What Freelancers Can Do to Make Themselves More Valuable (And Start Charging Premium Rate)

Today, I wanna talk about money. Specifically - how can you start making more and working less? The answer is by charging premium rates. And to do that, you have to design a premium service. How the eff do you do that? What does that actually mean? Read on…

If you're freelancing right now and you feel like...

A) You're not earning enough to feel comfortable

B) You're working hard and approaching burnout

C) All of the above

Then you have a pricing problem.

I'm not the first or last person to say this, but if you really want to make freelancing work, you have to find a way to raise rates to a point where you can shave off the cheap-o clients (who always want more time and more work for less), and focus on clients who can see the value of your work and pay appropriately.

But before you can start raising those rates, you have to address two questions:

1. Is your service actually worth the increase in costs?
2. How are you demonstrating this value to your clients?

Let's go through each one.

If your current unique selling point is that you offer the highest quality ________, I have bad news for you. Your selling point is not unique.

Every single freelance creator offers high quality. Sure, some of them are lying about it. But unfortunately, offering the highest quality isn't going to cut it if you really want to raise your rates. If you don't offer quality, then that's the first thing you'll have to address, and it will be a long climb to the easier world of premium services.

Everything you deliver should be high quality. But beyond that, what are you bringing to the table?

If you only remember one thing from this post, make it this: EVERY client wants you to do the same thing: MAKE THEIR LIFE EASIER

That's it. That's what everyone who is willing to pay good prices wants: They want things to be easier for them, personally.

They want to embody this emoji: 😌

Once you get your clients to look like that emoji, two things will happen:

1. They will pay you what you're worth
2. They will stay on your roster for years

But to get them there, you first have to understand what is making them like this: 😰

You have to ask questions like:

1. What's the hardest thing about your role right now?
2. What's the one thing you would wish for you if you had a magic wand?
3. What is your manager expecting from you right now?

And once you do, you can design a service around them that will make them breathe easy.

I'm being pretty vague so far, so let's talk about some of the concrete things you can do. Let's start with the basics:

As a baseline, anyone who wants to charge premium rates should make sure that they are doing all of this:

🖌 You spend the extra time (or money) to make everything you deliver not just functional, but aesthetic and on brand.

Example: I have a freelance designer who charges me a few hundred dollars to make all of my presentations and templates look AMAZING. It's a small price to pay, because it allows me to charge several thousand for the end product. (Mostly talking about content strategies and SEO audits here, but it applies to all freelance services).

🤑 You tuck freebies and little surprises into your services, so they always feel they're getting more than they expected.

Example: I will create a few free images every few blog articles, or send clients updates on their keyword rankings without being asked. If a client refers me and brings me new business, I mail them a goodie box.

💓 You demonstrate genuine care for their brand and mission, and see their success as your success.

Example: On check-ins with clients, I always ask questions about the health and direction of the business overall. If I know a client has a big deadline/event/campaign coming up, I set a reminder to ask myself how it went soon after they're wrapped up. I literally cheer out loud when they tell me about successes on a Zoom call. I look like a dork, but they love it.

💬 You develop a personal relationship, based on trust and mutual interests. The banter is good, and conversations are productive.

Example: "How was your holiday in [specific place you mentioned]? Did you get your daughter to gymnastics class on time? You won't believe it, I spilled coffee all over myself in front of 15 people..." These little moments of humanity build a bond that will get you through the harder times.

🏅 You make it easy for your client to demonstrate results to their manager/board.

Example: I give all my clients "edit" access to my reports, so they can easily copy and paste my slides into their own reporting. I include their logos and branding on everything, and even match their font so they don't have to reformat all my work to show it off.

🤞 You promise honesty, even when things aren't going as well as possible.

Example: "Look, I am not seeing the results I wanted from this campaign. I'm disappointed, but I have a backup plan. What if we..." The worst thing you can do is lie or bluff to cover up a mistake. This is a one-way path to client turnover, a bad reputation, and low prices forever.

But hold on... can we go a step deeper? What can freelance content creators do, specifically, to enhance themselves to a premium service level?

😌 Include all of the metadata for in everything you write, especially alt tags for any images you add in.

🤑 Indicate where you think they should put visual CTAs for their products and services.

🔗 Insert internal links to their landing pages and other content. Use "site:website.com + keyword" to find relevant content you might not be aware of.

🧠 Leave comments when you write something that has the potential to turn into a full article. I add these to my "open concepts" tab on their content calendar, making my job of planning content easier later on.

✍️ Leave notes in the margin with your questions, advice for design and uploading, or things you want the client to pay attention to.

📷 Include screenshots when possible, so the client doesn't have to hunt them down later.

🔮 Make notes for the future. Comments like this: "In a few months, let's update this section with..."

📩 Format your document titles and email subject lines so that clients can easily find your content later. No more email chains about 7 different articles.

So now, you're doing the things that put you in that "first class service" status.

How the heck do you find people who see the value in that, and are willing to pay?

The first thing you can do is sing about it. Hopefully you've found some marketing channels that connect you with your audience. Find ways to sneak in commentary about these extra perks your clients get. Here are a few examples from my LinkedIn on how I write helpful, useful, educational content that also showcases what I do for my clients:

• This post about the soft skills I value in SEOThis testimonial I shared that talks about the value of my services
• This post showcasing results for my client sharing SEO knowledge bombs while showing my non-nonsense personality

I write these posts several times a week, not just to demonstrate my expertise, but to attract the kinds of clients who value the service I'm handing out.

When I collect testimonials from my clients, which I do within a few weeks of delivering my first results, I ask them specifically to mention the quality and value of my service. Then I spread those testimonials throughout my website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

The other good thing about this strategy: Clients who are willing to pay the right price have friends who are willing to pay the right price too. And they'll refer you, if you keep up the good business.

When pitching to new clients, you need to showcase these extra premium services right from the start.

1. Establish banter on the first call
2. Ask questions about their personal workload right away
3. Research their company before pitching to them
4. Ask them what a successful partnership would look like
5. When you pitch offer something of high value for free

For example, I won one of my biggest clients by sending them a quick report showing how many high-value keywords they were ranking for vs. their competitor. I put this in a visual, branded little chart in the body of the email. It took me 30 minutes, and won me a client that's still going strong 3 years later.

You might be reading this and think, "Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work."

And you're not wrong! The flight attendant who manages 10 people in first class works nearly as hard as the flight attendant in coach managing 20 passengers. But the flight attendant in first is probably earning more money. (I'm not sure if that's true, but let's just go with that analogy).

Put in the work to make these kinds of premium services a habit, and you'll be able to charge more for what you offer. Charging more means taking on fewer clients. And that translates time and cash – the two things freelancers need to feel 😌 😌

I'm going to wrap this thread there.

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