“Do I put my pricing on my website or not?”

I have so often heard this question, and asked it myself. As a photographer, is it better to put pricing on my website or not? In my earlier years of business I did not have my pricing up on my website for all to see. In hindsight, I was insecure back then and honestly felt like if other photographers were able to see my pricing they might somehow copy and undercut my offerings so I decided that it was best to keep my pricing hidden. As I progressed in my work and my confidence, I still decided to keep my pricing hidden because I felt that I would book more clients if they had to email me first. Surely if they could get some kind of personal interaction and maybe even a link to a full gallery, perhaps someone would reconsider upping their budget to work with me.

And for 12 years I kept pricing off of my website, until a couple months ago when I realized that I was getting so many new inquiries that even my virtual assistant was overwhelmed (which is a whole other story about why I decided to hire my virtual assistant, Jen Madigan, because I’ve always struggled to keep up with emails) But despite getting 10+ inquiries a day, the thing is, most people who emailed me weren’t even booking me because I was just simply out of their budget.

And this all got me thinking, why am I not putting my pricing on my website for prospective clients to see? There really isn’t anything that much different or exceptional that a client is finding out or being sold on in an email. And it’s frankly a waste of their time and my assistant, Jen’s to have to deal with back and forth communication only to figure out that I’m non-negotiably out of their price range. So I talked to Jen and we decided that it would be a good idea to make my investment page public on my website and hopefully eliminate unnecessary emails. Now, when someone contacts me about working together, it’s a much more quality lead and it’s a more efficient use of Jen’s time to communicate with them. Win-win for everyone!

I’ve since asked myself, why did I wait so long to put my pricing up on my site? Is it really only beneficial when you’re getting a large volume of inquiries or might it be universally beneficial? So I gave it some thought and I’ve listed out some reasons below why you might want to consider putting pricing on your website or not.

Why putting your pricing on your website might be helpful for your business

• If you struggle with responding to emails in a timely manner or just straight up feel bogged down by them/don’t like doing it, OR if you have a virtual assistant you pay to respond to all of your new client inquiry emails. In these cases, putting pricing on your website could be really beneficial because it greatly reduces the time wasted on emailing clients who are not a good fit for you.
• Instead of selling clients in an email, think about how you could sell yourself better on your website. How can you make your website showcase your value more so that way clients who value what you do will see your price and be ready to book? If you’re non-negotiably out of a client’s budget, you don’t have to waste their time or yours with emailing back and forth for pricing info. This will greatly free up yours and your virtual assistant’s time if you have one, to work on more important things in your business.

Why not putting your pricing on your website might be helpful for your business

• If you prefer to chat with your prospective clients to sell them on the experience of working with you vs writing them an email, it might be better to keep your pricing off of your website. However, I still would recommend changing your contact form to include a range of what clients typically invest with you, or add that “prices start at X” in order to *hopefully* eliminate those clients who you are non negotiably out of their budget. Even if you decide to keep your pricing off of your site, I still highly recommend spending a lot of time thinking of ways you can really sell yourself and your services and the experience you offer on your website. That way when you meet and chat with potential clients, they’re already primed and excited about working with you.

With that said, my best advice in any aspect of your business as a photographer is to just look at everything as temporary. As in, you don’t have to overanalyze or over-idealize something like putting your pricing on your website. Simply try it out for a couple months and see what happens. If you notice an increase in bookings, awesome! If your inquiries drop and so do your bookings, ask yourself what else you could add to your investment page.

For example, could you change or add images that look more visually cohesive or stronger branding? Maybe you could add a link to a full gallery sample of one of your favorite shoots? Or maybe you could change the copy to really sell yourself more or the experience or even something so simple as changing the way you present the pricing (psychology of pricing is so real). Nothing is permanent, so don’t be afraid to take a risk and try new things that might not only change the way you do business but might make things better for you and your clients.

xo Suzy

If you’re interested in learning more about learning from me as a photographer, click HERE to learn more about my current education offerings. I’d love to help you develop your artwork, and grow your business!