Great post Mack. These cost saving ideas can be used by clients seeking other services as well.
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As for #2, the client will save money by doing the content creation themselves as opposed to letting me handle it UNLESS they are paying their employees over say $175-200 an hour. Otherwise, it saves them money to handle as much of the content creation as we agree they are able to handle.

We are still in agreement

Regarding #1, I still think it’s important to validate data, so that should always be included in a project. Even if a company has all of its data in one place, that data still needs to be validated. Who better than an objective third party to validate the data?

Regarding #2, even if a client takes content creation in house, it will still result in increased spend, especially if they need to hire someone for you to train! The question becomes do they want to hire a 35k / year junior person who can’t optimize for results right away based on program feedback or do they want to hire an agency / outsource the content creation?

If they have someone who’s being underutilized from an HR perspective, then it becomes a question of using underutilized resources which doesn’t necessarily mean increased spend. It just means that operationally, they were over resourced and unable to leverage that to create business value. It’s really about how to allocate that cost, because a new program always means a new cost center… leading to a new profit center, if all goes as planned.

I definitely try to keep my costs down for clients, as much as possible. Data validation is just one of those things I think people skimp on because they can and to save money. However, what if you actually drill into the data and see things that are non-intuitive? Those insights provide a lot more value than operating under anecdotal evidence and assumptions which may or may not be correct. If they are correct, then no harm, no foul… but are you leaving value on the table?

You and your client can’t know the answer to that question unless you validate your data against a second data set and test your hypotheses!
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1 – There always going to be research, internal and external, that needs to be done. But if the company has all its data in place (even if it’s simply resources available), then it will help to a degree, and save them some money.

2 – An I think we are actually in complete agreement here. I prefer to handle some/most of the content creator at the start, and use it as teaching examples to the client so they can get up to speed. But I prefer to let the client know that if they hire me to create the content and do NOT let me teach them how to do it so they can eventually take it over, that it WILL cost them more money, as they will be in a perpetual state of outsourcing the content creation. If they are fine with that, then fine.

5 – I think we are in complete agreement here as well

1. Company / market research – why not include this as part of the requirements gathering / proposal pitching process? Until I know quite a bit about an organization’s culture and structure and its goals / business strategy in the short and long term, I can’t write a proposal that actually demonstrates value to the prospective client.

The competitive analysis is generally deliverable #1 in an engagement – without data to back the strategy, I’d be creating business fiction – interesting, but not grounded in reality. I use multiple third party tools to collect and validate data – using client data can bring costs down, but it can also introduce data collection bias. How good is that data then? If the data isn’t good, the strategy won’t be the optimal strategy either. If a client insists on using their data, I will with caveats but I always explain why the outside perspective is so valuable.

2. The in-house execution strategy: Mack, it may not be on strategy for the organization to have execution in house. Why not offer your clients the option to work with you and a team, where you’re the engagement lead managing some junior content creators? Everyone wins – copy writers can be had at $75 – $150 / hour. You give them assignments with the client requirements and it brings down the cost for the client AND they don’t need to have the human resources in house. They get the business value of a social media strategy without the ramp up time. This is why they pay for agency expertise.

5 – Off season rates – Obviously you should offer the most competitive rates possible, but why not focus on the value for the client? If I can demonstrate an increase in leads and / or increase in sales tied to my efforts, both the client and I are happy with my rates.

3 and 4 and 6 – I can’t challenge you on any of these points – I think they’re spot on. Generally, great relationships in business allow for more leeway, including on pricing.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on pricing – at the end of the day, only when a client is successful is the consultant successful.
.-= An Bui´s last blog ..Six Post-Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer Recaps =-.