Pricing Strategy — How To Price Your Freelance Marketing Business (2024)

You’ve figured out your freelance digital marketing niche and now you need to figure out a pricing strategy that not only helps you land the client, but also positions you for success.

How do you know what to charge as a freelancer?

How do you invoice your clients, what’s the best way to structure your payment plans and hourly rate, and how do you protect yourself from clients that won’t pay?

Most experienced Freelancers will tell you that they’ve made a ton of pricing mistakes, and every one of them has a “best way” to price their services, but the reality is, there isn’t a “one size fits all” approach to freelance pricing and rates.

Yet, getting pricing right is so important, it might be one of the most important decisions you can make in the early stages of your business.

So in this freelance pricing guide we’re going to show you:

  • The four main ways to price your freelance services, and how to choose the right pricing model for you.
  • How to get paid as a freelancer.
  • How to create a freelance invoice and the best invoicing apps for freelancers.
  • How to protect yourself from clients that don’t pay.

Are you new to this guide? If so, here’s a quick overview of all the chapters in this Ultimate Guide To Freelance Digital Marketing:

Freelance Digital Marketing - The Ultimate Guide (Overview)

  1. How To Choose Your Niche As A Freelance Digital Marketer
  2. Pricing Strategy - How To Price Your Freelance Marketing Business
  3. Client Acquisition - How To Get Freelance Marketing Clients
  4. Operations - How To Manage Your Freelance Marketing Business Like A Pro
  5. Client Retention - How To Keep Your Clients Happy
  6. Scaling - How To Grow Your Freelance Marketing Business

Ready to dive in?

Let’s do this!

Chapter 2 Quick Navigation:

A Story of Two Freelancers With Two Separate Pricing Strategies

The Four Main Freelance Pricing Models

How To Get Paid as a Freelancer

What’s Next After Learning To Get Paid As a Freelancer?

Next: Client Acquisition

A Story of Two Freelancers With Two Separate Pricing Strategies

Let me tell you the story of Joe Free and Jill Lance.

Two contractors with two separate pricing strategies...

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Joe Free wanted clients, so he quoted the lowest possible price per project to make sure he won the project.

He got the job (woohoo go Joe) BUT there were some unforeseen issues during execution that saw Joe putting in a ton more hours than expected. His clients also expected a few extra deliverables which weren’t clearly defined in the original contract.

Now Joe is locked into an assignment that won't end, working for less than he got bagging groceries.

He’s too busy with this job to find new projects at a better rate.

Sadly, Joe’s days as a freelancer are numbered, and it’s all due to a failed pricing strategy and low hourly rate.

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Now, unlike Joe, Jill Lance priced her services in a way that served the client at a profit while building in time to maintain regular operations (like finding and working with new clients).

She set clear expectations up-front with her new client, clearly defined all deliverables in the agreement, and built in contingencies in case anything changed with the contract.

So what’s the big takeaway, here, and why did Jill Lance succeed while Joe failed?

The difference between these two freelancers isn’t just throwing out a ridiculously high hourly rate or package price and crossing your fingers.

To price your freelance services effectively, choose a pricing model that makes sense for your service. The result should be a price that will not only sustain you and your freelance work, but will also be fair for both parties - and allow you to flourish while building your business.

To give you an idea of how to effectively set your prices, let’s take a look at all the different pricing models out there for freelance services.

The Four Main Freelance Pricing Models

There are four major freelance pricing models.

None of these models is “the best one” - each suits different types of freelance work, and a lot comes down to personal preference, the industry, or the services delivered.

In this section we will outline the benefits and downsides of each pricing model so you can choose a suitable option for your situation.

Freelance Pricing Model # 1: The Hourly Rate Model

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Hourly rates may sound rather self-explanatory, but there's a bit more to it than you might think.

When calculating your freelance marketing hourly rate, that number shouldn’t just include the work you put in at the time. It needs to cover every cost that is usually taken care of by an employer. This means health insurance, benefits, sick leave, retirement fund contributions, the cost of finding new leads for the business, etc.

Fortunately, there’s helpful online freelance pricing calculators to the rescue. For example, this one by BeeWits.

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Freelance pricing calculator from BeeWits.

Pretty sweet, right?

Tools like this can help you plan for the myriad of expenses every freelancer has to deal with.

For example, you’ll need to look into and include a margin for the tax implication of working as a freelancer. Work out the tax rate your country charges for self-employment, and add that into your prices - being sure to set that money aside for when tax time eventually comes around.

Pricing per hour lets you gauge how long certain tasks will take you while getting paid for it.

Once you have a better understanding of your labor times for each job you take, you can move into more complex models.

