11 COMMON PRICING QUESTIONS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS, ANSWERED
I recently asked my Instagram community what their biggest struggles were when it came to pricing their services as a social media manager.
In this blog post, I’ll be answering their questions and a few of the most common ones I get.
Let’s dive straight in:
I’m not sure what the ‘right’ price point is
This is such a common question and I’m sure one every single social media manager has asked at some point in their journey.
The truth is, the only ‘right’ price point is the one that supports you and your needs.
There’s no magic, universal price that all social media managers should be charging.
Your price comes from two things:
The amount of money you need to earn to support yourself and your business
How much you want to work
Anything else isn’t relevant.
Whilst we’re on the topic of ‘right’, I want to touch on perfectionism.
So many of us get caught up in trying to make everything perfect.
The perfect price, the perfect package, the perfect pitch, the perfect content.
Chasing perfection stops you from taking action.
Choose a price that suits you for now, based on my Price for Freedom formula and every 3-6 months, revisit it. Whatever price you need for now can be changed in the future.
I struggle to work out the different prices for different offers
My biggest piece of advice here is to focus on delivering one main offer.
During my Half Day Strategy Workshops, I encourage my clients to create one main offer to generate the majority of your income (base income) and then look at one off services individually (bonus income) for when you need an income boost or as a downsell for those who can’t afford your services.
So the base income price and offer is the main service you want to sell. As a social media manager, this will likely be your management package. By choosing just one package to offer, you not only make it more simple for yourself but you also make it easier for your potential clients to say yes because you don’t overwhelm them with lots of different options.
If a client requires more or less than your base package, you can then tweak the package to suit their needs - adjusting the price as necessary.
Your bonus income offers might be things like a one off strategy session, hashtag research or a profile audit.
Although it’s possible to use my Pricing Formula for these bonus offers, the way I like to do this is to focus on the value the client will be receiving from this offer.
Let’s take a strategy session and look at the value they’ll receive:
60-90 minute Zoom session (FEATURE)
Recording of session (FEATURE)
Workbook to complete (FEATURE)
This is what people often consider to be the value but actually, these are just the features.
The value is the benefit they will get from the session. Things like:
Clarity around what they need to be doing on their social media
A strategy to help them achieve their goals with ease
Confidence to take action and be consistent on their profiles
Content ideas for the month ahead
All of these things will help your client take action and get results - building a community, generating leads, positioning themselves as a leader.
How much of a transformation is that for your client?
How valuable is that for your client?
What’s the potential ROI of that strategy session with you?
These are the things you need to consider when pricing your bonus income offers. No one can give you the ‘right’ answer. It’s your business, you have to make the decision.
I get imposter syndrome when it comes to pricing
Join the club! Imposter Syndrome is common in all areas of our business but it seems to show up more when it comes to pricing.
There are so many social media managers around now that it’s easy for you to get caught up in the comparison game and checking out what your competitors are doing. This is the biggest cause of Imposter Syndrome.
The best thing you can do for yourself to avoid pricing imposters is to steer clear of what anyone else is charging or the packages they’re offering.
When you’re pricing your services, you need to focus solely on your needs and the life you want to be creating for yourself. You can learn how to do this by join The Pricing Academy® here.
And for more general tips on overcoming imposter syndrome, read this blog post.
It’s hard to get people to understand how valuable my services are and how much more I do than their family member who does it for free
This might not be the answer people were expecting but you really need to stop trying to convince people how valuable social media managers are. Focus your energy on the people who do get it, who do want support from you. If people don’t understand the value in hiring someone to manage their social media, no matter how cheap you are, they aren’t going to pay.
It’s not your job to show them how valuable a social media manager can be. It’s your job to serve your community and the clients who do appreciate having social media support.
I totally get how frustrating it is when you know a business could be doing so much better with your help but the energy you’re using to persuade them to see how much you’ll benefit them is energy that could be spent on attracting new clients that get the importance of socials.
If someone isn’t willing to pay you what you deserve, they are not your people, no matter how much they need you.
I worry that I’m not worth as much as others
This answer could be a whole blog post in itself! The main thing you need to do here is mindset related. Follow these 3 simple steps:
Uncover
Rewrite
Reprogram
Uncover: Write down all the reasons you think you’re not worth your fees (i.e. I don’t have much experience, I’m self taught, etc)
Rewrite: Completely flip the fears around and write out the opposite (i.e. I have enough experience, I learned everything I need to know to support my clients, etc)
Reprogram: To change your conscious and subconscious thoughts, you need to start changing the thoughts you have on repeat. So instead of the negative thoughts you uncovered before, start repeating positive ones. Repeat your rewritten beliefs at least 50 times per day.
You can write your new beliefs out, repeat them out loud or use an app like ThinkUp where you can record and listen to your new beliefs.
This is a self worth issue and self worth is something we have control over. If you build the belief that you are worthy of your fees, people will pay them. Working on your self worth is a bit like going to the gym - the more you work out, the stronger your muscles get. But as soon as you stop, you lose the strength you’ve gained.
Dedicate time daily to working on your mindset.
Pricing mindset and believing you are worthy of your prices is one of the core modules in The Pricing Academy®.
