Today at 4:05 p.m. my Skype phone rang. It was my friend Natalia, from Ormiga Design. We had set aside time to catch up today and I was looking forward to it. We seem to get each other's creative synapses firing.

We got onto talking about problems our customers have. One thing small business owners tend to struggle with is how much should you charge? You want a pricing system that attracts people, but that recognises your hard work. In my industry, customers want to know: how much you should pay for creative services? If you speak to three different copywriters or five different website and graphic companies--which quote should you choose?

Everyone is always looking for the best deal, and why not? People will always compare on "trust" and "price", because it's one thing we all understand. So you need to make sure you tell customers more about you than your price.

Help customers trust you so they see your price is justified.

Do you clearly explain to customers what you're selling? Here are a few tips to help you be more explicit about what you offer to build trust:

• Itemize all of your services. A Tangible Words creative brief will help you make sure you don't forget to communicate all of the value you provide customers.
• Use headlines and sub-headlines on all of your documents; or,  your website and brochures will be hard to read. Headlines help people better find and comprehend your messages.
• Give away information about your company on your website so customers can come to trust you. I use this blog so you can see how I think, and remind you of how much we know at Tangible Words. Are you doing the same on your company website?

If you only list a price, or if your website, newsletters and brochures don't fully explain why you're the best choice--you're forcing customers to judge you by price.

Of course, you can play the "under price" game, but that might mean you forsake quality. That's not something I would ever want to do. (I want happy customers like these every time.).

In an effort to be transparent to our customers, we've made a product and pricing chart. It's available by email (which you can send spam-free here).

Related Reading

• What to Expect From a Copywriter
• The Low-Down on Business Blogs