Hourly rates are usually the pricing model most freelancers start with, and it might be the best option for you, or it might not.

Let’s go over some of the upsides of hourly rates:

The Pros of Freelance Hourly Pricing

  • You get paid for the actual time you put in to the work. There’s less danger of miscalculating and working for free. With project-based pricing, sometimes you can miscalculate how long something will take you and end up working far more hours on a project than initially thought - with every extra hour decreasing your hourly rate down further and further.
  • It’s easy to calculate your proposals and your monthly expected income. Unlike with value or results-based pricing, you can tell a client exactly how many hours you'll be dedicated to their project, which gives you a clear amount.
  • It’s easy to project your quarterly and yearly income, making quarterly estimated taxes easier to manage (applicable to US-based contractors).

Now let's go through some potential cons to this pricing method:

The Cons of Freelance Hourly Pricing

  • If you don’t plan correctly, your time can get eaten up and you’ll start losing money fast.
  • If you’re “faking it until you make it,” and need to learn on the job as you go, every additional hour spent that you can’t bill your client decreases your overall hourly rate.
  • Sometimes it’s hard to justify an hourly rate to clients, and if they’re not sure what’s being delivered, they might ask to audit your time.

Freelancing Pricing Model # 2: Project-Based Pricing

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There’s a lot of talk about “deliverables” and “projects” in the freelancing world, so we thought we’d clear up some confusion on this pricing strategy.

Pricing by deliverables just means that you're charging a client based on the completion of specific tasks outlined in the SOW (Scope of Work).

If you're pricing is project-based, make sure your deliverables are clearly defined before starting the project.

Get this wrong and you may end up in an untenable situation with the project getting out of control.

Once that happens, all your profit can go out the window as your hourly rate decreases with every unplanned hour spent chasing down tasks you never considered in advance.

Now that you’ve got your project-based deliverables figured out, and you know the price for each, all you have to do is go down the list of tasks, tick them off and inform your client as you progress, and boom, you're getting paid per deliverable.

This can be a very risky pricing model for beginner freelancers or for project types that you don’t have experience with. That’s because if you don’t correctly estimate the number of deliverables the project will require to complete, the dreaded scope creep can eat your profit away.

However, for experienced freelancers, and for a project you have experience with, this can be a great way of getting paid for your services, because there's very little room for error assuming that you've actually laid out your tasks and project-based deliverables clearly in advance.

Let's dive into getting paid by deliverables as a freelancer, the pros the cons, and everything you need to know about this pricing model.

How to Price Your Freelance Services by Deliverable

Pricing your services by deliverables is usually reserved for Freelancers who are delivering specific tasks that make up a project as a whole.

If, for example, you are delivering copywriting in the form of blog posts, or a specific number of social media posts per week or month, this might be a great way for you to price your services.

You can create a deliverable in your scope of work like so:

Deliverable: 2X 1500 word SEO-researched blog posts per month, with 2 revisions each. Copy only, graphics and other design elements to be provided by the client.

(Note in this example I included the number of revisions allowed. This goes back to being precise on the deliverable. If you were to leave revisions open, your client might ask for multiple revisions, and now you’ve entered dangerous scope creep territory.)

If the nature of your service is more abstract like strategy sessions, or consulting, pricing by deliverable might not be the best option for you, and might confuse your client.

If your services are very cut-and-dry, and you’re delivering repeating, specific tasks or services, it's very easy to justify this project-based pricing because the deliverable itself is very tangible: here's your blog post, time to get paid.

To create a deliverable-based agreement with your client, lay out every single task you will provide within the scope of work, contingencies and dependencies (things that must happen before you can complete a deliverable), and make sure to create language around “added scope”. In other words, if the client asks for additional deliverables during the project term, you’re creating language in your contract to add those tasks in and get paid.

Project-based pricing can be great for people who are good at planning, estimating their job times, know exactly how much time certain services cost, and are able to deliver exactly what they promised.

Let's go through some of the upsides of this pricing method.

Pros of Pricing by Deliverables

  • Extremely easy to justify if you have a simple, replicable service or offer.
  • It’s easy to get paid because there’s less room for miscommunication.
  • Very little room for error, you know exactly what you're delivering and you get paid when you deliver it (this can also be a con for disorganized individuals).
  • Flexibility: you can deliver a set amount of items during a month or you can deliver and bill as new items come in.
  • This is a great way to get in the front door with a client by setting a small fixed price project with minimum deliverables up front.

This method of pricing can be bad for Freelancers who aren't great at organizing their time, don't know how to create a real scope of work, and don't know how much time individual tasks will take them.

