In the professional life of every copywriter there comes a moment when he has to face the most burning issue – what amount to demand for his work?
The cost of each text must be justified and depends on many different factors, which usually cannot be considered individually. Each in one way or another affects your work and should be taken into account. Some are easy to measure and count, and some can be troublesome. So what do you need to pay attention to when pricing your services?
Let’s start with the technical issue, which is the easiest to determine – what kind of text are you writing? Different types of copywriting are priced differently:
The more knowledge and skills a text requires from the author, the higher its price will be.
Time is an important factor in assessing your work, and is inextricably linked to the form of copywriting. More difficult texts require, more work and time. You need to take into account not only the writing itself, but also the research and other preparations necessary for the text to be created at all. For example, if you spent 10 hours analyzing materials and as a result created a unique and useful text of 3000 characters, include it in your pricing.
It may happen that in addition to preparing the text, you will also have to match it with an illustration or create simple graphics. Such additional tasks also take time and will affect the price of the order. Don’t forget about it!
While we are on the subject of time, remember that an urgent order costs more. If you usually need 2-3 days for a long text, and the client gives you less than 24 hours, the conditions of your work will be more difficult and stressful. You will probably have to work at night and without breaks, postpone other orders and delay their execution. In this situation, the price of the text must be higher.
The price is, of course, also affected by the length of the text. In this case, you can calculate the price based on characters with spaces or characters without spaces, which are easy to count. However, you can’t overlook other factors because the pricing will not be fully reliable. For example, 1000 characters of light text for Facebook can not have the same price as 1000 characters of text optimized for SEO or text requiring specialized knowledge
The cost of any creative work depends largely on the discretion and experience of the author and copywriting is no exception. There are many well-known and respected copywriters in this field who have earned their reputation and can price themselves higher. They also don’t have to solicit clients. It is different with fresh and inexperienced authors. In their case, the price must be reasonable and not excessive, otherwise the client will get discouraged and run away. If you can’t boast several years of experience or an interesting portfolio, stick to the lower or medium price registers.
Check the current average copywriting rates, how other companies are pricing and what they take into account. Such information will help you get an idea of what price range you can and should work within.
Your competitors never sleep and are eager to steal your client, often at any cost. In practice this means that there is always someone who will do the job for less. Even below minimum prices. The so-called dumping, or providing services at artificially low prices, makes it impossible for clients to objectively assess the work of copywriters and spoils the market. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon phenomenon and it is a very bad sign for such a writer. Therefore, regardless of market conditions, do not reduce the cost of your work and do not do it for nothing.
Everything is really based on the basic self-esteem of each person. Inexperienced people, often have a problem with determining the value of their work, do not value themselves properly and tend to underprice their texts. Conversely, many experienced copywriters won’t even take on assignments for minimum market rates.
Regardless of your experience, you should approach the pricing of texts without emotions and methodically, taking into account all measurable factors and general market rates. Don’t underestimate your prices just because it’s your first assignment or you don’t believe in your skills. On the other hand, don’t price yourself too high if your copywriting portfolio is poor and your texts are far from good.
Main article photo: Photo by Rouzes / E+ / Getty Images
