If your neighbor with a 5-bedroom, 4.5-bath house needs a renovation and your other neighbor with a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom house also needs a renovation, do you think they’d cost the same price?
No way!
That’s the same that’s true of copywriting projects.
Not all copywriting projects are the same and there’s NO WAY! you can quote an accurate price without understanding the project.
Pricing can feel like a chore, but I promise you’re probably overcomplicating it. Today’s Build Your Copywriting Business podcast episode is giving you all the insight you need to come away feeling confident when quoting prices.
Kate and I are sharing why you should (almost) never quote copywriting prices when you first meet with a client and offering scripts for how to guide the conversation so you come across as the professional that you are.
TUNE IN: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher
Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Watch the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[01:08] The topic of quoting your prices to your clients. There is one way to do it in which you will usually end up working a lot less than you should. You will stress yourself out. And there’s another way to do it in which you feel a lot calmer about it.
[01:25] What is the question that most clients ask first? How much is it going to cost? Sometimes clients don’t know what to ask, when to ask it. You have more power in this situation. What we’re going to talk about applies to both Hourly or a project basis.
[03:40] How could you possibly answer that right off the bat? Because every project, Every client, timeline is going to be different.
[07:20] It’s going to be different from project to project. That’s how you’re going to answer. I can’t really give you a good idea of what the project cost is going to be until I get a better sense of the project. What it’s going to entail, and what kinds of work we’re going to be doing together.
[08:08] Hop on a call, best case, Google Meet, or Zoom call. Make sure we get a good rapport. It’s best practice. It’s easy. A 15, 20, maybe 30 call max is going to be way more efficient for everyone than any sort of back and forth.
[10:23] Talking with a client initially and they ask, what’s your price for an email, You think efficiency, here’s what I charge for an email. That is a big red flag. There’s so much variability in every email, every homepage, every e book.
[12:34] If you have a potential client pushing back against a healthy boundary like that. That’s not a client relationship you want to have. Because if they’re pushing back at this point in the relationship, I guarantee that the rest of it will be difficult too.
[14:14] There’s nothing worse than working on a project where not only did you get underpaid, but that you were miserable the entire time that you were being underpaid.
[15:00] What kind of question are you going to ask them on the call? what is the project? What are you hoping to accomplish with this project? Who is the target audience for this project? what are the elements of this project? .
[16:09] You want to ask, whether it’s an email or an ad or whatever, what’s happening before the user sees whatever it is that you’re working on and what happens after, where are they going?
[19:11] You’re also getting an understanding for what this client is like to work with for how well they understand what it is that they are selling or what the outcome it is that they want to accomplish from this project or their wellbeing or their audience.
[19:51] The time to give them the quote is not at the end of the call after you’ve spent 15, 30 minutes talking all of this stuff through. It’s just not a reasonable time for you to come up with a quote. You need to process all of that and just sit with it.
[20:23] How long it might take me to write this? There might be several rounds of revisions. Weighing all of these factors to maybe pad your time a little bit more. We are basing it in roughly how long something’s going to take us. You want to factor all of that in.
[22:07] If you’re nervous to send this through, good, that’s what you should send through. If you are like, oh yeah, this is easy, this is a no brainer, then it might be lower than it should be.
[23:01] So your best chance of getting the work is to take a moment, think it through carefully, and then send through your quote. So yes, do what you think, what you know. It feels good for compensating your time and what you’re going to be happy with.
[24:37] So when you’re on a call with a client and you’re getting to the end of the call, got all the information necessary. Say, thank you so much for all of this. I’m going to go back and review these notes and I will send you a quote and a timeline for completing this project by the end of the day.
[25:24] We’re not going to follow up for a week after that, sending that quote. You’re going to give them a minute. And you’re going to do other things in your business that need doing.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“We obviously want to provide our clients with the best service that we can when we can, but when it comes to prices, when they ask that question, we don’t immediately have to give an answer.” – Kate
“We are going to guide the conversation for them. You need to ask them questions about the project in order to get to the point where you can quote them a cost for a project.” – Nicki
“You just want to get everyone on the same page and that will help your pricing infinitely.” – Kate
“If someone is not willing to get on a call with you to discuss their project, then this is not someone that you want to work with.” -Nicki
“You might have a sense, you might have a range, but for you to just quote something of; That’s a big red flag. So I would highly recommend that is efficient as it might make you feel. It’s not a best practice. It’s not setting you up for success.” – Kate
“I think we’re always afraid to send in the quotes we’re nervous about because we don’t want the client to say no.” – Kate
“Don’t make assumptions. You don’t know what’s going on in a client’s business. What’s most important to them? You have no idea whether to say yes or no too.” – Nicki
“It’s a red flag for a client if you price too low because then it looks like you’re not experienced and they don’t want to work with a copywriter who’s not experienced, doesn’t know what they’re doing.” – Nicki
“Give yourself that deadline so you have to send it out and you don’t end up spending all of that wasted time overthinking. ” – Nicki
Mentioned in the Episode
- Episode 219: How to Avoid Copywriting Employment Scams
- Episode 201: Top Copywriting Myths, Busted – Part II
- Get an Exclusive Bonus Recording When You Review the Podcast
Related Links
- Getting Information From Clients, When to Price Your Services, and Boosting Confidence
- What Do You Bill For? (And What Don’t You?)
Get an *Exclusive* Bonus Recording!
Tell us what you love about the podcast and what you hope to hear next! When you do, you can get access to an exclusive bonus recording featuring five wildly successful entrepreneurs who share what they do (and don’t!) look for when hiring copywriters. You do not want to miss it!
Get all the details on how to get your recording here »
About the Build Your Business Podcast
Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.
