Golden Practices Blog

Tired of Competing on Price? Be Different.

Firms have a problem and it's a marketing problem. Marketing 101 taught us that Price was one of the 4 "Ps" of Marketing. Funny that most firms don't "let" marketing stick their noses in the pricing strategy and process.

Firms seem to think marketing and pricing aren't related. But they are. 

Yesterday, Seth Godin picked on accountants in his post "We're the Same. We're the Same. We're the Same." He refers to their websites and says:

Sometimes, we try so hard to fit in we give consumers no choice but to seek out the cheapest. After all, if everything is the same, why not buy what's cheap and close?

Did you "hear" that? Seth explains that we CAUSE buyers to compare us on price, alone. And he is exactly right.

When marketers are tasked with building websites, or anything that has to do with positioning, partners are prone to killing innovative ideas that would lead to true differentiation. Instead, they want the assurance their peers would say or do "that"—they want PRECEDENT. They want to know what their competitors are doing. They want "best practices." 

Guess what??? If someone, ANYone, is doing it, it's not different. 

On May 17, Rick Telberg posted 12 Hot Growth Tips for CPA Firms that mentions some of what I'll be talking about June 9 at the AICPA Practitioners Symposium. Here's a snip from Rick's post:

“Without other distinguishing factors that buyers can readily see and know, clients resort to looking mostly at price for making their decisions,” she says. “This, in turn, drives down the firm’s revenues, which impacts the attitudes of those performing the work.”

Furthermore, “Without high enthusiasm for the engagement, customer service is not at its highest and this, in turn, reduces the quality of the customer’s experience, which makes them less likely to rehire the firm, and certainly less apt to refer the firm to others.”

“It’s a vicious circle,” she says. “Ironically, while the opportunity for firms to articulate and convey their distinctions via the Internet is more ripe than ever and costs almost nothing, especially relative to advertising, it is unfortunate that most firms are reluctant to embrace the advantages that the social media and an improved Web presence afford them.” 

 Pricing too low has deleterious effects on morale of everyone involved.

Here's a diagram I developed to illustrate the cycle.

What do you think? Does this convince firms to let marketing into the pricing conversation?

Does it compel firms to look at better, more visible ways to show their distinguishing characteristics (i.e. their PEOPLE)? 

Will firms be more to exploring what social media can help them achieve if they really understand how much it can help them in these other ways? 

Personal Marketing Planning - Ideas

Had such an amazing time yesterday in Houston at the Assoc. for Accounting Marketing Houston Chapter's meeting where I have a talk on Personal Marketing Plans. It covered the process and mindset for creating them, as well as execution tips for both practitioners and the marketing professionals that support them. 

The attendees were wonderful and asked fantastic questions during and after the session. In follow up to them, and a resource to readers who couldn't attend, I am linking to my slide deck.

Personal Marketing Plans for Professionals from Michelle Golden

I also have some of the content in the slides (around the pie chart on slide 18) in a different format--a mind map. 

The mind map has lots of ideas for marketing activities that are appropriate for the various categories of:

• Current customers
• COIs or referral sources
• Prospective customers (new biz)
• Credibility building activities 
• Skill development, service improvement (aka R&D)

Further, on the mind map, all the items that are in "red" are items that can be achieved via social media in addition to traditional means. 

Download PMPideas

Lastly, I have a past post "What's in a Plan? Marketing Plan and Budget Development" that's related to this topic. You might find it of interest (it includes an older version of this Mindmap so use this version because it's been updated).  

I would love to hear from attendees (and others!) on your progress and questions are welcome anytime. 

Are You Paying Too Much for Stock Photos?

A marketer whose agency is updating their website said her agency is charging $800 per photo. She thought this was high and wondered if this is the norm. She also said other designers quoted her website development fees "inclusive" of photos and was curious about the vast difference in the two approaches.

Here's my answer:

Most often, stock photos and all third-party costs are ancillary to the price of design, whether print or digital. 

But this is because costs can vary SO much and the client's final artwork choices determine the cost to the designer. And it is standard for agencies to front the cost of the art and to mark this up. Sometimes mark-up covers their time for image search which can take forever, especially when clients are very picky and reject lots of proposed images. Other agencies charge less mark-up and bill the client hourly for "search time."

Even so, these days, paying $800 for stock art is ridiculous unless you are buying exclusive (and/or permanent) rights to a photo. Buying "rights" at this level is wise if you are using an image as your brand's centerpoint and you don't want to see it popping up all over the place. If paying this price per image without such rights, you are probably being seriously overcharged.

If you have designers/agencies offering inclusion of stock art in their price, they are most likely using cheap sources like istockphoto.com which can be less than $10/image for low resolution (website quality) use. 

You can find some really great art there, too. These web designers definitely are not including $100+/photo images, I assure you. Sometimes you'll want more unique art and can expect to pay $100-350 for that. Again, $800 sounds like either custom or exclusive or large format, very high-resolution images which you can use in print. 

If you keep your agency, and want to keep costs down, tell them you would like to find/buy your own images--but hunt for images within their artistic/style guidelines or you may very well end up with a less professional looking final product than they would otherwise provide. Or offer to pay them for some "time" to search for images within your preferred price ranges, or from your preferred vendors, so you can control costs.

The questions I'd ask them are:

1. For $800 per image, what exactly am I buying? (rights, usage parameters, image size/quality... who owns the image? can you use in more than one ad/print piece? etc)

2. What are my options for using less costly images? (provide your own? price parameters? etc)