So let's take a look at some of the big downsides to this pricing method:

Cons of Pricing by Deliverables

  • If you're bad at estimating your time, each deliverable can start to add up, and you can potentially lose a lot of money.
  • If you miscalculate on the actual deliverables you may find yourself in trouble when it comes to justifying new expenses with the client.
  • It's harder to justify upselling your client into new services because they'll begin to feel like they're being nickel-and-dimed as they see the number of deliverables tick up on the invoices.
  • If you don't calculate a profit margin into each deliverable you may end up with no profit at the end of the month.

As you can see there are good reasons for pricing your services by deliverable, but there are also plenty of reasons why you may want to stay away from this pricing model. It all comes down to what services you deliver and how good you are at managing and estimating your time and services.

Freelance Pricing Model # 3: Fixed Fee Pricing

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Fixed pricing means that you're being paid a fixed amount per project.

This is a very flexible pricing model that can be customized in any way you want.

For example, you might set fixed pricing per week or month, a fixed price for a package of services, or a fixed price for a specific campaign.

You can justify your fixed monthly fee pricing by a set number of deliverables, or a fixed number of consulting hours, or based on a certain amount of value that you are delivering to a client.

Charging a fixed fee makes sense for a lot of freelancers delivering different types of services.

For example it might make perfect sense for a consultant whose job is more abstract, more strategic, and more of a support role versus an implementation role.

Or it might make sense for a services-based freelancer to create specific packages that have a fixed fee price, like a certain amount of blog posts per month, or a fixed management fee for an advertising campaign.

With fixed fee pricing you’re typically on the hook to complete the job, so it still pays to know (at least internally) what your actual deliverables are, how much time the project will take, and how much you want to make per hour.

Here’s a few pros of fixed fee pricing models:

The Pros of Fixed Fee Pricing

  • Easy to manage and easy to justify with the client if you're a well-known consultant who brings a lot of value.
  • It's easy to create specific packages around your services and set a fixed price for different services.
  • It’s easy to track what you’re making per service and simplifies the client intake process.

Unfortunately, when you package your service as a fixed fee, there's a lot of room for scope creep.

A client can easily take advantage of this type of service, even unintentionally, and start asking for more than the service agreement calls for.

It's still important with this type of payment plan to clearly define what kind of results or outcome the client can expect at the end of the project.

If you don't, the client may be left at the end of the assignment wondering what they really got, where you've been, and what measurable results were actually delivered.

Let's go over a few cons of fixed-fee pricing:

The Cons of Fixed Fee Pricing

  • It can be hard to justify this type of pricing unless you have an established business.
  • It can be hard to justify the costs unless you’re a well known consultant, or can clearly define the results, and give a broad overview of what you’ll be accomplishing for the client.
  • There's a lot of room for scope creep with this type of payment plan unless you know exactly what your tasks are in order to meet the project requirements.
  • New Freelancers might get in over their heads as this type of payment plan is better suited to well-organized businesses that are accustomed to delivering these services over and over again at scale.

Freelance Pricing Model # 4: Value-based Pricing Model

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Value-based pricing means pricing your services based on value delivered.

As a freelancer, sometimes a client will ask you what kind of results they can expect to receive during the course of your engagement.

In other words, they’re asking for the value received if they retain your services, and a big blocker for them getting started with you might be that they're unsure of the tangible value of your services or they are worried about getting a return on their investment.

For example, they might ask, “how many leads will you produce per month?”

If that’s the case, you may want to introduce them to a value-based pricing model in which they're paying you based on your performance, results, or perceived value.

Since pricing your services correctly is one of the most important aspects of your business, it pays to get this right (pun intended).

Ultimately a well-thought-out value-based pricing strategy is all about the perceived value of your services or products. In other words, if you can make the case that your product and services are worth the value that will be delivered, and that matches your clients perception of the service, it can be a great way to price your services.

How to Charge By Value Delivered

Pricing by value can be a great way to earn a high ROI (return on investment) on your freelance marketing services.

But figuring out how to charge by value can be tricky and is where many new freelancers and agencies who are new to value-based pricing get in trouble.

Value-based pricing requires a ton of upfront research. You have to really understand what the marketplace is willing to pay for your services and how they define valuable.

Is your target market looking for leads? New followers on a Twitter account?

For example, if you’re running ads for a tow truck company, all they care about is quality leads that convert into tows. They don’t care about things like social media followers.

You need to quantify how the value you deliver can convert into a profit for the client. If you get this right, your client will stick around forever as long as the profits keep coming in.

Knowing all of this will help you to accurately create a value-based pricing strategy.

Let’s dive into some of the pros of this pricing model.

