How much should you charge for your mobile marketing services? It’s an interesting question and one that’s critical to your business. There’s no hard and fast rule as to what prices you should charge although often a good starting base is to check out your competitors and set your prices midway between the top and bottom prices being offered.
It is highly recommended that you write a Business Plan so that you can see exactly how many sales you need to make at what cost in order to achieve your goals.
That all said, here are a few guidelines:
- Don’t set your prices too low! It is easy to give special offers/discounts but it is very difficult to make significant increases in charges. Many times, business owners will overlook the cheapest options on the basis that ‘cheap’ is synonymous with ‘lower quality’. We recommend that $500 plus $97 annual hosting, maintenance and support would be a minimum charge for a mobile web site. If a business owner has their own server, you should charge a higher upfront fee as you will not be able to recoup ongoing fees.
- Consider offering an option for a smaller upfront fee with a larger ongoing fee. E.g. $250 set-up and $47/month on a 24 month contract brings you a minimum of $1,378 which is, of course, far more profitable to you in the long-run than a one-time $500 upfront fee. ALWAYS AIM FOR RECURRING FEE OPTIONS!
- When selling direct to local businesses, charges will depend upon your local area. Central London prices will tend to be different to, say, sales to businesses in smaller, provincial towns. Also how you present yourself and your business is very important. The better your own web site, presentation etc, the higher fees you’ll be able to command.
- When starting a mobile marketing business, it is advisable to offer discounted prices to build up a portfolio. If you have a client base already – business owners who know, like and trust you – your prices will be in keeping with your current branding.
- If you’re already offering web services to business owners, you can offer some mobile services as a ‘sweetener’. E.g. if you’re selling a full web site, you could include a mobile version free of charge to get the deal done. Or, if a prospect is dithering, you could bundle in a Reputation Marketing system with your Mobile Web Site and Web App in order to close a sale.
