Back in 2018 I laughed at monthly retainer models and now I live by them

I used to think monthly retainers were just a way for agencies to trap clients into paying for work they didn't need. Then I took on a $3,000 project for a local dental chain in Portland where I did all the work upfront and barely heard from them for 6 months. After that I switched to a $1,500/month retainer for ongoing SEO tweaks and content updates. The cash flow smoothed out and the client actually got better results because I was tweaking stuff every month instead of dumping it all at once. Has anyone else fought this change and come around?

3 comments

3 Comments

river1835d ago

Just gonna gently push back on the "trap clients" thing. Retainers are only a trap if you're not delivering actual value month over month. Sounds like you figured out the right way to do them though, where everyone wins.

grant5695d ago

@river183 Interesting take. Has anyone actually gotten bored enough to cancel?

noraj795d ago

Oh man, @river183 that's exactly the shift I had to make - so how do you keep your retainer clients from getting bored or feeling like they're paying for the same stuff every month?