Why Clear Revision Policies and Pricing Matter

In the marketing collateral design business, revisions are an inherent part of the creative process. Clients need to provide feedback to ensure the final output—be it a brochure, flyer, social media graphic, or presentation deck—perfectly aligns with their brand and goals.

However, without clear boundaries, ‘feedback’ can quickly morph into significant scope creep. This leads to:

• Lost Profitability: Every hour spent on unbilled revisions is an hour not spent on a new, paying project.
• Project Delays: Extended revision rounds push back project completion dates.
• Client Frustration: Lack of clarity can lead to disagreements about what is included in the original price.
• Designer Burnout: Constantly revising without fair compensation is demoralizing.

Implementing a transparent policy for charging for design revisions protects your business’s financial health and sets professional expectations with your clients from the outset.

Defining ‘Revision’ and Setting Scope Boundaries

The first step to effectively charging for revisions is clearly defining what constitutes a ‘revision’ and setting precise scope boundaries within your project agreement.

What is a Standard Revision? This typically refers to minor adjustments based on feedback that aligns with the original creative brief and project goals. Examples include:

• Text changes
• Image swaps (client-provided)
• Minor color adjustments
• Layout tweaks without significant restructuring

What Constitutes an Extra Revision (Out of Scope)? This is feedback that requires substantial changes, deviates significantly from the original brief, or exceeds the agreed-upon number of revision rounds. Examples include:

• A complete redesign of a significant portion of the collateral.
• Requesting new concepts or directions not discussed initially.
• Major structural changes to the layout.
• Providing entirely new content that necessitates a layout overhaul.
• Exceeding the number of revision rounds defined in the contract (e.g., going beyond the included two rounds).

Your contract or proposal must explicitly state the number of revision rounds included in the initial project price (e.g., “Includes two rounds of revisions”). Define what each ‘round’ entails (e.g., a consolidated list of feedback provided at one time). Any work requested after these included rounds, or work that falls under your definition of ‘out of scope’ changes, will incur additional fees.

Methods for Charging for Extra Revisions

Once you’ve established clear policies, you need a method for pricing work that falls outside the initial scope. Here are common approaches for charging for design revisions:

1. Hourly Rate: Charge your standard hourly rate for any time spent on revisions exceeding the included rounds or scope. This is simple but can be unpredictable for the client.

   • Example: Your rate is $100/hour. An extra revision round takes 3 hours of work, costing the client $300.

2. Fixed Fee Per Round: Charge a predetermined fixed fee for each revision round requested beyond the initial included rounds.

   • Example: Initial project includes 2 rounds. Extra rounds are $250 each.

3. Fixed Fee Per Type of Revision: Define common types of out-of-scope changes and assign a fixed price to each.

   • Example: Major layout change: $500. Complete text rewrite (client-provided): $200. Adding a new section: $350.

4. Percentage of Project Fee: Charge a percentage of the original project cost for significant out-of-scope revisions.

   • Example: Major redesign requested: 50% of the original project fee.

5. Tiered Revisions: Offer an initial package with a standard number of revisions, and present options for additional revision packages at increasing fixed rates (e.g., Package A: 2 rounds included; Package B: 4 rounds for +$400; Package C: 6 rounds for +$700). This allows clients to choose their desired level of flexibility upfront.

The best method depends on your business model, the complexity of your projects, and your client base. Many businesses in the marketing collateral design space find a hybrid approach works well – perhaps a fixed fee per extra round for typical revisions and an hourly rate or percentage for significant scope changes.

Communicating Revision Costs and Managing Expectations

Transparency is key to avoiding conflict over revision fees. Discuss your revision policy and how you handle out-of-scope requests early in the sales process, ideally when presenting your proposal.

• Include it in the Proposal/Contract: Your contract is the legal foundation. Clearly state the number of included revisions, how ‘extra’ revisions are defined, and the associated costs (e.g., “Additional revision rounds are billed at $X per round,” or “Significant scope changes will be quoted separately based on an hourly rate of $Y”).
• Educate the Client: Explain why you have these policies – it ensures projects stay on track, on budget (for predictable costs), and allows you to deliver the best quality work within the agreed framework.
• Provide Estimates for Extra Work: When a client requests changes that fall outside the scope or included rounds, notify them before starting the work. Explain that the request is outside the original agreement and provide an estimate of the cost and potential timeline impact.
• Get Written Approval: Always obtain written (email is usually sufficient) approval from the client to proceed with extra work that will incur additional fees.

Consistent communication prevents surprises and builds trust, even when discussing additional costs.

Using Technology to Present Complex Pricing and Revision Options

Manually calculating and presenting costs for various revision scenarios or optional add-ons can be cumbersome and confusing for both you and the client. Spreadsheets or static PDFs make it hard for clients to visualize how different choices impact the final price.

This is where specialized tools can help. While many project management or CRM tools like HoneyBook (https://www.honeybook.com) or Dubsado (https://www.dubsado.com) offer proposal features, they may not provide truly interactive pricing configurations.

For comprehensive proposal software that includes e-signatures and contract features alongside pricing, you might look at tools like PandaDoc (https://www.pandadoc.com) or Proposify (https://www.proposify.com).

However, if your primary goal is to modernize how clients interact with and select your pricing options—especially when offering tiered services or clear add-ons like extra revision rounds—PricingLink (https://pricinglink.com) offers a powerful and affordable solution. PricingLink allows you to create interactive pricing experiences via shareable links (https://pricinglink.com/links/*).

You can structure your core design service with included revisions, and then add optional components for:

• Additional Revision Rounds (as a fixed fee add-on)
• Significant Scope Change (as an add-on that requires re-quoting or triggers an hourly rate calculation explained in text)
• Expedited Delivery (another common add-on)
• Extra Deliverables (e.g., source files, additional format types)

Clients can click to add these options and see the total project cost update live. This simplifies the pricing conversation, makes your offerings clear, and helps clients feel more in control of their investment. PricingLink focuses specifically on this interactive pricing step, integrating with your workflow before full contracts or invoicing.