What is a Marketing Retainer? How to Set One Up as a Freelancer

As a freelance marketer, you’ve likely heard of a retainer before, but how do you know if it’s right for you? If you want to secure steady, predictable work and income to a limited number of clients, then consider setting up a marketing retainer. 

Below, let’s go over what a marketing retainer is, the benefits of setting up a marketing retainer, and what to include in your marketing retainer proposal when pitching clients. 

What is a Marketing Retainer?

A marketing retainer is a long-term contract agreement between a company and a marketing freelancer or studio that includes pre-determined deliverables for a set price. The retainer guarantees that the freelancer or studio will complete specific deliverables or services on an ongoing basis. Marketing retainers are typically billed monthly or quarterly.

Being on retainer is like being your client’s “on-call” marketing team or being a fractional CMO. If you have a marketing retainer set up, your client will expect you to complete certain deliverables or services in the same way an in-house team would — to the extent that’s in your contract. For marketers, this means your retainer services may range from brand strategy to PR to social media on any given month. What you choose to include in your marketing retainer depends on your background, expertise, and whether or not you have team members for additional support (which we’ll go over in more detail below). 

What are the Benefits of a Marketing Retainer?

If you’ve been toying with the idea of setting up a marketing retainer, let’s go over a few of the benefits that come with this type of business setup. 

Provides steady work and predictable income

The biggest benefit of working on a marketing retainer is that it helps you secure steady work. No one likes the feeling of scrambling for a new client or being unsure of when your next project will come up. As a freelancer or small studio owner, having ongoing work is essential to keeping your business running. And that’s where a retainer comes in. A marketing retainer ensures you have consistent work for a set period of time, whether you sign a client for one quarter or for a six-month contract. 

Consistent work also means predictable income. If one of the things you miss about having a 9-5 is the steady and predictable income, then consider setting up freelance retainers. Not only does this benefit your own bank account and financial planning, but predictable income can be especially beneficial if you subcontract work to other freelancers as it ensures you have plenty of cash flow to pay your team members. 

Builds strong client relationships 

When you set up a marketing retainer, you’re establishing an ongoing partnership between you and your client. Working with a client consistently helps you get to know a client’s business on a deeper level, which can help you produce even better work and pitch new ideas or projects from which the client would benefit. Not only will you get to know their brand (i.e., their voice, audience, and messaging) but you can gain a deeper understanding of their industry.

Another benefit of having strong client relationships is that it strengthens your overall network and reputation. When you work with long-term clients, they get to know your work, expertise, and value and can vouch for you within their own network. This can ultimately help you position yourself as an industry expert and the go-to marketer in your space. 

Plus, as an added benefit, working with clients on a long-term basis is a great way to make freelancing feel a little less lonely. If you crave working on a team, setting up a marketing retainer is a great way to create that working relationship. 

4 Services to Include in Your Freelance Marketing Retainer 

Now that you know how a retainer works, you’re probably wondering what to include in your marketing retainer. A marketing retainer can include a range of services depending on your expertise and industry. For example, if you work with tech startups your marketing services will likely differ from someone who works with established nonprofits. Your background and expertise may also lean toward one area of marketing versus another like social media and content marketing as opposed to PR and brand management. 

Below, we’ll go over a few different services you can include in a freelance marketing retainer and how to structure them on an ongoing basis. 

For a full breakdown of services — along with recommended pricing — take a look at our Marketing Retainer Scope of Work Template. 

Strategy and goal-setting 

Your marketing retainer should include a deliverable around strategy or goal-setting. Every freelance project should begin with some sort of kick-off call or initial strategy session, and a retainer is no different. This is done so you and your client can align on the goals of the project and go over the ways you plan to achieve those goals. 

Freelancers often overlook including a kick-off call or strategy session as a service, but it’s something that should be outlined in your scope of work since it’s a valuable component of the overall project. And because this is a retainer, you can even conduct a strategy call every month or quarter to ensure you’re on the right track with the initial goals you and your client set.

Content or platform audit 

Another service to include in your retainer is an audit. An audit is part of the pre-work you do before the ongoing monthly deliverables and it’s essential to before you get started. Conducting an audit of your client’s existing content, platforms, or strategy ensures you know exactly what you’re working with and helps you identify where they need help.

Our Marketing Retainer Scope of Work Template includes a social media audit, but the audit can be for anything that makes sense for your work. You can include a website audit, brand audit, email marketing audit — whatever aligns with the work you’re about to do for your retainer. 

Content strategy 

Another deliverable to outline in your marketing retainer proposal is your proposed content strategy. This is different from the initial strategy and goal-setting you did earlier; instead, this strategy should outline what you plan to do on an ongoing basis to achieve the goals outlined in the initial kickoff call. 

Our Marketing Retainer Scope of Work Template specifically recommends conducting blog research and strategy, but your retainer can include anything that makes the most sense for your overall project. If your client wants to overhaul their social media and email marketing, then your strategy can highlight that. Or perhaps your client’s goal is to improve thought leadership and industry positioning — in this case, your strategy could focus on PR and owned media. 

Monthly deliverables 

The last thing to include in your marketing retainer proposal is the ongoing deliverables you plan to offer. This is the bread and butter of your retainer contract; the work you’re going to complete each month. 

For a marketing retainer, these deliverables can include anything from building social media calendars to designing creative assets to writing blog posts. If you’re more of a strategist, you can outsource these monthly deliverables to other freelancers who specialize in them. For example, you can partner with a social media manager, a graphic designer, and a copywriter to complete the work with your guidance. 

The key to outlining your monthly deliverables in your marketing retainer proposal is to be very clear about what is and isn’t included.  A clear scope of work is essential to protect you from doing more work than what you’re being paid for and helps prevent scope creep. 

A marketing retainer is a great way to secure steady work, earn predictable income, and offer a variety of services to clients, which keeps your job interesting. The key is to set up a retainer contract that makes sense for your client’s needs, your expertise, and the type of work you want to provide on an ongoing basis. 

Use our community-sourced Marketing Retainer Scope of Work Template to help build, customize, and price your marketing retainer before your next project.