10 WAYS to Price Your Photography Services

i've never been a fan of any idea that purports to be the one way to do things the school of thought that says this is what worked for me so it is the only thing that works or this is what i was taught and it worked so it must be the way things work that type of teaching leads people to failure and it's very narrow in its perspective hey everybody if this is your first time on the channel i'm kpr and this is studio builder when it comes to pricing your photography there is no one right way and no one pricing model is inherently better than the other they're just different methods and they all have their place there's so many different styles genres types of clients markets in the photography industry that there's no way one single pricing method would apply to every photographer in this video i'm going to introduce you to 10 different pricing models and briefly talk about how you could apply them to your business either at the level of the business as a whole or at the level of individual products and services that you might offer within your business i'm not going to tell you to raise or lower your prices or what to do only you can figure that out i just really want you to understand some of the different pricing strategies that are available to you and how pricing works as a volume dial to increase or decrease the number of clients that you have so let's start with cost plus pricing cost plus pricing is something we hear about frequently in the personal photography market this approach tells you to know your costs and apply a markup or multiplier and people will often tell you to know your cost of goods sold and to apply a markup of 2.5 to 3x it's a very simple pricing strategy for people to understand and to teach that can work for most photographers most of the time which is why it is taught so often however it's not always the right strategy for people to use it's a great place to start but don't get caught in the trap of thinking it is the only approach to pricing your work the next most common pricing strategy we see in photography is value-based pricing and even if you think you could charge more photographers will sell their services based on what they think the customer is willing to pay for their products and services in their mind they set a limit that the client is willing to pay and they charge that this could help fill your sales pipeline with shoots but done poorly it could lead to the degradation of value that people place in your services it's a very bargain basement sort of approach to pricing your photography if you price yourself too low it's going to be difficult to create and sustain a business that lasts for a long time next up we have competition-based pricing now this is also known as competitive pricing or competitor pricing this method is the most common way photographers tend to price themselves they will look at what other photographers in their market and in their genre are charging and price themselves similarly they'll assume because one person is charging 500 for a session that they should charge five hundred dollars for a session this method is all about pricing yourself relative to your competitors in your market the best way to approach this method is to create a spreadsheet and take a look at all the competition in your market see what they're charging see what they're providing and get a good sense of what the average is for what you provide with your services in your market and then price yourself accordingly either slightly below within the average or slightly above next we'll look at premium pricing premium pricing also known as luxury pricing or prestige pricing is used to establish your position in the market as one of premium or luxury quality it focuses on the perceived value of your services and products rather than the production costs to which you might simply apply a markup or multiplier as with cost plus pricing premium pricing is directly tied to your branding and market position if you position your brand as a luxury brand you have to price your services to match i went into more detail about this in a previous video which i'll link to in the description bundle pricing is most common in wedding photography where a studio might sell collections as bundles including wedding day coverage engagement sessions custom albums and wall art you can then choose to only sell as a bundle or you can also offer items a la carte bundling adds value to your client experience up front and helps guide your clients in their purchase decision project-based pricing is the dominant approach used in commercial photography where we get a brief and we bid for that job based on the scope of the project the pricing variables here that the photographer can set include creative fees and licensing fees since licensing fees tend to be pretty standard based on media geographic markets and total ad spend where you have the most flexibility as a photographer is with your creative fee you can then apply another pricing strategy to your creative fee such as value competitive or premium pricing to establish your value and market position another way commercial photographers tend to price themselves is with an hourly pricing strategy also known as rate-based pricing if you're a corporate photographer or wedding photographer you might apply this approach to pricing your work and your coverage hourly pricing is a simple time for money exchange it focuses on your labor instead of your value because it focuses on labor and doesn't account for efficiency this is a strategy i would only advise applying to coverage of events where you have to be physically present for the whole event such as conferences weddings or other life events and ceremonies a pricing strategy that is very effective for new photographers who need to fill their pipeline and build their business is penetration pricing the idea is that you're pricing your services to penetrate the market and to gain a share of the market with penetration pricing you're pricing your services well below your competitors to attract attention and gain market share now this strategy is not sustainable in the long term but if you're just starting out it can be the best way to price your services but again it is not sustainable long term i would not recommend doing it for more than a single year dynamic pricing is commonly associated with ride sharing services like uber and lyft prices fluctuate according to market demand or supply offering family mini sessions or headshot days is a form of dynamic pricing you are offering people a set price for a set period of time people might take you up on this as a way to get their portrait taken at a rate that is affordable to them when they might not otherwise be able to afford your regular competitive or premium prices the last pricing strategy i want to address and it is by far not the last of the pricing strategies that are out there is freemium pricing premium is a portmanteau of the words free and premium it is often associated with online software services that have very limited free plans and then offer upgraded premium plans for when you want them you might be wondering how you could apply this pricing strategy to your photography photographers do this all the time portrait photographers commonly offer free sessions but then the clients have to pay at an in-person ordering session in order to get images and wall art wedding photographers often offer complimentary engagement sessions and then their clients can upgrade to a full wedding collection after that session over the coming months i'll do deeper dives into some of these pricing strategies i've covered in this video but for now i just want you to think about how your services and products are priced it doesn't matter what your prices are just think about how you went about setting your prices want you to assess your prices and consider them consider your market consider your brand consider your market position consider your current client volume and then think about if you need to make adjustments to increase the number of clients you have or increase your revenue and increase your profit if you found this video helpful please like and share it and consider subscribing to the channel for more on pricing your photography check out this video where i talk about how to make more money with your photography and it's not just about raising your prices check it out