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As soon as you start building a wedding videography business, you need to figure out one thing: your packages. This is because the video packages you offer to your clients will determine their first impressions of your business.
If you do it right, you’re one step closer to a successful relationship, and possibly a sale. But what if you miss the target? Most clients will ghost you after receiving your packages or simply don’t get in contact with you if they’re published on your website.
This post will help you on your journey to designing wedding video packages that sell. There are a lot of wedding videographers out there so you have to be willing to do something a little different from the rest. I’ll guide you through that.
When it comes to designing wedding video packages, there are a few things you need to do so clients pay attention. It can be difficult for those who don't know where to start, so let’s focus on one step at a time.
Step 1: Determine your clients’ needs
There’s no point in selling something that your clients are not looking for. That’s why videographers stopped offering DVDs and started offering things like social media trailers, live streaming wedding ceremonies, and even shooting vertical video on a few rare occasions.
In the wedding industry, it’s very likely that your clients have an idea of what they want and like or dislike. They’ll approach you asking for your packages and they’re usually expecting to see coverage based on events or hours.
Some will even inquire about the length of the film and the editing style, but chances are that they can be educated if they love your portfolio.
When I talk about understanding your clients’ needs, I’m talking about figuring out what could work for them, even if they’re not asking for it. A good example would be a ceremony live stream or a feature film (an edit between 14-18 minutes) that could be sold as an add-on to increase your revenue without increasing the number of clients you need to book. We’ll go back to this in Step #6.
Here's an example of how you should start thinking about your offer:
There are a few things that will only be sold if you write them in your packages, and that’s why I’d like to help you boost your revenue by fixing them.
Step 2: Consider your value before your pricing
Disclaimer: There are different ways to set prices for artists, creatives, and video professionals. I’m going to focus on one that is not based on pricing per hour or COGS (cost of goods sold). The reason I’m doing this is that I’ve been selling wedding videos since 2011 and I’ve had great success with my current method of pricing. That being said, let’s move on.
Assigning a monetary value to your experience isn’t something many people can do. It simply feels wrong. Numbers seem made up, and you might even feel the impostor syndrome lurking behind your chair as you write them down.
Now… what if you consider the value you provide to your clients, instead of the experience or talent you have? These might feel like vague concepts, but value feels like a tangible one. If you think about it, it makes sense to charge based on the solutions you offer more than the number of hours you actually put into a project.
Pricing your services can be challenging, especially if you’re just starting out. It feels like the market is crazy in some areas, where some people are charging $1000 for the same service others charge 10 grand. Neither videographer is crazy, they simply have different business models.
Once you understand your value, you can start playing with actual numbers and seeing how your clients react to them.
But… how can you understand your value? Let’s break it down:
- Do you know how your camera works? What if something fails? Can you provide solutions?
- Are backups an important part of your business?
- Is the quality of your final video above average? Is it in the top 10%?
- Are you keeping up with current trends and things that can help your clients or improve your services?
- Do you have professional tools that allow you to capture clean and crisp audio?
- Do you have assistants, editors, or talented people helping you?
- Are you excellent at customer service?
- Do you reply to emails in a timely manner and are on top of things?
- Do you dress professionally for the event?
- Did you research all the gear in the market to guarantee that you’re using the best tools for the job? Are you replacing old gear with newer/better equipment?
- Are you providing sneak peeks?
- Are you delivering the work on time?
Truth is, if you answered yes to most of these questions, you’re already providing great value to your clients. You don’t need to master all of them, but you need to guarantee a successful experience for your clients and a wedding video for a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Personally, I excel at some of these, and I’m not that great in other areas. This helped me understand that the things I’m above average at are very important to my customers. A good example of this could be having a reliable team that will always be on time and delivers work when it’s due.
Take a minute to think about the value you provide to your couples. That value can be translated into money.
Step 3: Research the competition and what they offer
This isn’t as important if you’re just starting out, but that’s when people usually do it. Researching your competitors is important if you’ve been in the market for a while. This way, you can see how trends are emerging and who’s taking a bigger market share because they’re offering things that you don’t.
A good example of this are videographers that stayed at home during the pandemic because events got canceled. If they had researched their competitors, they’d have noticed that some of them shifted their business to offer live streaming services, which kept them afloat during 2020 and 2021.
So… how do you start?
How to research the competition
Depending on your market, you can either find their packages listed on their websites, or you’d have to ask for them.
If their packages are not listed, go to any email provider and create a fake email address. Use it to ask every single videographer in your area for their packages and wait for the replies to come in.
Does it sound like an unethical thing to do? It might, but every successful business does it, and it’s called “Mystery Shopping”. Just so you don’t feel bad doing it, you should know that people actually get paid to do this. You can use it to learn how the wedding industry works in your specific area.
