The - What do you charge? - thread.

9 replies
I'm planning to charge the following amounts for my services.

Wordpress business website: $695 setup plus $49.95/mo. hosting and site maintenance. Monthly fee includes 1 hour editing and keeping plugins/WP install up to date.
Social Media Marketing: $295 setup plus $29.95/mo. for 5 broadcast updates/minor profile change. The service includes Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare profiles.
Google Apps Setup: $195 set-up one time, includes 1 yr domain reg.
Local SEO: $195 for Google Places submission and optmization, $295 for submission to 20+ additional "Internet Yellow Pages" directories (to enhance Google ranking)

My website is at local business it {dot} **com**

I have a $20 off offer on my website (any service setup fee, one per customer) and plan to cut substantial deals to the first clients, especially when they bundle services. My target markets are primarily, Canada and US, but I will serve people worldwide.

Do you think these are reasonable prices? What do you charge with your offline business, and how much success have you had?

Let's give our fellow warriors some pricing guidance on their services.
#charge #thread
  • Profile picture of the author Amy5
    It seems pricing is all over the place so it's hard to know exactly what to charge. Regarding your social media, I have a couple of businesses that I'm doing this for and I never want to charge too low again for this service. Typically they expect you to interact with their fans and followers, post daily, do polls and contests on Facebook, they want you to give them analytic and reports and it becomes a bit time consuming. I would range from $200-$750 a month on up. I wouldn't do $29 a month. just my opinion
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    • Profile picture of the author Jackie Liu
      Well, I did state that my $29.95 rate is for basic maintenance only, that's keeping the page active and posting 5 updates across the social networks/per month. I would imagine a per-hour charge would apply beyond that.

      But welcome to considering some adjustment, so keep the comments coming.
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  • Profile picture of the author SoCalMarketing
    Your prices seem adequate except for the social media part... as another poster mentioned, it is quite involved and the problem is not what you intend to deliver but what the customer expects. It is human nature that we hear/read what we want to hear/read... you can tell them till you are blue in the face that $29.95 is just setup... they'll come back with "I thought it was"... and nothing you say will win them over, no matter how many times you prove you are right.. it is never about that.. it's the expectaion that needs to be managed... IMHO..
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    • Profile picture of the author Jackie Liu
      IM Newbie, I can see what you mean, especially since I'm intending to work with customers who are unfamiliar with the concept of online marketing - they might not know what to expect. My only worry was that it would seem high, in comparison to the $49.95 I'm charging for website hosting/maintenance.

      I was thinking the difference should be at least $15-$20/per month with the fee on the full site being higher.

      What's the best way to deal with that maybe, raise the hosting? Or perhaps I should say $29.95 only if you're also a website maintenance customer? Wanted to keep it affordable, and make it something manageable for the smallest of business owners though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Amir Luis
    “If you undersell your webdesign or SEO services, you will set yourself up for disappointment.”

    Starting out we just want to make a sale. We just want to make some money so we can keep going. I know that feeling because I have felt it. I know what it’s like to be told no because my prices were too cheap because I have done it. There are several web designers in my area that charge $2,500 to do a Wordpress Theme Customization. I bet there are people in you area charging the same if not more.

    So if I walk in pitching $300 to do the same work. It sounds too good to be true. When I was new in the game I did this leveraging my foot in the door, so I know by experience of what not to do. Part of pricing your services is knowing what the market will bear. So you can easily sell the same website that you would do for $300-$500 because you just want to get the sale, for $750 - $1000 to the very same customer.

    Starting out I didn’t really know the value of my services. I read on the forums somewhere that you can sell websites for $500 and thought to myself. “Wow.... I could pop that simple website out in 4 hours.” Then felt guilty for making $125 per hour, it almost felt illegal. I quickly got over that.... Especially when I realized I could raise my prices and my clients didn’t flinch at all when writing me the check. I kept raising prices until I stopped closing deals.

    Really... I don’t sell based on price. I sell based on value. A website or first page google placement is basically virtual real estate. My cell phone store, (a purchase I was able to make due to offline marketing by the way), costs me $800 per month plus utilities. I am on a main street and have enough room to hold sales meetings and office in the back of the store. So it is ideal for an offline marketer who has sales teams and loves cell phones.

    I don’t mind paying the $800 every single month because of the amount of room that I have. I am happy to pay the money because I am on a major street that gets lots of traffic. People are constantly going by and seeing my marketing message as they drive by. The internet is ideally the same principle. So if someone told me they could get me a prime location that gets XXXX amount of traffic for $XXXX amount a month. I would jump at the chance as long as I could see the value.

    The most important thing you and your sales reps need to establish in your product offering and pricing is that the value and the price complement each other. If the value is more than the price. It won’t sell because it is too good to be true. If the price doesn’t match the value, it won’t sell because the investment would not garner a return (ROI). So if you pitch me a price, be sure to pitch the ROI on that investment too.

    As far as pricing goes... I have things broken into various pages as to make it easier for my team to be able to sell. Several packages pre packed and priced. Ready for the rep to put together two to three options for the potential client. Yet customized enough for the individual clients needs.

    The Platinum Package A includes:
    Website Design (5 Pages, $75 per each additional page.) $799 + $30 per mo.
    Mobile Version of Website $299
    Google Places Optimization (Guaranteed top 7) $699 + $200 per mo.
    Face Book Fan Page with Fan Gate $499
    On Page Search Engine Optimization $299 + $300 per mo. (local keywords)
    Off Page Search Engine Optimization $0 (included in web design)


    Price $2595 + $530 per month Maintenance.
    Discount Offer at the Time of Meeting. $2099 + $500 per month (Free Hosting)
    Cost to Outsource Technical. $513.00 + $160 per month
    Net Profit before Sales Rep Commission = $1582 + $340 per month
    Sales Representative Commission at 10%=$209.9 15%=$314.85 20%=$419.80
    Net Profit at Highest 20% Commission on Gross Rate = $1162.20

    As you can see our pricing isn't too outrageous, doesn't devalue the service, and is still profitable. That is just one package we offer and they do vary. But are easy enough to close.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    What you charge should be in relation to the size of the problem you're solving for your client. Otherwise you're almost certainly leaving a lot of money on the table. See my explanation in this thread for how to do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author sam m
    I agree that your per month prices should be higher
    I f you are not out sourcing at these prices then it is
    too low
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    • Profile picture of the author PerfectSolution
      The price for the social media maintenance fee is WAY too low to make it protiable in my humble opinion. It takes a lot of time and work to make this work and if you can deliver results (which again takes plenty of resources) I believe businesses would have no issues paying $xxx monthy maintenance fee for the service. Definitely not a $29.95?

      Even you start by asking for a small fee and then do not deliver substantial results, they will soon complain that $29.95 is too costly..
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricardo-Acosta
    I believe you should find out what the avg monthly/yearly income for that particular business/industry is in order to find out what price is reasonable and fair.

    Why because for example plumbers and painters have a completely different marketing budget and yearly income. In my opinion a flat rate for every industry is just wrong ethically.

    Just my thought on that, hope it helps.
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