Retainers for web studios and freelancers

Sell retainers as the technical partner to your client's marketing team.

Marketing managers need a landing page this week, a form that reaches the CRM, a pixel that fires and an A/B test on the pricing page. This kit shows you how to sell developer hours for that work, with updates, security and backups as the base of the plan instead of the pitch.

A guide and nine templates from a web studio in southern Brazil with ~60% of clients on retainer. Built around one habit for content requests: do it once, record a video, they do it next time.

Kit + AI Pack — $45 Kit only — $29

Launch prices (regular $39 and $59). One-time payment, USD. 14-day refund, no questions asked. Compare the two options.

Word / Google Docs
Excel / Google Sheets
Markdown
Instant download

08-email-scripts · #5 of 11 Excerpt

Reply to a CMS request

The client asks for something their team can do in the CMS. Don't refuse. Do it once, take it from the bank, send the video.

Subject: Re: [Add the new team members]

Hi [NAME],

Done. The [three new team members] are live on [PAGE]. That took [0.5] h from this month's hours.

This is something your team can do in about [5] minutes, so I recorded a short video showing how: [LINK]. Next time you can skip the wait. I've added it to your how-to folder: [FOLDER LINK].

If you'd still prefer us to handle these, that's fine. It just comes out of the bank each time.

[YOUR NAME]

Care plans beyond WordPress. The model runs on hours and boundaries, not plugin updates.

WordPress our work
Next.js / headless our work
Webflow compatible
Framer compatible

The habit the kit is built on

Do it once, record a video, they do it next time.

Marketing teams send a steady stream of content requests: swap the hero image, add three people to the team page, change the promo banner. Take them all on and your hour bank turns into content entry. Refuse and you sound like a vendor hiding behind a contract. This is the middle path.

Do it once. Make the change, quickly and properly.
Charge the time. It comes out of the hour bank like any other task, usually 15 to 30 minutes.
Record a short screen video, 2 to 5 minutes, showing exactly how to do it in their CMS.
Send both together. “Done, took 0.5 h. Here's a 3-minute video so your team can do it next time.”
Next time, they do it. If they ask again, do it again and charge it again. The video is still there.

Why it works

The client gets the result today. No “out of scope.”
Seeing 0.5 h on the report for a photo swap teaches the boundary better than a contract clause.
After a year, each client has a folder of how-to videos. Their team is faster, and it's one more reason they stay.
The bank goes to work that needs a developer.

Marketing team does (CMS operations)

Posts and pages from existing blocks or templates
Images, text, prices, team members, products
CMS collection items, headless CMS entries

You do (from the bank)

Campaign pages and templates, forms, CRM, tracking, A/B tests
Components, integrations, schema changes, fixes
The base: updates, security, backups, hosting, monitoring

The guide has the per-platform version of this table (WordPress, Next.js/headless, Webflow, Framer). Email script 5 is the reply above.

What the hours look like

The request as it arrives, and the engineering decision behind it.

The guide walks through three typical requests in this format. You can reuse it in your own sales material.

Marketing manager · Monday 10:14

Can we get a landing page for the Black Friday campaign by Thursday? Same look as the site. Ads go live Friday 6 a.m.

What we did: Built a reusable “campaign landing” template instead of a one-off page: hero, offer block, countdown, FAQ and form, all as components the marketing team can fill in from the CMS. Added UTM handling and a thank-you page that fires its own conversion event.
Why: They'll ask for another campaign page in six weeks. A template costs a couple of extra hours now and saves most of the build time on every campaign after this one. The next page can be assembled by the marketing team alone.
Hours: ~7 h 5 h template and components · 1 h tracking and thank-you page · 1 h mobile testing and review on the preview link
Reusable: The template, the countdown component, the conversion-event setup. The next campaign page takes the client's team well under an hour, and you about 0.5 h for a tracking check.