The Pros of Value-Based Pricing Models

  • You're not necessarily tied down to specific hours, specific deliverables, or any fixed project.
  • What you earn is no longer tied to the amount of time you're actually working, which gives you a ton of time and resource freedom to scale into new clients.
  • Once your campaigns are delivering results, your clients will love you making retention much easier.

This type of pricing model is better utilized by freelancers who can easily quantify their services.

For example, if you’re delivering leads, or running ads, you can assign an arbitrary value to the leads, or quantify how much your ad campaigns are earning for the client.

However, it’s not for everyone, so let’s go through the cons.

The Cons of Value-Based Pricing Models

  • As a value-based service provider you're essentially a partner to your client,which adds a new level of complexity to your relationship.
  • If you’re failing to deliver on the value promised, your client will quickly start questioning the relationship, which will put payment in jeopardy.
  • In some value-based arrangements, accounting can be difficult, leaving open the possibility for audits on either side.

How To Get Paid as a Freelancer

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Now to the fun stuff!

Getting paid.

In this section we're going to go deep into how to invoice your clients, the best freelance invoicing software to use, how to protect yourself from clients that don't pay, and everything you need to know about taking payment as a freelancer.

There are several common forms of payment that you can setup as a freelancer:

  1. You can get paid the good old-fashioned way with a paper check.
  2. You can use online payment solutions like PayPal, Cash.app, Square, or Transferwise.
  3. You can accept credit cards with a credit card processing tool like Stripe or use an invoicing app like Freshbooks. Freshbooks allows you to take payments with credit cards right on your invoice (we’ll go more into that later in this section).
  4. You can get paid with a bank to bank transfer (ACH).
  5. If your client is nearby you can meet up and can get paid in cash.

Now let’s go into the basics of invoicing as a freelancer.

How to Invoice as a Freelancer

In this section we're going to go over the various ways Freelancers can invoice their clients.

If you're new to freelancing, invoicing your clients can seem like a big, scary task.

There's no reason to panic, however, because invoicing is a critical business function that all of your clients will expect.

The invoice gives their accounting department everything that they need to stay above board and compliant with their local tax laws. It also gives them a record for their bookkeeping purposes and tax write-offs.

Conversely, invoicing correctly will also give you a way to track your income and have records available when it's time to do your taxes.

Getting this right is a critical piece of any business, so let's explore how to invoice as a freelancer.

Best Freelance Invoicing Software

You might not like creating and sending invoices yourself so in this section, we're going to cover the best freelance invoicing software solutions that will help you stay on top of your invoicing without a lot of manual work.

There's tons of blog posts on the web reviewing invoicing software, so we're only going to go over our top three picks.

Let's take a look at the top invoicing software for freelancers.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks is a simple, fast invoicing solution to get set up as a freelancer and can be used on both desktop or mobile devices.

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Freshbooks for freelancers.

Designed for simplicity, Freshbooks lets you create invoices, send them to your client, and then take payment via credit card right on the link to your invoice.

You can set your invoices to be sent out to your clients on a recurring schedule and even save credit cards for automatic payments, which lifts the burden from you to chase down payments.

One awesome thing about Freshbooks is that it’s specifically designed for the self-employed - AKA freelancer - that's you!

Some of the other options below are designed more for small businesses, but could also be a good option for freelancers.

What we love about Freshbooks is how easy it is to use.

You can send invoices, track expenses, hook up your bank accounts, give access to accountants, and create financial reports critical to any business, and it’s all extremely easy.

Visit Freshbooks here.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a more feature-rich accounting solution for small businesses than Freshbooks, but still workable for freelancers.

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Quickbooks for freelancers.

Just like Freshbooks, you can take payments on recurring and subscription billing invoices as well as accept payments online.

QuickBooks is also great when it comes to tax time because you can send your accountant everything they need to track your expenses and income to keep you compliant.

While QuickBooks wasn't designed specifically for freelancers, it still has a ton of great options, with affordable pricing, making this our #2 choice for freelance invoicing software.

Visit QuickBooks here.

Wave

You didn't think we were only going to show you invoicing apps that cost money right?

Another great accounting and invoicing software, Wave, offers a free plan, which is awesome for freelancers who are just getting started.

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Wave for freelancers.

While many accounting software programs claim to be easy, Wave actually lives up to that claim.

Wave doesn't have all the same features as Freshbooks or QuickBooks and is more geared towards small businesses, but it’s still a decent solution for brand new freelancers.

Visit Wave here.

Best Free Freelance Invoice Templates

If you're looking for free freelance invoice templates, we've got you covered.

