you and you're worse off than when you started.

        My oldest daughter had this growing challenge. She was hired as a principal writer and product creator for a publishing company. Soon she was asked to look over the marketing efforts as well. Then she essentially became the president's right hand.

        Next she was asked to create and execute his dream project; a week-long radio drama creator's conference at a top resort. All that being a success, he now wants the original writing project and study guides finished up in thirty days. LOL.

        Too many companies are looking for a marketing man to work his magic, but they don't have a dime to market with. They want you to create money out of thin air. While this is possible without spending more on advertising, some companies are so messed up they are simply decoration around the owner.

        I had a project like this a year ago. Thirty plus year old organization that was mainly an extension of the founder's persona and reputation. All the records were folders in file cabinets, many incomplete. Huge assets in in client value, but everything had to be rebuilt and put in a database.

        Their existing staff was already overloaded just managing the day-to-day operations. They couldn't hire anyone else to do this manual work without threatening existing payroll, as cash flow was in the toilet from the economy. Fortunately, things turned out well, but not always.

        If it's an established company and has good records, go back to the old customer lists. Target them for new or repeat sales, reactivate old one's, offer bundled packages of older products and premium upsells.

        Go to other businesses you can do cross promotions with and joint ventures selling your products to each other's clients. I'd also consider a marketing makeover if necessary. Refine the USP and hammer this home in every action and interaction as you start these renewed efforts.
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  • Profile picture of the author dancorkill
    Yep get it in writing, remember to make everything win-win. It should be easier because you work there to track stuff.

    You can only judge the best though based on how strong your relationship is and how critical you are to the company already. Sounds good to me. Worst case it doesn't work out, you get some more marketing experience on their dime and take your skills elsewhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author jondabach
    Charge monthly with a larger set up for the email transfer.

    email marketing involves design, know-how etc. Minimum is $200/month (and you can outsource that for $50/month if need be but I would do it yourself for a couple months just so you know what to do if your outsourcer falls through.
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith A.
      Thank you all for your feedback.

      We decided that they would like me to set up their email campaigns make them more present on the social networks.

      Will make some FAQ you tube videos as well.

      So we agreed on $2000 a month to start.

      Thanks again.

      Keith
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  • Profile picture of the author Centurian
    Outstanding. $2,000 sounds like a great start!
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