How to create photography packages so clients buy exactly what you want to sell

Want to know how to create photography packages that make it easy for your clients to buy exactly what you want to sell? Sounds good, right? You’ll be amazed at how this simple piece of pricing psychology will supercharge your package sales and your customer happiness.

As always you can watch the video or read the blog post below - take your pick!

If you need more comprehensive, step-by-step guidance on photography pricing, you can check out this guide.

Let's look at how our brain works when it comes to making a purchasing decision

Let’s say you’re out for some lunch and shopping with your partner at the weekend and you happen to walk by your favourite photography shop. Now you’ve been hoping to add to your lens collection for a while now but your partner understandably feels you have more than enough already. But like any other self-respecting photographer, you know that you can NEVER have enough lenses.

You convince your partner to go in and have a look with you but you know fine well what you’re hoping to purchase. You have your eye on this Nikon 70-200 in the second hand section. It’s in great condition and it’s a steal at £828.

You ask the salesman if you can have a look. But, unfortunately, your partner immediately notices this Tamron 70-200 for £475 so the salesman gets that out too. You really want the Nikon but it’s a tough sell when your partner is looking at the price difference and then looking at you as if you’re crazy.  

And this is what always happens when we have two options at very different prices. Our brains say to us that one is cheap and one is expensive and that’s that. So it’s much harder psychologically to opt for the expensive one when you see the stark comparison in price. And it’s even harder to convince a sceptical partner that the expensive option is the one to go for, right?

Enter price anchoring

If you’re clever you’ll ask the salesman to also show you a new Nikon 70-200. And voila, you’ve immediately transformed the situation.

An anchor price is a price that a customer uses to compare. When you’re presented with two price options then all you have to compare them to is each other. So the expensive one seems…. well, expensive!

But add in a third, even more expensive option and the entire situation changes. All of a sudden the option that was expensive just a moment ago seems like a pretty good deal now that you can see this third, very pricey option.

So going back to these lenses, you’ve presented two anchor prices for your partner to compare the price of your desired lens to. A cheap one and an expensive one. So whilst before they thought the used Nikon was obscenely expensive, now that they see what the new Nikon costs, the used one seems like an obvious compromise.

And BOOM! You walk away with exactly the lens you wanted in the first place.

All because you introduced a bit of simple pricing psychology.

Not only does price anchoring change our perception of something being cheap or expensive, it also massively helps us to make a decision. We are naturally indecisive when it comes to buying stuff so when we’re presented with three options it is so much easier to choose the middle one.

But there’s more.

Most humans are literally programmed to avoid extremes

Given a middle option, 80% of us will sigh with relief and opt for that.

We don’t want to be seen to be penny pinching OR extravagant.

This is EXACTLY how you should be packaging up your photography. Don’t snub psychology and years worth of research. This stuff works - so use it. But use it well.

Cleverly create three photography packages

Start with your middle package because this is the one you want your clients to purchase. Price it profitably and make it appealing in terms of what you put in there.

Then move on to creating your cheapest package. This is your first price anchor. Price it at the minimum you need to make from each client (whatever that may be for you - and if you’re not sure then please download my FREE pricing workbook and calculator) and make it a good bit cheaper than your middle package. But don’t make it very appealing. Don’t put the thing they want most in there.

Lastly, put together your next price anchor. Your last package. And go for it! Put everything but the kitchen sink in there. Don’t put it together thinking anyone is going to buy it (some will, but that’s not the point). You’re creating this to make the middle one look like the obvious choice. Finally slap a massive price tag on it.

Price anchoring is not nearly so effective when you shy away from extremes. So go extreme.

Let’s look at a quick example

Here’s a family portrait photography one...

Here’s the middle package that the photographer REALLY wants to sell. She desperately wants her clients to have art on their wall. So she puts together a great package with a framed wall gallery and all the edited digital files on USB. She prices this at £1500.

Now let’s compare this to her first package. She cleverly decides not to put any digitals in this package because all clients these days want some digitals, don’t they? She includes a medium framed print and ten loose prints for £650. So as it stands this second package here is looking pretty pricey, isn’t it? You can imagine a couple having a hard time deciding what to do. There’s a huge difference in price.

But along comes the next price anchor. Her third package. In here she includes a full showcase wall gallery made up of 8 framed prints, a beautiful 15 spread album, a handbag album, all the edited digitals on USB and 10 loose gift prints for £3000. Do you see how much easier she has made it for her clients to choose this middle package that she wants them to buy anyway?

When you cleverly anchor your middle package with a cheap and expensive alternative you will have 80% of your clients choosing the middle option. But please note the word ‘cleverly’. This doesn’t work if you have a cheap option that is super appealing to your client. It’s totally up to you what you put into these packages and what you charge for them. If that’s a sticking point for you remember to download that free pricing workbook and calculator I told you about. If you need more comprehensive, step-by-step guidance on photography pricing, you can check out this guide.

As for the other 20% of your clients - some of them will actually choose your extreme package. Win win.

And note how this photographer has also powered up her packages by allowing clients to see exactly what they’re saving by opting for a package rather than purchasing a la carte. That’s more ninja pricing psychology for you but we’ll tackle that another day… Or, even better, check out the Togs in Business membership for a roadmap to photography business success for brave photographers like you.