Advice on Creating Proposal for Multi Location Brand

[JasonKhoo]

Been a while since I've been on here, but got an opportunity for a Local SEO opportunity and could use some guidance from fellow Local SEOs

I got brought into a possible deal for a coworking space that spans 11 states with 28 locations.

Our typical proposals are tiered by the number of keyword groups our team focuses on in one time. For example:

Bronze: 3 Keyword Groups
Silver: 6 Keyword Groups
Gold: 10 Keyword Groups

A way that I'm thinking we could structure it is each location is 1 keyword group and so 28 locations is 28 keyword groups.

Since our agency doesn't focus much on the local SEO game as much anymore, I've been a little out of the loop. But this is a great opportunity for us, so wanted to get feedback from fellow SEOs

Would really appreciate any input or feedback from others!

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hey Jason, sounds like a great opportunity! I'm probably looking just as forward to seeing what responses you might get from others

When we are fortunate to get opportunities like this, definitely number of keywords is one consideration. However, we are mostly concerned about the level of competition above all else, for each of the locations. Not that this is likely the case, but let's say that only one of the 28 locations has competitive co-working space, we'd definitely take that into consideration into our quote as it will be much less work on our part.

A few questions that immediately come to mind that would dictate pricing:

• How many websites are you going to be managing? Will it just be one site with local pages for each location, or individual websites for each location, or a mixture? Again, local competition might encourage you to consider having a city specific website that will allow for better specific local content pages.
• Are you managing GPB too?
• Is it just SEO, or will you be doing any PPC?
• Do they already have a website or websites in place? What amount of work is going to be required to take these over? Are they using a CMS that you have expertise already?
• Will custom photography/video be needed for one, 12, or all 28 locations?

Our method may be different than others, but we don't have fixed pricing (e.g. Bronze, Silver, Gold), we custom quote each proposal. Our pricing is primarily dictated on a competitive analysis of the market(s) which then determines the amount of work it will require to achieve satisfactory results. In the case of multi location quotes like this, after determining the amount of work required each month (over 6 to 12 months) for all locations combined, we can then price the whole project. We then have some options to present to the client. The client may want you to come back with a cost per month, per location which you can then provide by taking the whole project cost and dividing by number of locations. Or you can quote the 28 locations at one fixed price with any additional locations being the average location cost calculated earlier. Doing work for 28 locations should allow discounting due to economy of scale. Hope this feedback is helpful!

 

[JasonKhoo]

Thanks for the response Jeff! This is super helpful!

I like the thought on the competitive analysis of each market, we already do that in our normal proposals for our standard leads, so it makes sense to carry it over.

And you hit a thought that really gets me all turned around. While we will get economies of scale since it's all locations under one roof and one site, things should be easier.

But being responsible for 28 locations to rank on the 1st page, is also in its own sense a ton of work

This is all really helpful though, really appreciate the input Jeff.

I know you said that you don't have any fixed pricing, but is there a ballpark range per location you generally operate in?

The few times I've quoted multi location opportunities in the past I get told we are priced too high

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hey Jason, we really don't have a ballpark. When we first started out several years ago, we priced similarly to your model using a fixed price schema based on number of keyword phrases and whether they were targeting one or more cities. But we learned very quickly, it really comes down to how much time and effort will be required to achieve the desired results for a specific client, that determines our price. The level of competition is by far the most significant factor to the amount of time that will be required.

When we get a prospect that asks why we don't have fixed pricing, I usually use a plastic surgeon example. If we had fixed pricing packages, that might work for a plastic surgeon client in a small/midsize town who wants the $800 package. But if we were then referred to another plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills who wants the $800 "package", the scope of work provided in a fixed pricing package is simply not going to benefit the client.

Not knowing specific details about your prospect, the cities and states they are operating in, and their competition, it wouldn't be appropriate to even throw out a ballpark range. We have a fairly in-depth intake process for our prospects. Besides the competition, we believe it is critical to know the prospect's margins on their services/products. This allows us to analyze the keyword traffic, the potential market, and calculate how many prospects/conversions the client needs to justify using our services. That's in a nutshell how we operate, but if we were to quote a client with 28 locations in 11 states, it would include additional research and interaction with the prospect.

Other members of the forum may price their services quite differently, but that is what works for us. Again, I can't emphasize enough about researching the competition in those 28 cities along with estimated keyword traffic. Finally, I'd be very careful to make sure that a single website with individual landing pages per location would be able to rank competitively in all 28 markets across 11 states.

 

[randy]

Hey Jason, sounds like a great opportunity! I'm probably looking just as forward to seeing what responses you might get from others

When we are fortunate to get opportunities like this, definitely number of keywords is one consideration. However, we are mostly concerned about the level of competition above all else, for each of the locations. Not that this is likely the case, but let's say that only one of the 28 locations has competitive co-working space, we'd definitely take that into consideration into our quote as it will be much less work on our part.

A few questions that immediately come to mind that would dictate pricing:

• How many websites are you going to be managing? Will it just be one site with local pages for each location, or individual websites for each location, or a mixture? Again, local competition might encourage you to consider having a city specific website that will allow for better specific local content pages.
• Are you managing GPB too?
• Is it just SEO, or will you be doing any PPC?
• Do they already have a website or websites in place? What amount of work is going to be required to take these over? Are they using a CMS that you have expertise already?
• Will custom photography/video be needed for one, 12, or all 28 locations?

Our method may be different than others, but we don't have fixed pricing (e.g. Bronze, Silver, Gold), we custom quote each proposal. Our pricing is primarily dictated on a competitive analysis of the market(s) which then determines the amount of work it will require to achieve satisfactory results. In the case of multi location quotes like this, after determining the amount of work required each month (over 6 to 12 months) for all locations combined, we can then price the whole project. We then have some options to present to the client. The client may want you to come back with a cost per month, per location which you can then provide by taking the whole project cost and dividing by number of locations. Or you can quote the 28 locations at one fixed price with any additional locations being the average location cost calculated earlier. Doing work for 28 locations should allow discounting due to economy of scale. Hope this feedback is helpful!

Thank you for such a detailed and helpful response, here and in your reply. I've bookmarked them both!