Inflation.
War.
Stock market crash.
Everything is more expensive and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now.
I don’t mean to sound negative but this is the reality we’re currently living in.
Good times don’t last forever… and neither do bad. Unfortunately we’re orbiting the dark side of the moon right now.
Boudoir is a luxury item.
Women don’t need it to survive like food, paying the rent, or buying diapers and formula. It can be postponed, delayed, forgotten about when other priorities are more important.
Don’t Fix It, If It Ain’t Broke
If your boudoir business is doing well during these times then don’t change a thing. Just keep doing what you’re doing.
However, if things have slowed down for you then you may want to consider changing things up a bit.
It’s not that women don’t want boudoir shoots — they do. I don’t think that will ever change. However, one of the obstacles to getting a boudoir shoot is price, and currently that obstacle has gotten a lot bigger for a lot of women.
Ways To Shrink or Eliminate The Price Obstacle
Since we’ve recognized that price has become a bigger obstacle for women today because of everything going on, we know what we’re dealing with.
A solution to a problem can’t be formulated unless we recognize what that problem is.
Offer Payment Plans
One solution to making your boudoir more affordable is to offer payment plans and market that option relentlessly to your tribe.
It may seem like overkill to you because you’re aware of every piece of advertising and message you send out there, but not everyone is going to read or even be aware of everything you put out.
Keep reminding your audience that you offer payment plans and go into some detail about it.
At the bottom of every one of my packages are the words “Payment plan available at check out”.
I also remind my email list they can pay in four monthly installments whenever I send out an email.
This changes their mind-set from “Oh, I can’t afford that.” to “Oh, maybe I can afford that now.”
PayPal Credit
PayPal offers 0% interest if the balance is paid off within six months. This gives someone six months to pay for their boudoir experience with zero interest.
If you don’t have a payment platform that allows for your customers to pay in monthly installments, then PayPal credit is probably the next best thing.
Your clients have to sign up with PayPal and qualify first, but that’s another option that’s free for you to use and a great deal for women who want to spread out their payments over time.
Does your audience know about this?
Do you continually remind them about this?
Offer A Lower Priced Entry Level Package
I’m not going to get into what you should charge, pricing, and all that. That’s a whole other ball of wax I don’t want to get into here.
However, do you offer a package that’s entry level?
Something at the lower end of the scale?
A “boudoir appetizer”? … as I like to call it.
Mercedes Benz offers their A-class series. These are Mercedes Benz cars at the lower end of their scale.
It’s for people for want a Mercedes Benz, but can’t really afford one… or rather, the kind of Benz they’re known for.
It does, however, get people into the Mercedes eco-system. It gives them a taste of the real thing and many will upgrade when they can afford to.
If you’re not offering an entry level lower priced option, it’s something you may want to consider.
Remember, the price obstacle has gotten bigger for a lot of women so we need to address that head-on and one way is with a lower priced option.
You’ll have to decide for yourself if that fits into your business or not.
Up-Selling
The beauty of offering a lower priced option is that you can offer an up-sell. The statistics with up-sells is that about 30% of clients will buy it regardless of what business you’re in.
Lowering your prices on all your packages and then offering up-sells along the way is one pricing strategy you can implement.
Regardless, even if you’re a higher priced boudoir photographer, you can still offer up-sells with every package.
In fact, you can offer two up-sells with every package… or even three.
Now, there are ways to do this so you’re not just hammering away at your client with up-sell after up-sell after up-sell, one right after the other.
There is an art and a timing to it.
The beauty of offering the lower priced entry level package combined with an up-sell or two is that you can arrive at the same amount of profit as if you priced the package higher to begin with.
It’s the lower front-end price that may just be attractive enough for them to sign on and commit.
Conclusion
Offering a payment plan, a lower end entry level package, and/or up-selling are three pricing strategies you can easily implement into your business for those women considering a boudoir shoot but struggling with the cost.
Thanks for your time!
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Charles Mitri
Lounge Boudoir