I tend to get a lot of repeat work from my clients. Since I know about their business, goals, and audience, my clients don’t have to bring me up to speed with each new project, and I can produce better content for them.
I do my best to prioritise repeat clients, BUT sometimes I’m just already booked up. Often this isn’t a problem – the client is happy to wait a little longer than usual to receive their deliverable, but sometimes their needs are urgent.
This is where a retainer can be helpful. Retainers mean the client is already booked with me. Nobody else is going to get that client’s spots.
I don’t take clients on retainer unless I’ve been working with them a while and unless they are likely to have enough work to make a retainer worth their while.
Why?
It’s simple – we need to make sure we are a good fit for each other before making that sort of commitment, and I don’t want to charge my clients for something they don’t need.
Retainer terms vary by freelancer, but to give you an idea of what sort of thing you can expect, here are five elements that appear in my retainer agreements:
1. Deliverable based
Deliverable based retainers mean you know exactly what you will get when, and I know exactly what I need to deliver and by when. After all, clear and straightforward is always a winner.
A deliverable might look something like this
X number of articles for Y cost per Z period (typically monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly).
A power hour every Tuesday afternoon for a month for Y cost.
2. Defined timelines
You may have opted for two articles a month, but when in the month will you receive them? If you want the first by the 15th of the month and the second by the 25th, this needs to be agreed on in advance.
Equally, even though you are a priority client, I need to plan your work into my schedule. This means that you will have a deadline to provide me with the information I need to complete the job.
3. Variable retainer duration
Depending on the nature of the projects, you might only need to keep me on retainer for three months, six months, or a year. I won’t force you to put me on retainer for longer than you need.
4. Non-rollover
It might sound unfair if you don’t want me to produce some or all of the deliverables for you, or you don’t provide me with the information I need to do the work on time, you still need to pay.
I don’t operate like an airline, happy to take your money and promise you a seat but then bump you onto a different flight when I discover I’m overbooked. This means you’ve already booked time that I could have filled with another client, earned money to keep a roof over my head and put food in my tummy. I think you’ll agree these are all very important considerations.
Saying that, I do my best to be flexible. For example, if you know that in a few months your marketing lead will be on holiday for a while and as a result you won’t have work for me while they are away, I can look at pausing the retainer for you.
5. An option to cancel the retainer
For various reasons, you may need to cancel a retainer earlier than expected. That’s ok – life happens. The cancellation notice period is generally set to 30 days.