Cross Media Pricing - How?

[MailGuru]

We are currently installing an upgrade to our XMPie software that will facilitate digital forms of communication other than print (email deployment, Purls, etc.). This is being done because we have some clients that want to bring all forms of communication to their customers under one roof (currently, email is handled by one company, and, we handle the print).

Even though this new frontier is a little intimidating, I have no doubt that after installation and training, we will be successful.

My question is this: Is anyone else out there doing this? For my quoting purposes, how do I set pricing for email deployment. For digital print, I usually use a "cost-plus" method. Since this is new territory for us, I have no point of referance of how to figure out pricing for this. I was wondering if anyone could share how they compute pricing for cross media applications.

Thanks,

MailGuru

 

[Greg_Firestone]

Hi MailGuru,

Obviously you need to keep your costs in mind but I would look at comparable email services and look at what they are charging. If the client was doing this on their own, they'd have to pay a service fee as well as labor (either internal or external) to get the job done. This should be taken into account.

At the end of the day, you're supplying a simplified, one-stop-shopping solution. There's value in that as well.

Good luck!

Greg

 

[byprint]

Do similar to print:

- For generation and creation: amortization of investment + worktime + profit

- For e-mail send: infraestructure (servers+bandwitch costs ..etc) + profit

The first part has to be easy, second part can be more variable, but never compare with self service websites, your service has more value

Regards,

 

[MailGuru]

Thanks for all the good info everyone. That's kind of what I thought, kind of where I was heading, I guess I just needed confirmation that I was thinking properly.

Thanks, Again

-MailGuru

 

[pcmodem]

Price according to value, not according to your costs, but keep your costs in mind so you don't lose money. When you price just based on your costs you get where we are today, a cut-throat industry.