Once you have their packages in your hands, look for the services they’re offering. Pricing is important, but how they sell is key. You need to be different and offer services they haven’t considered to have an upper hand. You might think that this is more related to sales than videography… and you would be right. In this post, I want to teach you to be profitable, not a better artist.
Step 4: Make Your Wedding Video Packages Stand Out
At this point, you should have figured out the value you can provide, and the services your competitors are offering.
You can take different routes to hook people in based on what you’re good at. I will give you some tips so you can focus on your strengths:
Be Different
This is probably the most important thing you will find in this guide. If you look just like everyone else, you will never stand out.
How does this apply to your packages? You should create an offer that is so compelling that it makes your prices a secondary thing. You can do this by providing value, based on what you’re good at.
Is your editing really different from your competitors? Great.
Does your audio feel like an audiophile spent hours tweaking it? Fantastic.
Are your offerings making your service a no-brainer? You’re the one.
Be Strategic
Are you pricing your services 30% above the market? Position yourself as a premium option.
You can either do this by selling yourself as an artist (something most of us don’t enjoy doing), or by showcasing your entire process. Your setups, the hours you put into every love story, and even the connection you make with your couples. Please note that there are other ways to do it and these are just some examples.
Are you targeting a small niche? Edgy brides, tattooed couples, adventurers, explorers, geeks? Find those people and showcase them all over your packages. You need your clients to be able to relate. When they do, you’re the clear winner in a sea of proposals.
Give them a reason to hire you
What can you do so they stop comparing you and the next guy?
Can you throw in an extra edit?
Can you create a unique experience?
When you do your research and you receive all the packages from other videographers you will notice something. 80% will almost beg you not to contact them through a poorly designed offering. You’d only hire them if your budget forced you to.
Then there’s the 5% you love but couldn’t pay for if you wanted to keep your two kidneys, and the other 15% that are well priced and are actually offering something of value.
Some of the videographers we work with have included add-ons to convince couples to book a higher-end package. They included a ceremony live stream that takes about 20-40 minutes and that alone was a reason enough to jump for a bigger deal. They used their phone placed on top of their cameras so not much extra work was involved.
You could add something like that, or spend an extra morning working on another edit that would help you promote your business while boosting the value of your bigger packages.
Step 5: Pricing your Video Packages
Before we write the packages down, let’s talk about pricing.
The goal here is to give couples a few options while pushing them towards the direction we know it’s best for them. We can do this through price anchoring.
Price Anchoring for Wedding Videographers
Price anchoring consists of listing your packages in the opposite order you’d normally do it and making a few small tweaks to them. You’d start with the most expensive package, one that might even sound outrageous for some people, and go all the way down to the smaller one, which looks affordable in comparison.
Here’s a hypothetical example:
Let’s say you could buy Premiere Pro for $750. It would be steep, considering that Final Cut sells for $299 and DaVinci Resolve is free, wouldn’t it?
Now… what if I offered you the same $750 software for $20.99/mo? Doesn’t it sound like a bargain?
In reality, you will spend more than $750 on Premiere Pro (if you use it 3+ years), but you wouldn’t reject “trying it” for $20.99. This happens because I set an anchor on your mind by telling you that the software actually costs $750. Brands do this all the time, you just need to pay attention to see it.
To increase your revenue, you can (I’d argue that you actually need to) set an anchor when setting prices for your work.
Bringing price anchoring back to your wedding videography business, there are a few different ways in which you can set an anchor price. One of them is designing 3 or 4 packages (not more) and including the one you want to sell right in the middle, or on the second spot if you have 4.
Example A:
Package 1: $10.900 (your anchor)
Package 2: $6.700 (your money maker)
Package 3: $5.200 (your fallback option)
Package 4: $4.000
Example B:
Package 1: $6.900 (your anchor is telling me that you’re worth 7 grand)
Package 2: $4.400 (this is what you actually want to sell)
Package 3: $3.900
Don’t be scared about these prices. They can be adapted to any area while maintaining the concept of price anchoring. It works even if you’re charging $700 for an event. Just remember to position yourself as a $2000 videographer, and not a $700 one when they receive your packages.
Step 6: What to include in your Videography Packages
Start with the basics, and think about how can you add extra value to your offerings.
Depending on the type of videos you shoot, you’d have to include only the options that work for you. That being said, there are many ways to increase the value you provide without spending more hours at the event.
Basic things you can include in your wedding packages:
- Standard Wedding Film: This is the “full-day” wedding video. Not every videographer delivers this nowadays, but many couples are still looking for it so you might want to consider making it a big part of your services.
- Feature Film: This is, in my opinion, the best thing you can produce for your couples. It is a 15-23 minute video with all the most important moments of the day, including original audio from the ceremony. The best part about this edit is that it doesn’t have to be in chronological order, which allows for more creativity than the “Standard/full-day” video.
