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How to Charge More Money for Your Graphic Design Services
by Michael Huggins, RGDWhat’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to charge more money for your creative services?
The answer to that question (believe it or not) is an easy one –
differentiate your services from other designers and design firms. How? By adding more value and a greater advantage to your design services than your competitors are currently offering.
One way you can do this is by sharing and leveraging the information you ALREADY KNOW to your prospects and clients – in writing!
Writing down your expertise and sharing it with your prospects and clients is a ‘must do’ exercise for the creative entrepreneur. If you are not communicating the value you bring to your client’s business you could start to experience a slow and steady erosion to your profit margins. And put your business in the vulnerable position of being commoditized in the near future.
Communicating the value of your design helps you get and retain higher fees for your work. Usually designers do a pretty good job at communicating the value of their services when they’re in a one-to-one situation. But often they fail when it comes ‘packaging it up’ and putting it in writing.
Writing tops the list as one of those things designers hate to do the most. Right next to cold-calling and public speaking. So why the apprehension to writing? My guess is that it has a lot to do with not knowing where to start or even what to write about.
Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, you can’t afford not to communicate the expertise you have in written form. The written word is one of the keys to influencing and persuading prospects & clients. Not to mention help make your business more recession proof.
And the best part is, you can start building value into your business right now. Easily. By scheduling some time into each day for writing.
Think of writing like an exercise for your mind.
Writing is to your brain what physical exercise is to your body. Schedule the best time of your day to do a “writing workout”. In my own business I schedule the beginning hours of each morning for my “20-minute writing workout” – before my day gets over run with the issues and challenges of the day. Scheduling your day around your writing time allows you to think clearly without fear of interruption or distraction.
So if you schedule your writing time, your next challenge is – “what do you write about?”
Choosing topics to write about is not as difficult as it might seem.
In fact you have all the information you need to create content right now. And it’s easier than you think. I want to give you 5 sources you can use to create content for your business.
Then you can start using this content to get more clients – justify higher fees – and target the type of work you really want.
Here are 5 great sources for creating content that you already have:
1. Your Sales Process
Often when you are meeting with a prospect you are ‘selling’ your services. Your communication is loaded with facts, service features and client benefits that you use to convince your prospect that you can help them. You use very specific language and communication to try and persuade your prospect you can help them achieve what they want to accomplish.
Your sales process is valuable information you need to write down. Writing out your features and benefits as well as answers to frequently asked questions will help you understand the exact advantages you bring to your clients.
And it’s information that you can use in other ways to sell the value of what you. You can leverage this information in articles for a newsletter or ezine or even press releases. You can even use it as part of your follow up program to your prospect list to help convert your prospects into clients.
2. Your Client Questions
How many times have you spent on the phone or on your email answering your client’s questions for a project you are currently doing for them? Or possibly you have a client who isn’t convinced that they should move ahead on a project just yet, so you need to address their questions before they are comfortable in moving forward.
If your business is anything like mine this is a regular occurrence. Answering your client’s questions is an important activity that you can’t avoid if you want to keep your good clients – but it IS a time consuming exercise. And it’s an exercise that you don’t want to waste if you don’t have to.
What do I mean?
When you create answers to your client’s questions, leverage this information by sending it to other clients. You’ll find other clients (and prospects) may have the same questions but just never bothered to ask you. Many of your clients will find the answers helpful and insightful. So don’t be surprised if in the future they ask you more questions.
This is a good thing.
Because it means they regard you as an ‘expert’ in what you do. And as an expert you insulate yourself from becoming a commodity. Because you’re not only providing design services but now you’re combining it with a consulting feature. This type of service has a higher perceived value in the mind of your clients.
3. Your Unique Approach to Design
How you approach a design project is key to your success. It influences how you approach your business every day. You may believe that: ‘design is the key ingredient to a businesses success’. You may think that ‘design is only a small component of a larger communication process’. Whatever you think – it’s important to your business. And it’s probably why your clients are working with you right now.
Your thought process, your philosophy, your approach and how you apply it to make your clients more successful, is not only interesting information – it’s sought after. Clients and prospects want to hear what your specific approach to business is. They want to be convinced that you are on the same page as they are. That their goals are your goals.
Often clients need to hear your approach again and again to be reassured that your approach will be best for them. They want to know how it applies to their business and the benefits they will get from it as a result. If they feel you have a unique approach that will give them an advantage they’re more likely to pay higher fees to get it.
So create content and package it into valuable marketing tools like reports and white papers. And then send them to clients and prospects as a form of education and proof that supports your unique design approach.
4. Your Recent Successes
Projects you are currently working on (or ones you’ve just recently finished) are a great source for creating content in your business. When you share examples of what your other clients are doing with you, you not only provide them with education but you give them a tool to become more profitable. When you can demonstrate how your design benefits other businesses you give your client the ability to apply the same techniques to achieve the same results.
That’s what makes this type of information so powerful.
Your success story is a form of ‘proof’ that your design approach works!
Use these stories in promotional pieces to your existing clients. That way, you can encourage them to use new services or increase their frequency with you. I’ve used this tool in my own design business often. And as a result, I’ve persuaded my clients to try new design services with very little haggling when it came to the price.
When you can present ‘proof of success’ you’ll often have a lower price resistance from your clients when they are ready to buy.
5. Industry Best Practices
If you’re inclined to be good at your craft, then chances are you’re always learning. My guess is, you are constantly studying how design is being used and applied in the marketplace. You may study it, write it down or just take it in. But you are always learning. If this is you, then you have another resource to draw from when you create content.
Use the information you discover to create relevant topics for articles. Create content that tells your marketplace about the best approaches to design that are currently being used in the industry.
By doing this, you become a trusted source of information. A type of ‘industry scout’ who has inside information to share. If you do a good job at sharing this type of information clients will start to seek your advice on projects before moving ahead. This creates a stronger relationship between you and your client because they trust you. This one fact alone makes it more difficult for your competitors to steal your clients away from you.
Meaning you have a long-term client at top rates, that not only creates greater income but also security for you.
Creating written content and using it to promote your business gives you a distinct advantage over your competitors. Because you create a position of value and authority in the minds of your clients and prospects. Not to mention you create greater loyalty towards you and your business.
So don’t wait for the New Year to make your New Year’s Resolution, start your exercise program today. Schedule your ‘20-minute writing workout’ tomorrow and reap the benefits of higher fees and a stronger business for many days to come.
Dedicated to Graphic Designer SuccessMichael Huggins
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