Most photographers focus their business growth strategy on booking more clients. However, the most financially savvy photographers understand the full revenue equation, i.e. revenue equals number of clients multiplied by average revenue per client. So, for example, if you want to double your revenue next year, you can double the number of bookings, or you can double the revenue you make per booking. In this article, we’ll walk you through photography pricing tips to help you charge more for each client you book.
We will consider the following concepts:
- Understanding the mindset of luxury and luxury consumers
- Unleash your creativity for a luxurious experience (even without a studio)
- Focus on being unique, not necessarily “the best” at everything
- Using Pricing Psychology in Your Package Design
Note: This training is directly from our free 1-hour master class called “3 steps to get more $100K. “If you want to learn more about how to amplify your business with more leads, more revenue per customer, and higher sales conversions, we encourage you to sign up. here.
Note, this post is long but like the last one, “3 really effective photography marketing tips and tricks“it’s filled with real-world proven strategies. Bookmark this and revisit from time to time!
Understanding the mindset of luxury and luxury consumers
The first step to being able to charge more per customer is to understand that photography is not a consumer product. It’s a luxury. Photography is no longer a consumer product when everyone has a phone in their pocket to be able to take pictures that are essentially “good enough”. From there, photography became something different. Customers look to photographers as a luxury, as a unique experience that provides them with something they cannot recreate on their own. At the same time, photography becomes more accessible to everyone. Great cameras are affordable, and digital photography takes away the expertise and expense of having to shoot with film.
From economics 101, we know that the price of a product is based on the point where supply and demand meet. With the advent of digital, the supply of photographers is increasing.
The image above is a standard consumer product, the luxury demand line looks more like the image below. It’s a little less elastic, a little less volatile. It’s a good thing!
This is good news for photographers because, as a luxury, differentiated product and experience, the price you can charge will be less affected by the growing supply of photographers. There is still a strong demand for photographic experiences that go beyond what consumers can create with a phone or at home. But this also means two other things:
- Your product is a luxury and should be marketed that way, no matter what your price point.
- Your photography needs to be a luxury experience that delivers more than just photos.
How to create a luxurious experience
To build a luxury experience, let’s look at some examples of consumption versus luxury. I want you to go through these comparisons and see what is a luxury experience and the other is the consumer experience. But what difference are you seeing?
What you may have noticed is that on the consumer side, we have a lot to choose from. If we look at the car showroom we will see many cars and many other things on a lot.
But at the Bentley dealership, we feel calm. We feel at peace. We were shown a single vehicle, presented as a work of art rather than a product. We see a simple fine art print. A chair and table to sit and discuss the sale. On top of that, do you think salespeople will actually talk about features like stereo, skins, and electronics? No, because if you’re buying a luxury product, you’d expect all those features to come standard.
Take a look at the department store on the right, versus Louis Vuitton on the left. Isn’t it a similar thing? On the right, tons of products. On the left, one wallet/product is shown at a time. You and I know there are many more in the background, but they are displayed like works of art, one at a time!
Ok, but how does this translate to photography?
Website Design and Product Delivery
A digital showroom is your website, and to ensure that you’re providing a luxurious experience, here are some tips and guidelines to follow.
- Specialization: Providing too many services is equivalent to providing too many products in one store. Focus on a single photo niche and consider branching out and rebranding your other services into a separate website and brand.
- Consistency and alignment: Show only your best work. Continually organize and remove outdated images. Just like Bentley won’t show off a dilapidated car, don’t showcase your sepia-toned photos from 2008.
- User Interface and Navigation: Keep your website clutter-free, simple and easy to navigate. Give your website a positive, clean and pleasant feel the same way you would with a physical store.
- Be unique and tell a story: To be clear, we are not advocating that all photography brands be branded the same way as traditional luxury retail brands. In fact, we believe that your website and brand should have its own character and story, whether it’s a fun, boho, artsy or otherwise.
Luxurious experience without physical studio
You can still create a luxurious experience without a physical studio if you’re meeting in cafes or meetings via Zoom. Here are some ideas.
When you’re on the phone, booking a tour, you should know what kind of photography they’re looking for. Get the most appropriate album for that client. For example, if it’s an Indian wedding, get a matching sample album! If it’s a vertical session, same thing. Bring an album or artistic portrait prints, but no more than an album or several prints!
On the phone, ask them what their favorite drink is. Schedule a meeting at a local boutique coffee shop, bar, winery, or restaurant. Get to know the owner and staff as you will probably be there quite often. Let them know that you are there to support them too. Arrive at the cafe 15 minutes early, find a good seat in a quiet corner. Next, order their favorite drink and let them wait when the customer arrives.
When they arrive, show them the store. Introduce them to the owners and let them know why it’s your favorite store in the area. Now, sit down, give them their drinks and start getting to know them! (We consider all closed sales webinar).
Can you create the same luxury experience through Zoom or video conferencing? Sure! You can set up your broadcasts and videos for studio-grade quality by simply plugging in the camera and using OBS and design a unique, attractive background. The screenshot below is an example of the setup I use for my Zoom meetings and YouTube videos.
You can also submit a “care package” with a few of your favorite treats and a box marked “open once on Zoom.”
Creation. You don’t need a studio to create a luxury experience. You just need to combine some thoughts and a little bit of what makes you unique!
Use Pricing Psychology in Your Package Design!
Your package pricing should be simple to understand and it should incorporate pricing psychology!
Packaging design
First, let’s talk about the package design itself. Ideally you want to create three main packages with the ability to customize if needed. You can do more or less. We find this to be an ideal number that is easy to understand and hits the mark across the board.
Package I
This is the MVP or “Minimum Viable Product.” Now, this doesn’t mean you put in as little as possible so someone has to upgrade to get a finished product. That would be extremely annoying and would create mistrust among the client/photographer. This is like walking into a dealership to buy a car and then being told that tires and handlebars are sold separately.
Your MVP should be the bare minimum of service you need to create a product you’re proud of. For example, if you need engagement photography that lasts an hour and is at least six hours on your wedding day, build that into your base package.
You also want to be careful with the naming of your packages. Names like “bronze or silver” can signify that it’s not as good as the rest. So give each pack more neutral and positive names.
Package II
Package II represents the package that you most want to sell. This is your “feature” product that is suitable for the majority (60-70%) of your customers. Its pricing will comfortably alternate between your low and high plans for a reason that we’ll discuss below.
Package III
Then you have Package III which is the most premium package as well as your anchor price. The important thing in the triple pack is that you don’t just throw in unnecessary or unreasonable things just to raise the price. These really need to be things that people want; otherwise, they will ask you to remove the items from the package and re-price.
When it comes to presenting your packages and prices, present them in order from most expensive to most expensive. Here’s what I want to say. Instead of showing Packages I, II, and III, present Packages III, then II, then I on any and all valuation documents.
The reason for this is that Package III is your price anchor. This is a pack designed to give a little bit of “sticker shock” and sound to “hey, this isn’t cheap”. Then when they come to Pack II, your featured package that should be your most booked package, they think: “phew, that makes a lot more sense”.
The best way to make something look like a value is not to reduce its price. It is really to put it next to more expensive things. A $5,000 watch looks expensive when you put it next to a $500 Movado watch. But then again, that $5,000 watch doesn’t look so bad next to it is a $20,000 Rolex.
More information
We hope that this article was useful to you and your photography business. We know it’s a lot of information, so we ask you to save it for future reference. Plus, to learn more and watch a video presentation of this information, check out our full, free one-hour master class on ways to Add another $100K to your photography business.
