The following is a guest post by Courtney Cook, owner of Captures by Courtney, a Colorado-based photography studio.

No, it was not a literal beat down, but it was an intense hour of business strategies!

Jared’s main message was you can either create clarity, or create confusion.   Å“This seriously affects not only booking, but size of bookings.   If you are one of the many struggling with how to setup your wedding packages or A La Carte delivery method, this was a presentation for you!   Whichever method you use, you should approach each with the mentality of the photographer, NOT the client!   You may be thinking, Å“DUH!    However, it is so easy for photographers, especially those just starting out, to give too much away.   We want our couples to be happy.   We think back to when we got married and create packages that we would have looked and bargained for.   This can be helpful to think about, but you are now the one trying to make a living and you have to make money!

Packages

Ultimately, as you put your packages together, you must consider these three questions:

1 – Are you making more with each package?

2 – Do they upgrade themselves?

3 – Do they fit into today’s market?

Other considerations are:   starting price, price differentiation, œmust-haves,  and the middle.   œAll roads should lead to the middle.    Translation:   your middle package should appeal to most brides and it should be the package that you want to book the most.   No matter what you name your packages, you should have five distinctly different packages.   It should be clear to a bride what benefits they are getting if they upgrade to the next level, and it must be a win-win situation.   The bride gets a better deal and you make more money.

The first key to setting the packages up is that you have to identify your œmust-haves.    For most, these will be: an engagement session, second shooter, album, and negatives (disc with printing release).   The cardinal rule is that you CANNOT include any of these in your first package.   The first, and most inexpensive, package has to be the basics and nothing more.   You have to get them in the door and let the packages upsell themselves.   As you create the rest of the packages, add the œmust-haves  one at a time along with other clear benefits.   As you add the pricing into the mix, you must first identify the market you are targeting and what you hope to profit.

A La Carte

If you feel that you are ready to take on this method of pricing, you must be content with everything working on its own.   This happens to be the preferred method of Bauman, but it is not for everyone.   The keys to setting it up, consider the following:   starting price, each offering must be uniquely attractive, ease & flexibility is a must, and you have to be prepared for built-in touch points with the couple.

An example of how this can work well is Bauman Photography has done so; check out www.baumanweddings.com.   You will notice that each of the three photographers has its own starting point for coverage, but the cost of products is the same across the board.

The keys to coverage are:

1 – It is easy to book, only $3,000 to get in door (or whatever your base is).

2 – It is easy to add hours later.

3 – You can delay other decisions.

4 – No Å“must-haves. 

* If you set it up right, they will come back! 

The keys to product are:

1 – No product included in coverage.

2 – Å“Must-haves  are easy to purchase.

3 – Maximize Ease

4 – Bundling mimics package; for example, complimentary negatives with album purchase.

Overall, you must be clear with who you are and simplify everything.   For example, if you go the package route go with either 3 or 5 packages.   That’s it.   Keep album offerings small, only 1 or 2 companies/styles offered.   Linear step-ups are vital, as appearance matters.   Like Henry Ford said, Å“You can have the Model T in any colour ¦ so long as it’s black. 

Still not sure what to do?   Ask yourself these questions:

1 – What is your favorite part of the wedding experience?

2 – If I were booking, what is the most important thing to me?

3 – What sort of package would I be interested in?

Packages:

Clients come with referrals and are educated on what they want.                                        
Less interaction with clients.

A La Carte:
Less educated client coming from scratch.                                                                                                                                                                                    
More interaction with clients.