There are two ways to increase the revenue of your photography business: higher prices and more clients.

So which do we choose?

Why not both?

Here’s how you can not only raise your prices but also get more clients: build more trust.

If you want to build the kind of trust that gets you more clients and helps you raise your prices, you need to start writing.

3 Reasons Why Photographers Need to Write

1. Everything starts with writing

99% of this article is words.

And you’re reading them.  Lines on a page and I’m able to communicate thoughts, emotions, and stories with you.

If you think about it, everything that’s ever been sold has been sold with words, even things that don’t seem to need them.

Even before television, people were using words to communicate over the radio.

Before the radio, people used words in print.

Before print, we just spoke… with words.

Words are hard-wired into us.

Look, you’re still reading.  And as my friend Justin puts it, “that’s magical.”

2. Writing That Builds Trust

As photographers, we naturally assume that the best way to build trust with our clients is to show them our portfolio.  Once they see our work, they’ll know that we’re great photographers and naturally want to hire us.  Right?

Wrong.

Photos are fantastic for showing competency with our gear, but not for building the trust that gets us hired.

So we need to use words to sell more photos?

Yes, but no.

We have to use the RIGHT words.

There are words that you can write to achieve a sale, known as copywriting.

But there are also words you can use to build trust and provide value. This is called content marketing.

We need to have both, but before we can sell a potential client with copywriting, we have to use content marketing to provide value and build trust.

Why? Because people buy from those that they trust. When you provide value first, you earn permission to sell.

Keep reading and I’ll give you the ultimate formula to build trust with potential photography clients.

3. Writing = Google = Leads

97% of people who are going to book you are going to Google your services (or you!) first.  As a photographer, you need to be there when that search happens.

When people search for services on Google, 42% of people click one of the first three results.

For example, if you’re a wedding photographer in San Francisco, and 250 people search for that service every month, 105 of them are clicking on the first three results and 68 of them are clicking on the first result.

That’s 68 people looking to hire you coming to your website every single month.

That’s 816 NEW leads per year that could be coming to your site.

This is why writing matters for photographers.  Google does search for images and we can optimize those, but it mostly searches words to discover what a website is about and how well it covers the topic.

What’s awesome about this is that 99% of photographers are not going to write.  They like taking photos (that’s why they got into this in the first place) and don’t want to have to write as well.

And that’s great for you because you’ll instantly stand out and achieve top search rankings.

Why You Don’t Write

We’ve already established three really important reasons why you need to write, but if it were just as simple as choosing to write, you would’ve done it already.  After working with a lot of clients on marketing their photography business, I’ve found there’s really two big reasons that photographers are hesitant to write:

1. They Think They Aren’t Any Good

Think back to when you first picked up a camera.  If you were to look back at those photos today, what would you say?

They’re terrible, right?  But did the fact that you weren’t taking the world’s best photos stop you?

Nope.

Think about when you first started your photography career. When people first paid you for your work. How are those compared to your work today?

Still terrible? I bet.

Photography is a process where you grow over time and writing is the exact same way.

Doing it regularly with small tweaks over time has a huge impact.  If you aren’t willing to write poorly, you’ll never write well.

Be willing to be imperfect, at first.

2. They Don’t Think They Have Anything To Say

Lots of other photographers think they don’t have anything unique to say.  Not only will we take care of that will the blog post formula at the end of this article, but we need to realize that it’s okay not to have anything to say at first.

You write to find out what you have to say.

When I first started my podcast (now downloaded over 170,000 times), I had something to say.  But after about 20 episodes, I started to have even more to say because I was “in it.”

I was doing the work.

Just like podcasting, people prefer to read in a conversational tone.  If you can talk, you can write.

Everything I write is very similar to how I speak.

You’re reading this, so I know you get it.

Here’s another example of a wedding photographer that does that really well:

What To Write About

We start to think about crafting our message; we have to make sure we’re firmly established in their mind as the go-to expert in our field.

Establishing ourselves as the expert requires that we think about a few things:

First, why would somebody want to work with us instead of our competition? With so many amateur photographers turning “pro” every day, why would somebody book you instead of one of them?

Second, what benefits does working with you have that they won’t get anywhere else?  This isn’t talking about the features of working with you (those are things that are focused on you), but the benefits of working with you (what they get from your features).

For example, a Kindle Paperwhite has the feature of battery life that lasts for weeks.  The benefit of that feature is that you can spend time reading and not charging it.

We have to make sure that our writing sets us up at the expert.  Most people who hire us can tell how we may differ stylistically from our competition, but may not be able to tell the fine technical details that make us the obvious choice.

One of the coolest parts of the internet is that you can get in touch with the people who inspire you.  I’ve gotten a few messages back from Chase on Snapchat and when I asked him about how much to charge, that was his response.

Being premium means you need to do great work, but it also means you need to build a lot more trust.

A CEO has to trust you a lot more to pay $10k for photos than she does to pay your competition $900.

Here’s how to build that trust…

The Photography Blog Post Formula

Remember, the goal of writing blog posts about our work is to be found in a search, position you as the expert, and to build trust, not to make a sale.  This section literally breaks down the way that I teach my clients to write and how I write for them.  It also includes the most important parts of seo for photographers.

1. Title – In our title, we want to use the keywords that we’re targeting (portrait photography, wedding photography, etc.) and the location.  This lets Google know what kind of photography session you’ve done and where you did it.  Google is fantastic at context so don’t be robotic about it.  

Bad: “Brad and Misha’s Wedding”

Better: “Wedding Photography – Navy Pier, Chicago”

Best: “Stunning Sunset Wedding Photography at Navy Pier”

Rookie Mistake: I still see a lot of photographers using their client’s names in the titles. Unless you’re trying to rank in Google for their first names (i.e. “Tina and Tim’s Wedding”), we’re far better served focusing on keywords and location.

2. URL – In our URL, we can be a lot more robotic.

Bad: randomphotographer.com/rustic-golden-gate-park-san-francisco-wedding-photography

Better: randomphotographer.com/san-francisco-golden-gate-wedding

Best: randomphotographer.com/golden-gate-wedding (Google will know it’s in SF).

Rookie Mistake: Trying to cram everything into the URL.  You don’t need adjectives or details in the URL.  The more succinct it is, the better.

3. Content – This is the most important part of the post, so we’ll further break the content down into a few sub-areas.

Subject – Briefly talk about the subject of the session and your relationship with them.  It lets your reader know that your relationship with clients is extremely important to you and you’ll be fun to work with.

Obstacles – I’ve never met a photographer who didn’t have something go wrong the day of a shoot.  

Highlights – You can feel free to include these before and after the ‘Obstacle’ in order to sandwich it a bit, but finishing your article on a high note is important. We want to share some of the most amazing parts of the session/day with the reader, so they start to imagine themselves in that same successful position.

Link – Once your site visitor has finished reading your content, they may want to learn more about you so including a link to do that is super convenient for them.  This link might be to sign up for your mailing list, a link to your contact page, or your phone number.  On mobile devices (where most people will be seeing your site), the phone number will be clickable making it super simple for them to get in touch with you.

Photos – I always advise photographers to only include their five best photos from the session.  If you aren’t able to convince them to hire you in five photos, including all 70 of them isn’t going to change their mind.  If you’re using WordPress (which you should be), then inserting a gallery here works perfectly.

Link –  But, Brendan, didn’t we already include a link to get in touch?  Yes, we did. But the combined effect of your writing and your photos is going to be a one-two punch that will leave your reader wanting to get in touch or learn more about you.  Make sure that you’re phrasing things differently than the first link in the post (don’t copy & paste, now isn’t the time to get lazy), but link to similar destinations (phone, services page, contact page, list signup, etc.).

Here’s what that looks like:

How It Works

You’re a surf photographer based in California, and for every session, you follow the formula above.  When you’ve photographed 30+ surf events, and hundreds of surfers, who do you think is going to be found in Google when a major publication wants to license a photo?  Who is going to be found when a startup surf brand is looking for somebody to shoot their next look book?

You.

Remember that organic traffic from Google is driven by authority.  Showing Google you’re the authority on a topic and then using content marketing to turn those leads into clients is the best way to increase your revenue this year.  Learn more about Search Engine Optimization in the PhotographySpark SEO Cookbook.

Bonus: Because your post is much more optimized for conversion, you can use Facebook ads to drive traffic to it. Target your demographic that lives in the location or likes the venue you were at, and you’ve got a great start to an overall marketing plan.

I’d love to see the Photography Spark community take action and start converting that valuable website traffic into clients!

We were happy with the new direction we were headed in, but we were still a little nervous about the change. Then I came across this forum thread: What Would You Pay for Custom Photography. I discovered there are an endless number of threads about photography clients who want to pay practically nothing for digital negatives and stories about photographers who charge $75 per session, including prints. Our print prices started at $65, so I was more than a little nervous.

Finally I saw something familiar. One of my clients posted this:

“We did an OpLove session, so I had no session fee and my darling husband got something sent to him overseas. I paid more than $65 per print and $5,000 total [despite other photographers who offered budget photos from $25.] They do not even give CDs, but I would gladly pay that for their work.”

What justified this higher price for her? Was it our work? I’ll be the first to admit that wasn’t the case. My boyish good looks or inappropriate sense of humor? No.

It was the entirety of our sales process, which is designed to give our clients exactly what they want from their session — nothing more, nothing less. That’s when it finally clicked for me: This is what our clients want. This is what they expect. And this is what they deserve.

So let’s dig in to the details of what such a sales process looks like. By the time you’re finished reading this article, you will have clear and actionable steps to take that should increase your sales and thrill your clients.

Oh, and by the way… the client I’ve been talking about? She was the first person who went through this sales process with us.

Let’s do this.

The Ultimate Sales Secret

Ask your client what they want. Then create it for them.

As trite as this sounds, take a second to think about it. What we’re talking about now isn’t sales.

Collaborate with your client and work as a team to create the best products possible for them.

Removing all of that stress around the idea of sales will free you up to provide great service to your clients. They’ll be much happier and you’ll make a lot more money.

First Thing First: Setting Expectations

Throughout the sales process, we are constantly setting and reinforcing the expectations we have for our clients. These expectations include the types of products we sell and the price our typical client spends. It’s absolutely critical you do this. If you don’t, it won’t be until the sales meeting when you find out you and your client aren’t on the same page. You could end up with a much lower sale price than anticipated, and your client could walk away feeling, at best, underserved — and at worst, embarrassed. You don’t want to waste each other’s time.

There are a few places you should be setting expectations.

On your website

Show what you sell. If you sell wall art, blog about the art pieces you’re creating. Shameless plug: If you haven’t sold any wall art but want to start, sign up for a Swift Galleries free trial (affiliate) and use some of our free stock rooms to create custom wall art pieces with some of your favorite portfolio images. Blog those images to show that you intend to create wall art pieces for your clients.

Give them a price range. Let your clients know how much they should expect to spend on you by including a simple message, such as “our typical client spends between $xxx and $xxxx on photography” or “custom wall art begins at $xxx.”

In Person

When you meet with your clients, ask them questions that make it clear what you intend for them to purchase.

This is as simple as asking, “Where in your home would you like to display your images on your walls?” or saying, “Tell me about your design style so we can start talking about what type of album would fit it best.”

Through Past Clients

If your client is referred to you by someone who has your images displayed on their wall, your new client’s expectations for wall art are already set. Conversely, if the client only sees your images on Facebook, there’s a good chance he or she only will expect to receive digital files from you.

The goal here is not to convince people to buy what you want them to buy. Instead, your aim should be to attract people who already want what you offer. If they want what you want to give them — and they have a general idea of how much that’s going to cost them — then you’re both well on the way to a great experience. If any of these things aren’t a fit, happily refer them to someone who is a great fit for them.

Step One – The Planning Meeting

After our client has looked at our website; reviewed our prices, products and process; and decided to move forward with us, the first step is a planning meeting.

The Purpose of the Planning Meeting

• Continue to reinforce expectations.
• “The Funnel” — Start with all of the products you offer, session location options, wardrobe options, etc. Ask open-ended questions about your clients, their style and their desired products. Narrow them down to only the things that are relevant for that client.
• Planting the seed for a sale — Start discussing specific products your client might want and get into detail about what those products might look like and what they will cost.
• Nail down logistics and session details — Decide on the session date, time and location, sales meeting date and time, and wardrobe options.
• Get room images to use in Swift Galleries (affiliate).
• Collect the session fee.

In our best planning meetings, we’re able to take our client from saying “I want some pictures of my family” to “I want a 30×45 canvas of my whole family looking at the camera to go over the couch in the living room, The Starry Eyed Canvas Collection with candids of each of my kids individually, and one of them together to go on the wall next to my bathroom as well as a formal family portrait for the front of our holiday card and a goofy picture of our dog for the back of the card.”

If we can get this specific (which is not always possible, but happens fairly often) then I know exactly what I’m going to shoot when I get to a session — all the way down to the aspect ratio I need to shoot for. It’s awesome.

Step Two – The Session

The session is an integral part of the sales process because it’s when you build excitement for the products your client wants. We do this by showing images on the back of the camera when we know we’ve nailed one of the photos they want, and saying things like, “This is perfect for that canvas we talked about over your couch” and “This is going to look great in that collection we talked about for your master bedroom.”

This strategy for building anticipation is more powerful than you think. Yes, your client will be more excited about their images. But even more importantly, during the time between the session and sales meeting your client will be able to visualize the image every time she walks past her couch. She’s selling that product to herself! Better yet (another shameless plug), use Swift Galleries during your planning meeting to show her what those photographs will look like at the correct size.

Step Three – The Sales Meeting

We’ve found that a set progression through our sales meeting helps us to be sure we cover all of our bases.  And it’s just plain easier. Here’s how we work through the sales meeting (and how the Swift Galleries IPS Mode is set up):

1. A slideshow, twice —  The first time through, we tell them to sit back and enjoy the images and not to try to decide which ones are their favorites. The second time through, we ask that they start thinking about which ones are their favorites.

2. Sort the images into “yes” and “no” — If it’s a “maybe”, just put it in with the “yes” pile. Better to have these to draw from if we need them.

3. Choose large portraits or collections — We start with the “statement” pieces first when choosing our clients’ wall art images. We often have these layouts pre-designed and saved as Suggestions in Swift Galleries with the products they said they wanted during the planning meeting and also fill with the images we were excited about during the session. We’ll tweak these with different images if they love something else. We use Swift Galleries for this (surprise!) so that we can show them exactly what these images will look like on their wall, at the right size.

4. Albums and miscellaneous products — Our clients are consistently surprised at how many images they love from their session. Even after choosing five or six wall art pieces, often a client wants to find a home for all of the other images too. So we’ll sell them albums or other products that fit more than one image. It’s a good idea to come up with some products that will allow your client to purchase more than one image but won’t take up a huge amount of space in their home. We sell an Easel Collection (a small easel with eight 8×8 mounted prints) for this very reason, so that our client has a way to display more of the images they love. In Swift Galleries IPS Mode, we’ll just add these non wall art products to their order as “Add-Ons” during the checkout process.

5. Gift prints — We offer a discount on any image in 4×6, 5×7 or 8×12 that our client has ordered elsewhere (i.e., a discounted 4×6 on an image that appears in an album or in a wall art collection). We then combine that “sale” mentality with suggestions on for whom or why they should buy some gift prints. For example, “Father’s Day is coming up. Do you need any images for Grandpa? If you want a small print of one of your wall images, it’s discounted off of the regular price since you already ordered it there.” As with everything else in our process, this is not pushy salesman stuff; it’s simply asking your client what they want and giving it to them. These get added as “Add-Ons” in Swift Galleries, as well.

6. Take their payment — Tally everything up, and take their payment manually or automatically through Swift Galleries. We offer payment plans on anything over $1,000. Half down and half due one month later.

If you use something like PayKit.io, you can set this up to automatically charge the card on the date due, which saves everyone the hassle of arranging the second payment.

We’ve taught this sales process to photographers for years. We consistently hear from those who’ve made the switch that they are seeing giant increases in their sales and getting referrals from happy clients. The photographers who put off making the switch always mention that they wish they had switched sooner.

So there you have it. It looks like a giant process when it’s all written out, but it’s really not. You are simply asking your client what they want and creating it for them. By doing this, you’re providing your clients with a service they couldn’t get from most of your competitors, and they’ll pay you a premium for it. In the end, you’ll have higher sales averages, and your clients will be much happier with their experience than if you had simply delivered the images on a disc and sent them on their way to figure out what to do with those images on their own. So get out there and start making more money while making your clients happier!

The Perfect In-Person Sales Tool

Come see how simple wall art sales should be with Swift Galleries.

Swift Galleries makes In-Person Sales simple by helping clients visualize exactly what their images will look like on their own walls, at exactly the right size. And because Swift Galleries was built around the exact process you just learned, you can be up and running with it in mere minutes.

• Swift Galleries works across all devices and operating systems – so design on your iMac, sell on your Android tablet and even check your sales stats from your Windows phone.
• As a web-based app, there’s nothing to install and no need to ever worry about running the latest version. When we release an update, it’s available immediately as soon as you log in.
• Swift Galleries was built to fit seamlessly into your business, without you having to change things for us. So sell the products you love, from the labs you use, online or in-person, on any device.

Click here to try it absolutely free for 14 days

Any of these sound familiar?

• “Raise your prices right this second to thousands of dollars!”
• “Shoot & burn is ruining the industry!”
• “You’re not good enough to charge those prices!”

These are the types of myths that penetrate our industry and cause a majority of photographers to crash and burn and never find the steady stream of clients that will pay the bills.

There’s no one right way to price photography, except to make sure it’s profitable.

Got it? There’s nothing that irritates me more than photographers telling other photographers that their pricing is “wrong” or their business model is “wrong”.

It’s your business, so let’s make sure that it works for you and is profitable for you.

To break down these myths and get you charging prices that both make you money and fit in with what you want your business to be, I’ve broken it down into 5 steps for you today.

I call this my, “Do You” pricing philosophy. If you follow these steps you’ll create profitable pricing that you can feel totally confident with.

Face Your Numbers Head On

One of the main reasons that you’re not making the money you want is that you don’t have a healthy relationship with your numbers.

Here’s how to have a DTR (Define the Relationship) moment with your numbers, and get nice and cozy with them.

CODB: Cost of doing business

In order to make money in your business, you first have to know how much money you’re spending in your business. What are your business costs? Overhead?

Here are some things that need to be considered:

• Taxes
• Equipment
• Time
• Editing
• Education
• Product costs
• Salary
• Rent
• Anything else you spend money on

You then figure out how much you need per year, divide by 12, divide by how many sessions you can take on a month, and voila! You have figured out what you need to be making on average per session.

Until you have a healthy relationship with your CODB, you can’t make money. You’ll keep living in denial and hoping that magically all of this money will just start appearing in your bank account. The problem is that even if you start making higher sales, if it’s not covering what you’re needing to spend money on, it doesn’t matter. You’ll still be in the red.

Decide On A Pricing Structure

Embarrassingly enough, when I first started out I emailed about 10 different photographers that seemed super successful to me, and I tried to get their pricing lists from them. I did this because if they were being successful, it must be because of their pricing list and structure….right??

The truth is that there are photographers that are successful using all sorts of pricing structures. There really isn’t a “right” way to set up your pricing (although of course there are psychological tricks that can help), and so I want you to stop thinking that you need to do your pricing just like “so-and-so” because they’re super successful.

Pricing structures are more about what you want your client experience to be like, and what kind of a business you’re trying to run (aka the branding and feeling of the business).

So whether you decide on Create your own Collection, Packages, A la Carte, or Shoot & Burn, own it.

What really sells your pricing list to your clients? Your confidence and the experience you can give your clients. People want to hire someone they trust.

Imagine someone saying they could help you lose 50 lbs….maybe, but since there was a chance it would work, you should pay them $2000.

Now compare that with the person who is dedicated to personalizing the weight loss journey for each client and knows that he or she can get you the results you want if you put in the effort. They are just as excited as you are to get going on working together and it’s also $2000.

Which one would you pick? Of course the one with confidence!!

It’s more important to choose a structure you feel confident in than to pick the “right” structure: because there isn’t a right structure!

Write Down How You’re Serving Your Clients

If you don’t know what you’re giving your clients, it’s a whole lot harder to tell clients why they should choose you over someone else, especially if you cost more.

So take a few minutes and write down 10-20 things that you do for your clients. What makes you different? What do you do especially for your clients? What are your strengths?

Pinpoint these and then post them right by your computer or where you take inquiry calls so that you can remind yourself over and over what makes you valuable and how lucky each and every client is to work with you.

If you don’t believe it, neither will they.

Practice Saying Your Pricing

In order to sound comfortable saying, “That’ll be $1500”, you actually have to BE comfortable saying it.

The best way to do this is to practice saying it out loud over and over again until you feel like it’s second nature. There’s nothing more awkward than saying something like, ‘oh, um, yeah, so it’s um, like, around ya know, but there are lesser options, like $1500……..soooo, what do you think?”

Feels painful just reading that, right?

Perfect practice makes perfect, so keep practicing it out loud until it feels completely comfortable.

Stick With It

My biggest mistake when I first started out was that I was changing my pricing every couple of weeks. I would not have people booking at a price, and so I assumed that the problem was my pricing. Instead of tweaking my delivery, my sales technique, or my marketing, I would just spend hours changing my pricing over and over again.

Give it time. In order to gain the confidence it takes to talk about your new pricing, as well as learning how to market to the people in this new demographic, it takes time.

Photographers are an impatient breed and you want results right now, I know I know, but sometimes it takes time to build something of substance.

Getting your pricing right is what you should aim for.

In fact I’ve heard many photographers dismiss Facebook Ads as something they tried once that either didn’t work, or that spent an overwhelming amount of money in a frighteningly short amount of time. Well, I hate to be like that click bait that you see out there but: “You’re doing it wrong.”

There are lots mistakes that I see photographers making when using paid ads on Facebook, from targeting to messaging and understanding the difference between an ad and a boost; but underneath all of that is a larger issue that has to be addressed: Too many photographers are trying to advertise to people who have never heard of them and are expecting to drive quality leads. Instead, they launch their ads to the sound of crickets, or get a flood of clicks that don’t convert.

Creating ads asking for the sale before you’ve wooed a prospect is the crux of why ads on Facebook fail to perform. So today I want to share some strategies that I employ, both as a photographer and in my role as a digital marketing specialist, to give you a new perspective of how Facebook Ads can help drive a steady stream of valuable leads to your business. My hope is that you’ll feel empowered to create the kinds of killer ads that you need to compete in an increasingly noisy digital space.

Using Facebook Ads to Create the “Know, Like and Trust Factor”

So what exactly is wrong about advertising to new people and asking for a sale? Now before you email me, chastisingly reminding me that, “Jen, finding new leads is kind of the point of advertising” let me explain. Imagine yourself at a big cocktail event filled with all kinds of people that you’d love to work with. What would you think of a person making his way around the room, handing out his business card to people before he’d even been introduced?

Unfortunately that’s what it’s like when you’re running an ad on Facebook, expecting a sale before you’ve been properly introduced. If you haven’t provided value to the people that you’re getting your ad in front of, what is it that’s going to make a potential client want to work with you over someone else?

Now let’s reimagine this cocktail party scenario. You’re participating in the conversation, engaging with your fellow attendees, and someone happens to ask a question that falls into your area of expertise. You light up and provide helpful, relevant answers with no strings attached. Not only is the person who asked the question pretty impressed, but so are a few others who’ve been participating in the conversation.

Then comes the magic question: “Do you have a business card?” You do, in fact, have a few tucked into your wallet. And, you happen to mention, there are a few more helpful resources on your website in case anyone else has any questions on the topic discussed. By providing value you’ve developed, what we call in marketing, the know, like and trust factor!

So, how do you translate this into your Facebook Ads strategy?

The answer is: provide value first. Before creating an ad that asks for the sale, make sure that you’ve wow-ed your potential audience with so much value that they can’t imagine booking with anyone else. In order to do this, you have to do a little bit of reverse engineering, and understand what it is that your prospect is looking for at each stage of their exploration and research prior to booking.

So if you’re a wedding photographer, let’s play this scenario out with your potential bride or groom: When a couple gets engaged, the likelihood is high that they’ll be looking for a wedding photographer. But before you jump in front of them with ads that are akin to that unsolicited business card at a cocktail party, let’s think about what their questions and needs around finding a photographer might be.

If you can identify those needs and questions ahead of time, then you have the edge to get in front of those couples and provide them the with answers to their questions in the form of ads that lead them to great downloads or helpful blog posts.

What is your Customer’s Journey?

If you’re struggling to think about what this looks like in a strategy, let’s use the example of the wedding photographer. If a wedding day is all about love, then a love story is a journey. When a couple gets engaged, you have to be ready to take that couple on a journey to fall in love with your services. In marketing we refer to this as a “Customer Journey.”

Luckily you know the beginning of this journey: a couple get engaged. You also know the end: couple gets married. Your job is to help in fill in the story with an exceptional experience in between. Let’s take a look at what a potential bride’s journey might be in looking for a wedding photographer:

In the above example timeline, we’ve identified that this potential bride has gotten engaged and set a wedding date of about a year out. At this stage, couples tend to be looking for inspiration, so this is a perfect opportunity to offer something of value that addresses the couple’s needs.

Perhaps you could run a “Like” campaign, promising inspiration and planning tips that you share regularly on your Facebook page. Think of how your expertise can lend itself to the needs of your potential client at this stage; and if you run a Facebook Ad at this stage, how to do you offer value?

Running a “Like” campaign isn’t about “buying followers.” We’re not looking to increase the number of likes on your Facebook page as a vanity metric (although Likes are a great way to offer a little bit of social proof). Instead, we’re trying to grow your audience so that you can offer both organic and advertised content in the future. Once a prospect is familiar with you, we can move on to the next step in the timeline.

Example of a Like campaign on Facebook

Research and Reverse Engineering

In our example timeline, we now have a bride that has begun to think about photography, but she could potentially be overwhelmed with choices and questions. It’s time for you to dive deeply into the psyche of your ideal prospects, or give a call to past clients and do some research! What kinds of questions kept your former client up at night, and how were you in the perfect position to have answered those questions? Chances are these are the same questions, and solutions, that you can provide to prospects.

In order to create effective ads, and content/offers that you will be promoting in those ads, make a list of the questions that you’ve determined prospects and past clients had in their journey towards booking. You may have to spend some time working backwards in your memory with past clients to determine what their biggest pain points were in trying to determine their photography needs, but once you do this you’ll have a powerful list of content ideas.

Once you’ve determined the content that provides the dream answers for your prospects, it can live on your website, you blog, be delivered via an email campaign, or exist in a PDF that’s delivered as part of the Facebook Ad Conversion. Feel free to be creative here; you can dream up anything as long as it offers solutions to the problem that your potential client could be facing in their customer journey.

Don’t worry about creating something that delivers all of the answers all at once. Break things up into bite sized pieces so that you don’t overwhelm your prospect, and then deliver that information over your prospect’s journey as they progress through their timeline. By positioning yourself as your prospect’s guide and an expert who is available to give them answers, not only are you consistently providing that value that we talked about before, but you’re also creating that all-important know, like and trust factor.

An example of an ad that could provide value to your prospect.

Introducing Your Brand

Now that prospects are engaging with the content that you’ve provided, it’s time to introduce your brand and services. Yes, technically we’ve been doing this all along by creating branded content that answers your prospect’s questions, but until this point we’ve been pretty mum in terms of the exact services you provide. We’re still not at the point of expecting a sale, but we’re taking that next step towards getting a prospect interested in the services that we offer that meet their needs.

From a Facebook Ads perspective, this could be a boosted post that leads to a blog post showcasing the latest wedding you’ve photographed. Or, if you have a brand video that tells the story of your services, this is the perfect point in your prospect’s timeline to introduce them to it. We want them to begin thinking, “Yes, that’s what I want!” So think about what you can showcase that will get your prospect excited about the idea of working with you.

Asking for the Sale

Once you’ve consistently offered value to your prospects, they know, like and trust you, you’re finally ready to ask for that sale. This is where you can create an ad that offers a promotion that is directly related to your services. If you’ve been promoting content that is helpful and engaging, you should have no trouble converting those prospects into leads.

Create ads that explicitly describe your offer, your value proposition and a strong call to action. You’ll have 90 characters to describe your services and offering, as well as 200 characters in the News Feed Link Description section. Use these wisely and to your advantage to compel your primed prospects to book with you!

Once you have engaged with prospects that are familiar with your value, you’re now ready to utilize the power of Facebook Ads to generate bookings!

Putting it all together

If we think back to that initial timeline, it’s important to remember that your prospects are on a journey of discovery, and if you’re willing to be a part of their journey you will have an amazing opportunity to engage them through Facebook Ads. Now that we’ve walked through a sample journey, we can take the various types of ads that we discussed and overlay them over that previous timeline.

As you can see, getting a couple to book a wedding takes multiple touch points. The same can be said for booking any kind of photographic service. So while you may occasionally get a lead from running a Facebook Ad that is asking for the sale right away, chances are that if you craft your strategy to involve those multiple touch points, developing the know, like and trust factor, you’ll have greater success and more engaged prospects who are excited at the idea of being able to book with you.

Use “Like” campaigns early on to target prospects to introduce them to your brand. Next use Ads that are honed in on the specific pain points that your prospect could be facing that can help remove their barriers to booking. Follow those ads with ones that take a prospect inside your studio and brand and help them fall in love with the services that you offer. Once you’ve done that, you’re finally ready to ask for the sale. And if you’ve done it right, it should be a no-brainer for those prospects to say a very enthusiastic “yes!”

Continue to Part 2: How to Rock Facebook Ads.

Get Perfect Facebook Ads

Our 149-page ebook helps you plan an effective ad strategy to find perfect potential clients at the lowest cost. It goes way beyond what to put in your ad, although we do cover that. You will learn how to attract the right person at the right time with the right ad. Our examples and formulas make it easy.

Your business needs are as unique as your photography. We show you how to use Facebook’s options to create a tailor-made marketing campaign perfect for you!

See What’s Inside Perfect Facebook Ads

As a photographer your best asset is your online portfolio. It is a consistent online presence that puts your work in the hands of potential clients, wherever, whenever.

There is no one ideal portfolio. Every photographer will have a different style and that should be reflected across your entire brand, including your portfolio. But there are a few common portfolio mistakes that can detract from your work. I asked Format’s CEO and co-founder Lukas Dryja to show us how to avoid seven of those mistakes when crafting your own portfolio.

Mistake #1: Your portfolio is too cluttered

When you have a large body of work, it’s easy to think that a portfolio including the majority of your work will provide a more nuanced look at your abilities. In reality, an endless horizontal scroll with too many images can be overwhelming to navigate.

Instead, carefully curate your work and choose only your very best pieces for your portfolio. You’ll leave visitors wanting more instead of feeling like they’ve already seen everything you have to offer.

If you have a small body of work, don’t stress, it’s still possible to create an effective, professional-looking portfolio. The key is portfolio design. You’ll want to chose a theme or layout that works with your content. A grid-based theme works best with a larger volume of images, while a horizontally scrolling theme is suited to fewer images.

Mistake #2: Your portfolio is disorganized and unclear

With any website, the desired result is for visitors to know clearly and confidently what it is that you do or sell. Lukas explained it this way:

Think of your portfolio as a storefront. If you took a look around, would you know what you were selling?

If you’re primarily a wedding photographer, ensure those images are front and center. If you also shoot street photography and travel photography, those projects can be included too. Instead of letting these three genres coexist side-by-side, consider using your site’s navigation to divide your portfolio clearly.

As well as genres, you might also consider separating work by projects or clients.

Mistake #3: You’re not including enough “you”

The About page is the most clicked-on links on Format portfolio websites, so make yours count.

People looking to hire you or buy your work want to know about you. Make sure your bio is personal and authentic. Really introduce yourself, include a photo and provide some interesting background about who you are.

Let clients know what kind of work you are passionate about and use your About page to brag a bit: list your schooling, professional experience, accolades and client testimonials.

Mistake #4: You’re presenting work without context

It’s easy to think your work should speak for itself. But just like potential clients want to know about you, they also want to know about your work—who is in the photograph, where was it published, what project is it a part of, where the photo was taken?

Giving a bit of context about the projects you display online helps to give your work authenticity. You don’t need to provide a novel on your creative process, but a brief explanation gives your work more weight and gives visitors a deeper understanding of the project and, ultimately, you.

Mistake #5: You aren’t proofreading

Whether your site is content heavy or relies mostly on images, it’s in your best interest to ensure all copy is free of misspelled words and grammatical errors. A typo will take away from the sense of professionalism you’ve cultivated in your portfolio.

Take the extra time to review new edits before publishing to avoid distracting visitors from your carefully curated images.

Mistake #6: You’re ignoring your dream client

Many photographers believe that if they highlight a specialization, they’ll box themselves in. In reality, the opposite is true. By highlighting your preference for a particular type of work, you’re more likely to attract the clients who will help to further your career in the right direction.

For example, if you’re a wedding photographer by trade but you’d like to start shooting more travel projects, set up a portfolio that shows off more of your travel-centric work. A travel client wants to hire a photographer with a portfolio  of travel photography, not a wedding photographer who has dabbled in destination photography.

Brainstorm five dream clients that you’d like to work for one day. Think about the kinds of photos they shoot, then create a portfolio that reflects the same aesthetic.

Mistake #7: Your portfolio is out of date

Your portfolio should always be evolving in order to showcase your new work. If your portfolio hasn’t been updated in a long time, you could be inadvertently signaling to potential clients that you aren’t committed to your work.

Create a schedule for yourself and stick to it—maybe you’ll update your portfolio every month or every quarter. Whatever you decide, challenge yourself to update your portfolio with fresh work and you’ll be rewarded by the results

Also, check out what others are doing when developing your own portfolio.  Here’s a resource with some design portfolio examples for inspiration.

You can use the best gear in the world, take the best photos in your market and have a solid sales process in place but, if you’re not creating products your clients will love, then you’ll have a difficult time keeping your photography business afloat.

At Swift Galleries we use wall art as a sales tool. This post will teach you how to choose the right space, photos layouts plus inspiration for galleries for every room in the home.

Choose a room for wall displays

Here are considerations to help let the room set the tone for a wall display showing.

Chris and Adrienne Scott

What is the mood of the space?

Does your client have a formal living room with big, ornate leather furniture, muted wall and accessory colors and many leather- bound books? You’ll probably want to go with images where everyone is looking at the camera and layouts that are symmetrical.

Funky colors and playful accessories throughout the room? Spontaneous, candid photos and asymmetric gallery layouts will be right at home in this space!

How will their canvases interact with existing furniture or artwork?

Be sure to consider how your client’s new canvases will work alongside the furniture they already have in their space. Balance the size and design of the galleries to complement the furniture or any architectural features in the space. As a rule of thumb, always try to hang artwork at, or as close to, eye-level as possible.

How will their artwork interact with the existing colors in their room?

Try contrasting bold wall colors with muted or black and white photos to make them stand out. Muted wall colors in a playful room just beg for bold splashes of color, images with interesting compositions and layouts that show off different subject sizes. Don’t be afraid to “break the grid” and work with asymmetric and funky layouts!

Kate Whitmore Photography

Ideal room size for wall displays

How much wall space does your client have?

Don’t try to sell the biggest piece for your client’s space, sell the right piece for their space. Sometimes this will mean filling a space from side to side, and top to bottom. Sometimes a collection of smaller images is perfect. If they’ve got a large, white, blank, boring wall to fill, go nuts and fill it with a mix of large and small images. Symmetrical layouts that fill a space are an easy way to make a bold statement on an otherwise boring wall. If you’ve got only a small amount of space to work with, or other busy elements nearby, something smaller and understated will be the way to go.

How far away will your clients be when looking at their artwork?

If your clients have a large room and you’re trying to fill a space on the far wall, large pieces will work well there. In a smaller room, say a bathroom or hallway, where you’ll be much closer to the piece when viewing it, you’ll want to go with much smaller images. Think of it as sitting too close to the IMAX screen in the theater, you don’t want to have to physically move your head in order to see the entire image.

Don’t sell the biggest piece for the space, sell the right piece for the space.

What photos to choose for wall displays

Pay Attention to Resolution

When choosing photos to be printed large on canvas, you’ll want to be sure to use the largest files possible. Most modern DSLR should be able to create an image that will print well on larger canvases. Thankfully, you can get away with a few more imperfections on canvas, since the viewing distance is greater for a large image, and you won’t be right on top of it when looking at it.

Mix it Up

When creating a canvas gallery of family photos, choose a full-family photo, as well as combinations of groups and individuals. So you might do a large full family image, surrounded by a photo of just the kids, each parent with the kids and each kid individually.

Mixing Color and Black and White Photos

Mixing color and black and white photos in the same wall gallery can be an easy way to create a dynamic, eclectic canvas collection,

so don’t be afraid to give it a shot. We’ll talk a bit more about how to pull this off when we discuss choosing layouts in the next section.

Be Careful When Cropping

Before you crop your photo, be sure it’s exactly what you want, since you’ll degrade the quality of the final print (because the resolution will be lower than a full-size image). Also, if you plan to print your photos on gallery wrapped canvases, where the photo wraps around the edges of your canvas, you’ll want to leave a little space to be sure nothing important is going to wrap to the side.

This photo would make a fantastic wall image, but that adorable family might wrap around the bottom edge if printed on a gallery wrapped canvas.

Kate Whitmore Photography

Consider aesthetics

Tell a Story

Think of your canvas galleries as pages in a photo album. Try to tell the story of that day, moment or event through the images you choose for your galleries. If it’s a wedding, include portraits of the bride and groom as well as photos of the little details that made that day so special. If it’s a gallery of a client’s kid’s first day of school, tell the story by including photos of his clothes laid out before he woke up, him brushing his teeth and pouring his milk before jumping on the school bus for the first time.

Choose a Consistent Mood

Try to keep the mood of the photos consistent within your canvas galleries. If the main image your client loves is playful and candid, stick with playful, candid photos for the entire collection of canvases instead of mixing in more formal photos as well.

Try to tell the story of that day, moment or event through the gallery images you choose.

Chris and Adrienne Scott

Set the Scene

Don’t be afraid of negative space in your canvas galleries. By using a lot of negative space, you’re helping to tell the story of the moment because you end up showing so much of the surroundings. Since canvas photos are typically printed large, fun compositions with a lot of negative space tend to work really well!

The Same Rules Apply

You know all those rules you try to follow when creating your images? Things like the rule of thirds, leading lines and such? Yep, those all apply here. Yes, sometimes these rules are made to be broken, but for the most part following good photography compositional rules will make for a much more interesting and aesthetically pleasing canvas gallery.

Choosing your gallery layout

Featured and Supporting Images

Now that you’ve selected a space and images for your client’s new canvas gallery, choosing a layout is simple! The first thing to consider is whether or not there is one image that you’d like to feature among the rest. If your clients do have a favorite photo out of the bunch, make that your largest piece and place it at eye-level. Build the rest of the gallery around this featured image, with smaller supporting canvases.

Erin Smagala Photography

Balancing Canvas Sizes

While it’s totally fine to create asymmetrical gallery layouts, it’s still important to keep a balance in your designs. Consider your featured image to be the center of the see-saw of your gallery, keeping as much “weight” on one side as the other. Did you add two small canvases to the left side? Great, add one large canvas to the right, and you’ll be good to go.

Balancing Color

As you start adding photos to your layout, be careful to keep similar colors separate from each other. If mixing black and white with color images, try to alternate them throughout your gallery so you don’t end up with one side more heavy with black and white or color than the other.

We maintained balance in this gallery by separating similar poses, locations, groupings of people and similar colors across the entire layout.

La Dolce Vita Photography

Balancing Content and Composition

Along the same lines as the previous two points, try to maintain balance in the compositional style and content of the photos in your gallery. If you have a few images with a lot of negative space, spread those out across the gallery instead of placing them near each other. If your chosen photos have multiple locations or similar poses, spread those across the gallery as well.

When in Doubt, Triptych or Grid

If you’re just looking to create a balanced, clean gallery layout, you can never go wrong with a triptych, which is just a fancy term for “group of three photos”. Triptychs are tried and true and they’re about as visually appealing as any layout can get. Not feeling a triptych? Try a grid, instead. Both layouts epitomize balance and can be easy to fit into just about any space.

If you’re just looking to create a balanced, clean gallery layout, you can never go wrong with a triptych.

Chris and Adrienne Scott

Gallery ideas for every room

Steal these ideas outright, or use them as a jumping off point for creating a beautiful, one-of-a-kind canvas collection for your clients’ homes.

Living rooms, sitting rooms, family rooms, dens, etc.

Chris and Adrienne Scott

The Tried and True

Formal living room with a traditional feel? You can’t go wrong with one large family portrait over the couch or fireplace. If one canvas doesn’t quite fit the bill, try a large family portrait flanked by a portrait of mom and dad on one side and a photo of the kids on the other. We’ll talk about this a bit more when discussing choosing images and layouts, but collections that show off different groups of family members can be a fun way to feature all of the unique personalities in your client’s family!

Tell Your Family’s Story

Don’t worry about filling a space all at once, instead add a new piece to an ever-growing, always-evolving gallery as your clients’ family reaches new milestones. This is a great way to bring their life into their home and to create something that will be handed down and cherished for generations.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Feeling bold and want to try something new? Build a gallery that turns a corner in a room and invites viewers further into the home as they experience your one-of-a-kind gallery!

Hallways

The Long and Short of It

Hallways are a great place to create a long gallery of smaller images. You can tell a story with these types of galleries, by starting at one point in time and moving chronologically down the hallway. Or mix it up and just give them a fun collection of images to enjoy as they walk from room to room. The important thing to remember here is to keep these images smaller, so that they can enjoy them from the up close and personal hallway.

Kid Clusters

Forego the long line of canvases and opt instead for multiple small clusters of canvases throughout a hallway. These work well if you give each kid or family member their own canvas cluster, like their own little star on their home’s very own Walk of Fame.

Give each kid or family member their own canvas cluster, like their own little star on their home’s very own walk of fame.

McLellan Style

Kitchens and dining rooms

The Art of Cooking

Kitchens are a fun place to mix things up with other types of images. Create small groupings of canvases featuring up-close black and white photos of various kitchen utensils or colorful fruits and vegetables.

The Family that Plays Together

Kitchens and Dining Rooms are also a great place to show off candid, fun photos of each family member. Shoot a series of close- up goofy photos of each member of the family and display them proudly above the dining room table. Pair this with some word art or fun quotes about family and you’ve created a space worthy of gathering around and talking about the day!

Kitchens and dining rooms are a great place to show off candid, fun photos of each family member.

Bedroom Displays

La Dolce Vita Photography

Family Gallery

Fill the space above a headboard with a gallery of family photos. Don’t be afraid to go big here, as there is typically plenty of wall space over a queen or king size bed.

Wedding Story

Tell the story of your client’s big day in a simple 3-image collection of the first look, first kiss and first dance.

Film Strip Fun

Create a fun film-strip across multiple canvases of your client’s kid playing with blocks that spell out their name.

Ten Little Monkeys

Embrace your inner child with a cluster of photos of the kids (or the entire family) jumping on the bed, displayed over a kids bed or in the master bedroom!

My Family and Me

Create a two-image canvas gallery that includes a family portrait and a portrait of your client’s kid to go over their bed.

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”

This quote by master of photography, Ansel Adams, perfectly explains how photography, in its most basic form, is art.

Of course, good art is a valued medium that often justifies fair compensation. Unfortunately, as a professional photographer, you know people aren’t always willing to pay you what you’re worth as a photographer. They just don’t see the value in what you do.

Thankfully, we can teach you how you can raise your prices and make your customers love it by using a basic marketing strategy. Here’s how.

Case Studies on How Raising Your Prices Can Work

To succeed in your endeavor of raising your prices without losing customers you have to first understand relative pricing.

The consumer’s natural thought is to find someone or something to compare pricing to. This lets them know if they are paying too much or, visa versa, if they are getting a premium product.

You might assume this simply means you always have to be cheaper than your competition. (By the way, competition can be one of the best things for you as a professional because it gives your customers a means of comparison.)

However, we aren’t talking about beating your competitor’s price. Instead, we are talking relative pricing where the consumer is comparing one of your products to another product of yours.

We will create a new “premium” product that you can then charge more for, and thus in essence raise your price.

Example of the Right Kind of Relative Pricing

Relative pricing is used by all the big brands. Consider the new laundry detergent pods. We all know they don’t cost that much more than regular detergent to make.

However, the companies producing them charge 5x as much for laundry detergent pods as they do for their product in regular liquid form. They have convinced us as the consumer that the convenience offered along with the fact that the pods are supposedly more effective at cleaning clothing, are reason enough to justify paying more.

Why did they do this?

They wanted to make more money. As competition shows up, prices have to move down. So the best way to raise price is to create a new premium product; a new premium product that we, as consumers, are willing to pay 5x more for.

Another example to consider is the Nikon D800 vs the D810. The new features of the camera allow Nikon to set a higher price point.

Besides the few new features, though, they are virtually the same camera. Therefore, customers are willing to pay an extra $500 for a camera that is virtually the same as Nikon’s older model. This works because customers believe they are getting a better product, and, to a certain extent, they are.

This marketing strategy of relative pricing has been hugely successful for the companies producing the products listed above. You can do the same thing in the field of photography as well. Read below to learn how.

General Tips on How to Create a Premium Product & Raise Prices

Start by listing out each feature that you can offer, then look for value within this list. Consider ways to make your current product better than before, thus creating a premium product.

When you do this, you will find that eventually you can drop your old lower priced product all together, because your customers will want your new premium product.

Then, you can come up with another premium product again later. Guess what, you just raised your prices! The big companies continuously do this, discontinuing older products and offering new ones.

Sometimes they even reintroduce an older discontinued product as a new premium product.

How to Specifically Raise Prices and Create Premium Products Within The Photography Industry

Creating Premium Albums
Consider These Features About Your Current Product:

• Size.
• Thickness of pages.
• Paper type or texture.
• Cover material.
• Number of images included.
• Design, emboss, foil stamp.

Let’s say that the album you currently offer looks like the following:

• 8×8 Miller’s Signature Album.
• 10 page lustre.
• Thick Pages
• Leather cover with window.
• Priced at $800.

Now, look at what you can alter to make your album a premium product, below is what your new premium album could look like:

• 8×8 Miller’s Signature Album.
• 25 favorite images (not pages but images – see footnote).
• Deep matte (instead of lustre)
• Thin Pages (maybe)
• Metal cover (instead of leather).
• Priced at $1250.

We are not getting into specific pricing in this post, but you get the idea. By simply changing a few features, you are now creating a premium album, for which you can charge more.

Creating Premium Prints
Consider Changing One or More of the Following:

• Consider Including Mounting: single/double weight, bevel, foam board, masonite, styrene
• Add a Surface Texture: Pebble, brush, linen, glass…etc. (this is what I recommend)

The feel of these prints “feel” more high quality, thus allowing you to charge more.

Creating a Premium Press Card
Consider Doing Some of the Following:

• Changing the fold.
• Adding address labels.
• Including envelope liners.
• Changing to a luxe card.

By simply adding an envelope liner to your product, you can increase your price. Let’s assume you currently charge $2 a card. Well, after altering just this one thing, you could feasibly charge $3.

Your customer will not care, they will probably love the new product. This scenario shows you how easy it is to create a new premium product that your customers will love.

Creating Premium Wall Art: Consider The Following Changes

• Add style (canvas, metal, wood).
• Consider gel coating.
• Offer a metallic finish.
• Move from a 1” canvas to a 2.5” stretcher.

Other Tips to Keep in Mind When Creating Premium Products

Be careful when making changes to your products to not increase your production costs too much. After all, if you raise your cost of production too much, your increased price for your premium product won’t yield you that much more money.

The idea is to actually get more profit, so always keep your production cost in mind. For example, look back at what we did to create a premium album and you will see how we kept our production cost relatively the same while increasing our prices:

Metal covers actually cost the same as acrylic at Miller’s.

Making the change to thinner pages actually costs less than thick pages. If your previous album featured thick pages, you will actually save money on production by switching to thinner pages.

The thicker cover of the album, moving from leather to metal ensures the album still has a high-quality feel, even with lighter paper.

Above all else, when you alter your current product to produce a premium version, you must be excited about the end result. For example, if you aren’t crazy about your premium wall art, you won’t be able to convince anyone to buy it.

You will subconsciously undermine yourself when you produce a product you aren’t passionate about. Therefore, make sure that any change you make to your product is one you can get behind and get excited about.

Footnote: I recommend that you sell albums by images and not pages. It lets you create the album that looks the best. If the customer wants a lot of pictures you can add pages to keep the look you want. Charge a per-picture fee to add images to the album.

For example, we include up to 25 images in the starting price, and then they can add images after that. That makes sense and feels better then paying for more pages. I found most customer would rather not pay for more pages and just cram tons of pictures onto a single page. We both know that is not always the best look. Hope that little tip helps!

For more help on pricing, see these products (affiliate):

Photography Pricing Guide Workbook from The Modern Tog.
3 Weeks to Pricing Perfection (Course) from Joy Vertz.

The Complexities of Selling Prints to Clients

One area where pricing seems to be a toss up is print and digital negative pricing. We all know the labs charge pennies compared to what many photographers charge their clients for the print. It’s not uncommon to charge around $40 for an 8×10 that your print lab charged you $1.25. Of course, the price charged to the client factors in the photographer’s time to process the image by preparing it for the lab with ideal cropping and making sure colors are perfectly calibrated to the printer. However, how do you know what price to set for your prints in order to maximize your income? Too high and clients won’t buy or too low and you might be leaving money on the table.

The reason pricing is complex is because there is not a single perfect pricing for every photographer. There are so many factors that can go into how much in print sales you make per client. I know a photographer that has clients in two states – where she currently lives (City A) and her home town (City B). One of the most telling points is that she has seen clients in City A haggle over print costs while clients in the City B don’t bat an eye at prices twice as high for the exact same 8×10 print. Same photographer, same “product”, same sales process – so why the difference?

Guess what? It doesn’t matter! There are many factors that will determine what people are willing to pay for a print, but those reasons are irrelevant when it comes to maximizing your profits with prints.

What Can You Do to Maximize Your Print Sales?

As a photographer you likely got started in this business because you loved the work. Taking pictures was your calling and you made the beautiful decision to follow your passion and make it a career. However, in doing so you also started a business and the bottom line is your business needs to make money. Every business needs to consider how they can maximize their revenue and find the right balance between how long it takes to produce something and how much they can sell it for. Selling prints is for many photographers the largest income generator and increasing revenue by just 10% could make an enormous impact on their business. So what can you do to help maximize your print sales revenue? Split testing.

What is Split Testing?

Split testing is when you offer the same product/service but have a slight difference in approach to selling to see which results in maximum revenue.

Amazon.com sells millions of dollars in products a day at cheap prices. Because of their pricing each sale yields just a small profit. With all their infrastructure costs, how do they make money? They are constantly split testing things on their website to see what is more likely to convince people to make a purchase and maximizing the number of sales.

So what can you test? Everything. One small example for a typical e-commerce website is the simple Add to Cart button. You could test the color, placement, font size, design style, and the text of that button (“Add to Cart” vs “Add to Basket”).  

For photographers, testing buttons, placement of things on a page, text is extremely time difficult and time consuming. Along with the relatively low volume of total purchases makes it hard to get statistically significantly data. Sites like Amazon.com that do thousands of transactions a minute can quickly get data on a test and adjust accordingly very quickly. However, two areas where photographers can do some testing to maximize their print sales is 1) in-person vs online sales and 2) the price of their prints.

In-Person vs Online Sales Process

I have met photographers who swear in-person meetings yield significantly higher per-client sales while others swear doing it online sells more. So is there one method that works better than the other? It all depends on you.

Doing in-person sales meetings means you have to put on your salesperson hat. Sales is a hard thing to do, you have to have the right personality for it. My dad is in car sales and he is fantastic at talking to people, educating them on their options and can make them feel like they are buying a car that is going to be perfect for them. The feeling of comfort they have with him through the process makes them feel confident about forking over thousands of their hard earned dollars for a car. When he is buying something, he has no problem “discussing pricing” (haggling) which has saved our family thousands of dollars on things throughout the years.

I do not have these skills whatsoever. I feel awkward asking someone to pay me for anything, even if it is something I have spent thousands of hours making. In fact, my WordPress client gallery plugin, Sunshine, I had someone else help me determine a price point because it felt overwhelming trying to decide on a number. If I’m buying something, whatever price you tell me it is, I am paying it without any questions. I feel too awkward haggling and just can’t do it.

So if you have the right personality, in-person sales could absolutely yield you more profitable print sales from your clients. Or, if like most photographers I have met, you hate sales and wish somehow you could have someone else handle it all for you then you likely are going with an online proofing and cart system for selling prints.

Testing Print Prices

It’s not nearly as hard as it seems. If you have a decent online photo cart it should offer the ability to set different price levels for the same product. A feature like this allows you to charge more for prints to your wedding clients than you do for your family sessions – not an uncommon thing in the photography world. You can use this same feature to do split testing and setup two or more price levels. Say one where an 8×10 is $20 (and each larger size up increases incrementally) and another where the same 8×10 is $30. Randomly assign each client to one of your price levels. After all the sessions are complete and you have totaled your profits from from each session you can see which price level has made you more money. You could do all the same thing with in-person sales too – just print off a different price sheet when you walk in to meet with each client.

There is no magic formula that I can give you to determine your most profitable prices. I don’t even think you should look at your competing photographers for pricing ideas. Every photographer over time starts to develop their own unique methodology for working with clients from initial contact through final delivery of prints. You can have two family photographers, in the same town, who offer the same sitting fee, yet have two very different print price models that each are very profitable. Every photographer has a different methodology when it comes to trying to get clients to buy prints such as in-person vs online sales.

Things to Consider When Testing

The more price levels you use the more accurate your test will be. However it also means it will take more time to complete your testing.

10 sessions per price level should be a minimum otherwise the data may not be sufficient.

You need to calculate profit, not just total sales. Some products often can sell for more yet you make less profit on each than a cheaper product you offer. For example, if you sell 10 – 8x10s at $20 each you made $200 which costs you maybe $5 for a total profit of $195. Sell one canvas for $200 but it costs you $75 to produce then you only make $130 profit. It may feel nice to get that one big product sold but ultimately you made less money.

Our WordPress client gallery plugin, Sunshine, offers price levels and cost/profit data making split testing, and thus optimizing your pricing for maximum revenue, quite simple. You can even see which product, individual images and even entire galleries made you the most money which can help you better understand what shots translate into more money.

Six months ago…or heck, six WEEKS ago…I would have laughed in my ever-loving face if I had told myself that I would be doing this.

But, here I was. Doing it. Was I scared? Oh yeah. I was freaking out, on the inside.

But, on the outside…I was waiting for my Toastmaster to ask the question, with my head down, and my hands held in front of my body. I took deep, solid, controlled breaths. I was to speak on for two minutes in front of a crowd, looking as calm as a duck on water, on a question that was being thrown at me right then and there.

He asked the question. I let my brain scramble for a bit, and then settle down to formulate some kind of answer.

Here. Goes. Nothing. What was happening beneath the surface was my secret.

Everyone has fears

I have a confession: I am afraid of public speaking. Back in my previous life as a staffer on Capitol Hill, I used to write speeches, and prep my bosses for said speeches, all of the time. Coming up with quirky things to say wasn’t a problem, because I wasn’t the one actually saying them. I can look like I am brave when I am doing presentations for my photography business; but yeah. On the inside, I’m just as nervous as anyone else.

Four years ago, I faced that same feeling. It was a totally different scenario, but you may be able to relate.

I looked around in my dining room. My best products were laid out. My computer was running and was playing some soft music. A slideshow was playing at the same time, and seemed to strangely match the beat of the music.

My order form was printed out and seemed primed to be filled with all kinds of prints. I. Was. Ready. But was I?

Despite looking ready on the outside, I was quickly talking myself out of doing a sales session. I could feel my skin start to flush. What if I looked like I wasn’t confident in my work? What if my clients badmouthed my work? What if they didn’t think that my work was worth paying for?

I looked at the clock. It was five minutes till my clients were set to walk through my door. Crud. I couldn’t bail now. I almost prayed for one of my kids to projectile vomit so that I had a viable excuse to reschedule the session. Almost (really, almost. I’m not a mean parent.).

As a photography business owner, you may be able to relate to the story above. When you own your own businesses, you are faced with scary things all of the time. Things that push you outside of your comfort zone. Things that push your legal, financial, and professional knowledge. Life as a business owner, creative or not, is not always easy; but you either have to face that fear and grow, or hide from it and face failure.

Safety and bravery

Let me tell you a little bit about two emotions that play into your business and personal life on a daily basis: safety and bravery. Sometimes, these two emotions can live together in some form of peace; but most of the time, they are arch enemies. You feel their presence; but ultimately, you need to pick one over the other.

Safety is easy, but relatively short-term. Safety hates change. If he had a “look,” it would be kind of nerdy. He has a pocket protector and has a flat reaction to everything. It’s all about the right and wrong with Safety. Safety is good for keeping you out of jail, but terrible for innovation and growth. Safety keeps you hiding in your office, watching everyone else do amazing things. Safety tends to hide himself behind excuses like “Oh, well, I am just not that kind of person. That terrifies me.” or, “I just don’t think I can ever do that.” or, the ever-famous “I will learn that next year.” Sometimes, safety is sneaky and comes up behind you and whispers “You don’t want to do that. You might not like it. Plus, are you really good enough to do that?”

Safety is a friend, but a boring one. He will be the first one to comfort you if and when you fail, saying “It’s okay. We probably shouldn’t have done that, but I’m glad you came back to me. I will make sure you never fail again.”

Now, bravery… he’s different. Bravery is more like a rock star, with a confident swagger and a smooth answer to whatever questions are asked. Bravery is in it for the long haul. Bravery wants you to be successful. Bravery makes you realize your own strengths, and minimizes your weaknesses. Bravery wants you to learn more, work harder, and be better. Bravery makes you ask “Why not?” whenever you are faced with a tough call or the need for change.

Bravery doesn’t accept excuses. He would rather have you say that you tried, compared to never having done anything at all. Bravery has a lot of friends; namely, every single successful person and creative you know. Bravery loves questioning. He loves change and asking “why?”. He would give anything to see you do something that makes you better. Bravery wants you to do something that will help you to create a unique impact on this world.

From what I have learned, most photographers want to be best friends with bravery; but, they usually end up with that awful ex-boyfriend safety, who likes to tell you what to do on the daily.

One of the most common concerns I hear from photographers (and creatives in general) is that, even though they know that they need to change certain things in their business (whether it be switching to in-person selling, or something else), they don’t do it because they lack the confidence to actually follow through it. In other words, many creatives would rather face continual frustration and failure and stay with safety, than actually try to conquer their fears by going with bravery’s “Why not?” mentality. For so many, this fear is so debilitating that it can actually result in the eventual loss of their business.

Crazy, right? But, it happens all of the time.

How to be brave

Here are some tips that I have for you to learn how to make Bravery your BFF as you head into any change in your business:

1. Force yourself to think of the worst-case scenario. Will doing whatever you want to do potentially result in you, or someone else dying? Will you go out of business if you try a new technique?

Chances are, the answer is “probably not.”

If you are trying something dangerous; then of course! Think about that potential (and make sure your insurance policies are up-to-date). If you didn’t, I would call you crazy, and not brave.

If you are making a HUGE investment into something, then think about how that will affect your business and/or family in both the short- and long-term. Be methodical; but don’t let Safety scare you.

But, if it’s a matter of trying something like in-person selling for the first time, then trust me: you won’t die, and your business will not suffer (even though Safety will probably try to make you think that at least once). In fact, by being brave, you may see huge growth! Isn’t that worth giving your buddy Bravery a try?!

If you are afraid of the potential of hearing negative feedback, look at it this way: on the rare chance you will hear anything less than glowing feedback from your clients, think about what you can learn from actually listening to the feedback. If you want to hide under a rock and never hear what clients think about your work, and yet you get frustrated when you never have return clients, maybe this will be the turning point in your business! Boom. I just turned a negative potential into a positive thing. Bravery is in me today, friend!

If you are afraid of not being a raving success with the change you are living, don’t worry. It takes time to really learn something. Stick to it, learn from it, and grow. Don’t just walk away when the times get tough.

2. Learn more about your weaker points as a person and business owner. Are you scared about learning off-camera flash, but you know that you will need it at some point as a wedding photographer? Well. Learn it!! Make the time to do so, and really be passionate about turning this weakness into a strength.

What about speaking in front of people? Then, do it! There are many groups, such as Toastmasters International, that offers chapters throughout the country that forces you to speak publicly in a safe and educational environment. I go to Toastmasters every week and speak, because I am not going to let Safety limit me in my abilities. Weaknesses are like muscles. The more you flex them, the more they can actually help you and the less they will drag you down.

If you are weak on being a good business owner in general, consider investing in an amazing business coach, or really taking the time to learn how to run a business. Or, really focus your personal efforts on the art of business. A good mentor will help you work through your business weaknesses and will help you maximize your natural strengths.

Another option is to consider outsourcing your weaker points. If you are terrible about responding to e-mails, then look for a virtual assistant. If you don’t know how to keep your books, then hire a bookkeeper or a CPA. Do contracts scare you? Then, consult and attorney. Sometimes, the investment you make in paying someone else who loves doing something that you hate will pay itself off in dividends. After all, if you can do more of what you love and less of what you hate, then you and Bravery can hang out even more!

3. Take a deep breath, throw your shoulders back, and JUST DO IT! Spending your day hemming and hawing does no one any good. Except safety. Safety loves those two sounds.

Bravery wants you to get up and just do it. If you have an idea that can help make your business better, then do something to start that change. Get that ball rolling. If you need to calendar a test shoot to try out that new off-camera flash setup, then do it. If you need to take some tutorials to make sure that you don’t fumble through the shoot through Creative Live or through other local workshops. Don’t let that new gear get banished to your closet, along with the other “well-wished” gear that you have ordered over the years but have chickened out before using.

If you want to learn more about how to do in-person selling, then hey! I can help you on that, right now! My e-book, Show and Tell Selling: Making In-Person Sales Kindergarten-Easy (affiliate), is perfect for you! I walk you through every single step you will need to make in-person selling a success for your business. Pretty awesome, right? But, be sure to follow through and read it. Stare safety down and let bravery do a happy dance.

Life is too short to wonder about what could have been in your business and life. Be brave. There is nothing wrong with trying, and failing at first. At least you tried! My daughter’s teacher said something that was so deep the other day: she said that FAIL means “First Attempt In Learning.” How liberating is that?! If you at first you fail, try and try again. Don’t let Safety win.

Was my first attempt with in-person selling that I stressed about earlier in the article a total success? Eh. It was okay. I fumbled a bit. But, the order was still much better than my typical online sale, and I learned a lot regarding the procedure that I needed to follow (and later became Show and Tell Selling). I got better with every single in-person selling session I did. If I had given up after that first attempt (or even before that first attempt), I would have missed out on the most profitable aspect of my business. I would not have been able to put a down payment on our new home, and I would not have been able to help my family save for a vacation to Disney World. My taking Bravery by the hand has paid off over and over again.

Let me ask you now, who are you going to stay closer to now? Bravery or safety? Your choice. But I choose bravery every time (except when it comes to contracts or taxes. Then, I am all about safety!).

Looking for the current list?  Check out the best products 2019 post.

Every year I like to honor the top digital products photographers can use to grow their businesses. Below are 10 go-to items for this year ranging from software to presets to training. See winners from 2015, 2014 and 2013. This post includes affiliate links.

Best Proofing System

ShootProof

I recommended ShootProof more than any other product and it was a Best Product the last 2 years. This is an essential tool for any photographer to store and manage client photos across devices. Use it for proofing, ordering, mobile referral tool, affordable storage, and photo management.

Create public or private galleries that work on any device. Clients can easily view, mark favorites and purchase images; the activity for each visitor is viewable in detail to the photographer. Photographers use ShootProof for standalone galleries because it provides simple tools that can be integrated within a photographer’s website. ShootProof is commission free, so you will always keep 100% of your profits.

Try ShootProof for free

Best Contracts

Ultimate Portrait Photography Contract Bundle by TheLawTog

TheLawTog fuses the legal necessity with the photography business practicality. Clear, refined, straight-forward, and accurate to produce awesome tools and services ideal for today’s successful photographer.

Protect your business with these photography contracts created by a photographer/lawyer. The bundle is specifically tailored to include important legal forms every portrait photographer needs to safeguard his or her business and outline expectations to clients.  Photographers who use The Law Tog’s photography contracts display professionalism to their clients and use the forms with confidence.

Protect your photo business in 2016

Best Planner

Photographer’s Planner by Colorvale

Meet your new picture-perfect assistant. This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill date book. It’s your new best business tool. From developing your business model and creating goals to organizing your days and developing CEO-worthy business practices, it’ll take you from so-so to so impressive. This is efficiency encompassed. Organization laid open on your desk. And your (profitable) future all focused in on one powerhouse planner.

Each month contains: Page Objectives & Measurables with a daily responsibility chart, Monthly Calendar undated, Client Workflow Sheet, Big Ideas & Projects, Social Media Post Planner & Growth Tracker, Tasks broken down into categories, Client Payment Records (fits 23 clients per month), Blog Post Planner, Weekly Planning, & Brainstorming.

Organize your business in 2016

Best Marketing Strategy

Marketog by The Modern Tog

If you are looking for a steady stream of photography clients, join me for this 6 week online course that will teach you everything you need to know to grow a successful and sustainable photography business. You’ll learn how to stand out, turn inquiries into clients, how to sell, increase word of mouth, and understand effective marketing.

There are many ways you can learn depending on your needs including videos, worksheets, weekly Q&A, and a private Facebook group. Personally I feel the price is worth it because Marketog becomes your personal consultant and partner to insure you are successful with marketing.

Limited enrollment available

Best Album Software

Fundy Designer v6.5

The Fundy Suite has transformed countless photography businesses and facilitated the production of millions of photo stories worldwide. The software design tools are simple and efficient for the busy photographer looking to capture the emotions of the moment and lay out the story of their clients with albums and wall art. Fundy continues to lead innovation and personally inspire photographers worldwide with his stories and a common sense approach to photo layout and the art of storytelling.

Tell your stories and share your vision with beautiful albums, wall art, web collages and watermarked images. The Fundy Designer Suite includes Album Builder, Gallery Designer, Blog Collage and Image Brander. Express your artistic vision in our fast, fun and powerful ecosystem.

Design, sell, proof and print all in one application.

Best Boudoir Tools

Boudie Camp by Molly Marie

Start with Boudoir Business, a 4 week online courses that teach you everything you need to know to setup a boudoir business from scratch. Then expand into Boudie Camps for Marketing and Shooting, and Sales. Wrap up with the sales course with videos and workbooks to help increase average sales. Mollie shares her own personal strategies for building a six-figure boudoir business.

Say hello to a thriving boudoir photo business.

Best Lightroom Presets

Fuji Pro Pack by Mastin Labs

Fuji films are known for an airy pastel look. The muted palette of Fuji 400H and the slightly cooler Fuji 160NS are great for wedding photography and fashion.

The Mastin Labs Fuji Pro Pack contains film emulsions from Fuji’s most advanced color negative films. Fuji 160NS is a cool biased, versatile film with medium contrast, and beautiful blue and green rendering. Fuji 400H is known for a unique airy pastel look, making this film popular for wedding photography and fashion.

Make your photos timeless and beautifully subtle, just like film

Best Pricing Product

Simplified Photography Pricing Formula by Joy of Marketing

Not sure how much to charge for your photography? In this 9 module webinar course, you’ll learn from one of the United States most profitable photographers, Sarah Petty, how to set profitable prices so you can move on and make a living doing what you love…..Photography!

Get the Simplified Photography Pricing System

Best Business Book

Worth Every Penny by Sarah Petty and Erin Verbeck

Many small business owners feel pressure to discount their products and services, especially when times are tough. After all, how else will they keep up with the low prices offered by their discounting competitors? What they don’t realize is that discounting is the last thing they should be doing if they want to win big.

In my favorite book of the year, I learned a radically different way to run a small business — one in which the owners focus on offering specialized products and over-the-top customer service, not on matching the prices of their competition. This New York Times best-seller teaches you to sell without discounting and how to use profitable marketing strategies to build a business that thrills your customers. I loved the real-life examples shared throughout the book from business owners just like me.

Learn small business marketing strategies to help you charge what you are worth.

Best Magazine for Photographers

Aglow Magazine by Design Aglow

Ten years ago, Design Aglow started with a magazine, and the simple goal of bringing creatives together by discovering and sharing new talent, inspiring our readers, and giving sound business advice. After nearly ten years, Design Aglow is bringing back it’s magazine – this time in print.

AGLOW is a quarterly magazine exploring the limitless possibilities of creative businesses and the innovative ideas of today’s doers & makers.

We feature studio tours, artistic work/life balance, inspired success stories, visual travel guides, creative living, blogging resources, fresh business ideas, creative community building, original education and so much more.

AGLOW offers an escape from the daily routine in the form of a stunning keepsake publication full of inspiring features, beautiful layouts, uplifting stories, fresh perspectives, and real people that you will love to get to know.