FAQ 03: Why are you so expensive?

Agency pricing is, for the most part, more than a few thousand pounds, whatever the project. So, in our latest Jungle FAQ, we’d like to address the sometimes thorny issue of pricing.

Independent agencies like ours sit in the gap between freelancers and larger group or owned agencies. The thing is, that’s quite a big gap, and as such, you’ll find quite a bit of variation in pricing from agency to agency. But that pricing is often relative. For instance, an agency specialising in Squarespace websites should have a lower price point than an agency specialising in bespoke websites using programming languages like Python or Ruby.
The same can be said for branding as well. A boutique agency may charge less for something like a logo, whereas a more established agency like ours may have a noticeably higher price point. We’ll get into the “why” shortly.

So let’s reframe the question:
Why do we charge what we charge?

Agencies sell time and services, or a blend of the two. For us to deliver both of those things, we need people and products. The people bring in the skills and the expertise, and the products help us to deliver those services. Both people and products are a cost to our business, and a cost we happily pay.

People

When it comes to people, or in our case, the Troop, we want expertise, experience and dependability. And we are very lucky to have that all across the board. So it goes without saying that good people cost money, and those good people are in demand too, particularly in agency land (where it can be easy to jump ship for a better offer). So we like to make sure our staff are well paid, not only with a salary but also with the benefits we offer and the culture we build around the Troop.

Products

Simply, the things that enable us to deliver the amazing things that we do. Web hosting, computers, servers, design software, CRMs, CMSs, APIs and many other acronyms… they all add up but are imperative to “business as usual” in an agency of any kind. There are also the usual overheads associated with the office, business rates and so on. But that wouldn’t make for a very exciting blog.

Time

Now, looking at time: This is ultimately how we cost and bill our work. The majority of it is time-based, and we’ve built that knowledge and experience over our combined careers. And like many agencies, we have a rate card. That rate card is informed by several factors:

• Client budgets: What we have learned about them over the years
• Agency benchmarks: What are others in our sector doing?
• Specialism day rates: How do we charge out our designers and developers?

By combining all of these factors, we arrive at our rates, and we feel comfortable and confident that our rates are fair. They provide you with access to our experts, and in return, you will receive exceptional work.

The extra bits

There are some additional pieces of work that can push up the price, such as project management, discovery sessions, and so on. You may not find these with all agencies, but for us, “Discovery” is part of our four-step process (before Design, Develop and Deliver).
In other businesses, this might be prototyping, research, ideation, vision workshopping or journey mapping. Whatever they’re called, these sessions are imperative to a successful project and ensure that all stakeholders are clear on the project’s goals and objectives, and that’s often an easy cost to justify to those who hold the purse strings.

So, are we expensive?

We’re not the most expensive. We’re also not the cheapest. Our price combines everything we’ve spoken about above; our experience, our time, our costs, our process and, cards on the table, enough for us to make some profit, scale our agency, and continue to make Silverback an unrivalled Troop of visual communication specialists with an instinctive talent for creating compelling brands.

Our final thought? Think of agency costs as an investment. We don’t want a “one and done” project. We want to be your creative partner, working on your current project, then the next, and the next and the next. For the outlay that you make with us, you’ll get bags and bags of enthusiasm in return. We’ll put our best people (spoiler alert, that’s all of our people) on your project, and you’ll find our process incredibly easy to work with.

So, rather than asking, “Why are you so expensive?” ask us, “Are you a good investment?” To which we will always answer, “Yes”.

If you’re looking to get some seriously good value out of your marketing budget, let’s talk!

Do you have a particular question you’d like answered? We know it’s a jungle out there, so we’d love to shed some light on the full agency process. Submit your question here…