What Should I Charge For Email Newsletter Design?

In today's digital age, email newsletters have become a powerful tool for businesses and individuals to engage with their audiences, promote their products or services, and nurture valuable relationships.

As the demand for well-designed and captivating newsletters grows, many designers and freelancers focus on providing newsletter design services. They all seem to ponder a crucial question: "What should I charge for email newsletter design?"

Determining the right pricing strategy can be challenging, but fear not; this blog post will break down the topic.

Whether you're a seasoned designer looking to refine your pricing model, or a newcomer seeking guidance, this post will provide valuable insights and practical tips to succeed with your design offering.

Should You Charge for a Newsletter?

If you are just starting out, you have no portfolio, and your skills are under development, you could try to get some free work in exchange for a testimonial, to add an example for your portfolio, or just to learn and have fun by conquering a challenge.

However, if you have done this before, or have the skill set to get started, congrats! There is a huge market of opportunity for generalists and platform-focused designers alike.

So, if you are a great newsletter designer, or you decide to create templates or take on design tasks for specific newsletter platforms like beehiiv, you will reap the financial rewards in no time.

Do People Pay For Email Newsletters?

Yes–and depending on the type of client, they pay very well.

A simple email design gig can go from $50-$100 per task when you are a newbie, to figures in the thousands when you land more prominent name brands.

B2B businesses, e-commerce brands, personal brands, course creators, and every company and individual relying on email marketing are potential clients for your service.

According to this article, “the global market for email marketing software was worth $7.5 billion in 2020. By 2027, it is estimated to reach $17.9 billion.”

You have to consider that following the best email design practices maximizes email marketing effectiveness.

When these people pay for an email design service, they are not spending money, but investing it. This should give you a good idea of the potential market for these offerings.

How Do You Charge for Newsletters?

Choosing a pricing structure before deciding on a pricing range for your newsletter design service is very important.

These pricing structures can be only for internal calculation or may be shared with the client to determine the pricing.

Some pricing structures to consider are:

Hourly Work

This is one of the most common pricing structures freelancers use to sell their services.

One of the upsides is that it is very straightforward; you will charge a previously agreed amount of money per hour of work invested.

This structure is relatively easy to track, and if you are comfortable with the hourly rate, you will rarely end up feeling like you worked too much.

The downside is that this structure can’t be scaled easily unless you increase your rates (not very easy once you make them public) or work faster.

You can also set up an internal hourly rate and work out a fixed price for the public based on the average hours it takes to finish a newsletter design task.

Fixed Cost

This structure is also standard. You set up a price for the project, and that is what you charge. Your client will pay that price regardless if it takes you one hour to complete the design, or ten.

This structure is very good if you are efficient, and have your costs and times clearly defined, because it’s not tied to a defined number of hours.

Please be clear about the number and type of revisions available to the client with that cost, or if extra charges will be incurred if they exceed the allowed rules.

This will help you keep clients happy (by setting up reasonable expectations beforehand) and protect you from having to work a lot more for the same payment.

Fixed or Hourly With Upsells Available

Another option is taking the fixed or hourly structure and setting that as your default while you include different “extra” services that people can bundle with the introductory price.

This way, the final price will be clearly defined from the beginning, even if it includes additional services.

This can also attract clients because it gives flexibility in options for different budgets.

Charge in Tiers

This pricing structure is super famous in the SaaS industry.

Think of basic, pro, and premium plans for your newsletter design services.

You set up a starter service for an introductory price and add more perks to your offering simultaneously as your pricing grows.

Monthly Subscription

Finally, you can set up a membership or monthly subscription.

You charge a fixed price for a specific number of monthly newsletter design requests, or you can even go unlimited while pricing your service accordingly.

This structure has worked well for DesignJoy, which offers an unlimited design subscription for a monthly fee.

How Much Does It Cost To Send Out Newsletters?

Your expertise and skill are the most critical assets you need in order to provide your service.

Luckily, this won’t generate direct costs to your operation.

So, what will you consider in terms of costs when determining your pricing?

• Your labor cost–The price you will charge for the expertise I just mentioned. This can also include the cost of contractors you may need to help you deliver the service. You are not paying for this; it is only an estimate or idea of how much you want to receive for your work.

• Licenses or memberships you pay for general design or email design software.

• The price of a stock image membership. This is only sometimes a must. Some free options, like Pexels, may satisfy your needs. With beehiiv you can now access an entire media library of GIFs and images to use for your newsletter.

• The cost of your email marketing platform if you also take care of sending and management. This is beehiiv’s pricing, for example.

• Processing fees for your online payment tool. This is usually 2.9%-5% depending on what service you are using to collect your payments.

As you can see, your costs will be close to zero because the options I mentioned will not be a per-client charge, but something you can pay for and use to run as many clients as needed.

How Much Can You Make From an Email Newsletter?

By now, you should have considered the different pricing structures and learned that your costs are near zero–but, how much can you make from each design task?

The actual amount will be determined by things like your:

Marketing Channels

If you want to market your services via Upwork, Fiverr, or another freelance platform, your profit may be affected by the competition (many freelancers looking for work), platform fees, and similar things.

You can charge between $50 and $300 for a newsletter design service. This can go higher if you have a profile with a high history of success in this area and if you are sourcing traffic to your freelance profile from social media or other places.

Your Experience

When I say experience, I am not only speaking about your technical expertise, which is super important because it directly relates to the value you can provide.

I am also speaking about:

• Your network and connections

• Social proof accumulated

• A robust and high-quality portfolio

These assets will yield the maximum results if you market your services independently via your own website or social channels.

If you have a strong background in one or more of the previous areas I just mentioned (skill, network, social proof, portfolio), you can start your pricing at $500 per task or template and above. This can be way above (think thousands of dollars) if you have the skill to compete for the top gigs.

Sales Skills

Finally, if you are a good marketer and can find the perfect combination of marketing channels and experience, you can charge very well (thousands per task) even if you are not a top performer. You just have to have a compelling, high-value offer and sell yourself in the right place, form, and to the right person.

Entrepreneurship has no rules; outlier income is possible if you are an outstanding marketer and service provider.

How Do I Start a Paid Email Newsletter?

If you are just getting started with the idea of newsletter design, or want to expand your service offerings, consider selling newsletter design services for beehiiv users.

beehiiv is the newsletter platform built for growth and has become a top competitor in the space in a record time. We have thousands of users ready to take advantage of your unique services.

Learn more about beehiiv here, and best of luck with your newsletter design!

Why Listen to Us?

Mateo Melgar is a family-first freelancer & digital entrepreneur from Mexico. He started monetizing the internet in 2016 (before “remote work” was cool) and never looked back. Mateo’s first priorities are his wife and sons. He earns a living creating content, managing remote teams, and building his own products. Find him on Twitter.