You can find tons of invoice templates within the Google Document templates library, various websites, or simply by asking another freelancer to send you their favorite template.

Google Docs is awesome because it’s free and you can find a ton of pre-made templates for freelancers for almost anything you can think of...

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Google docs freelance invoice templates.

The best way to find these is to open a Google Search bar and search for something like, “free google docs invoice template.”

For now let's take a look at a couple awesome free freelancer invoice templates available through Google Docs.

Freelance invoice template # 1

Called the “Invoice - Professional (Cool)” template (hey, what’s in a name?)... This simple template is great if you want to send a professional invoice,but don’t need a ton of bells and whistles.

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Google doc freelancer invoice template # 1

Here’s a link to the template (note that this link may change so it might be best to simply search for it in Google):

Go here to import the template now and start invoicing!

Freelance invoice template # 2

I found this one with a quick search, “Free Google Docs Invoice.”

Which led me to this website with a ton of options: Invoice Simple

Once on the page you’ll see various templates with a link over to Google Docs.

All you have to do is click on the link, “Google Sheet” below your chosen template which will take you to the template in Docs.

Nice and bold, very clean, and very simple, this invoice is easy to use and easy to customize in Google Docs.

Make sure to click “file” in the top left and then select “make a copy” so you can import it into your own Google Drive account.

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Freelance invoice template # 2

How to Protect Yourself Against Clients That Don’t Pay

Sooner or later, you're going to run into a client that doesn't want to pay.

Maybe they'll disappear, or maybe they'll simply claim they can't pay you, or maybe they will try to claim that you didn't deliver on the agreement.

Whatever the reason, it's good to be prepared for this type of scenario in advance.

So let's go through a few strategies to protect yourself against clients that don't pay.

Strategy # 1 - Have an Airtight Agreement

Make sure your project proposal, contract, and deliverables are airtight.

One thing that often goes wrong is miscommunication or a misunderstanding between the client, the contractor, and the agreement.

It's bound to happen from time to time because these agreements can be complex and have unforeseen issues arise, but when they do come up you want to be able to refer back to your agreement and the specifics of your project scope and deliverables.

Strategy # 2 - Use a Reputable Signing Program

Make sure you use a reputable document signing program like DocuSign.com or HelloSign.com, which are legally enforceable signatures. So if a disagreement occurs and you end up in court, you're ready to defend yourself with legal signatures of your proposal and documents.

Strategy # 3 - Set Clear Expectations

Setting clear expectations upfront is the best way to stay in your clients good graces, which sets you up for payment success.

This goes back to strategy number one. Setting expectations with your client is absolutely key to a healthy relationship and to getting paid. If they don't know what they're getting from you, and you don't know what you should be delivering, a lot of confusion can arise, which means there could be friction at payment time.

Strategy # 4 - Get Paid Upfront

Strategy # 4 is my favorite: take payment before you start your assignment, or get partial payment upfront.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of freelancers take payment after services rendered, and this can be a huge mistake.

As a freelancer, you have very little protection from clients that won’t pay. They may reside in another state (or even country), in which case, disappearing without payment will be very easy with little you can do about it.

That’s why getting paid upfront (or partially) is so important.

Try a simple message like this:

“Looking forward to working with you! In a moment I’ll send an invoice where you can follow the link and submit payment. As soon as that’s done, we’ll set the kick off call and get everything in motion!”

What’s Next After Learning To Get Paid As a Freelancer?

Now you’re ready to get paid as a freelancer. You know your pricing strategy and how to take payment, and you’ve got your invoice template ready to send to a potential client.

That means it’s time to move on to the next chapter in our Ultimate Guide To Freelance Digital Marketing:

Chapter 3: Client Acquisition - How To Get Freelance Marketing Clients!

We’re going to show you:

  • The best way to find and approach freelance clients.
  • How to pitch clients, win their trust, and get clients FAST.
  • How - and why - you should create a one-page Freelance website.

You’re ready with your pricing, but now you need some potential clients to send that invoice to, and we’ve got you covered with the best ways to get freelance digital marketing clients in the next chapter.

See you in the next chapter!

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Pricing Strategy — How To Price Your Freelance Marketing Business (2024)

FAQs

What pricing strategy works best for freelancers? ›

As a freelancer, I've found that weekly rates, fixed-fee, and value-based pricing work best for most projects. I like to have a “go-to” time-based billing method and a “go-to” fixed-fee billing method.

How much do freelance marketers charge? ›

Most freelance marketers charge anywhere from $50 to $200 per hour, depending on their skills and experience. Other factors that may influence how much a freelance marketer makes include: Their reputation with other businesses they've worked with in the past.

