Marketing credits are the currency we use at PF to estimate the content or design work we do with you. Whether you’re on a monthly retainer with us or just need a quote for one thing, we use credits to estimate this.
We originally created marketing credits for two reasons.
It’s hard to see the value of paying for just one marketing item
First, it’s hard to see the value of marketing materials on their own, which makes getting a quote for one item feel really arbitrary – and there’s no apparent consistency.
Why is a website page this much but a social media image that much? Did that social media banner actually bring you new business? It’s hard to see the value of content or design items, because each one makes up a small part of your whole marketing picture. Paying an agency on an hourly basis feels frustrating because what if for whatever reason your project ends up taking way longer? Why does it take them that amount of time for a website page but a similar amount of time for a custom designed image? Isn’t one smaller than the other? Wouldn’t you expect it to take less time? You aren’t privy to the back end of the work, the way they do business, and the value and expertise they have – so for all you know the agency is just slow and you’ve had to pay for that.
You don’t want to be locked into just one type of marketing item
Second, we created credits because the more we worked with accountants on a monthly basis, the more we realised you don’t want to be locked into a specific format of marketing items.
There’s such a variety of content or design work your firm might need from month to month. Blog posts, website pages, social media images, designed email templates….and if you’re on a monthly retainer, you want to have the flexibility of different marketing work depending on that month’s need. You don’t want to get four blog posts written because you thought six months ago doing blogs was a good idea (which it is, by the way, we aren’t questioning that): you want four blog posts because you have four topics your clients are asking about and you need to share your expertise visibly.
Credits keep everything clear and consistent.
We charge £95 per credit, and estimate credits based on what we know about the project. If we quote 8 credits and in the process discover we underestimated the effort we need to put in or we just take a little longer to do it, that’s on us. You don’t get charged more credits. Of course if the scope changes – you ask for one social media image and then later decide you actually want four different ones – then we will need to revise the estimate, and advise what the extra credits would be. But of course it’s your choice whether you go ahead or not, or stick with the original plan.
For the best marketing results, we recommend firms have a minimum of 10 marketing credits per month.
This gives you enough in your marketing bank to get good solid custom marketing work done, month after month, and it’s the long game that delivers the best results. Every time. (Read about the results accountancy firms are experiencing right now because of their consistent content.) That’s why our monthly retainers include co pilot & tracking: it’s a report on your marketing numbers, like marketing management accounts, and you can see how the whole “marketing web” is working together to deliver you leads and new business over time.
Best of all, the better we know you and the longer we work with you, the more efficient we can be and the lower your credit estimates (compared to what they would be if we didn’t know you) because we know your brand. Your style. Your tone of voice. We’ve designed your website, or created PDFs for you. We have a bank of marketing material our team is familiar with and can swiftly respond to your need. That’s also why we recommend a monthly retainer.
However, even if you’re not on retainer, or you aren’t at that level yet (maybe you just have the co pilot and tracking, or website management or daily social media posting), you can request a credits quote for a one off project.
If you are not a monthly client, it’s likely your quote might feel a little high. You might think “that’s a lot, or I could get a freelancer or someone else to do it cheaper”. And you might, and you’re welcome to try that. But we are confident in our own value, and we know that with PF you’re getting an entire marketing team. People who have expertise in websites, social, seo, design, branding – not just in general, but for accountants exclusively. And everything we do is custom. Nothing generic. Nothing copied from another firm. You might get an idea about something you could do from another firm or another kind of business, but we’ll help make it yours. We’ll work with you and advise you and make sure it’s the best it can be, because we are invested in the relationship. Not just the marketing stuff, the materials. These aren’t materials: they’re messages to your ideal audience, the very best clients and only them. That’s who you want, and that’s who we help you create content for. And we use marketing credits to do it.
We look forward to working with you on a monthly basis – or if you’d just like a one off credits quote there’s a form for that. See you soon!