Business Q: how to reach high-end?
 

When I consider high end I think of a number at least double over the average. in our area the average for a professional should be $2500 (video). High end would be anything over $4500 on a consistent basis, but definitely having that same studio booking some events at $6 - 8K for a production wedding event a few times a year.

So here is my question.. with so much competition.. even in a very populated, and lets face it, relatively wealthy area like SOCAL there seems to be plenty of "good enough" videographers willing to bottom out on the price to get the business (same goes for photography). How can I ever raise my rates and still stay in business full time?

Currently we are averaging 3K per event per medium (photo / video) (and on photography that would be before album sales etc.) I really want to start averaging over 5K per event.

Any thoughts?

Hi Michael,

Do you have $5k options that the couples aren't buying? Although having the right connections is in my opinion the most important thing (high-end photographer and event designer referrals) what also needs to be considered is your overhead, payroll, efficiency and their effect on your overall gross vs. net business income you take home. 1 crew working out of a rented storefront shooting $5k events 30x's per year may mean less take-home pay for the owner than if he or she were to charge $3k and shoot 30 events himself working from a home office. In other words its not the price that necessarily determines success (though obviously it helps) there are other factors to consider.

Ok, so I realize i'm being very transparent in this post.. which is a bit uncomfortable, but hey that's what were here for right.. mutual support, encouragement and growth?

Previously we only had up to a 4k option; and we started at 2k. We just transitioned our packages to move into a higher market.. where our base starts at $3500, which is $500 above our old average and our top packages ends up at 5K.. but really I would prefure to have an 8K package etc; we really want to average somewhere in the mid 4's per event, and hopefully still do the same volume of events (perhaps a little less); this year we've have aprox. 50 events scheduled and or already shot. But our price increase so far doesn't seem to be working out since the average inquiry is looking to spend no more than $2500 MAX on their video.. and often once we sit with them they are willing to spend a bit more and book us. Since revamping our pricing structure we've already turned away 4 would-be clients this week alone.. and I'm not ok about that; but I do want to reach higher markets.

Currently we are set up to only receive business in one of two ways; 1) by referral and 2) internet inquiry. We are on a few location lists but we just don't manage the relationships all that well for it to be profitable (I also find location coordinators have a serious superiority complex witch doesn't jive with me).

So if anyone is out there that has actually accomplished what I'm asking please chime in with your best advice.

Michael -
Keep in mind you raised prices into the worst re-pression (de-cession?) in memory for most everyone... many people had their net worth cut in half (houses, stocks), or worse. Even people with money have "cut back", particularly here in Kah-lee-for-nee-yah.

Best I can suggest is to offer a good basic package so that you aren't turning people (work) away, and use upsells/add-ons to raise the total. IMO better to work than sit around, even if you have to make a bit less. Don't cut your own throat though, but while you're working on getting the higher end gigs, focus on raising the bar quality wise and the prices should rise in time, particularly if you can focus your marketing on higher end events.

I've got a photographer friend who is always asking how to "break into" the high end, and I'd like to do the same myself (not going to happen for me locally, that's for sure, but I'm OK with that). It's tough, because to hit the "elite" market, you have to have a certain vibe, a certain level of equipment, and be able to meet a certain level of expectation.

A Mercedes doesn't get you from point A to point B any differently really than a Kia, save for maybe a bit better trim level, but there's a HUGE difference in price for a chunk of metal on 4 blobs of rubber... maybe a rough analogy, but perhaps it will help you grab ahold of the value of marketing...

Very true..

I'll have to come back and properly digest this again after our weddings today.

My comments are not from the perspective of having "arrived" myself. However I have developed some insight into this by observation of others. It takes more than just being a good scripter / shooter / editor. It's very important to have all the pieces in place so that your work is compositionally and technically well done. But if that is as far as it goes, there is a price point brick wall that you will have a hard time breaking through. You have to develop an image of yourself and your work that is established in significant part by others. Although everything that you do is very important, it isn't enough to breakthrough into "top-tier" status.

There are many who can give you better specific advise that I, but one important thing to do is to develop close relationships with other wedding vendors. It's one thing when an event planner describes you as a terrific videographer; it's another thing to do this yourself. Another is look for opportunities to establish yourself as a leading pro in the business with speaking engagements at professional functions as well as wedding shows etc.

