A $500 Client Quote Versus A $5000 Client Quote in SEO

Discussion 2: A $500 Client Quote Versus A $5000 Client Quote in SEO
Jonathan
$500 Client: “I just feel as though with this investment I am about to make in you, that we should understand how our lives are about to change and I need results and you need to bring them, I am entrusting you with our livlihood and lives”
$5000 Client: “Money sent, thanks”
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a 500 client quote versus a 5000 client quote in seo
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Alicia
It's def true but the for the guy paying $500, a loss might make the difference of whether or not he can keep the lights on next week. The guy paying $5000 is obviously not living paycheck to paycheck. For that matter, unlike the little guy, it's probably not even his money he's spending.
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Lee
As a small business owner who happens to do a lot of their own SEO I totally relate to the 500.00 guy.
We started with a 1200.00 beat up truck and that's it. No insurance, nothing. As we grew so did our expenses. Wasted 500 on add words here, 1000.00 on homeadvisor there. Every mistake I made hurt our growth. Running a business with overhead is hard. Yes I freaked the first time I paid someone else to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and new enough to know they were trying to talk me into keywords that I know would not bring me the kind of customer /traffic I wanted just because they could say they got me keywords on the first page. Just one example.
. If you feel that way about the 500.00 customer than only service the 5000.00 customer. If you doing so well that little 500.00 chump change isn't going to make or break you and you will be much happier and so will your customers.

Gary » Lee
You're missing the point here the $500 guy demands so much work and time where as the $5000 guy understands advertising is the lifeblood of the business he looks at it as an asset not a debt.

Shawky
I feel this post is awfully mean, coz it's not about how much the client pays, it's more about how much the client got and how much he's risking by trusting you'll be able to get him results, where I live those $500 could support a family for like 3 months or something and $5000 is a small fortune.
You can't compare a client who spends the $500 weekly on his weed and cigarettes to a client who gave you a sizeable portion of his working capital, even if this portion is just $500, and you should be honored more by the latter, not making fun of him.

Marilyn » Shawky
It's not about how much they pay but the way some clients are just better for workflow and sanity. I empathize with the little guy, but as a freelancer, I prefer the large agencies who just see you as part of the process. It's not money — it's attitude.

McDonald
Too many people seem to be taking this too emotionally. There's nothing inherently wrong or negative about this meme.
This ultimately just comes down to the value-vs-uniqueness proposition for a business owner, in this case an SEO provider, but you could just as easily say a motorcycle or phone manufacturer, or photographers or graphic designers.
It's not that you just charge a client $5,000 for work that results in $500 worth of effort or results, which I think we'd all agree is a bad way to go about business.
And it's not that the people who offer $500 worth of services for $500 are bad people, or that the people who only have $500 to spend on services are useless and should GTFO.
But there are some people who try to offer $5,000 worth of services for $500 and either spend years never getting off the ground, or else miss a lot of cash that could otherwise be on the table, if they only realized they could charge $5,000 for the same services they're already offering for $500.
Not only that, but there is a whole segment of consumers out there who will immediately *WRITE YOU OFF* as a vendor if your prices are too low. It sets off their Spidey Senses, so to speak, and gives them a bad tingle in the back of their brain that something doesn't look right.
All this meme is (really) saying is that if you're stuck in Quadrant 3, there ARE ways to move yourself to Quadrant 1 if you do things the right way.
I've known people who were stuck in Quadrant 3 because they never believed they could operate in any other quad, and never understood much about the consumers who spent money on businesses in those other quadrants.
Just a few thoughts… sorry for the book. LOL

a 500 client quote versus a 5000 client quote in seo
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Akilah
I'm so tired of this meme and really makes me question how people treat and feel about their clients.
Whether they paid $500 or $5k they should be valued, they are still spending with you.
I've had good and bad clients at all pay levels. As service providers it's really in poor taste to project that someone is going to problem client if they don't spend a ton of money with you.
I'm sure I've been in the game just as long if not longer. Being respectful doesn't make me a newbie.
Whether they complain or not looking down on your clients is never a good thing. If you don't want $500 clients don't charge $500. But it really rude to take their money and then complain about them
There are good and bad clients at every price point. I've had $100 clients that were so grateful for the help and guidance they did whatever was needed and I have 5-figure client right now that has yet to give the intact documents. Either way, I won't be online sharing memes and bashing people.
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Daniel
That's beautiful is what it is and it's truth. It doesn't matter how much someone is giving us they are in most cases giving us the key to the car that is their life and so that is whether from a $500 client or $5000 client. People give what they can even if their idea of a lot is cheap to us, it's still an honor to be chosen to put the food on the tables of these clients. To be trusted yes, that is an honor. This is actually a part of my customer service marketing always this concept. Thanking my clients clients for choosing my client. Its always an honor to be chosen and given such trust. I get it though about cheap clients I have b1tched about it before but in the end all my people usually do the right thing and at some point give me proper money. If I bring them proper success. Now lying clients that act like their broke and play manipulation games that's another story. But for the man to whom 500 is scary because he really needs it come on now that's an honor as much as 5000. Just like how the Pharasise thought by giving so much they bought their way into heaven yet the old lady that gave so little yet it was all she had was the one that actually did something special. Same applies here.
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Cornilla
I'd work with the first person and just get commission off results.
That was a beautiful statement.
Many of you don't understand how little the margin of error is for poor people.
Some people are 1 loss away from losing everything.
Some people are 1 loss away from taking their lives.
Some people are 1 win away from staying alive and fighting for hope.
Someone with the last bit of hope might be reading your comments.
Don't snuff that hope out.
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Greg
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These may satisfy you:
» Someone felt him/herself as an SEO Client who thought that some SEO Vendors only want his/her Money
» Beware of getting Low Payment for Wholesale Work on SEO!
Discussion 1: A Client Thinks the Price You Offer is Low as Half of Minimum What S*He Ever Bought
span class=”a”>Bogosian
Am I crazy when I charge $2,500 for a basic WordPress Template build + content? Just fielded a client call where he said I'm out of my mind. Before COVID my minimum was 5k…
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Todd
Minimum price for any WordPress template based site 2500$.
Minimum price for custom theme 5000$.
This would include custom home and template for pages and posts.
0 Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
0 content.
0 beyond install, setup/configure, look and feel of template. And a couple plugins.
Content is billed at 30m/page for basic or hour for complex. THEY provide content. If we are then it's 1-3hr per page. We only provide technical/tutorial type content so rates are based on time to complete writing and research.

