Question

How much project research & planning are you doing before charging your clients? You have to do at least some auditing to understand the viability of the project regarding potential SV, Client goals & budget, and scope of work. but to what extent? I feel I’ve been going a bit overboard with my local clients

Answer 1

I also do a lot, but not before signing them up. It comes out of the early days of the budget as its crucial for strategy and decision making. If I get a smaller client who only wants a quick overhaul, I explicitly explain that I can only work on quick wins based on my experience and a few tools, as their budget won't stretch to research.  

Comments

@vanda how do you price the sign up before doing the research? Do you have an audit entry offer, or is your pricing model time based so hourly or flat monthly retainer & bill client for costs?  

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@vershen43670 monthly retainer, I give an expectation of how long minimum I would like to work with them, but that's only for guidance and it's only contracted for a month at a time, so if their circumstances change, it they don't contribute enough time or effort, or we stop liking each other no one is forced to continue

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@vershen43670 I tend to estimate anywhere from half day up to 4 days for planning, depending on needs and budget

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Bigger clients I've taken 6 months to 1 year to plan and execute the architecture and content for a new site build

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Like this one, that top result is mine, above ebay  

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@vanda BOOM!  How much for a Byzantine lamp?  

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@vershen43670 from about £250

Answer 2

None. We sell R&P as our entry-point offer. On the backend, we sell them the ongoing plan. This has shortened our sales cycle and we're able to get clients to start their monthly retainers higher. We also found that we scale their monthly budget faster because we're able to pinpoint quick wins within the first 90 days.  

Comments

@nash49 yeah I figure a paid audit works as a tripwire to a bigger campaign (I’ve been doing this for free up to this point) where if you can lay out exactly what’s going to happen in a campaign and show them, it’s easier for them to invest esp if they’ve spent some $ already

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@nash49 mind if I ask what you’d recommend charging for R&P for local client?  

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There are local businesses doing significant business. You can leverage competitor analysis, keyword research, topic clustering & keyword mapping, quick win analysis, and obviously an seo audit. Leveraging competition works great for local businesses.