Hi,

I have seen a few strategies regarding advertizing prices on web site. Some photogs:
- don't put their prices at all,
- some put just the starting price,
- some put starting price and the top package price,
- some put full price lists.

What is the best way to do it?

Thank you,

Personally I put prices for my packages. I've heard from many couples that I meet with that they really appreciate it because they know when they come to the meeting how much we charge which makes it easier for them, and they already know the package they want, which makes out sales presentation easier because we know what to focus on at the meeting or what we need to focus on to up-sell to a larger package.

I put my prices up. I remember being a bride and looking for information for different vendors and generally, unless I absolutely fell in love with the photos, I didn't bother sending an email or calling because the info wasn't on the site. I assume brides think the same way about me, so I might as well give them the information they want.

Ksenia

I've also gotten emails with notes thanking me for putting my pricing up. If you dont list every single pacakge, say something like "packages start at $0000....all packages include e-session, time, album..etc. Thats what I would do.

Hey Alex!,

I took mine down for a few reasons.

Last year I had my prices listed and met with many people even after they had seen them. You would expect that meant they were willing and able to pay those prices which was not true. I met with so many bargain shoppers and it was a huge waste of my time. I'd rather spend that time responding to emails from people who ask for the prices. What they write in their email tells me so much about them. And I also get a chance to reply and let a little more personality show in that email....all without spending the time to meet. Email aside, I've also gotten more phone calls as a result which is even better for letting your personality show to them.

Another reason is that when your prices aren't listed, chances are better that you'll hear from people who aren't so concerned about price, which is the kind of client I prefer.

And finally, go to two restaurants....one with prices on the menu...and one without. What's your very first impression of the restaurant once you look at that menu?

See you soon!,
Kevin

That I cant afford it!

We have many reasons as well same as above, a big one is we are now mostly referral based, so for the most part they know. And another is we work two totally different markets and other markets and we have to customize.

See? Had you been a bride...it would've saved us both the trouble of meeting.

I put "Packages starting at $xyz..." Then if it's too high for the budget brides, they know. With my new web contact form (not finished designing my new site yet, but getting closer!), they enter all of their info, submit, and then directed to a page thanking them for their inquiry and "click here to download the brochure."

Now, not only do I have their contact info, I know how many are actually looking into my services, how many are not interested, and they don't have to wait around on me to reply and send my brochure with pricing. After I get their info, I simply send a "Congrats! Yes I'm available or no I'm not available. Do you have any questions for me?" type email.

Before when I posted all of my packages and pricing, I only had my web stats to refer to for an idea of how many people were checking out ECP. And we all know that isn't accurate. So this seems to be the best way for me now.

In my opinion, putting as much information up there as possible is the best way to do things. You want QUALIFIED brides contacting you, and in order for them to know if they're qualified (i.e. if they can afford you), they need all of your information. If you put the info on your site, you won't be spending lots of time e-mailing tons of brides all of the information. It's just an extra step that you won't have to take if you put all of the info out there in front of them.

I list my prices -- mainly because I want to be easy to work with. If I am too much of a hassle to my clients, they will not even pursue me -- because it is an inconvenience to them.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Good luck!

Whatever will work for you and you have really good response here. You also should know your target market. We also did a survey and asked our close friends who we know have "high end" lifestyles what they thought...a couple who have contacted Denis Reggie four years ago, (he was booked). I forgot to mention we used to have our pricing up a year and a half ago and not posting has worked very well for us and attract a market we want. Pm me if you need anything.

I don't think there is a single best way, a lot depends on how you are going to make your money. I sell three standard packages and place a very high dollar value on my time so it is in my best interest to book clients as easily as possible. I don't generally meet with clients and I usually spend between 20 and 60 minutes on the phone with them. That is why I put my full packages and contracts online with a link to make the initial payment online. I have found that a lot of my clients are very busy people and don't want to waste time/money on working out the insignificant details.

If I sold all custom made packages or if I tried to add on a lot of items before and after the wedding then I would not put prices online and I would meet with them face to face and maximize revenue that way.

I think having prices and not having prices are both valid. This is the scenario from my top four out of twelve weddings for 2007:

1) never visited my website, never saw my photos, never saw my prices, never met me and booked over the phone in about 10 minutes after making a custom package that is quite satisfactory
2) saw my website and criticized all the photos and decided I was the one to hire then booked a custom package a few weeks later that is very respectable
3) visited my website and saw the photos and packages but wanted something custom and created a package without regard to cost... as the wedding gets closer they keep adding things on to the package, they will probably be package number 1 or 2 after everything is all said and done
4) never visited the website and never saw the prices, asked what my range was on the phone and decided it was fine and booked the middle package with a bunch of add ons

Based on the top 1/3rd of my weddings, it seems like having prices on my site did not help and did not hurt those bookings so do whatever you are comfortable with.

As my business matures I will transition from growing a business to maintaining a business I will probably drop the prices but for the time being I am still booking a lot of first time clients who have no connection to me

• The folks that are offended or put off by my prices being available only by inquiry are probably not my target demographic anyway.
• I'm offering my services in a huge multi-market area and I need to be able to adjust the prices accordingly. If I lived in a bigger market that could sustain my line of work, I might leave the prices online.
• I've booked most of June and July at higher prices and I've lowered prices for other dates. I don't want the booked clients to get offended by lower prices for remaining dates. It's easier to remove the prices than to explain supply and demand to clients.

I am just not sure. I have tried both and not seen a big difference.

I do have a link to request a brochure. I may put a PDF file up in the near future just to test again.

I was (and still am!) very unsure about this. When I didnt' have any pricing up, I got a lot of inquiries from budget brides who then said they couldnt' afford me, even when I tried to customize a package for them. Now that I've added a line to my site that says "prices start at x", I dont get so many of those emails. But it doesn't seem to have helped bookings any or anything. Now.....my new site that is in the works I'm planning on adding all of my packages to, simply because its convenient for price shopping brides, which we seem to have a lot of in this area, more than the brides who just appreciate art. Still not sure on this one ....and I guess that was probably no help to you! Sorry!

prices and packages always on the site.
I only get the odd bargain bride who wants to offer me 1/10th of my price, and that usually is discovered in email correspondance so it doesn't really ever get to a meeting.

I am also debating whether to put prices online. I currently do not put prices/packages online mostly because it seems like I am constantly changing my prices or adding/deleting things. (It is so hard for me to decide what to have in my packages and how much! So frustrating and stressful!)
... But also, I am afraid that if I put my prices online that brides will just go to the 'prices page' and make their decision on price alone, instead of looking at the pictures and falling in love with them. Does that make sense at all?
For example, maybe looking at albums, we might see that album A is $200 and album B is $500. So we might just go with album A because it's less expensive. However, when actually going and seeing the albums, we see that album A is made very poorly blah blah blah and album B, even though more expensive is much more high quality and worth the money. I want brides to think that of me. Not just looking at the prices and making their decision on that.
Sorry for blabbing on.... but did that make sense? Do you still think prices should be online? (However, I do think that it is fine to have online 'prices starting at $xxxx and all packages include....'.)

defo prices on line, i have stopped doing packages just a minimum to get me at the wedding plus an album and everything else extra. It's simple and brides seem to love it and understand it.

steve ymmv