- Wedding highlight or trailer: This is everyone’s favorite. It allows for a lot of creativity and it usually lasts 3-5 minutes. You can use just your best shots for this, some b-roll, and deliver a cinematic experience that will be watched over and over by your couples.
- Drone Coverage: This could be the first thing on the add-ons list, or could actually be included within the basics. The most important thing here is that you mention the aerial footage if you’re doing it. Remember, it’s all about adding value to your clients, so the pricing isn’t as important as the solutions you provide.
Talking about solutions, let’s see a few alternatives that can help you boost your value.
Add-ons for your Wedding Packages (aka “boost your value”):
- Live Streaming for the Ceremony: If we’re talking about booking more clients, there isn’t a more effective way to grow your video business than live streaming. Your clients have to share your branded viewing page for everyone to see, which naturally brings more leads and inquiries to your inbox. It takes little to no time to set up a phone on top of one of your cameras, and it can be added to your higher-end packages to push bigger sales.
If you work with assistants or a bigger team, you can even include a pro live streaming experience on your anchor package. Think about a 2-3 camera set up with live switching between cameras.
How does this add value to your packages?
It includes a digital guestbook, a Full-HD video of their wedding day immediately after the live stream ends, unlimited viewers, and so on. On top of that, anyone who couldn’t make it to the event can watch it live from their home. This is a huge selling point for couples with family members in different states/countries or whose ill family members couldn’t make it to the actual event.
- Social media Teaser or Sneak Peek: This is, alongside live streaming, the easiest way to grow your videography business. With a total length of 60 seconds max, you can deliver a short clip that will leave your clients drooling over your work. They’ll share it, you’ll grow your word of mouth organically.
- Extra videographer and/or assistant: If you usually work with a team, you can list them as add-ons to increase the value of your offer.
- RAW Footage: I would never include RAW footage on mine, but I do know many successful videographers that do. RAW footage gives value to those customers that like to get “as much as they can” for their money. I try to stay away from those clients, but my business model might be different than yours.
Step 7: Designing your Wedding Packages
To avoid exposing anyone in this guide, I’ll show you the differences between good and bad practices with my own examples. I came up with faux packages here just to show you the possibilities.
A little disclaimer: This is not the only way to build wedding video packages, but it is a way for me to show you how to design yours without making the same mistakes many videographers are doing.
Let’s begin. Can you spot what’s wrong with these packages?
At this point, you should notice that I’m not giving my clients a reason to upgrade. They’re getting everything in every package.
What if I removed a few things from the lower-end to give them a reason to upgrade? If they still needed 4 hours, I could up-sell those services to increase my revenue. Adding drone coverage can raise your numbers easily by 150-300 USD and live streaming is an easy sell for 350-550 USD, considering everything it comes with it (an extra video, instant replay while they wait for the final edit, a digital guestbook, and so on).
I’m also telling them that my work is worth $2000, and they can just get the number of hours they need based on the length of their event.
I’ll try to fix them while exploring ways in which I can add value to my services.
As you can see, I’m implementing everything we discussed in the previous steps. I added ways in which I can increase the value I provide while maintaining the basic services I want to provide to all my couples.
The price of my work is now $8.900, but you can hire me for as little as $3.900. The best bang for your buck is clearly $5.700. I’m reducing the paralysis that comes from deciding on a package that looks too similar to the next one.
Step 8: Assigning names to your video packages
Last but not least, you might want to add a name to your packages. Personally, I’d call them Collections instead of packages if you’re going for a high-end offer.
I will be very brief on this step. As long as you don’t go for package names that deter the image of your brand and your offerings, you can use any name you want.
It doesn’t matter if they’re called #1, #2, #3, or Bronze / Silver / Gold, or even “twig, leaf, and tree”. As long as they connect with your audience or don’t make you look like an outdated videographer, anything will do.
Remember: It’s not about the name you choose, but about the value you provide to your wedding couples.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
There are many ways in which you can grow your revenue, and designing better video packages is one of them.
As you might have learned doing this exercise, this is not a one-time thing. Your wedding collections need to be updated to adapt to the market and the current trends, and not doing this might seriously decrease your chances of getting hired.
Amongst the alternatives you can try, consider options such as adding FPV drone footage, live streaming wedding ceremonies, social media teasers, and other add-ons that can make or break your offerings.
Have a look at what your competitors are doing, but don’t place your focus on them. Use everything you learned today to focus on the things you can do to guarantee a new booking, and you’ll be one step closer to success.
Thank you for reading all the way through. If you have any questions on how to design your packages or you want me to have a look at your current ones, feel free to contact me right away. I’ll be happy to check them out for you and give you a few ideas on how to improve them.
