Do You Charge So Much Your Customers Complain?

An article in Circulation Management states: “Your subscribers should be complaining about their subscription price. If they’re not, then you’re not charging enough.”

I get the logic of this: If your customers accept your pricing too readily, that indicates they would be willing to pay more – and, therefore, you should price your product or service accordingly. But I’m not sure I agree with it. It sounds like making your prices so high that customers find them a burden, and are unhappy paying them, is a good idea.

Do we really want our customers complaining about our prices? Should we, in fact, always charge the maximum price we can get away with for everything we sell?

Internet marketer Fred Gleeck has a rule for pricing information products: The price should be low enough that if you multiply it by 10, the product would still be worth buying at that price. Thus, a product with a value of $1,000 should cost no more than $100.

I’m more comfortable with Fred’s guideline than Circulation Management’s. Fred’s advice ensures that customers always get more than their money’s worth. Circulation Management’s ensures that they barely or rarely do.

Which do you think is better?

[Ed. Note: Pricing is just one marketing element that can help your products sell. Expert marketers Bob Bly and Michael Masterson put together dozens of the most effective direct marketing techniques they know to make up ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters program. Get the details here.

Bob Bly – who is a freelance copywriter and the author of over 70 books – also writes a free monthly e-zine, Direct Response Letter. Sign up now and get more than $100 in free bonuses.]