There is no one way, one size fits all approach to this. From my observation of successful videographers, the most solid approach is a combination of good work, a professional work ethic and a continual effort toward establishing and maintaining good relationships with other wedding vendors. The approach that I personally dislike is the "rock star" approach where someone creates an "avant garde" image of his or her self that is nothing but bogus hot air and theatrics. If you want to try this approach, it helps to have a suitable foreign accent and other accouterments of pretentiousness. And any time you shoot something poorly, just call it "organic" and mumble a few things about artistic creativity.

Organic... ;o)
My biggest competitor has a cool accent, dang it!

The question we ask ourselves, "Are we worth it," is the most important, and has a lot to do with vendor relationships and what past clients are doing for you. Networking is far more important than Advertising, and it seems that often the biggest effect advertising has is the clout that it gives us among vendors. We're out there and looking good.

Ramping up your price is tricky. Our monthly bills go up over time, which is one indicator. Another is how much the phone is ringing. But one of the best is the expression on potential client's faces when you give your price. The worst thing is finding out they spent 100K on their wedding and next to nothing on video.

Losing four in a week sucks, but it is good and necessary to turn people away. I tell my wife that if we book 100% of those interested, our price is too low. So it's healthy, but that percentage is another indicator.

From what I've learned about you quest, I think you ramped up far too quickly, as I think you're realizing. Keep in mind, though, that your price point is not just a dollar figure, but what you offer for it. Most couples have a figure in their minds: $1500, $2000, $2500, etc. They pay us, and decide for us what they will pay. So when we raise our prices, we do so minimally while reducing the bells and whistles. That way we can maintain the price point and gain time (hence money).

My advice is to contact some of the people you know are high end or that you admire and see if they are willing to do some consulting (most are). You will have the best luck with people who are not in your market for obvious reasons.

I will also add that most high end people I work with have all had a PR person at one time or another. I'm talking about a professional PR person- not a family member.

Hope this helps,

J.

Hi Michael

You obviously have to skills and artistic ability to produce high end stuff so surely it's going to mean some creative marketing to get into the high end market.

The link below might be useful to read thru!! Earl is a Pro wedding videographer and is very focussed on the marketing aspect of wedding production rather than the technical aspects

EC Come, EC Go

I would have thought that the high end people would rather look at the creative and even social side of you rather than anything technical. If you shot the "Van Houghton's daughter's wedding at the huge mansion on top of the hill" their afflulent social circle would be sure to recommend you. They would probably also be more impressed with how many awards you have won for your art rather than the gear you shoot with!! I'm sure the very wealthy would love to tell their friends that their daughter's wedding was shot by an award winning videographer and relish in the bragging rights!!

Then again I could be wrong!! I have never ventured into that sort of market but I would still say that pure status symbol would play a big part in landing jobs from the wealthy

Good luck at hope we see you at the top of the ladder soon!!

Chris

Thank you everyone for you advice.. its very good, all of it!

We just finished a wedding last night where it really was one of those, "oh jeeze and they only spent $$-xzy for us!"

Literally I must have seen 20 Lambhorgini's, Ferrari's etc..

Loved that article Chris.

Some videographers don't publish their prices. That might work for you, though I don't think it would work for us. Anyway, you could bid each job that way after you've met and discerned the client's needs, ability and expectations.

Hey Michael you're not that far from us. If you ever have need of 1, 2 or 3 experienced multi-cam shooters on a big event, let me know. And same here.

Hi Dana

I always give my prices up front !! Plenty of people who have enquired about a booking have actually commented that they "skipped" sites that said "email me for a quote".

However maybe with the Ferrari and Lambhorgini clan this is not necessary as they don't care whether it's $5K or $8K

Gosh Michael, you have a high end market there!!! In Perth you are lucky to see a Ferrari unless you specially go to the dealership. I think your first purchase will have to be a bright red Ferrari with custom plates called "WEDVID 1" They will start the ball rolling!!

Chris

Oh, I meant that Michael might do well not to post his prices. The lower-end clients would dissipate, but there would be more flexibility with the higher-end. The question is if there is *enough* of a high end market to make up the difference.

How can I ever raise my rates and still stay in business full time?

create something so unique that, to your couples, there is no comparison. part of that is within the film itself, and part of that is within the perception of the film - which is of course tied to you and your branding.