Bogosian
That's pretty much my story as well.
I basically tell them it's an investment and if they aren't willing to invest in their business what's the point. You have to spend money to make money. When you hire a professional with experience you need to pay.
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Todd
We do mostly development work like custom business process automation and eCom addons, apps and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Minimum customizations for eCom are usually 2500$, apps usually minimum 15,000$. Most of my quotes lately have been 30-100k$.
I prefer long term clients. Some of them are with me over 10 years.

Brandon
TBH some charge $25k for all of that work with content. Don't sell yourself cheap. You'll never be a good fit for everyone and obviously you can choose when to discount, but I wouldn't drop your standard rates permanently. One last thing I'll add is someone who doesn't see your value and bucks it, especially with stupid comments like that guy, they will give you hell and you'll be bound to deal with their nonsense and unhappy. Just don't do it. It's called abuse. Run from people like that. There are people who have limited budget but value you, and then there are cheapskates who wish to manipulate you into working with them for next to nothing and then take advantage of you. Screw that. You're worth more.
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Ethan
Depends on who you're talking to. I've had clients who thought $10k was cheap. And clients who thought $4k was overpriced. It's all about perspective.
What isn't up to perspective is how you value yourself. If you think it's worth $2500 to you, then you charge $2500. You don't owe anyone the price they want and you don't have to feel bad or question your pricing.
Kathy
Websites have become commoditized, and he's right. He can get it really cheap elsewhere. Make sure you outline the benefit you provide such as fast, secure, usable, mobile friendly, optimized for search, etc. These days that may not even be enough because everyone claims to do that, even though they don't do it well.
Unfortunately, it's a continual race to the bottom which is why I don't encourage anyone to get into web development field these days unless you sell your services to marketing agencies and let them deal with the buyer. But I have to tell you, the competition is FIERCE in that space too. I get calls and emails almost daily from Indian companies trying to be my development arm. Not only is it very annoying, it's really hurt that industry here in the U.S. just as China did to manufacturing.
What I've found, though, is most businesses in the U.S. don't want to outsource marketing overseas. So I pivoted my business as a result. I don't sell websites anymore. I sell solutions to business problems.
But I'll also add. 90% of my clients are ones who went the cheap or outsource-overseas route. After a year, they learned they made a mistake, and then came back to find a real solution. Price became less of an issue to them.
So I think you should let this guy go. Stick to your price, be nice and maybe you'll see him in a year.

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Silva
My philosophy is that if I'm the professional you're hiring, it is my duty and responsibility to charge the right price for the value I understand that the project requires in terms of raw materials and in terms of what it means for my client's business.
In other words, if $2,500 is the honest, right price for a project that has certain value (i.e. potential gains from it, both in tangible and intangible forms), then you must make sure your client understands what those 2,5K actually represent for him/her and his/her business.
Maybe if you elaborate the word "basic" into "an operational platform for your business with basic features powered by WordPress cms + Content battery of 10 blog posts (or whatever you wanna call it), it will feel more valuable to your client.
John
There is so much more to creating a website than just the layouts. The details are what make it a great website. What's the difference between Motel 6 and the Ritz-Carlton? It's not just price.
We've been building sites for over 8 years and we still find things we should be doing or improving on. Things like search and integrations. Properly setting up Google Analytics and goals. Email marketing. Facebook Pixel…and on and on. Keep in mind ecommerce adds a lot more to the equation.
We sell websites for 6k to 20k and have lost money on many projects because we put so much time into it. For us the website project is the start of a client relationship.
Lang
Depends on if your build, makes them money. I paid my now head of marketing, $8500 up front to fix my marketing, build a site that converted and fix my copy, and write 5 follow up emails after a conversion occurred.
I also pay him now $2500 a month to handle all things I can't around marketing, video and content creation. The Result? $40,000 in new sales in October alone…
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Karen
I get those results for clients but I don't confidently set relevant pricing. How did you determine to invest with them from the beginning? Did you balk at the prices like most people do.
Lang » Jack Humphrey
Was a marketing guru at the top 20 yrs ago. We have known each other for 14 yrs now. So we already had trust and knowledge of each other. So experience and personal knowledge shored up the close.
That may or may not help you Karen. But I want you to know this was not a cold hire.
Also for my email delivery services, on a cold call, I am $12,500 up front. But I have the testimonials and reptation to back it up.
Gets easier to close on a call when $100,000 is going down the drain in Gmail spam per month!

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This may satisfy you: Can I Hire an SEO Assistant for Wholesale SEO Work?

2 comments on A $500 Client Quote Versus A $5000 Client Quote in SEO

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