How is freelance day rate calculated? ›

Calculate day rate using your most recent permanent salary

Take your most recent salary as a permanent employee, add in all benefits, and divide by 250 (number of working days in a year). This provides you with a 'base rate' on which you can add a 'freelancer charge' for operating independently.

How much do freelance marketers charge UK? ›

Midweight (3-5 years experience): £35-£70 per hour / £250 – £500 per day. Senior (5-10+ years experience): £70-£100 per hour / £500-£750 per day. Top Tier: £750+ per day.

What are the 4 types of pricing methods? ›

There are many different pricing strategies, but Competitive Pricing, Cost-plus Pricing, Markup Pricing and Demand Pricing are four common methods for small business owners to use.

What are the 4 pricing strategies? ›

What are the 4 major pricing strategies? Value-based, competition-based, cost-plus, and dynamic pricing are all models that are used frequently, depending on the industry and business model in question.

How much should I pay someone for marketing? ›

Spoiler — the average cost for digital marketing services in 2022 ranges from $2500 to $12,000 per month, $50 to $500+ per hour, and $1000 to $7500 per project for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs).

How do marketing consultants charge? ›

A Rule of Thumb. As a rule of thumb, most consulting fee rates should double, or in most cases triple ‚the actual wage of the position being covered. That means that the $50 per hour strategists should charge $100-$150 per hour for his services.

How much do you charge for marketing services? ›

Based on our research, an hourly digital marketing rate typically ranges between $50 and $500, with an average of $150. Please note that the above figures are merely industry averages. The question of how much you should charge for digital marketing services depends on many factors.

How do I decide my hourly rate? ›

Business schools teach a standard formula for determining an hourly rate: Add up your labor and overhead costs, add the profit you want to earn, then divide the total by your hours worked. This is the minimum you must charge to pay your expenses, pay yourself a salary, and earn a profit.

How many hours is a day rate freelance? ›

4 hours or more constitutes a day. If a partial day is worked, then add up the time and when it crosses 4 hours, charge them for an extra day.

How do freelancers calculate hours? ›

You add up other living costs, such as insurance, self-employment tax. You add these things together to get your desired adjusted income. Then you calculate your billable hours by starting with your maximum working hours per year, and subtract for things like vacations, national holidays, and sick days.

What should you charge for social media marketing in 2022? ›

Here are average rates for both: Social Media Specialist salary: $6,000 per month. Social Media Manager freelance rate: $14-35 per hour. Creator compensation: $100-$425 per post or video.

How much do freelance social media marketers charge? ›

For shorter term projects, it's helpful to know the average monthly and weekly rate for freelance social media managers. According to ZipRecruiter, the average monthly rate is about $4,333, and the average weekly rate is $1,000.

How much should a digital marketer charge? ›

Most agencies charge between $80 and $200 per hour for digital marketing. If we are looking at a 20 hours per month marketing project at $100 per hour, you will pay about $2,000 per month for an average service. We typically see companies dedicate between $500 and $50,000 per month for digital marketing.

Which is the best pricing strategy? ›

Value pricing is perhaps the most important pricing strategy of all. This takes into account how beneficial, high-quality, and important your customers believe your products or services to be.

How do you set a price? ›

To set your first price, add up all of the costs involved in bringing your product to market, set your profit margin on top of those expenses, and there you have it. This strategy is called cost-plus pricing, and it's one of the simplest ways to price your product.

What is pricing methods in marketing? ›

Pricing method is exercised to adjust the cost of the producer's offerings suitable to both the manufacturer and the customer. The pricing depends on the company's average prices, and the buyer's perceived value of an item, as compared to the perceived value of competitors product.

What are the 6 pricing strategies? ›

To help you make the right choice, below I've listed six pricing strategies in marketing to consider for your small business.
  • Price skimming. Best for: Businesses introducing brand new products or services. ...
  • Penetration pricing. ...
  • Competitive pricing. ...
  • Charm pricing. ...
  • Prestige pricing. ...
  • Loss-leader pricing.
27 May 2021

What are the 3 pricing objectives? ›

Some of the more common pricing objectives are: maximize long-run profit. maximize short-run profit. increase sales volume (quantity)

How much should I spend on marketing my small business? ›

Marketing experts and agencies often recommend that small businesses spend anywhere from 7-8 percent of their gross revenue on marketing. And, according to a study, small businesses tend to follow this rule, spending around 3-5 percent.

What is a reasonable marketing budget? ›

A marketing budget typically range from 5 to 25 percent of a company's revenue or revenue targets, depending on company size, stage of growth, and the importance of marketing on sales within the company's industry, among other factors.

