Just spoke with a potential client... advice please

offer him an organic ranking package, with x amount of keywords at a reasonable price..Throw in the PPC and maps optimization and social media for free if he goes with the plan. Video can be extra.

I found its easier when you throw things in for free to get them

I can see why he was shocked at $99/month for a video ranking in Google. That is pretty expensive. My experience with local keywords for contractor like companies is that the search volumes are not that high. It's hard to justify how they would get an ROI on almost $1,200 a year for just a video ranking. Also, one thing to make sure you do when doing keyword research (and I see this mistake made all the time) is to search for EXACT matches of the keyword, not BROAD. Broad searches inflate the search results by a ton and are really misleading to give to clients.

As for the pricing of the SEO, that is really dependent on how competitive the keyword is. If you are going to have to build 10,000 banklinks to rank #1 for the keyword it is going to be a lot more expensive than if you only need to get 50 backlinks. Roughly speaking I think a fair price would be around $1,500 to set up and then make your monthly price dependent on how many leads you expect them to get from being #1 in Google. If they are going to get 50 leads a month from it, then charge them $500 a month to maintain the ranking. However, if they are only going to get 1 or 2 leads a month from it, then you are looking at a monthly price less than $50.

As for Facebook/Twitter, set them up for around $500 and then $200 a month to manage it. Explain to him that you will be doing daily posts and things like that so he sees that his $200 a month is going towards actual work and not just maintaining a ranking.

One thing to note on the prices, they are really dependent on where you live and what the ROI is going to be for the business. It doesn't matter how much you sign him up for, if he isn't getting a good ROI he won't stay on board for the long run.

I hope this helps and best of luck getting the client!

-Ben

I agree the specific thing here is being the ROI and you could help sweeten the deal by being accountable for certain measurables for his leads.

Example if you install analytics on his website and then track his new leads for the keyword in question would help prove that you can be a value provider vs a typical unethical company.

Everyone can easily see the value in this type of work but you really need to demonstrate that you can a) rank for the keyword/etc b) show them some analytics/measurable proof.

Good luck

Yeah $99 bucks monthly seems high for the video unless you are going after some serious keywords. Depending on how long the video takes to make the $99 up front could have been to low but sounds right for an hour or two of work.

Have you got a feel for his budget?

Charge what you want. I don't think $99.00 is too much. You might want to charge something like $597 a month for all your services. Depending one what type of business he is and what type of ROI he can see. You can charge a dentist 500-3000 per month but not a pizza shop. Will you outsource anything? You have to figure your expenses in. Time and money.

Pricing depends on the competitiveness of the market (the work involved for you to get to rank high) and what the client is willing to pay.

You MUST turn things around by showing the VALUE of what you do.

Kitchen Cabinet Contractor: Hmmm... I would bet the average job is over $5K. I would also bet his average profit is over $1500. Let's say he only makes $1K free and clear per job.

If you got him 2 extra jobs per month... that is $2K. If they do a good job... folks will tell their friends and neighbors... and two jobs can turn into 1-2 more. You have to show him this. You can't stay in business competing on price. Price your services at a small premium and stick to it. $450 - $650 per month MINIMUM for all that you are promising for this particular customer in this particular niche. I am not from your city... so it varies by cost of living, etc. (as well as competitiveness of keyword and others in that field).

I always find it funny that business owners will not even blink at wasting $1200 per month on a Yellow Page ad or $2400 on a billboard (with their picture on it), or $3500 on a radio campaign that is hardly targeted, or $800 for one ad in one newspaper for one day... but then they complain and balk about spending good money for search marketing. GO FIGURE.

Btw.... I am speaking from experience.

The more tangible things are "x=x" the easier it is to see it as an expense.

The more you separate and offer "a bunch" of services that all provide value the more price is irrelevant. The moment he sees that what he is getting in return has "x" amount of value where "x" is more than what he is paying, the moment he signs and is very happy.

Avoid 1-1 comparisons. Make packages and slap a good-sized fee on it. But after you've demonstrated its value. Then price won't matter. It's when you say a video (or some thing) is worth blank that you get price comparisons.

Again, avoid it by telling him it's about getting his phone to ring (which is what it's all about anyways) and you've got the 4 or 5 various ways to do that. Video, and video ranking is one of those ways. But you must bolster your initial offer with "stuff", but valuable stuff.

Appreciate the answers guys.

The idea with the video would be to rank it for the two top keywords - which bring in just over 200 EXACT monthly search results combined.

I think it's what the video is worth to the business more then the actual costs required to rank the video since it would be the only thumb nail on the front page - which brings in many clicks. I posted a video on page 2 in the same market a couple months ago and it had around 75 views after 2 months. (Not arguing just trying to show the power of video from my little experience with it.)

All great answers though guys!!

Appreciate it!!