I understand that you want to get paid what you're worth. Your time is valuable. The photography skills you bring to the table are incredible. You want to charge $800, or $1,000, or $1,500 for a photo shoot. You determine the ultimate price. I would never try to stop you from simply pricing yourself high. But your dream client votes with their dollar. And if you're not getting booked with your pricing, your dream client probably needs something different from you.
Maybe after you respond to the dreaded "what's your rates" question, you already feel you're going to get ghosted. Or you have your portfolio website and your pricing all done for photo shoots yet your dream client isn't inquiring.
Now you have a whole new problem to solve: shifting from pricing your photography services like a commodity to creating offers for your photography services.
Commodity brands compete with each other on price and its a race to the bottom. Your dream client wants to spend money with you, they just need to be convinced with a compelling offer. Your competition is your own creativity to produce offers so compelling, your dream customer feels crazy saying no.
Here’s a simple way of breaking down offers to think though all the ways you can start improving your offers.
The Dream Outcome: Make it Desirable
Your client’s dream outcome is not just a collection of pictures—it’s the emotional connection to a memory, the beauty of a moment preserved forever. So, what are they truly buying from you? It’s not simply a gallery, it’s the feeling of reliving feelings and memories every time they look at your work.
The majority of photographers I've worked with do much more than show up at an appointed date and time with a cameras to take pictures. Every photographer is a bit different (the whole point of this) and some photographers offer styling, offer extensive session planning services, travel, studios, etc.
Brainstorm with 10 new ways to express the dream outcome of your photo sessions. You are always searching for new ways to communicate your value by expressing the dream outcome of your photo sessions.
Perceived Likelihood of Achievement: Make it obvious
People need to believe you can deliver this dream outcome. Here, your brand (reputation) plays a huge role. Showcase your testimonials, showcase relevant portfolio work to the offer, and—when possible—tell stories. Don’t just say, “I’ve photographed a ton of couples.” Instead say, “100+ couples have trusted me with their most precious moments.” Let your dream client see your past success to see you and your offer as the obvious best choice.
Brainstorm by connecting different portfolio works into a dream outcome. Showing a 5, 10, 20+ successful dream outcomes surrounding a single genre, style, or idea is huge.
Take all the photo sessions you've done at a particular place, collect them into one offer centered around that location.
Take all the photo sessions you've done with a particular setting, like time of day, collect them into one offer centered around the time of day, like blue hour photo sessions.
I understand it can feel awkward to brag about yourself. Don't brag. Start by showing the portfolio work. Thats literal visual proof that adds to the perceived likelihood of achievement. Add client reviews. A huge thing so many photographers overlook is collecting reviews. Collect reviews. Use them. You don't even have to come up with what to say. Just simply write about your clients experiencing the dream outcome.
Relevant portfolio photos, client reviews, and stories about your successful clients all make your photography offer much more valuable to your dream client.
Time Delay: Make it fast
In the context of photography, the time delay could relate to how soon after their photo session they get to see their photos. No one likes waiting, especially for something so emotionally powerful. So, instead of just saying, “You’ll get your photos in 2, 4, 6 weeks,” you might say something more dynamic: “In just 48 hours, you’ll receive a sneak peek of the best moments, ready to share with loved ones.” The sooner they can experience what you’ve created, the more they’ll value your offer.
Nail reducing time delay and you can increase value. You can have a special, $97 add-on for 5 next morning edits, texted to client's phone by 8AM.
There's a lot of creative limitations associated with reducing time delay. I get that. That's why we have to be creative about it.
Time delay could mean reducing response times. One creative way I was able to reduce time delay was in my communication. About 25% of my couples needed help with styling for their photo sessions. Sometimes, I’d even get a text the night before a photo session from a couple asking for styling help. That meant the next morning, I was texting back, the day of the photo session, a bunch of loose styling advice.
I originally created a style guide to decrease my dream client's effort and sacrifice (below point) but it also serves as a way of reducing time delay. Now when a dream client inquires, they get a style guide sent to them immediately, along with the rest of their welcome packet.
Time delay is really about setting and managing timing expectations. Then following through.
Effort and Sacrifice: Make it clear
Working with a photographer can be stressful, and even photography can feel like “another thing to get done” a busy day. Your job is to minimize the effort on your dream client's part. How can you make their life easy?
Brainstorm all the different perceived problems or objections your dream client may run into on their journey working with you. No matter how big, small, or random. They've probably asked you the same 10-20 questions just in 100 different versions. Identifying all of those little problems and objections shows your dream client you care.
Write a guide for each problem and/or handle each objection. It can be a blog, article, email, pdf, magazine, etc. . The more specific you can be about the problems you are solving, the more it shows your dream client you care (so don’t do these if you don’t care about your dream client). These guides will each reduce the effort and sacrifice necessary on your dream client and increase the value of your offer.
Reducing effort and sacrifice as a photographer brands you as the knowledgeable expert. What do we know about knowledgeable experts? They are helpful and they get paid well.
My main photography offers are around wedding photography, couples photography, and family photography. Here's the name of some of the guides I've made and still send to my newly booked clients:
How To Pick An Engagement Session Location
Perfect Locations For Fall Family Photos
Engagement Session Style Guide
5 Photos I know You'll Want In Your Gallery
Family Session Style Guide
Ideas For Dad and The Boys For Family Photos
No Dress? No Problem. 5 Non Dress Ideas For Your Photo Session
Wedding Timelines 101: What Can Happen Each Step Of The Way
DIY Wedding Shortcuts: 5 Websites That Have Everything You Need
Budgeting Your Wedding Like A Pro - Get Married and Save The Bank
You'd be surprised how few photographers are doing this for their clients. You can really stand out and brand yourself by including guides in your offers that reduce your dream client's effort and sacrifice.
The majority of problems and objections deal with clarifying all the confusing (unclear) aspects of your services to your dream client. Why? Because people in general, get really easily confused, nervous, and even overwhelmed when they get ready to commit to something totally unique and unfamiliar to them. Like working with you. Its not because you suck. Its because you need to understand consumer behavior and levels of buyers awareness.
5 Levels of Buyer Awareness
Unaware
Problem Aware
Solution Aware
Product Aware
Most Aware
Your dream client is trying to reach level 5, most aware. Unfortunately, your dream client is simply bouncing around levels 1-4 with no anchor. That's is the effort and sacrifice your guides will reduce. As your dream client's effort and sacrifice is reduced, your dream client becomes more aware, and your offer becomes more valuable.
Supporting Elements for Your Photography Offer:
Ultimately this is about becoming crystal clear to your dream client everything they can expect working with you. Following a framework to convert your pricing into an offer is invaluable for a photographer. Why? Because a confused mind always says no. Confusing your dream customer with pricing when they're looking for an offer will make them keep looking.
Remember, your dream client is already voting with their dollar. Listing prices with photoshoots is a sure sign you're actively branding your photography business like a commodity. Try converting a photo session into an offer so good, your dream client would feel crazy saying no.
When I changed my website structure in 2017 from portfolio and pricing to value and offers, I saw very quick conversion results and booking process became a lot more streamlined. Not only that, my client experience got better, and I started getting really consistent reviews. If I was still competing on price alone, I'd still be getting ignored by my dream client. I've updated my website plenty since 2017, but the structure of creating a value offer has not changed.
For an in depth, 20 page .PDF breakdown of how I implemented this framework on my website, check out my full website breakdown. Test the framework, think through each aspect of what your dream client values about your photo sessions and create an offer around each portion. Let me know how it works for you.
-JY