How much should I charge as a strategy consultant? ›

Keep in mind, if the average consulting fees are around $100 per hour, your experience and track record will need to be taken into account. If you are a brand new consultant, you may be charging closer to $50 or $75 per hour. With 20 years of experience under your belt, you may be charging $150 or even $200 per hour.

How much does a freelance marketing consultant make? ›

Average Salary for a Freelance Marketing Consultant

Freelance Marketing Consultants in America make an average salary of $84,834 per year or $41 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $144,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $49,000 per year.

How much does it cost to hire someone to market your business? ›

Marketing agencies vary in retainer costs, but you can expect to pay about $4,000 per month. This figure includes both a monthly retainer agreement and software subscriptions.

How much does marketing cost for a startup? ›

Generally, startups spend about 11% of their revenue on their marketing budget.

What do social media marketing agencies charge? ›

30000 to Rs. 45000 per month depending upon the requirements and services needed by the client.

What does PPC stand for in marketing? ›

Learn Everything About Pay-per-click Marketing. PPC is a form of online marketing where advertisers pay a certain amount of money every time their ads are clicked on. Jul 8, 21 | 7 min read. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) has proven to be an important part of a well-designed digital marketing plan.

How much should a freelancer charge per hour? ›

Don't forget to include how much income tax you'll need to pay, as you'll no longer have an employer taking income tax off of your paycheck. $20 is the median hourly freelance rate.

What is the average salary of a freelancer? ›

Freelancer salary in India ranges between ₹ 1.8 Lakhs to ₹ 11.0 Lakhs with an average annual salary of ₹ 4.0 Lakhs.

What is bid amount in freelancer? ›

Your bid limit is the number of bids you can use each month to bid for work on Freelancer.com. Your exact bid limit depends on your membership type: Free Members get 6 bids per month. Basic Members get 50 bids per month.

Which freelancing website is best? ›

16 Best Freelance Websites to Find Work
  • Fiverr.
  • Toptal.
  • Jooble.
  • Freelancer.com.
  • Upwork.
  • Flexjobs.
  • SimplyHired.
  • Guru.
16 Sept 2022

How do you calculate labor cost per week? ›

How do you calculate labor burden? To calculate the labor burden, add each employee's wages, payroll taxes, and benefits to an employer's annual overhead costs (building costs, property taxes, utilities, equipment, insurance, and benefits). Then divide that total by the employer's number of employees.

How do you calculate project hours? ›

How to estimate project hours
  1. Review project scope. ...
  2. Create a list of tasks. ...
  3. Collect data for each task. ...
  4. Include external hours. ...
  5. Consider revision hours. ...
  6. Consider adding contingency hours. ...
  7. Add all components together. ...
  8. Review and revise the estimate.
1 Jun 2021

How much does it cost to get a social media strategy? ›

These days, the average cost of social media advertising ranges from $3,000 to $5,000. If you have yet to establish an online presence, don't fret. Social media advertising is also good for startups or new businesses.

How much should I charge to write a social media post? ›

So how do you charge for social media services like this? Well, there are several writers and writing agencies out there that will create written content for you (you supply the topic/info and they'll write it for you). They typically charge anywhere from $50 to $150 per article.

How much should I charge for an Instagram post? ›

A sponsored static post on Instagram should cost 1% of your following (at minimum). I'll paste the formula again for you to reference! I recommend thinking more along the lines of charging 2 to 5% (5% being on the high end) of your following if you have high engagement and create high-quality content.

How much should I pay my social media manager? ›

Social Media Marketing Company Costs

The services of a social media marketing firm can come in anywhere between $50-$300 per hour depending on the breadth of services you're looking for.

How much should I charge for social media consulting? ›

On average, businesses invest $4000 to $7000 per month on social media management, which includes marketing and advertising on one or more networks — if outsourcing, social media services cost $900 to $20,000 per month and social media consultants cost $75 to $500 per hour.

How do freelance social media managers make money? ›

Four steps to get your freelance social media marketing business set up
  1. Get your SMM business set up.
  2. Create your social media marketing portfolio.
  3. Develop your rate card and price up your packages.
  4. Build your network and promote your SMM business.
  5. Invest in the right social media marketing tools.
25 Feb 2022

How much do businesses pay for digital marketing? ›

Cost of digital marketing agency services in the UK 2021, by discipline. In 2021, having a digital marketing agency do SEO work for an organization cost on average 394.75 British pounds per day in the United Kingdom. Monthly retainer for work done on a long-term basis stood at 901.5 pounds.

