I'm starting a platform to connect businesses with the best marketing, branding and PR agencies - what business model should I implement? Companies can contact agencies on the website but the work itself is done offline or on 3rd party websites.
Should I charge per lead or per business closed? And if it's the later how will I know the amount agreed upon by both parties?
First of all, I wish you success
secondly
Since the work is not limited to a specific sector and is open to several areas, the site must be coordinated so that services are displayed and start paying fees to subscribe to the site and provide benefits for each user according to the price of the package
Third
When you obtain a huge database, you can change the course of work and collect from the customer the price of the service, and when he obtains it from the company, the price of the service is deposited to the company, after deducting your site fees
Please contact me if you need any administrative questions
Thinking about a few different models and companies that are already out there doing it.
1) Service Fee: this may not work for you if payment is occurring off of your platform, but if you are able to still be involved during the contract phase, a service fee (% of the total deal) can be applied to the total. Think of the service fee Airbnb charges to someone when they book someone's place on the platform.
2) Membership fee: charging a small fee to enable access to the best agencies out there. Having curated agencies without having to do all the vetting is definitely something of value that people and businesses may be willing to pay for. You could potentially also charge a service fee to the agencies because you are generating more value for them--a new channel of customers with little legwork required.
3) Advertisements: I would argue this is the least desirable business model--no one likes to be inundated with ads. But if they are relevant and you're getting a lot of traffic on your website, there could be opportunities to highlight some of the best agencies or relevant tools for businesses to take advantage of.
Hope this is helpful to you and I would be helpful to talk through this in more detail with you. I've been a strategist and business designer at Johnson & Johnson most recently, have mentored many new businesses and am a founder myself. Good luck!
Did you consider a subscription plan with different levels?
I think for web platform is very common
There is a spectrum of options available and it is difficult to know the 'right' answer without actually testing the idea. What worked in the past is to either ask directly what they prefer and where they see the best value, iterate and adjust. It is a process in itself, and part of the puzzle you need to solve, both for the benefit of the users and company.
