As a wedding photographer, what is the one thing you spend the most time creating and delivering to your clients? Your images! The bride and groom seek you out and book you based on the quality of your images, and depending on whether your style matches their wedding photography vision. The images you provide to your couples can help you meet your business goals by increasing your overall profit. And one way of ensuring that the photos you take help you reach your business goals is by creating pricing that matches the quality of your images. Wondering how you can improve your images and make a higher profit from each booking? Check out these 8 methods discussed in this blog that could help you in increasing the value of your images right away.
1. Shoot For Your Ideal Client
While there are thousands of couples out there looking for a wedding photographer, many of them might not fit into your target market category. For instance, if a couple lives in a different state and you do not prefer to travel for work, you would not want to invest time in trying to book that couple. Or, if you are a destination photographer, but a couple wants to get married in a local venue, booking that couple will not help you define who you are as a wedding photographer.
For you to increase the value of your images, shoot photos that will speak to your ideal clients. These clients are looking for specific attributes in you as a photographer, and will use your images to decide whether you are who they want to work with. The photographs you take and share should give your ideal clients an idea of what their final product will look like. Remember, booking clients who are not perfect for you can derail you from your business goals (which include increasing the value of your images).
2. Develop A Signature Style
Even when you decide who your ideal clients are, there are many photographers who could work with the same audience. Standing out from other photographers who have similar skills as you can help determine your worth - and increase the value of your images. A quick way to achieve this is by developing a signature style for your images that lets your clients know that you are the photographer for them. Adding your signature style to your images gives you an opportunity to showcase your creativity and deliver photos your clients will love. The more diverse your style is from others, the more ideal clients will want to work with you.
3. Price Your Images At Their Worth
“Know your worth” - this saying holds true when it comes to pricing your images. One of the most important parts of creating pricing for your business is knowing exactly what you and your images are worth. Think about the time you spend during every event - from any preparation you do before the engagement and wedding shoot and to the traveling and commuting time to the post-production work you put into your images. The prices you set for your images should take into account and reflect the time spent on each of these processes.
To help increase the value of your images, and in turn raise your prices, consider sharing only the photos that are of top-notch quality from each wedding (and that speak to your ideal clients). When you treat every shoot as if it is a $10k wedding, then you can create prices that are more suitable for your business needs.
4. Create Image Galleries
Whether your ideal clients hear about you from a referral, or through an internet search, chances are they will land on your website before booking you to capture their big day. Your website is most likely the first point of contact they have with you - and the first thing they will look for is your images. When prospective clients access your website, they should immediately see an impressive image gallery on your home page. This gallery should feature 3-4 of your top images from separate weddings. The goal behind this is to make a stunning first impression and capture the attention of the viewer immediately, and make them want to scroll through the rest of your images. The more time you spend organizing and designing your image gallery on your home page, the more professional it will look. When you choose higher quality images, your clients will see the value in you as a photographer, and the work you provide.
5. Master Your Shooting Techniques
When you are shooting the bride and groom during their engagement shoot or wedding day, are there skills you possess that make you stand out from other photographers? For instance, do you have the ability to shoot and pose your clients in any scenario? When you show clients that you can shoot in any location and even under challenging conditions, you will be increasing the value of your images because your portfolio will be stronger.
When you have a unique shooting style, it will translate through your images. Potential clients can tell you are a photographer who is invested in creating stunning photos, and are more likely to book you (regardless of the price that you charge).
6. Develop A Blog Strategy For “Wow” Images
Another important page to share your images on is your blog. On your blog, you can feature the best images from each wedding. You could place them in a way that tells a cohesive story of the wedding day. All the images you share on your blog should ideally be your top “wow” images that relate to your ideal clients.
A benefit of using your blog is that you can create a strategy to help you organize your images, as well as who you want to share them with. The stronger your strategy, the more ideal clients will want to view your blog. When you feature “wow” images, you are automatically increasing the value of what they are worth to your ideal clients. This might even attach an aspirational value to your blog, with potential clients looking to be featured on it because of your ability to creatively document their wedding stories.
7. Avoid Discounting Your Prices
Image Credit: ShootDotEdit Customer @trevorhooperphotoRegardless of how many weddings you shoot per year, it is important to create value for your images that match what you are worth. The best way to increase your value is to believe in yourself and what you provide for your clients. Discounting your images, products, and services might decrease your value as a photographer and the photos you produce. Each time you lower prices or give discounts, YOU are decreasing the value of your work. If clients see that you often decrease your own value, then why would they want to pay you the full price for your work? So, if you desire to increase the value potential clients see in your images, this is the time to up your confidence game and assure your clients that their wedding day photography is in trusted hands!
8. Offer Additional Products And Services
Another way to increase the value of your images is to add on some products and services with your images. For example, you could create a wedding album for your clients that features the important images from the wedding day. When you want your clients to share their photos on social media, create a slideshow of their images they will want to share with their family and friends. Also, suggest printing images to create wall art they can showcase in their homes for visitors to see. Adding items that enhance the already stunning images helps you increase their value, and helps you bring in additional profit.
Learning to increase the value of your images is a skill that will keep paying you for years to come. And, increasing the value of your photos is quite integral to your business. From finding your ideal client base and developing your own signature style that matches their vision to pricing your art at their worth and knowing where to draw the line when it comes to offering discounts on your services, these are some of the steps that you can take into consideration while asserting the value of your images. And, for more tips and tricks to help you take your wedding photography business to newer heights, read our other blogs here.
At ShootDotEdit, we are committed to helping you grow your wedding photography business. So that you can dedicate more time to expanding your business, we lessen your post-production workload with our professional photo editing services. To learn more about how we can help, check out our pricing plans.
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