My company will soon be bringing on a client that will be running for statewide office. We will be managing Facebook, Twitter, doing a little blogging/email marketing, and advising them on the proper use of Instagram. 

I am having trouble coming up with a accurate or fair monthly price to charge this individual, due to the fact that I am somewhat new to the industry. Can anyone give me some tips or ballpark figures that I could quote him?

@alanholmes Alan, I recently took on a similarly project. Not on the scale of yours but the work is along the same lines.

Here’s how I broke down the pricing:
For writing involving blog posts, newsletters, ezines, marketing material etc, I charge fixed rates that I have for all of them.

For social media updates and other consulting, I charge them an hourly rate. My client put the cap at 10 hours a month because that’s how much they could afford (I charge $100 per hour. Not a lot, but the exchange rate is favorable where I live ) and we wrote down everything they want me to do. 1 of those hours is set aside for the last week of the month where we’ll meet, go over last month’s performance, strategize, and plan for the next month.

For bigger projects, I’ve found that it pays to sit your client down for an hour or two (even if you’re not paid for it) and hammer out the minute details of the project. Otherwise, things get out of hand very fast and you end up working more hours than you can bill and you’re left wondering what to do.
Hope this helps!

@alanholmes I will be tackling this issue one day once I launch my consulting biz. I did price a project last year and used per hour.

$XX per hour + expenses Estimated time: Stage One and Two – 80 to 120 hours; Stage Three – TBD dependent on report format

@alanholmes

I agree w/what’s been said above, and it’s more or less how we do it.

However, had an interesting conversation w/a guy who does consulting and he has an hourly rate of $150 or so. He was doing some consulting w/a guy who makes $325/hr and asked the guy how he (the man I was talking to) could command such a high hourly fee.

The $325 guy said, “you never will as long as you charge by the hour. You need to bill by the project, charge a lot, and provide results.”

Something to strive for, to be sure.

@maximiliano-garcia – Sorry it took so long to get back to you Maximiliano.
My rates include the strategizing/planning and execution. 

The social media and content plan is planned out for 3,6 or 12 months. My client and I meet (virtually) at the end of every month to discuss progress, problems and future prospects based on the current month’s performance. 

If the client wants to try out a service they usually go for a 3 month plan and renew the contract after that if they’re satisfied. Also depends on their budget.

I usually leave all that to the client. If I need a web developer etc. I  tell my client I need one. If he has someone already in his company, they put me in touch. If they don’t, I usually refer them to somebody. 

In all cases though I let the client hire whoever is needed. I don’t have a team of my own people. It’s a personal choice. I like my clients to remain involved in the entire process and this way they get to be aware of what I as their social media or content person needs, where I’m at and why I need whatever it is I need from them.

Hope this clears out things for you.

Hey @alanholmes 

Congrats on picking up a new client.  I’d outsource most of the stuff then charge the client double what it costs you.  For example, if you go to Fiverr.com to purchase a $5 article to post on the blog, you could charge your client $10 for the article.

You will have to proof read most of the work, but it’ll be easy.

As far as work you’re going to actually do yourself, you could charge between $25 an hour to $100.  

If you need any press releases written for your client, send me a pm and I’ll give you a special price on a Google News press release.  

@rich-brooks, you said,
The $325 guy said, “you never will as long as you charge by the hour. You need to bill by the project, charge a lot, and provide results.”

Wow – something I need to really think about for sure. Thanks for sharing that gem.

HI @jon-hartley —  

Social Media consultants have gone (or are going) the way of SEO consultants (of which I am one) and that is this — too many people claiming to know a lot about something that is still a fairly new resource.  Since SM is trendy, it contains the aura of mystery for many people. Anyone who claims to know all about SM or even one platform, has already risen to the top if they’ve been proved (even half the time) to be mildly accurate with assumptions and assertions. 

At any rate Jon, this would be better discussed in it’s own thread, so you might want to ask a question outside this topic so there can be more discussion “on topic” about your uh, topic.

Thanks!

Eileen  

All,

So many great comments, questions and advice!  Great discussion.  My best advice, as someone who is a SM “expert” and a Consultant who lives, eats and breathes social media and SEO, but only claims to know enough about SEO to as it relates to content marketing, website marketing, lead generation and social media; the bottom line is this – it doesn’t matter who you are, what you are selling, services offered, rate or depth of experience, it all comes down to the relationship and trust, on both sides of the table.  If the prospective client buys whatever you pitch and down the road communication or services or results fall short, a disaster will happen and the ramifications thereafter.  Good luck!!

@jendavisjd Thank you for saying “doesn’t matter who you are, what you are selling, services offered, rate or depth of experience, it all comes down to the relationship and trust, on both sides of the table”.Steve