An illustrative composite of requests the studio gets often, not an account of a specific client. Hours are typical figures. The other two cases in the guide: a demo form that has to reach the CRM (direct API, UTM fields, a fallback when the call fails), and missing ad conversions plus a server-side A/B test.

Where retainers go wrong

You've probably heard some of these.

Most retainer problems come down to one thing: the client and you disagree about what's included. Here's what that sounds like, and what the kit gives you for each.

“Nothing broke this month. What am I paying for?” A maintenance plan sold to whoever pays the hosting bill looks like insurance, and gets cut first.

In the kitA pitch aimed at the marketing manager, and a monthly report that opens with “campaign support delivered”: what went live, for which campaign, what changes for their team. Updates and backups follow, short.
“Can we get a landing page by Thursday?” Urgent campaign work with no agreement, priced as a rush job every time.

In the kitAn hour bank sized for campaign work, response times by severity, a scope matrix with a campaign-support block, and a change request form for anything that would use more than about 30–50% of the monthly bank.
“Can you upload this PDF and swap the banner?” Developer hours spent on content entry, and you become the bottleneck for every headline.

In the kitThe CMS boundary and the video habit above, written into the proposal, the scope matrix, the client one-pager and an email script.
“What should I charge, and what about extra hours?” Picking a number because someone on a forum charges it.

In the kitA pricing spreadsheet that builds your hourly rate from costs, margin and realistic billable hours, then gives you tier prices, overage at 1.25x (or 1.5x), an optional after-hours add-on and infrastructure markup.
“We already have an agency.” The marketing team has someone for strategy, ads and design.

In the kitThe answer from the guide's objections section: agencies usually aren't set up to make a form talk to the CRM by Thursday. You're the developer they hand the technical part to. A pitch email for marketing managers is included.
“What if we want to stop?” Retainers that feel like a lock-in, so nobody wants to sign.

In the kitA 3- or 6-month term with a usage review, and no early-termination fee by default: 30 days' notice and they're out. The client owns the site, code and content, and an offboarding email hands over access and videos.

Paraphrased from recurring threads in web design communities (r/web_design, r/webdev, r/Wordpress, r/freelance) and from the studio's own client conversations. Common situations, not quotes from specific people.

What's inside the kit

Ten files. One way of running retainers.

Everything follows the same rules (hour bank, rollover, response times, CMS boundary, overage multiplier), so the proposal, the agreement and the report never contradict each other.

01
The Guide DOC
About 5,900 words in 14 sections: who buys, the video habit, three annotated cases, scope, pricing with a worked example, plans, rollover as owed work, SLA options, contract terms, onboarding, reporting, objections, renewal.
02
Proposal template DOC
Addressed to the marketing manager. What we're supporting, included and excluded work up front, plan table, response times and terms in brief.
03
Retainer Agreement Template DOC
US-generic: term, usage review, hour bank, rollover, overage, SLA, ownership, access, liability. Optional clauses clearly marked. Have a local lawyer review it.
04
Scope matrix + change request DOC
Campaign support, development, the base and CMS operations, per platform. Plus a change request with campaign date and effect on the balance.
05
Monthly report DOC
Campaign support delivered first, then tasks and hours, the hour balance with what expires next, and the base. Free on its own.
06
Pricing calculator SHEET
Costs, margin and billable hours in; hourly rate, tier prices, overage multiplier, after-hours add-on and a 12-month rollover tracker with the value of hours you owe out.
07
Onboarding checklist DOC
Access by platform, including the marketing stack (analytics, tag manager, pixels, CRM), a tracking audit, the campaign calendar and a week-by-week first month.
08
Email scripts (11) DOC
Offer at handoff, pitch to a marketing manager, follow-up, “the market is bad,” CMS request, change request, overage heads-up, report note, renewal, step-down, offboarding.
09
“What we do every month” DOC
A one-page sheet for the client: campaign support, the base, response times, and what their own team handles.
10
Platform checklists DOC
Monthly and quarterly checks, a “before each campaign launch” list, and specifics for WordPress, Next.js/headless, Webflow and Framer.

