Tips on pricing and licensing your spreadsheet templates (2024)
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So, you have your spreadsheet templates ready for sale; they’re the best on the market. How do you price them?
Correctly pricing spreadsheet templates and digital downloads can be a challenge.
To ensure you charge a fair price for both you and your customers, you’ll need to understand spreadsheet template licensing, check out your competitors, and carefully consider what you’re offering.
Here’s everything you need to know to help you create the best possible pricing for your spreadsheet templates.
Determining the value of your spreadsheet template
Every spreadsheet template is different, and the first step to setting a price is knowing its value.
Various factors can determine the value of your spreadsheet template.
- Complexity: The harder it is for an ordinary person to create parts of your spreadsheet, such as complex formulas, analysis features, macros, and more, the more valuable it will be to potential customers.
- Usability: Templates that are easier for customers to use and more customizable are usually more valuable.
- Development Costs: Alongside all the factors on the customer side, remember to consider the development costs, including any expenses needed to create it such as subscription fees for design tools or marketing platforms.
For example, for those selling on Etsy, you’ll likely want to consider Etsy’s higher order fees, while an eCommerce platform like Sellfy may allow you to have lower prices due to lower fees.
Luckily, these expenses are often much lower than those required to create physical products to sell online.
No matter what, don’t undervalue your work. Remember that you’re selling a solution, not just a file.
Pricing strategies for spreadsheet templates
Here are some of the best tips, tricks, and strategies to tick off before you settle on your final spreadsheet template pricing.
1. Research competitor pricing
Your product is unique, but you need to know what you’re competing against to set the right price.
Thorough market research on competitor prices will help you identify key price ranges for similar types of templates, understand how others have justified their prices, and, more importantly, spot gaps in the market.
This strategy helps provide a foundation of knowledge, but it shouldn’t be the only factor in deciding your price.
Use competitors to spot ways to improve your product pricing and find your place in the market, while your unique features will help you decide on your final price.
2. Decide between one-time purchase and subscription models
There are generally two different pricing models: one-time purchases or subscriptions, each with its own pros and cons.
One-time purchase:
This option is often simpler for customers and offers quick, immediate revenue, making it excellent for getting started and testing new spreadsheets.
It is also “one-time,” reducing the likelihood of return customers or long-term customer relationships and possibly reducing revenue in the long term.
Subscription model:
While requiring more marketing and sales spend to acquire customers, a subscription model is great for offering steady, predictable income and developing long-term customer relationships.
Unlike the one-time purchase, this model will need more support and updates to justify consistent customer payments.
3. Offer tiered pricing
One way to capture all market aspects and optimize pricing is to offer a tiered structure. Consider something like:
- Basic tier: A simplified version of your template with core functionalities
- Standard tier: The full-featured template with all primary capabilities
- Premium tier: Offers advanced features, priority support, and customization options
This tactic allows you to capture a broader range of customers, as well as upsell them to higher tiers for more profit.
Just make sure to have a clear and justified value proposition for each tier.
4. Incorporate value-added services
Adding additional services is especially important for subscription-based pricing. It allows you to offer higher prices and add value to your overall offering.
Elements such as customer support, customization features, and regular updates are all excellent additions to add value to your spreadsheet template.
Your pricing can vary depending on whether these services are included in the base purchase or are part of higher-priced tiers.
5. Offer discounts, promotions, and bundles
One way to get customers quickly and drive sales is through the strategic use of discounts and promotions.
Different types can be used for different occasions:
- Loyalty discounts encourage repeat customers
- Limited-time offers create urgency
- Bundle deals help you sell multiple templates
Many e-commerce platforms such as Sellfy offer built-in promotional features to make life easier. These features allow you to quickly implement marketing strategies and sell your spreadsheet templates the way you want.
Licensing your spreadsheet templates
With some strategies for selling on hand and a knowledge of the value of your spreadsheet template, there’s just one thing left to consider: licensing.
Knowing what license to attach to your spreadsheet templates is crucial to selling digital products. It defines how customers can use your product, affects the price, and protects your intellectual property.
Understand different types of licenses
While there are many specific types of licenses, there are only really three main types when it comes to digital products and spreadsheet templates:
These are:
- Personal License: Allows individual use, typically for non-commercial purposes.
- Commercial License: Permits content to be used within a business or for commercial activities.
- Enterprise License: Designed for large organizations, often with broader usage rights.
When creating and selling your spreadsheet template, it’s vital that you outline how it can be used, alongside other requirements such as the number of users/downloads permitted and the duration of the license.
How to protect your spreadsheets
To protect your property from theft or illegal replication, you need to take precautions.
This can include:
- Adding visible or hidden watermarks to your templates.
- Including copyright information inside the template files.
- Establishing clear legal agreements with customers.
- Adding password protection for important documents.
These steps should establish boundaries on acceptable use of your spreadsheets when purchased, and protect you legally if content is stolen or illegally duplicated.
How to price your spreadsheets
Of course, each license type offers a whole different kind of value from your spreadsheet.
Because of this, you may want to price your spreadsheet templates around the licenses you offer, or include additional costs for purchasing broader licenses.
For personal and commercial licenses, offering set prices often works well.
You could consider something similar to this structure:
- Personal license: $39
- Commercial license: $109
- Enterprise license: Contact for a custom quote
Here, your initial personal license price may be based on your development costs, the complexity of your spreadsheet template, and other inherent values.
Then, the commercial license is priced higher to account for the number of people who will be using your template and the less restrictive usage rights.
This is because a company with just 6 employees (a small company) would otherwise be paying $234 for each employee (if they bought the personal license), alongside your commercial license allowing them to use your work more widely.
For the same reasons, you may want to offer a custom price for larger enterprises who will be sharing your spreadsheet template with magnitudes more people and with much more extensive usage rights.
You can also adjust these prices based on your template’s complexity and the overall market demand.
Track your sales and adjust your pricing
No matter what you set your prices as, the number one tip for achieving success and high sales is to monitor, improve, and optimize your pricing strategy continuously.
To do this properly, you’ll want to use analytics tools to view critical data such as conversion rates from specific promotions/discounts, the sales volume at various price points, and of course overall customer feedback.
Because of this, choosing the right eCommerce platform is crucial. Platforms like Sellfy provide robust analytics tools to help you make data-driven decisions about your pricing and marketing strategies.
This helps you spot which templates, price points, and promotional tactics sell best, allowing you to constantly adjust to the market’s needs and see better conversion rates.
Over to you
Ultimately, the pricing of your spreadsheet templates is up to you.
You know your own product best — you know what its worth, and how valuable it is to customers.
Understanding licensing, market demand, and competitor pricing helps you settle on a price that fairly represents your product while being competitive enough to quickly see sales.
By using different pricing options and varying your approach, you can get the most out of your pricing strategy and create a sustainable and profitable business by selling digital spreadsheet templates.
Remember, pricing is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. Constant updates, tweaks, and data monitoring all help you get the most out of your pricing.