P.

That's where your production talent solves your admin problems. I love it.

It's not a cut-and-dried process, so take everything I (we) say into context of where you live.

I wish I could use my hands to explain the following, but until we meet in person, I am going to have to rely on my writing skillz:

Keep milking your cash cow packages, but offer a super-expensive package that is different than your cash cow in most respects. It could be a short form edit or something that includes super8 film or something shot entirely with DSLR's. It could be you selling yourself as the artist, working solo, and giving them complete privacy (no blogging about their wedding).

I don't recommend that it include lots of more work or equipment on your behalf (a kitchen sink package). You'll ultimately resent selling those, and as Joel mentioned earlier in this thread, there's other factors to consider in making "high-end" profitable.

I recommend that you bill it by the hour. Starting at 6 hours, $750/hour, the intimate art film by Michael. This pricing strategy also gives you room to upsell.

You'll need a sample to show, so you might have to give away the service a time or two. Do so to the most attractive clients possible :->. Perhaps you can develop it alongside an existing booking.

So, by not ridding yourself of your cash-cow, you still have a solid financial foundation while you develop and deploy your exclusive offering. And as you book more of your exclusive package, you can risk raising the price on your cash cow since you will be replacing that income with high-end bookings.

Hope that's helpful,
jones

Thank you master Jedi.. :)

So is that what you did, "build it and they will come" kinda thing?

Patrick you have done amazingly well over the past few years in perfecting your craft.. I have firsthand seen you come a long long way! And although we have some catching up to do, we are definitely a studio who desires to produce breathtaking films like you guys do on a consistent level, but it certainly can't end there? (Although I would like borrow Michael & Konrad for a few jobs if you don't mind :D)

What's funny is that in our area there are only a few people (that I am aware of) doing things artistically inspired that lean into being our competition (artistically).. the most poignant one being Elysium productions; Yet a bride that first went to see Elysium (and didn't book) then afterward came to us, and said they thought we were better and more unique etc.. yadayadayada.. (Elysium rocks too! -M) and then after all that still didn't book us either.. (probably booked Still-Motion instead - LOL..) no actually they ended up going to a cheaper vendor then both of us; unfortunate for them IMO. So there is at least one case where work didn't win.

But I do agree that being very good at what we do is first and foremost in my opinion; but how many videographers can we list that are very successful and are poor-to-average videographers, heck there are many on the weva CEA circuit that I have scratched my head over; so obviously the work itself doesn't equal total sales or success.

I think the other part is defining customer service and exactly what that means.. and right now I can't say our customer service is anything unique. we don't have any gimmicks, we don't take people to lunch or dinner and don't do anything special; we are ourselves, friendly, respectful, fun and as efficient as possible; and in most cases, we meet in our home. If more is needed or that "woo's" clients then please share.. but I'm not big on pretentious politics or brown nosing.

Also, as noted above, we do not have an office/studio.. would love to but its just another expense that eats into the bottom line. Is that something needed? We've been pondering the possibility but the cost overrules the desire to move forward on a studio.

It is.. I had an exclusive package a few years ago.. it did work but not as well as I had wished; the side effect seemed that all packages sold less; I think because as clients came to us they were uncomfortable with not being assured they would be getting us, and therefore felt it was a raw deal and ended up looking elsewhere. Its kind of what we just restarted.. and are feeling the same effect. We have an exclusive package that does all DSLR, color grading, cine equipment etc.. and is exclusively our studio shooting (no associates); the other packages are more geared for associate packages, no DSLR etc. less cinematic. But since most people are seeing our website.. (which has no DSLR but is very artistic) they obviously want that and are afraid of getting something different (of less quality).

I'm not sure how to differentiate the two and still have good sales all around. The only thing I can think of is starting a new company that is exclusively us and only high-end; and keep the two separate from each other as much as possible.

Hi Michael,

I would encourage you to test-drive removing all published pricing in favor of a fully custom packaging approach, if only for a few weeks. Try it and fill us in on your new average booked rate during that period.

-K

Hi Kevin.. good to see you on here (sorry I should have mentioned you on this post too.. you're a great videographer).

So what seems to be working for you, were in the same area, basically going for the same clientele. What is your pricing structure and how is it working out in this market? Please share.. unless you don't want to divulge to local competition :)

We'll try going in with a all customized approach; where is the starting base line?