Every template uses [BRACKETED PLACEHOLDERS] for your studio name, rates and terms, and bracketed alternatives where studios differ. Each file comes as Word/Google Docs (or Excel/Google Sheets) and as Markdown.

How the model works

Five rules that keep a retainer clear for both sides.

They stay the same whatever plan size or platform you sell. The guide explains each one; the templates put it in front of the client.

Hour bank, overage at 1.25x

The client buys developer hours each month, and those hours serve their campaigns.

Plans fall into two shapes: about 3–4 hours for a stable site, and up to about 20 hours for a marketing team that ships something most weeks. Named tiers in the kit: Care (4 h), Growth (10 h), Partner (20 h). Hours beyond the balance are billed at 1.25x the package rate by default, or 1.5x if your capacity is tight. The client hears about it before it happens, not on the invoice.

Worked example from the guide (hypothetical $96/h package rate)
Multiplier	Overage rate	Use it when
1.25x (default)	$120/h	Overage is occasional and you have room in your schedule
1.5x (alternative)	$144/h	Overage regularly pushes other clients' work back

Rollover for 3 months

Unused hours roll over for up to 3 months. The oldest hours are used first. Then they expire.

Rollover removes the “use it or lose it” complaint. But every rolled-over hour is work the client paid for and you haven't delivered yet. The guide shows how to track that balance across the studio, and why expiry keeps a client from saving 60 hours for a project at retainer rates.

Example from the guide: a 10-hour bank over four months
Month	Added	Used	Balance after
Jan	10	6	4 (Jan)
Feb	10	5	9 (Feb) — Jan's 4 used first
Mar	10	2	17 (7 Feb + 10 Mar), $1,632 of work owed
Apr	10	3	20 (10 Mar + 10 Apr) — Feb's last 4 expire

Response times you can keep

A typo and an outage don't get the same response time. After-hours response is optional.

The default, and the right choice for most solo freelancers, is business hours: Critical issues reported after hours get a response first thing the next business day. If you offer after-hours Critical response, sell it as a monthly add-on or include it only in the top plan. You promise when you'll respond and start, not when it'll be fixed.

Response times (bracketed values are yours to set)
Severity	Examples	Response
Critical	Site down, forms broken, tracking broken during a paid campaign	Within [2–4] business hours, else next business day. Optional: any time, as an add-on
High	Major feature broken, site still up	Within 1 business day
Normal	Small fixes, CMS requests	Delivered within 4–5 business days
Planned	Campaign pages, features, integrations	Scheduled together, estimate first

Short terms, no exit fee

3- or 6-month terms that renew, with a usage review at the end of each one.

Before every renewal you look at the hours actually used and adjust the bank up or down. It's written into the agreement, so it happens as routine, not as a negotiation. By default there is no early-termination fee: the client can leave with 30 days' written notice and pays through the notice period, nothing more. An early-termination clause is included for studios that want one, marked OPTIONAL.

A report for marketing

Every month the client gets each task, the hours it took, and what it did for their campaigns.

Write it for the marketing manager, who will copy parts of it into their own report: campaign support delivered first, then tasks and hours, the balance, and the base (uptime, updates, backups). Always list expiring hours. “4 hours from August expire at the end of this month” fills more wishlists than any sales email.

AI Pack

From a time-tracker export to the monthly report draft.

