How to Price Your Branding & Web Design Services
Wondering how to price your branding services? You deserve to charge well for the high-value service you provide!
In this post, we sharing all about how to price yourself and start charging more for your design services. Because we all want to make more money in our businesses, right?!
When we first started our business, we didn’t know how to structure our services, what to charge, and if clients would even be willing to pay us what we wanted.
We understand that it’s hard to know when and how to increase your design rates, which is why we’re sharing with you today exactly how we went from charging just $1K for our first real brand & web design project to now charging $15k+
1. START BY DETERMINING A BASELINE PRICE
When considering how to price your design services, it’s always important to consider the market and what your services are really worth to your potential clients.
While many businesses do need education about how vital branding is to their success, an eCommerce business is pretty much always going to be willing to pay more for a website than a service-based business since their website is not the only way they get business.
This is something that you will figure out as you pitch different businesses and gain more experience, but always keep in mind what the market is for your services, and how much different types of business value your service.
The first thing you should always consider when setting prices, is what your financial goals and basic needs are, for both your business and personal life. Calculating this will give you a baseline for the lowest you can charge per project. This can be very eye-opening because, for example, if you know you need to profit $35,000 this year and can only take on 25 projects, charging $500 per project will absolutely not work.
We created a pricing guide for designers (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) which will help you calculate your financial goals and minimum price per project. Doing this simple calculation often reveals to designers just how much they’ve been undercharging. It can also help you feel justified in charging higher rates because you know the financial goal you are working towards.
Free designer’s pricing guide!
This free worksheet will help you calculate your true cost of doing business, set financial goals, and create confidence in your pricing.
And keep in mind that we organically raised prices as we gained more experience and skill. You don’t have to hit a specific business milestone to increase your pricing or make a big public announcement about it. Just incrementally increase your pricing as you gain more experience and confidence with each proposal you send to a potential client. This is how we have managed to go from charging around $3,000 to $8-12,000 for similar project scopes just this year.
2. UNDERSTANDING YOUR CLIENT'S FINANCIAL GOALS WILL HELP YOU PRICE ACCORDINGLY
Without understanding your clients’ financial situation, it’s hard to know how to price their project appropriately to ensure the price is right for them and profitable for you. This is why we have a list of specific questions that we ask on every sales call with a potential client.
These questions help us understand where our clients are at, how much they’re making, and what they are willing to invest. Once we get that information from the client, we can then determine an appropriate price for the project, based on our bare minimum + value to the client.
We’ve done calls so many times now we have our script down pretty solid, so we want to share with you a free copy of our Sales Call Questions! We’ve also added some sales scripts within the doc so you know what to say and when, depending on how the call goes with your client.
3. ADD VALUE TO YOUR SERVICE BY INCORPORATING "BRAND STRATEGY" INTO YOUR PROCESS
First, what is Brand Strategy? Brand strategy is a combination of clear and creative messaging, the brand’s promise to their customer, their brand personality and voice, and brand visuals.
We learned a lot about brand strategy by reading “Building A Story Brand” by Donald Miller.
If you aren’t providing your client with a solid foundation of brand strategy along with your design, you’re doing them a disservice, and you’re likely missing out on charging the kind of money that you want to make.
It’s your job to educate your clients on the importance of brand strategy as part of the process. Once your client understands the value that brand strategy can provide for their business long-term, they will be more willing to pay a higher price for your work.
We incorporate brand strategy into our process by hosting a 1.5-2 hour long Brand Strategy Session at the very start of the project, then delivering a Brand Strategy & Direction Presentation, a Logo & Branding Proposal, and a Brand Style Guide. The purpose of sending information and design proposals in these high-quality templates is to give the client an elevated experience that they feel helps justify their investment.
Not sure how to conduct a Brand Strategy Meeting? We use a template Google Doc full of strategy meeting questions that we ask every client. You can download a free copy of our Brand Strategy Questions Template HERE. (Once on the doc page, click File > Make a Copy)
