Figuring out how to appropriately price your services is the one of the hardest things to figure out for any business. This is especially true for creatives.

Pricing yourself confidently is one of the most challenging parts of starting and growing your brand photography business. It’s also important because the more confident you are in your pricing, the more confident your potential clients will be in you.

You’re afraid that if you go too high, your potential clients may go somewhere else. At the same time, if you go too low, you worry that you won’t be able to support yourself and running a photography business will be too much work.

You want to figure out what everyone else is charging for their brand photography so that you can feel confident and know that you’re doing something right.

How do I know this? I know because I’ve been there. In this post, I’ll explain how to price yourself as a brand photographer.

Pricing Yourself as a Brand Photographer

1. Know your numbers

Before you can figure out your brand photography pricing, you first need to know your cost of doing business and how often you want to shoot.

Ask questions like:

What are my annual fixed expenses? (online subscriptions, studio space, business insurance, etc.)
What are my annual variable expenses? (equipment, online courses, mentorship, etc.)
How much do I need to support myself? (rent, personal expenses, retirement savings, taxes - approximately 30%, etc.)
How many times a week am I willing to use my camera and have a paid photoshoot? What does that look like annually? Make sure to account for any holidays/ vacation weeks that you don’t want to be working.

Using the above questions, you can figure out your ideal pricing for your brand photography services.

First, add up your fixed expenses, annual variable expenses, and how much you need to support yourself. From there, divide this number by the annual number of shoots you are willing to do.

Example: My annual fixed expenses are $5,000, my annual variable expenses are $10,000, I need $75,000 to support myself. I am willing to shoot once a week with 4 weeks of vacation. This is 48 shoots annually. This looks like $5,000 + $10,000 + $75,000 = $90,000. $90,000 divided by 48 shoots = $1875.00. My ideal pricing for brand photography using this example will be $1875.00.

2. Understand your offer

Now that you know your numbers and your ideal brand photography price, it’s time to think about your offer. An offer is the package/experience you want to create for potential clients.

Instead of asking what should I charge for a brand photography package? Ask, what value can I provide that’s worth my ideal brand photography price?

The more value you offer, the more your services are worth.

This is where you can get creative! Remember, when you’re a brand photographer, you’re more than a photographer. You’re a strategist AND a photographer.

You’re also a creative entrepreneur. You can literally create any offer that makes you excited to talk about and sell. There are no rules.

For example, I once met an entrepreneur that offered a fancy dinner with her marketing consulting services. I’ve also met photographers who include things like a social media strategy session and how to use your photos after your photoshoot. Just make sure if you have any standard additional expenses during your photoshoots to include that as part of your total package price.

3. Consider your audience

Once you have your dream offer in mind, it’s important to consider the audience. Ask yourself, what type of person would value my brand photography offer at this price point?

If you think about this through the lens of another industry, it can help. Let’s use hotels as an example. At the end of the day, every hotel provides the same solution: a place to sleep. However, they are priced all across the board. Why? They differ in value and audience.

The customer that books at The Four Seasons is different from the customer that books at Motel 6. When you think about your pricing, ask yourself: What type of individual / business would this appeal to? What do they value? Where do they hang out?

Whether you like it or not, your brand photography pricing is actually positioning you to a particular audience. It’s a form of marketing. Think about it. When you search for hotels and you see a hotel for $1500 a night versus a hotel for $59 a night, you know the experience will be different based on the price point alone.

4. Learn to sell it confidently

As I mentioned earlier, if you’re not confident about your brand photography pricing, your potential clients won’t be confident in you either. You have to believe in your price in order for this to work.

This is why it’s important to create an offer that makes you excited to sell your brand photography to the right audience. When you say your offer, price point, and the value it includes, it should feel easy. It should feel like a steal.

Part of the work is learning how to sell. This may mean hopping on sales calls just to practice talking about your offer. This will help you understand what questions come up so that you can start answering those in your marketing efforts. As you get better at marketing and selling your brand photography, the better you will get at closing clients and the more confident you will become.

Ready to price yourself confidently as a brand photographer?

Pricing yourself as a brand photographer doesn’t have to be a mystery. It gets to be profitable, exciting, and the right formula can help you position yourself to the right audience. Follow the steps and use the tips above to begin pricing yourself as a brand photographer today.

How to Price Yourself as A Brand Photographer