Should I have pricing on my wedding business website?

I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level. If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode. Today, we're going to be talking all about pricing. It's a conversation I still have frequently.

And if you know anything about me, you will know which side of this argument I fall down on. I absolutely think you should have pricing on your website, and I think it should be clear and transparent. Throughout this episode, I'm going to be discussing exactly how and why I've come to that conclusion and we'll see by the end if you are of the same mind.

And if you're not, I would love to hear from you and hear why you don't think pricing should go on your website, just because it's interesting to hear another opinion. However, I will always hang my hat on the fact that we need it. So let's dive into why. Have you ever had an experience like this where you go into a shop and you start browsing around and you find something you really like the look of and you pick it up, look at the bottom and there's no price on the item.

So then you start looking around the shelves and having a look at the labels on the shelves trying to match up the name on the label with the item in your hand and still you don't seem to be able to see whether this is price point of this item. You can't find the price anywhere so then you wonder whether it's been put in the wrong place and you start walking around the shop. Trying to work out how much this particular item costs. You want to know how much it costs before you go to the till.

If you can't find this information, you then have two choices. Choice number one is you just put it back and don't even bother and walk out the shop. Or choice number two, we have to have a really awkward conversation with a member of staff. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in this scenario, but there's something that's really awkward about going to ask someone how much something costs because you take that item to the till and you say, can you just look up how much this item is?

And if they say a number that's. wildly outside what you thought. So say you thought it was a tenner and they suddenly say it's 55 pounds. You now have to have that embarrassing moment of saying, actually I can't afford it and going to sheepishly put it back. We as humans do not like these awkward conversations. We don't like these Awkward situations. And therefore, if we can find a way to avoid them, we will. Let me tell you another story.

Over the weekend, I went to my daughter's Christmas fair at school and they had lots of stalls for 50p a go. And there was a few craft stores from local distributors there as well. So we're looking around all of these stores and everything was a couple of pounds. We weren't spending big money and she saw something she liked. It was a candle with her favorite football team on. Not a big candle. Fairly small candle. Looked like a fairly standard kind of candle.

They put a sticker of her favorite football team on it, and she said she wanted it. Now, guess what? There was no pricing on anything. So in that moment I had to make a decision. So I just asked, how much is this candle? They said 12 pounds. Now, if I'd have gone on my intuition, I would have thought, yeah, it's probably three or four pounds, maybe a fiver 12. Pounds. Thank goodness I asked and thank goodness they told me because then I made some excuse and left the stall.

But my friend had a very different scenario because she went to the same stall and her son had a very similar conversation with her and she made an assumption because everything else at that fair was a fairly low price that it probably fell in a similar kind of price bracket and guess what? She said yeah sure you can have it and then realized how expensive it was and then felt too embarrassed to buy.

Now, neither of these experiences were particularly enjoyable, and as customers, it's why it's really important that we know what the pricing is. Because even if you kind of trick someone or accidentally upsell someone to something that's way more than they want to pay, they don't feel Good about that conversation. They don't feel good about that purchase. They kind of just feel too embarrassed and awkward to say, actually, no, I don't want it anymore.

So when it comes to working with our wedding couples, why are so many people still of the impression that we shouldn't put pricing on our websites? Because all we're doing is trying to make our customers have these really difficult, awkward conversations with us. And all that will happen is they will just walk on by and they won't contact you. Or they will contact you, but they shouldn't be contacting you because they can't actually afford your prices.

Whenever we come across a brand or a website or an item of clothing or something like that, we'll make a decision in our mind about how much we think that costs. If there is no price tag on it, we have to make that up based on the brand, based on the pictures, based on the imagery. And if we think something's too expensive for us, we will just walk on by, you know, those shops. Sometimes when you go to like a designer outlet, there are the shops that I know that I can just about afford.

There's the shops that if I had a bit of saved up money, I could afford. And then there's the other shops, which basically have no one in them and about three items on each rail. And I don't even go in there without looking at the price tag because I can tell that I can't afford it.

If you do not have prices on your website, there will be people looking at your website and making a judgment about your product and service and deciding whether or not they can afford it based on little to no information. And again, that might not really be what you want to be doing. So we don't want unexpected surprises. We don't want confusion and we don't want the embarrassment of making our customers have to say to us, actually, we can't afford it.

