Emphasizing Price vs. Value: Two Easy Tips to Make Your Desired Impression

Pricing your products or services can be tricky. From calculating the cost of ingredients or components, to factoring in resources like electricity, natural gas, time and expertise, pricing is a common area of stumpification for business owners. (Okay, that's not really a word, but it still works!)

Then there's the marketing aspect. When listing dollar figures, how do you leverage your marketing content so it maximizes results? And what about value? How do you emphasize that?

Fortunately, there are only two things to remember when putting your pricing in writing:

1. If you want to deemphasize the price/cost (and decrease the perception of cost) exclude .00. Here are several examples:
   
   
   • The investment for this 14-day writing retreat is $1,495.
   • Until the end of this month, pricing for all necklaces is $49.
   
   Any time you list prices that your customers pay you for your products or services, avoid cent placeholders. This not only ensures you have clean copy, but the consumer perceives a cost that seems less because of the visual simplicity. Want to this this in action?
   
   Of these two options, which visually seems like less of a cost/price/investment?
   
   
   $2,998 or $2,998.00
   
   
   Yes, one little dot and two zeroes can make that much difference.
   
   
2. Conversely, if you want to emphasize the price/cost (and increase the perception of value) include .00. Here are several examples:
   
   
   • 36-page workbook (value $19.00)
   • I give you my 100% "no questions asked" satisfaction guarantee on your tuition, plus $750.00 in documented travel expenses.
   
   Any time you list prices that represent the value of what you offer your customers, always include cent placeholders. That way, it feels like "more."
   
   With a quick visual scan, copy on a page should be clean. That means there's plenty of white space, visual variety in colors and content, and natural flow. Extra-seemingly unnecessary-digits can make content look busy. However, when you understand the rationale for including .00, the tradeoff is worthwhile; it's more busy, but it's also more effective to convey value.

One dot. Two little cent placeholders. Use them to your greatest advantage by knowing when--and when not--to include them in your savvy marketing materials.

~~~

Want to reprint or share this original article? Feel free; simply use the unedited article in its entirety with the following credit:

Charlon Bobo is a best-selling author, entrepreneurial visionary and empowermentor, as well as a copywriter, editor, online marketer. Affectionately known as the 'conscious entrepreneur' Charlon develops high-impact marketing materials for conscious business owners and empowers women worldwide with her acclaimed 1-on-1 coaching service, Stand In Your Power®. See more at EditCopyProof.com and charlonbobo.com