Answering: How much does it cost?

[Dana Salsbury]

We film weddings mostly, and I do fine when brides call for availability, but when they ask how much our packages are, my tongue ties into a pretzel. For what we do, we are inexpensive, but compared to what most in our area do, we are expensive.

Many videographers leave their prices off their web site in order to draw people to call. They must know something I don't, because for me, revealing the price is the toughest part of the call.

Any tips?

[Benjamin Hill]

That's a really good question not just for wedding videography but for any independent videomaker trying to make a business or a living out of it.

Part of the problem is that much of the time you're dealing with consumers rather than businesses, and it seems like consumers focus solely on the price tag (whereas competitive businesses necessarily have to look past price tag to the actual value).

One possible solution is to leverage the internet as a marketing tool by having a website that explains your proposition value, educates your prospective clients about your services, and most importantly tells them how much your services cost.

The benefit to this approach is that tire-kickers or those who can't afford you will be filtered out, and the ones who do click-through and contact you will be much more qualified leads. Ideally...

Of course this isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, and your content should clearly explain what $X amount gets in terms of service or product, but having price out in the open might allow you to have more discussions about your approach, i.e. your value, and spend less time on the phone explaining your prices.