First proposal to client - need advice

wow...

first of all you should see what traffic/search volume you have for the
different terms. you don't want to do work and charge a client for
something that isn't going to get them results. ultimately they don't
care about articles and press releases and google places yada yada...
they want more customers. period.

i'm not going to comment on how to price out your itemized list of
monthly tasks, etc. i have a completely different pricing model based
solely on the results the client wants. my advice is to do some thorough
keyword research and show your client what kind of traffic they can expect
and maybe give them different pricing options based on the package/results
they choose.

as for google places, you can not claim/register more than one places
page for the same business unless they have additional physical places
of business at multiple addresses.

Thanks Morgan,

Having those small neighboring cities intermingled makes it harder to estimate. A lot of times you don't see anything under the Google Keyword tool but if each city has 70,000 people (or 50,000 on average) then there must be searches. Hell, people just type the keyword and they get a Google Places listing so why would my search show something?

That's a good option to price it per success.

Do you do it on a basis of 1st page price ______, top 5 price _____ top 1-2 price _____?

BTW, I didn't mean listing them more than once on GP. I want to get their listing so stron that it'll appear in the neighboring cities (it does - the have competitors fro other cities above them in their on yard)

$500 is way too low. You want to price it at about 20% of his expect returns.

Also, you need to set up a way to control his SEO. What happens after you get him #1 for the keywords, and he tells you he doesn't need you anymore? If you're directly linking to his sites, then his rankings will stay.

I strongly, strongly advise against packages. There's no better way to leave money on the table than using packages.

I mean, why would someone charge a cosmetic surgeon the same price they would charge the local plumber for the same amount of work?

It's all about the value you provide.

Hi,

I agree with the others. I only do consultive selling - i.e I never offer a package up front. My best customers are ones that I helped for free to start with knowing that when they had the money if I'd already shown them value then they'd naturally want my help.

Some customers don't know what's possible and won't really even understand what you're offering in your package. All they care about is how likely it is to make them money.

Nothing wrong with having several levels of offering - just don't get specific about what's in it. You can call them Startup, Established and Premium and say that they contain different levels of approach based on need and budget.

Some customers will get the biggest initial impact from you implementing an auto-responder in their business rather than any website or seo stuff.

You need to listen to what their business needs and tailor your offering accordingly.

Don't try to squeeze them on the first attempt - think of them as a friend you want to help for life and know that most of what you get from them will come later once you've built trust and rapport.

Be honest with them.

I sometimes just say "hey look, I know this is all new to you and I don't want you to commit to something before you've experienced some of the value for yourself - so how about you just pay a small 'launch' fee to get us started and I'll off-set any other costs until you've got at least 2 new customers from this?"

If you tell them you're willing to offer them your $1000 startup package but Discount it to $600 and only take $100 now and then $500 once they've seen their first new customer from it - they're much more likely to see that you're actually trying to help their business.

Talk to them about how you're much more interested in long term relationships and you'd rather charge them less and have them tell all their friends and business partners about you than take their money and run.

They'll know that some companies charge thousands for this stuff - so don't sell yourself short. Make your prices higher than you feel comfortable with and be prepared to offer them deep quick-mover discounts to get them onboard. If they think they're getting a $5000 package for $1000 they're more likely to buy than if you just ask for $1000.

The other thing this does is preserve your perceived value and means that when you are making them a lot more money you can remind them that they've been on a discounted rate and start to charge what your real value is.

Offering these discounts also means you can leverage that to get referrals etc. "hey - I know it's now been 9 months and you're due to come off the startup discount, but you're a great customer and I want to look after you, so for every month you send me at least one new referral, I'll apply your previous discount again".

There are a lot of ways to do this and it means you can keep your prices high, tailor your offerings and build your business all at the same time.

A normal Press Release service will charge anywhere between $500 and $1500 for a well distributed press release (after you've written it and sent it to them), and businesses understand this, so use this high value item to your advantage - you know you can write one for them and get it out to dozens of free/cheap press release sites, and when you tell them you can write and distribute one for them for only $150-$300, for many it'll be a no-brainer. PRs are also great because they're something you should be doing regularly.

Andy

Packages = my best friend


I've got three "packages" or different options I present to my clients. One for each category, then I have a mandatory monthly fee. Just yesterday I met with a hopefully soon-to-be client and they absolutely loved the way it was laid out.

I'm not saying you don't demand to be compensated for profits, but whenever a client sees a professional package laid out they are more 'inclined' to be interested.

That's my experience at least...

AndyHenry - that's a more realistic picture of the local small business market in my area. Thanks for posting it.

Packages work for some marketers and some business owners. Just like hourly and project pricing works for some and not others.

My experience is hit and miss but I do both knowing I have full flexibility if needed.

I am curious about why you didn't add Google to the deal?

Wow, thank you all for the great info!
I think that will be wise to see exactly what they want and offer an option accordingly

The main point is this multiple cities sit
I thought even of charging per city targeted, i.e., going for all the 8 or starting out with 4 and adding along the way, or maybe each month adding articles that target other city. I think it'll be fairly easy to get the first page

I disagree with first response, you should consider if the client is open to a more complete proposal. If not, you should try to be as useful as possible, but for $500, you can give him the site the way he requested...if you are going to spend triple the time to do the same project, then he should pay you accordingly (or you should charge accordingly).

Kind Regards,