Setting your personal price

Hi Michael,

Sorry to bother you - I'm a subscriber to your 'Thought of the Day' feeds (which are becoming more like 'thought of the week!!' i look forward to them so keep writing pls).

I have a quick question that I thought your copywriting/marketing experience could help me with: what is the usual copywriting fee p/h for freelancers? Trying to get that information online is harder than trying to extract teeth from a chicken. I'm leaving my current copywriting position and my boss would like me to stay on contract, but I don't know what rate to charge.

Would you mind giving my dilemma a few minutes thought and get back to me asap (we're due to meet to talk about it in the next few days). Sorry - here I am asking you for a favour then rushing you to do it :)

Thanks very much, I look forward to your response.

............

Dear (name),

If I can post my response to you (without mentioning your name) on my blog...

There is no scale for copywriters like there is for public servants and members of symphony orchestras... You are entering a pure market. A perfect market. Two individuals meet, find a means of agreeing on the value of a good or service. This is done without reference to governments or regulators. It is free market to the max. After agreeing on the "value" of the stuff, then they might enter a contract. At this stage they refer to an outside body (the law of contract).

So, what have we to work with? In your case and in every case in a free market, price is set by market forces. Demand.

The Art of Negotiation is the science of settling on a price. Any basic text on negotiation will give you the fundamentals.

The words above: 'find a means of agreeing' are the fulcrum for balancing the equation. Look for a way to 'frame' the valuation that both sides can agree on.

Such "frames" include the following: 1. "The Budget." (Client appeals to a third party who has control of the money, in this way making their discretion absolute.) You take it or leave it. 2. "Time and materials." You estimate how much you need to make to cover your costs and make a profit. The client take it or leaves it. 3. "All Things Considered." You balance the valuation across a range of considerations, such as a big brand that gives you cred for attracting other clients vs a no-name, the ease or difficulty of dealing with the client (personalities, location, quality of brief, number of revisions, creative freedom vs following the formula from head office, the volume of the work and its regularity, etc.)

Do you charge different clients different amounts or do you charge everyone the same rate?

Get the picture?

Cheers!

Michael

PS. You are more likely to quote too low than too high.

PPS. People will only value you as much as you value yourself.

PPPS. Why not suggest to your boss that he make an offer? If you post the first bid, you are likely to lowball. It is your boss's notion of your value that will be decisive. (IE. the customer is always right.)

Secret ways to show you don't care

Here are 3 ways to tell you customers you don't care:

BODY LANGUAGE MESSAGE 1: Some bloody Yank called Sol sold me a mobile phone less that 2 years ago and I can't get accessories for it. Sol's stores have unkind people with stupid smiles that make insulting remarks such as, "Geez, I haven't seen one like that for years."

BODY LANGUAGE MESSAGE 2: Why do the mobile phone makers refuse to standardise chargers? Who does it benefit to have to search through racks of chargers looking for your exact match? Certainly not the makers. They don't manufacture the chargers.

BODY LANGUAGE MESSAGE 3: How does the buyer feel when they get to the end of an electronic order form online, only to see a field tagged "Promotion Coupon". They think: "Hold on. I'm paying full whack here. There's some discount I'm missing out on..."

You can find these little messages you send when you look for them. Audit your interface by looking through the eyes of your customer. It is a skill. And don't just switch to 'customer vision' occasionally. Leave it on.

Cheers!

MK

Kath & Kim: Product Placement Gives Itself An Uppercut

Hi,

If Kel Knight, Purveyor of Fine Meats of Fountain Gate Shopping Centre and power-walking husband on Kath Day-Knight, uses a Blackberry obsessively, what does it say about that brand? What does it say about Hyatt Coolum if style-challenged Kath aspires to it? "Kath & Kim" have made product placement an art form since moving from the ABC to Channel 7. Product placement has grown into a US$10bn industry in the US. Australia comes in at No.3 in the world. It is supposed to be the way to reach ad-avoiders. It's also supposed to be better than an ad. It is, say researchers, if the context is congruous (fits the brand's positioning). If not, it's just a joke.

Cheers!

Michael

Consistency is over-rated

Hi,

Why is John Howard such a master of political marketing? Because he understands his market. He changes with it. Get ready for the biggest display of a leopard changing its spots. Howard's conversion to Reconciliation is just the start. Is it? Look out for "Republican John", "Kyoto John", and "Out of Iraq John". Consumer research in the 1990s found that voters like a politician who will abandon a position and 'flip flop' to a more popular position. Instead of doubting their sincerity, they welcome their flexibility. So forget the polls. The PM has many flips to flop.

Cheers!

MK

Qantas: Greenwashing climate change scam?

Hi,

Flying Geoff's airline. Noticed signs inviting me to give Qantas some more money to relieve my conscience about destroying the planet by flying in one of their polluting planes. They'll buy a tree for me. Hold on! The passenger is paying for the CO2 the airline emits?

That's not how it is supposed to be. Whose carbon footprint is it?

The official line: "At Qantas we are concerned about the issue of climate change and are committed to ...blahblahblah...We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to join us in reducing the ...blahblahblah... From now on, you can choose to fly carbon neutral by offsetting your own share of flight emissions with just a small contribution."

Now here's the sting: Qantas gets all the glory for reducing emissions, and the poor, suffering passenger gets to pay for it. But under Kyoto, those emissions aren't calculated as part of the passengers' footprint. They are part of the airline's footprint.

So, while other companies buy carbon credits to offset their emissions, Qantas kindly makes it an 'opportunity' for passengers (who already had the option through anyone of half a dozen sites online.

“This is a great achievement for the Qantas Group and for travellers," enthused the Minister for Climate Change, Malcolm Turnbull. To add tragedy to the comedy, Qantas staged a piece of corporate theatre: "To launch this initiative, the Qantas Group will offset all travel with Qantas and Jetstar worldwide tomorrow on FlyCarbon Neutral Day," said the Minister.

One day! Qantas will be carbon neutral for only a single day. Did you get the impression that it had made flying 'carbon neutral'?

Well it hasn't. Qantas is offsetting the travel of its own staff. That's it. Less than 1% of seats will be offset by the airline. The rest is up to the passenger.

Look like the Police

I saw it today on New Line Road and I thought it was a Chaser stunt. One of those mobile pinlight signs the police or traffic authorities park along the road saying things like "SPeed Zones Enforced" and "Slow Down". But this one had on its changing message: "BONUS OFFER" and "Special on Clearing Blocked Drains" and it gave the name of a local plumber. Stood out like dogs. How did he get away with it?

(Thought: why not buy one or a 1000 of them and run them as a media network?)

MK

PS> I do have thoughts everyday - but not all of them are worthy of posting. Hence 'thoughtless days' are simply less is more. I don't wanna blow up the uninflatable simply to get a post a day.

PPS> Chaser stunts. Think about it.