The AI Pack turns the kit's templates into drafts you review and send. The main prompt reads a ClickUp, Jira or Toggl CSV and writes the report in the kit's order, with the hours math shown so you can check it in a minute.

toggl-detailed-export-2026-09.csvBefore

Last month's Toggl export

Client,Description,Billable,Start date,Duration,Tags
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"WordPress core + 11 plugin updates, tested on staging first",Yes,2026-09-03,00:52:00,updates
Mossgate Architects,Portfolio filter bug,Yes,2026-09-08,01:35:00,fix
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Checkout: shipping zone rule broke after WooCommerce update, fixed",Yes,2026-09-10,00:35:00,"fix,high"
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,Internal: invoice prep,No,2026-09-12,00:25:00,admin
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Google Ads purchase conversion tag for autumn promo, verified with Tag Assistant",Yes,2026-09-17,00:20:00,"campaign,tracking"
Harrow & Finch Bakery Co.,"Monthly check: backups, uptime, SSL/domain dates",Yes,2026-09-30,00:14:00,maintenance

Rows unchanged; scroll sideways to read them in full. Plus a short client sheet: plan, opening balance, uptime, incidents, campaign context.

output-monthly-reportAfter, excerpt

Monthly Report — September 2026

Check before sending: 2 rows dropped (other client; not billable). 121 min logged, billed as 2.50 h in 15-minute increments. Opening 6.50 + added 4.00 − used 2.50 − expired 0.50 = closing 7.50 h ✔

Value delivered

Your autumn promo can be measured in Google Ads from day one. The purchase conversion tag is installed and verified, so from Oct 1 you'll see which ads lead to online preorders, not only clicks.
Local delivery orders work again. The checkout problem flagged on Sep 10 was fixed within the hour.

Hours balance

From	Avail.	Used	Left	Expires end of
Jul	3.00	2.50	0.50	Sep (expired)
Aug	3.50	0.00	3.50	Oct
Sep	4.00	0.00	4.00	Nov

Heads-up: 3.50 hours from August expire at the end of October. The holiday preorder page you mentioned in August is about 3 hours. If we start it in October, it's covered by hours you've already paid for.

Real output from running prompt 01 on the sample files in the pack, trimmed for length. Names are fictional. The hours were recomputed independently in Python and match.

Assistant setups

Paste-ready instructions for a Claude Project and a Custom GPT, plus one agency-profile.md you fill in once (rate, plans, overage multiplier, rollover, SLA option, tone), so the assistant uses your numbers instead of guessing.

8 tested prompts

Time export → monthly report, meeting notes → proposal, CMS and out-of-scope replies, change request from a vague ask, renewal review, pitch email to a marketing manager, overage heads-up, incident summary. Each with sample inputs and the output it produced.

Claude Code and Codex

CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for a folder of client retainer docs, 4 skills in SKILL.md format (report, proposal, scope reply, renewal review) and a standard-library Python script that computes the hour balance.

The assistant drafts; you send. Nothing connects to your tracker or your email: you export a CSV or paste text. Updates to the pack are updates to the prompts and instructions, not tool integrations. Use an assistant that can run code (or Claude Code / Codex) for the hours math, and read every draft before sending.

Pricing

Two options. One-time payment.

Launch prices, in USD. Both include free updates for all of version 1 and a 14-day refund, no questions asked.

Kit

$29$39

The guide and nine templates.

The Guide (about 5,900 words)
Proposal, Retainer Agreement Template, scope matrix and change request
Monthly report, onboarding checklist, client one-pager
Pricing calculator (Excel / Google Sheets)
11 email scripts, platform checklists
Word / Google Docs and Markdown versions

Get the Kit — $29

Includes everything in Kit

Kit + AI Pack

$45$59

The kit, plus drafts from your own data.

Everything in Kit
Claude Project and Custom GPT instructions
8 tested prompts with sample inputs and outputs
Time export (ClickUp / Jira / Toggl CSV) → monthly report
CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and 4 skills for Claude Code / Codex
Prompt updates through version 1

Get Kit + AI Pack — $45

License per studio: use it with as many of your own clients as you like. No resale or redistribution. Checkout and delivery by Lemon Squeezy.

Free

Get the monthly report template free.

Template 05 from the kit: campaign support delivered, tasks and hours, the hour balance with expiring hours, and the base. Word / Google Docs and Markdown. Enter your email and the file arrives in your inbox.

Get the free template

$0 checkout through Lemon Squeezy. No card needed.

