Pricing Guides. Why are they so important? And why do we struggle so much making them?!?
Today I go into detail on how you can create YOUR guide and start booking more inquiring wedding clients!
First thing’s first, you need to come up with a cohesive, stunningly beautiful, and show-offy design. What I mean by this is you want your guide to match your branding. What does your website look like? Do you have geometric shapes like me, or more plants? Add those shapes and plants throughout your guide and make your branding consistent and cohesive in all forms of marketing!
You also want to make sure it looks beautiful and pleasing to the eye. So make sure you are using good design techniques – not crowding your pages with too many words or overwhelming them with bright colors. Stick to your branding colors and make it something your clients are going to want to keep looking at!
Lastly, and I think this is THE most important factor, you want to make sure you incorporate as MANY photos that are yours in your guide. This is another way to sell to them how talented you are as a photographer – so own it and show it off! Put pictures wherever you can and use them to further convince that client that they need to book you.
The content you include in your guide shouldn’t just be your pricing information. You want to sell them, remember? So educate them on why you are the best!
A good way to do that is by giving a quick bio with your experience, telling them WHY you are qualified to do this. Also, giving more information on WHY they should invest in you – what are your expenses? What are they paying for exactly? Why should they hire a professional instead of an amateur friend with a nice camera that’s cheaper?
Remember – your client may have never done this before, so they need to know why it’s SO important to have a professional photographer at their wedding.
You also want to make sure you answer any potential questions they might have. Do you have so many brides emailing you the same question? Then you should put it in your pricing guide!
Not only will this look great and add more content to your guide, but it will save you time in your inbox. Limiting as many emails with questions as you can will save you time to focus more on editing, building your website, and so many other things you could be doing instead of sitting in your inbox for 2985 hours.
Duh. This is a no-brainer. You should include your prices for each wedding package (if you have packages) and what’s included with each.
Now, I want to touch on something. DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHARGE WHAT YOU’RE WORTH!!!
Even if you are part-time, not as experienced, or still in your first year, you should be charging what you need to make ends meet. Clients don’t understand how many expenses we have over our fiscal year to keep our business running, so charging what you need so you’re not LOSING money is so important – regardless of your experience!!
Then, if you’re full-time, you have bills, life, and other things to pay for. Charge what you need to be making to live comfortably.
There is a formula for this, and I would be more than happy to share it with you, however, it is not my formula and I do want to respect the photographers that came up with it originally and not take credit for it. If you want to know what it is, sign up for a mentorship and I would be more than happy to walk you through it to make sure you are making money and kicking butt!
Okay. Who here gets through a guide/blog/website, and doesn’t know where to go next? That’s where CTA’s come in to help streamline your workflow.
At the end of my pricing guide, I have a “Let’s Meet!” page, encouraging my brides to schedule a meeting with me as our next step in the workflow. After this meeting is when I send the contract and hopefully book them!
Meeting face-to-face is just better for me because I feel like I’m getting to know my bride personally – and honestly, that bride is getting to know you too and will more likely book YOU!
Make sure you strategically place your CTA’s in places where your clients will know what to do next and not be confused. That will in turn help you book more and streamline your process!
I hope that helps with your pricing guides! I do have a service where I can help you build your OWN and help you with the design, content, and pricing. If you want to get started, head to my mentorship page and fill out the form! We’ll get chatting and start getting you more clients! 🙂
-Dani
Learn how I can help you get your feet on the ground and get you full-time in no time!