Blessings,

Michael

I was co-owner of a successful high-end video production company here in Southern California for a few years. The way we transitioned might be different from the way you would, but it worked well for us.

Initially we were doing a huge range of packages. We must have had 8 or 9, all the way from one camera/op for 6 hours unedited to 3 or 4 cameras/ops edited with unlimited time. Our prices ranged from $1200 to roughly $6000. We found ourselves doing mostly the low end packages, partly because the clients thought they could still have our quality of work, and didn't see the added value in adding additional cameras/ops.

We were doing so much work, and not making much money for it. Since we also did lots of corporate video work, and full on event production for corporate events in the 100k range, we were considering dropping weddings altogether, as they just weren't that profitable. However, they were still providing a decent chunk of our gross revenue, so we decided to make some big changes.

Doing so many weddings, we knew exactly what the ideal wedding video would be. At least 2 cameras and 2 operators all day was absolutely necessary. It's so much more difficult with just one person at the job, we decided not to even offer 1 camera any more. Also, Brides don't want to have to worry about only having you for a set time (6hrs or 8hrs). They often want you all day, from the getting ready in the morning to the crazy dancing into the wee hours of the morning the following day. Nothing is more of a buzzkill to the client when you approach them at the job and let them know you are leaving and if they would like to pay more for additional time. Just give them unlimited time, charge a little extra for it, and they don't have to worry about it. If they use you all day, you already charged them for it. If they don't use you all day, then you made a little extra.

Of course one of the most important parts of charging more for your packages is having a better quality product than your competitors. We already had a style of editing that probably took more time than other editors would, but our clients would rave about it. Our clients would shop around for a videographer, and would always tell us they thought our style of editing was the best, and ultimately thats why they went with us even though they were paying more. One element that greatly assisted in impressing our clients when they came to our office to see our work is the presentation. Not the tv or the room you have them in, but the cover art and menu for the dvd. We were known for having highly professional motion graphics for our dvd menus and covers, which I designed myself. It would immediately set the tone of the meeting and they were extremely impressed before they even started watching the video. Then, once they saw the video, they were sold. We were 100% successful in booking a client once they came to our office to see our work. Of course there were some that never came by who decided ahead of time they couldn't afford us, but thats ok.

I've since left that company and started designing advanced motion menu templates for other video production companies so they can impress their clients as we did. If you are interested, you can take a look at them on my website.

Once we had an ideal package that all our weddings should be, we decided to make that our "Premiere Package" and started it at 4k. There was no HD upgrade or any bs like that... HD was standard in everything we did, and has been for many years. So our clients would start with the 4k package and add on from there, such as a 3rd camera/op for the ceremony, Photo Montage, Setting up screens at the reception to play the photo montage, live video switching at the reception, lighting, and much more. Our clients would often spend over $10k on their package.

We made a decision that we just didn't want to do those low end weddings any more, and it paid off. Sure we were doing fewer weddings after the change, but we were making more money, providing a better quality video to our clients, and we were much happier.

Our work was mainly referral based. We did several videos for an Indian client, became good friends with them, and that contact provided a steady stream of high end jobs for years. It's actually kind of our niche, as we do many of the high end indian weddings in southern california.

So ultimately you have to decide if you are willing to take that plunge. Because really, thats what it is. It's a risk, especially in this economy. It worked out well for us, but it may not work out for you. You might want to try and transition as slowly as possible, but then you will get clients who want the same price as the person that referred them.

Just remember, the clients often don't know what they want, and it is up to you to decide what will make the best video, and that is how you want your work represented. Set your standards high, and only offer the best. If you are cranking out 1 camera shoots that are quickly edited with your name on it... you will never get into the high end market.

Jon, your information is invaluable, and I really appreciate the time you took, and were willing to tell your secrets. My wife and I have been talking about your strategies and what could help us turn that next corner. Godspeed!

You are welcome. Anything I can do to help the community.

I just wanted to add that we made our transition to high end before the economy took a dive. We were able to establish ourselves as high end fairly quickly with all the jobs we were doing. Since the economy has gone down, so has the wedding business. Not nearly as many high end weddings to do. The company I worked for has definitely had to supplement with corporate and other video work to get by.