Busy season is upon my calendar. Even though I don’t have any end-of-school-year commitments, it seems the world does. So many organizations are trying to fit in events, set project deadlines, and more before summer hits. If only that meant a free summer calendar. But alas, we entrepreneurs never get a season off.

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— Ann Gynn

🟩 ATTRACT → 🟧 CONVERT → ⬜ retain → ⬛ amplify

Q: I've lost clients who said my prices were "a surprise." But I've also heard that listing rates upfront can scare off good prospects before they even talk to you. How do I decide? 

A: Telling your clients what your services cost sounds simple. After all, the grocery store does it all the time. But as the service provider, pricing feels more personal. You see yourself as a service provider, not a salesperson.

When you see yourself as an entrepreneur who wants to make money, you’re ready to tackle the to-publish-or-not issue. I don’t publish pricing on my site. My projects vary too much in scope for simple pricing structures to work well.

However, no website should be devoid of pricing conversations. They should have some transparency so you don’t catch prospects by surprise. Reduce those dead-end prospect calls with a few signals on your website:

Now, if you offer finite services or packages, go ahead and publish pricing on your site. It will quickly separate the non-buyers from the buyers, and even allow them to order online.

Either way, the goal is the same: Attract the right prospects and repel the wrong ones before anyone wastes time. So ask yourself: Is your website filtering prospects for you or creating more conversations you don’t want?

Got a question you’d like me to answer in a future edition of The Hotline? Call or text Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

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This week: Add one pricing signal to your website and reply to this email with what you added. I'll share the best ones in a future issue. 

I asked Claude to help me script a follow-up conversation with a prospect. I wanted to see if they were ready to move ahead with the project. Those conversations are always a little tricky for me — I don’t want to be viewed as harassing or begging them for work, but I don’t want to get ghosted.

Have any AI tricks of your own? Hit reply, call, or text the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.

Change your profile photo if it's more than 2 years old.

📊 Billions of answers: Worldata analyzed billions of sends to come up with these 7 ideas for successful email marketing. I wrote about it for the Content Marketing Institute.

💬 Conversational content: ALM Corp says content performs best in an answer engine environment that answers specific questions directly using plain language.

✍️ Well-edited AI writers: My argument after decades of reading human-written drafts? AI can sometimes be a better writer, but it’s a writer with millions of clients. AI just needs a good editor to make it a unique, good fit for your brand.

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Got a question you’d like me to answer in The Hotline? Email me or DM me on LinkedIn. Even better: Text or leave a message on the Marketing By One Hotline: +1.440.661.3984.