What is the average cost of a marketing campaign? ›

In the simplest terms, your marketing budget should be a percentage of your revenue. A common rule of thumb is that B2B companies should spend between 2 and 5% of their revenue on marketing. For B2C companies, the proportion is often higher—between 5 and 10%.

Is digital marketing expensive? ›

With digital marketing, a lot of your costs are low. Things like email campaigns, social media interactions and posts, and website content cost you nearly nothing to produce. When your customers come to you through these channels, your CAC is negligible.

How do freelancers charge their clients? ›

Day Rate, Hourly or Project Fee - the three methods of charging that creative freelancers need to know. Even before you come up with an amount, you have to decide on a method of charging. And there are three distinctly different ways we've used and continue to use. By the hour, by the day, or by the project.

How much should I charge per hour freelancer? ›

According to our last freelancer survey, the average freelancer rate among IT professionals in 2022 is $98/hour. While your own rate may differ, you can use this value as a basis for your own calculation.

How can I do freelance marketing? ›

How to become a freelance marketing consultant
  1. Choose your niche. Defining your niche as a freelance marketing consultant helps distinguish you from your competitors. ...
  2. Develop knowledge and skills. ...
  3. Define your audience. ...
  4. Design a website. ...
  5. Create your portfolio. ...
  6. Set your rates. ...
  7. Network to build your client list. ...
  8. Look for jobs.
3 May 2021

How much should a beginner freelance writer charge? ›

We recommend beginner freelance writers charge no less than $0.05 to $0.20 per word. If you consider the example of a 1,000-word blog post, this means you'll range from $50 to $200 per post. In reality, many beginning writers make $0.01 to $0.04 per word, which is an unreasonably low fee.

What percentage does freelancer take? ›

Here are some important things to know about the fees on Freelancer: For fixed-price projects, you'll pay a fee of either 10% or $5, whichever is greater. For hourly projects, you'll pay a flat 10% fee, making this a more popular choice for smaller projects under $50, as the total fee will be lower.

How do you state your hourly rate? ›

  1. Pick a number you're comfortable with and stick with it. ...
  2. Practice saying your rates. ...
  3. Don't just say your number, frame your number. ...
  4. Don't explain or apologize for your rate. ...
  5. Don't give discounts. ...
  6. Ok, ok, you can give discounts (but only for a really good reason.) ...
  7. Don't try to be the cheapest.
1 Sept 2016

How many hours do freelancers work a day? ›

Just around a quarter of the members of our community spent less than 40 hours a week on their job. Freelancers take their work seriously and invest a lot of time into their projects. In fact, over 60 percent of our survey participants worked more than 40 hours. A quarter even worked more than 50 hours a week!

What is the average salary of a freelancer? ›

Freelancer salary in India ranges between ₹ 1.8 Lakhs to ₹ 11.0 Lakhs with an average annual salary of ₹ 4.0 Lakhs.

How do you propose hourly pay? ›

How to Negotiate a Higher Hourly Wage
  1. Request a specific hourly pay rate. ...
  2. Ask for a number that's high but realistic. ...
  3. Sell your value to the hiring manager. ...
  4. Utilize open-ended questions. ...
  5. Focus on getting what's fair. ...
  6. It's okay to ask questions about the compensation package.

How much should a marketing consultant charge? ›

Marketing consultants charge anywhere between $65 and $300 per hour. The fee varies so much due to the differences in resume, demand, and overhead expenses associated with different consultants. Most experienced marketing consultants charge within the $100 to $200 per hour price range.

How do freelance marketers get clients? ›

How to get freelance clients (seven ideas that work in 2022)
  1. Start with who you know.
  2. Have a portfolio ready to go.
  3. Use your social media.
  4. Get out there and network.
  5. Set yourself up as an expert.
  6. Take a freelance website out for a spin.
  7. Keep learning and improving your pitch.

How much does a digital marketer charge? ›

Most agencies charge between $80 and $200 per hour for digital marketing. If we are looking at a 20 hours per month marketing project at $100 per hour, you will pay about $2,000 per month for an average service. We typically see companies dedicate between $500 and $50,000 per month for digital marketing.

How much does a 500-word article cost? ›

How much should I charge for a 500-word article? All things considered, 500 words is a fairly short article length, appropriate for a short newsletter article or personal profile. A typical rate for this would be $75-$200, but it could range much lower or higher depending on the factors mentioned above.

What should I charge per word? ›

A general guideline: 5–7.5 cents per word is below average and more beginner rates. 8–11 cents per word is a general average. 12–15 cents per word is slightly above average for writers with more experience.

How much does a 300 word article cost? ›

So, how much should you charge for freelance writing? For beginner writers, start in the . 10 to . 15 cents per word range as a starting rate.

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