Agency and freelancers fall into the trap of working on a single project daily. They work in conjunction with their clients for just a few weeks or even a month before moving on with the client they are working for. This means they are in a constant sales cycle without a penny of predictable revenue.
The result is an overly stressed management team, who are all uncertain of the next source of income that will be coming from.
If that’s where your freelance agency or business is now, there’s an answer. Retainer contracts are what they sound like and are set to become your next most significant partner.
What is a Retainer
A retainer agreement is a written agreement between the clients and companies stipulating that you’ll perform certain services for the same amount each month. For instance, your agency for content marketing can provide eight monthly articles distribution, splintered, and content for $13,500 per month.
They can be based on a month-to-month schedule or for a predetermined period. For instance, three, six months or 12 months, or even longer.
With retainer agreements, you’ll be aware of the monthly income you earn from clients and (if you’re skilled enough to design multi-month contracts) how much you’re earning within the next few months. The predictability you’re looking for in agencies and freelancers comes from these contracts.
Securing Retainers
Retainers can be difficult to understand. If you’ve never asked your clients to sign retainers, it’s easy to imagine that they’ll refuse. Sure, but they’d prefer to avail their services at a set price, right? This isn’t the case. Customers are content to accept retainers they are confident about. This helps them resolve their issue (like an issue over Content marketing).
Here are some strategies for securing retainer contracts so you can confidently enter the next contract negotiation.
Only Offer Your Services in Varying Retainer Packages
Bundle your services into retainer agreements to break out of the cycle of sales that never ends for one-time projects. Remove all of the one-time project plans and limit your existing and potential clients to collaborate with you on retainers. It may be intimidating at first, and you may feel like you’ll lose business, but after just a few months of working with retainer clients, you’ll never be the same again.
Your retainer packages may appear like this:
A freelance marketer for Facebook for six months of advertising on Facebook (including strategies advertising creative, strategy Data and Analytics benchmark goals, and consulting).
SEO Marketing Agency One calendar year SEO services (included eight SEO monthly articles, 4x SEO posts on pillars, 50x backlinks per month).
A Freelance Marketing Professional with six months of marketing via email (including two weekly newsletters and campaigns and offering the creation of two monthly campaigns, data and analytics, benchmarking goals, and consultation).
It’s a huge demand to convince customers to sign up for a six-plus month deal, yet the truth is that you’re aiding them. A single month of email marketing will not yield the results that they’re looking for. It takes at least six months to get their list to make them engaged in their email campaigns and get the kind of conversions you’re hoping for.
Offering your services as retainer packages can give your clients more results than providing only one-time services.
Create a Month Retainer Package
If you’re unsure if you’re ready to offer only retainers, create a retainer package that you can offer to your current and new customers. In this instance, clients can select one-time services or sign up for the retainer plan that runs for at least six months.
For instance, your one-time service could include 4x consultation calls on Facebook advertising. Your retainer contract could cover six months’ worth of Facebook Ads. Based on the example above, it could be strategies, ad creative Data, Analytics benchmark goals, and consulting).
The content marketing agency can write eight articles for clients as a once-off service. The option for retainers would be four articles per month for six months, including distribution, data, analytics, and benchmarks for conversions and traffic.
Customers who need help writing their articles and have the resources to manage the distribution themselves are happy to sign up for the eight articles. However, clients who don’t have the results and conversions they’ve gotten from their internal content marketing plan will look at your retainer agreement as the bright spot at the end of the tunnel.
Make sure you have at least a 6+ month retainer plan to offer your clients to select from.
Explain How Your Strategy Works Best Within a Set Time Frame
It’s time to put your marketing abilities to use. Your customers need to understand the reason for cooperating with you for an extended period, or even more money is worth the effort. It’s good that you’re a marketer and can convey the facts to them.
For example, you could tell them you can write eight articles for them. Still, If they’re not strategically disseminating these articles, achieving the amount of traffic and conversions they’re hoping for will be hard. Collaboration with your agency can bring them more visitors and converts with your distribution strategy, resulting in more money in their pockets.
Here’s what you’ll need to use as your selling points
Let them know that you are aware of the primary objective (get many more clients)
What your retainer agreement does to help to achieve their top objective (more customers)
What can you expect from the retainer agreement (all the deliverables are included)
Case studies or testimonials (social evidence sells!)
It’s true that your customers are more successful with retainer agreements rather than single-time projects. Your job as a marketing professional is to demonstrate this to them in a manner they comprehend, especially if you’re working with businesses unfamiliar with outsourcing parts or all their marketing strategies.
Explaining your strategy within the timeframe of your offer will convince your clients why a retainer is the most appropriate choice.