Fit

Who it's for, and who it isn't.

A good fit if you

Build sites for clients as a freelancer or a studio of a few people.
Have clients with a marketing team that keeps asking for pages, forms and tracking.
Work on more than WordPress, or on WordPress plus custom or headless builds.
Already sell a care plan but clients cancel because they can't see what they get.
Prefer editing a Word doc or a spreadsheet to setting up another SaaS tool.

Not a fit if you

Want a $49/month “updates and backups” plan run by automation. Free vendor guides cover that well.
Want to handle all your clients' content edits. The kit is built on the opposite rule.
Want to run ads or campaign strategy. The kit covers the technical side only.
Need a contract reviewed for your state or country. That needs a lawyer.
Expect software or tool integrations. These are documents, a spreadsheet and prompts.

Who wrote it

From a studio that runs on retainers.

I run a web studio in southern Brazil. About 60% of our clients are on a monthly retainer; the rest are one-off projects.

That split is why the studio is stable. Project money arrives in lumps. Retainer money arrives on the first of the month and covers rent and payroll before we close a new deal. Nothing in this model depends on where we are.

For years we called it “maintenance,” and in the sales conversation that was a mistake. The retainers that last are the ones where we work as the technical partner to the client's marketing team. The updates, security and backups are still there. They're the reason the campaign pages don't break.

Our own work is WordPress and Next.js with a headless CMS. Where the kit covers Webflow and Framer, it applies the same model to how those platforms work; it doesn't claim we build on them every day.

Mateus, founder of a web studio in southern Brazil

FAQ

Questions before you buy.

What formats are the files in?

The guide and templates come as Word documents that open in Word, Google Docs or Pages. The pricing calculator is an Excel file that works in Excel and Google Sheets. Every document is also included as Markdown, which is what the AI Pack and tools like Claude Code read. You download everything right after checkout.

What's the difference between the two options?

Kit ($29 at launch) is the guide and nine templates. Kit + AI Pack ($45 at launch) adds Claude Project and Custom GPT instructions, eight tested prompts with sample inputs and outputs, and CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md and four skills for Claude Code and Codex. The kit files are identical in both.

Which platforms does it cover?

WordPress, Next.js/headless, Webflow and Framer. The scope matrix, onboarding checklist and platform checklists have a column or section for each.

Where it comes from: the studio works on WordPress and Next.js with a headless CMS. Webflow and Framer are compatible with the model, and those parts are based on how the platforms work publicly. Check them against your own setup.

Is the agreement legal advice?

No. The Retainer Agreement Template is a generic starting point written with US clients in mind. It is not legal advice and doesn't create a lawyer–client relationship. Laws differ by state and country, so have a lawyer where you work review it before you use it.

Does the AI Pack connect to ClickUp, Toggl or my email?

No. You export a CSV or paste text, and the assistant returns a draft. That keeps it working with whatever tracker you use. Updates to the pack are updates to the prompts and instructions; there are no tool integrations to maintain. You need your own Claude or ChatGPT account, or Claude Code / Codex.

I work alone. Does it still apply?

Yes. The calculator takes the number of people as an input, so you can set it to one. The default response times are business hours only, with after-hours response as an optional add-on, because that's the promise a solo freelancer can keep.

Can I put my name on the templates and send them to clients?

Yes, that's what they're for. The license is per studio: edit, rebrand and use the templates with as many of your own clients as you like. You can't resell, redistribute or share the kit or the AI Pack.

Will it be updated?

Yes. Buyers get every update to version 1 free, by email. For the AI Pack, that means updated prompts and instructions.

What if it isn't useful to me?

Email us within 14 days of purchase and you get a full refund, no questions asked. Questions before buying? [email protected].

Next time marketing asks for a banner swap, send the video.

The guide, proposal, agreement template, scope matrix, monthly report, pricing calculator, onboarding checklist, 11 emails, the client one-pager and the platform checklists. Add the AI Pack for drafts from your own exports.