Now, one of the big reasons people say to me that they don't want to put pricing on their website is because they don't want to attract price shoppers. Now, I understand the thought behind this, but I don't think it's quite accurate. So the idea is, well, if I put up the, I cost a hundred pounds and the photographer next door puts up that they cost 50 pounds, they can see both of our prices and they're going to go for the cheapest one. Now that is a theory.

But it kind of takes out a lot of other factors in that decision process because when the couples look at those two photographers, they might prefer the more expensive one and they might have the budget to pay for the more expensive one. And actually, it's not about price shopping, they're just making a good decision. In fact, We do actually want to put our prices on our website to detract those price shoppers. Let me explain that more fully.

If we put a price on our website, we are telling people that they can't afford us. Because if your minimum spend is a thousand pounds and they only have Hundred pounds. As soon as they see that on your website, they know that you are not the right person for them and they will go elsewhere. However, if there are no prices on your website, they may make an uninformed judgment that they can afford you. Why would they know? Because there's no prices on your site, so therefore they become.

time wasters because they jump on the phone with you. They will go back and forward on email about with you. They will talk to you about every detail of everything. And actually they could never have afforded you in the first place. So you end up just wasting a lot of time and it's not fair on them because they didn't know that they couldn't afford to work with you. So you've used up some of their precious time.

And also you've wasted your own time with someone who can't afford to pay your prices. You then leave them in the awkward position of having to say they can't afford it. Or what they will more often do is Ghost you because they don't want to have that embarrassing conversation, so they'll just disappear off the face of the earth. Now, I think there's a difference between time wasters and what I like to call savvy shoppers.

We're going to talk a bit more about savvy shoppers in a little while, but I think a savvy shopper is different to a rice shopper. I would like to think of myself as a savvy shopper. I'm looking to get things for the best value for the money that I have, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm always going for the cheapest option. Let me explain to you this way. Think about holidays.

If I've saved up all year 10, 000 to go on a holiday, I'm going to look around for the best thing that I can get with that money. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to go for the cheapest thing because I might be able to go to a caravan park down the road for 500 and that's a perfectly adequate family holiday. There's nothing wrong with a caravan park. In fact, I used to work on one, but if I saved up 10, 000, I'm probably not going to choose to go to the caravan park. Why?

Because I've saved up this money to take my family on this extra special holiday and I want to go on that big holiday. So even though it would be 9, 500 cheaper to go to the caravan park, doesn't mean I'm going to make that decision. On the other hand, if I've got 10, 000, I do want to make sure I get the most out of my 10, 000. So if I decide I want to go to Disney World, which is the most likely destination for a big holiday for my family, I will look at the offers they have.

I will look at the different flight options. I will look at whether I should stay in a villa or a hotel. And I will find the best value for 10, 000. That is being a savvy shopper and knowing prices means that savvy shoppers can make really good informed decisions. So don't worry about these time wasters, these price shoppers. Put your prices on your website to deter them, number one, and to attract the savvy shoppers.

Now, the second reason people say to me that they can't put prices on their website is because everything they do is bespoke and I get it. If you're a florist or a cake maker or something like that, you're creating something and everything is going to be different depending on what flower types they have, the season, the amount of tiers and that kind of thing.

However, I do think that most of you will have a basic from price and most of you will have an idea of pricing that you use in order to build quotes for your clients. So, you will have kind of an average price, maybe you can say the average price for this kind of service is X, or our prices start from X, because if you've only got so many Saturdays in a year, and it's just you, you're probably not going to go out to a wedding that's just buying one small arrangement for 20.

I mean, what are they going to get for 20? You know, it might be that your minimum spend on a Saturday is 500 pounds or tell people your minimum spend is 500 pounds. And here's an example of the kind of thing that you can get for 500 pounds. There are ways you can be transparent, even though everything's bespoke. And I bet you things aren't as bespoke as you think they are.

Because if you look across the weddings you've had over the last year or two, I guarantee there'll be kind of an average booking value that you're used to getting. And that's a really good starting point. Place for putting together some pricing options and transparency. And we'll talk about more in a little while, how to display pricing on your website, but just because you have something that's bespoke doesn't mean you shouldn't have any pricing. Why?

Because we don't want to attract those time wasters again. And again, we do want to attract and inform those savvy shoppers. Okay, we've talked about some of the common objections to putting pricing on your website, but how about the positive reasons? Why do I think that pricing and transparent pricing is particularly important right now? