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00:00:01
The Truth About Your Ideal Client & Pricing with Confidence
81 Plays16 days ago
Episode Summary: In this episode, we’re diving into a crucial mindset shift for photographers: pricing with confidence and identifying your true ideal client. Many photographers worry about pricing themselves out of reach, but the reality is that your ideal client values your work and is willing to invest in it. If someone isn’t willing to pay your prices, they are not your ideal client. Instead of focusing on affordability, shift your perspective to the value you provide and how to communicate it effectively. Tune in to learn how to position yourself as a high-value photographer and attract clients who appreciate and invest in your artistry.
Key Takeaways:
- Your ideal client is someone who values your work and is willing to pay for it.
- Pricing should be based on the value you provide, not fear of losing clients.
- People invest in what they truly value—your job is to position your photography as a valuable and meaningful experience.
- Creating a seamless, high-end experience adds value beyond just the images you deliver.
- Legacy clients stay with you through price increases because they see the worth of your service.
- Raising prices may mean losing some clients, but it creates space for new clients who align with your business values.
- Shifting from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset will empower you to build a profitable and sustainable photography business.
Links & Resources:
- Join the Community – Connect with other photographers who are building sustainable businesses.
- Free Pricing Guide – Learn how to price your photography for profitability.
- Follow on Instagram – Daily tips, motivation, and behind-the-scenes insights.
Thank You for Listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with a fellow photographer who needs this message. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
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Transcript
Introduction to Identifying Ideal Clients
00:00:01
Speaker
Okay, so I want to talk today a little bit about your ideal client or who it is that you want to be taking pictures of. And this is something that any business coach or anybody who talks about, you know, running a successful photography business is going to talk about this piece. And I just want to make it really, really simple for you.
00:00:20
Speaker
So really often i will hear students or just people in Facebook groups, etc. saying that their ideal client can't afford them and they don't want to raise their prices too high because they don't want to price out their ideal client.
00:00:36
Speaker
This is not approaching your business from an empowered place. This is actually very disempowered because here is the truth.
Defining Ideal Clients and Value Perception
00:00:44
Speaker
Your ideal client is not your ideal client if they cannot afford your prices.
00:00:52
Speaker
And the truth of the matter is is that most people will pay for something if they value it. So I'm going to give you a really hard truth here and drive this point home is that if you're speaking to somebody who doesn't want to pay what you are needing to you know have a very profitable business or what you are thinking that you want to make because that's what you have you know decided is your worth, whatever, then they don't value what you are offering.
00:01:25
Speaker
They do not see value in your premium offer. And that's a hard truth. So instead of really thinking about, well, this person can't afford what I'm doing, think they don't value what I am providing. They do not value my photography. They do not value the experience that I am offering to them.
Enhancing Value in Photography Services
00:01:47
Speaker
So we want to really stop worrying so much about the dollar amount that we're charging and really start focusing on the value that we are bringing with our photography and the experience that our business provides.
00:02:00
Speaker
And when you think about that, you are no longer speaking to somebody who will not pay what you need them to pay or what you want them to pay. So let's think about how you can bring value to your photography business, to your art, so that your clients' potential past current are here and ready to pay what it is that you are charging.
00:02:26
Speaker
And when you think about, you know, if there's people that really are worried about, you know, I don't want to price a certain demographic out. I don't want to, you know, make it so that someone can't afford me.
00:02:37
Speaker
That is not being empowered. You are not seeing the value in your own services. And so you are selling yourself short right there. So let's think about your business from a place of value. What value are you providing as a photographer?
00:02:51
Speaker
so Each and every one of us is going to have a different experience, which is good. We're going to have a different way that we bring value to our clients. um But think about some of the obvious ways.
00:03:02
Speaker
You're bringing value, high value, by providing a service that literally freezes a moment in time. And even if you're not like a documentary photographer where someone's gonna come back and you know see themselves in a kitchen that they raise their children in, even if you are a lifestyle family photographer, a portrait family photographer, whatever, when you view that photo, you are taken back to that season of life. You are taken back to that time when your children were a certain age, when you were a certain age. Maybe it was a mostly happy time, but maybe there was hard stuff going on, whatever.
00:03:33
Speaker
You're bringing brought back to that. That value is huge. And I probably already mentioned this, but man, 2020 was the most like obvious you know slap in the face, the good kind of slap in the face of, wow, what we're doing is important.
00:03:48
Speaker
People really value this. So that is just in and of itself. You have to remember what you're doing is important. What we're doing as photographers matters. So that's high, high value. This is a luxury service.
00:04:01
Speaker
But what are other things that you can do to bring value to your clients?
Strategies to Increase Perceived Value
00:04:05
Speaker
can you have a super streamlined, easy process, easy business practices for your clients so that it is you know it feels luxury, it feels like you you are the expert, that you're taking the reins, that you're in charge, that's bringing value to your clients' lives.
00:04:23
Speaker
My ideal client is a very busy working mom and she doesn't have time to go back and forth and ask me questions. So I'm really good about streamlining the service. That's a big way that I bring value to my business.
00:04:35
Speaker
Another way that we bring value in my business is that I offer an album to every single client. We do a complimentary album. That's a unique thing that I do. i see other clients that have a print credit they offer um i a system where you can book more than one session all at once so you've got your entire year planned out that's how you bring value some people do in-person consultation that's how they bring value other clients have a client closet i mean other photographers excuse me have a client closet so that their clients don't even have to think about what to wear that is how you bring value
00:05:09
Speaker
There are so many ways to bring value to your business and so that people are there ready to pay, ready to be part of your brand story.
00:05:20
Speaker
So if you are grappling with raising prices, if you are working really hard this year and going to do the math and crunch the numbers and realize that you made $10,000 yet you worked a ton this year or $20,000 yet you worked a ton, which really, let's be real, that's not enough. You have to have A place of profitability, what I have found is usually when you get above $50,000 of earning per year is when your business really is a lot more stable and starts to really take off. But, you know, it's different for everyone. I would have to evaluate your own business.
00:05:52
Speaker
My point now back to that though is that if you are to a place where you feel like you need to raise your prices, you're not getting to profitability, but you're afraid to raise your prices because you think you're going to price someone out. You're worried that a client is not going to stay with you um that's been with you for a long time or that you will not get clients because you are priced too high. You're thinking about this wrong. You're not thinking about it from an empowered place.
00:06:14
Speaker
You were thinking about dollars rather than value. And I want you to change your mindset and start thinking about the value you can provide. And remember that your ideal client is not your ideal client if they cannot afford your services.
00:06:27
Speaker
Or to phrase it, like I've been saying this whole last little bit here, if they do not value your services. You do not want to work with someone who doesn't value your services.
Retaining Clients Through Value Proposition
00:06:36
Speaker
and want to give you an example in my business. um I've been in business for 13 years and um you know I started super cheap like everyone else at the beginning of the of this whole journey. I think my first client, I made like $75. I went up quickly.
00:06:50
Speaker
I charge $1,400 a session now. I do have clients that have been with me for 10 plus years and they come with me through every jump. And that's because I do different things to bring value to my legacy clients, to my long-term clients.
00:07:04
Speaker
So I give them an an incentive to book their session a year in advance. I give them a discount. um I send a holiday gift to my legacy clients almost every year. And it's usually really simple. It's like an um ornament, except something that just reminds them that I care.
00:07:19
Speaker
i um am able to provide that book that we give them my album every single year so that's how i bring value to those legacy clients which is pretty awesome but my point of bringing up my legacy clients is that i've got clients who've been with me for 10 years so they've been with me since i charged less than 500 a session now 1400 a session i'm now fourteen hundred dollars a session Some of them, that is a push.
00:07:43
Speaker
Spending over $1,000 for photo shoots is a big deal for them. And I have had clients say that it's their birthday present to themselves. They save up for it. um And I offer, you know, ah I offer them the opportunity to book early, like I said, so that they get a discount. And when they do that, they also, they pay a deposit. So it's almost like there's payments that happen.
00:08:03
Speaker
So it makes a little bit easier for them to digest it. So my point though is that I have these legacy clients that value my business, my services, my art so much that they have stayed with me throughout the price increases that I've had.
00:08:18
Speaker
When I lose a client because of a price increase, all that I think about is the abundance that that's providing for somebody else in our industry. I know that there is a a photographer who charges less than me that's building her business or his business and that needs that client and I bless and release. I let that client go and I know that that space will be filled by somebody else who truly values my art and my business and the things that I'm giving as a business and the experience that I'm providing as a business.
Continuous Improvement in Photography Business
00:08:45
Speaker
so to sum this up if you are worrying about raising your prices if you are thinking that somebody isn't booking because of your prices it's not that it's that they don't value what you're offering so start thinking about your artistry and your business as high value and think about how you can bring value now if you are newer and you feel like your skills are still needing improvement and you're worried that that might be what's going on.
00:09:15
Speaker
Don't worry. I'm going to talk a little bit about portfolio and portfolio building in maybe the next audio recording actually. But for now, i just want you to start thinking about your business, not about the dollar amount, but the value that you're providing.
00:09:27
Speaker
And when you provide high value, people will pay high dollar.