I don’t know if the price is worth the value I deliver
The way that most social media managers price is by creating a package and then trying to decide how much to charge for it.
But when you do this, you often end up undercharging - so, in fact, your price isn’t worth the value you deliver. It’s worth a hell of a lot more.
Inside The Pricing Academy®, you’ll learn to price your services first and then add in the value afterwards so you can guarantee your price is worth the value you deliver.
This works so well because not only are you able to hit your income goal without hustle or overwhelm but you feel more confident in your offers because you know you’re delivering an insane amount of value that’s worthy of your price tag.
People think all I do is create a few pictures and share some words so they don’t want to pay a lot
First of all, these people aren’t your dream clients.
Let go of the people who don’t appreciate what you do, stop trying to convince them they need you and focus your attention on the people in your community who do value you and what you offer.
Secondly, to combat this without having to convince people you’re worth paying for, start to share more of the behind the scenes stuff on your socials. Talk about the work you’re doing, share results you’ve achieved with your clients, speak about what happens when a client starts working with you or share a client story and the steps that you took together.
Talking about the strategy you create, the hashtag research you’re doing, tools you use for social listening etc will show your audience you do more than just share a few pictures and write some words and will reflect back how valuable you are.
The market is full of people offering services for very low prices - should I be charging low too?
Absolutely not!!
I completely understand where you’re coming from and when I started as a social media manager back in 2017, I had the exact same thought. I didn’t think I had the right to charge what others were because I’d only just started my business (despite having experience and being really good at social media marketing). And because so many people were undercharging, I felt like I had to charge even lower.
Now this answer comes in two sections:
No, you should definitely not be charging low prices just because someone else is. To understand how much to charge to suit your needs, join The Pricing Academy® here.
The more people continue to undervalue themselves and undercharge for their services, the more they make it acceptable for others to do the same. But when you price with confidence, when you charge what you need to support yourself and when you show the world how much you value yourself, you give others around you the permission to do the same. You empower others.
Again, you absolutely do not need to charge low prices because others are.
I look at my competitors and everyone’s charging something different so I feel overwhelmed and confused about what I should charge
This is totally normal to do and something that gets taught a lot - to look at your competitors prices and price yourself around that level.
But the problem with that is, your competitors don’t have the same needs you do.
Your competitors might not pay as much rent as you or have a lot less business expenses than you. So if you price based on what they’re charging, you’ll struggle to achieve your income goals without needing to work with a shit tonne of clients.
This is why it’s so important to price based on your own needs. To discover the formula you need to be using, take my pricing quiz here.
I’m worried if I price too high no one will sign up
Here’s the truth: there will always be someone who thinks you’re too expensive. Whether you’re charging £100 a platform or £1k a platform, people have different budgets and different ideals around the value of a social media manager.
Second truth bomb: You are going to be rejected.
It’s the nature of being in business. And in order to price with confidence, you have to get yourself feeling comfortable with rejection.
A few things to think about to overcome this struggle:
Are you clear on who you dream paying client is? Your dream client is very different from your dream paying client. Your dream paying client can afford your prices. If you’re increasing your prices so that they support your needs, think about tweaking who your IPC is and start tailoring your content towards the businesses who will be able to afford your new rates.
With the thought in mind that there’ll always be someone who thinks you’re too expensive, would you rather be rejected at a low price or a high price? If you’re charging £100 a platform and are rejected, your self worth will take an even bigger knock because you’ll instantly believe that you’re not good enough to be paid a really low price. Whereas if you’re charging a higher price, you can shrug it off and focus on the mantra every no is one step closer to a dream yes.
What does higher prices communicate to the outside world? It shows that you’re an expert, you’re good at what you do and you believe in the results you can deliver. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “You get what you pay for”. Would you rather spend less money on someone who doesn't get you results or pay a bit extra for someone who’s gonna go all in for you and deliver amazing amounts of value (like you will)?
I don’t understand how to work out my hourly rate
I’m so glad this one came up! It’s time to forget about an hourly rate and focus on creating value-packed packages instead. Listen to this episode of The Price with Confidence Podcast for more on this.
Here’s why you don’t want to price by the hour:
Let’s imagine you’re a newbie SMM and your weekly tasks per client take you 10 hours (because you’re new, slower and haven’t got systems/processes in place yet). If you’re charging £20 an hour, you’re making £200 a week.
“Sweet!” I hear you say.
But as you gain more experience, you speed up and get your processes in place so your tasks take you half the time (which is awesome, you get more free time!) but then you’re only earning £100 a week per client.
So effectively, you’re getting paid less money for being better at your job.
Doesn’t add up, does it?
When you price based on a package, even if you speed up, you’re still getting paid the same amount. You’re delivering the same amount of value, you’re just taking less time to deliver that value. Clients pay you for the value you deliver, not the hours you work.
Your Key takeaways:
Do price your services based on your needs
Don’t undercharge just because other people are
Do work on increasing your self confidence, self belief and self worth
Don’t waste energy trying to convince people they need you
Don’t get caught up in what anyone else is charging
Do you have a pricing question that I didn’t answer here? Send me a DM on Instagram and I’ll add it into this blog post.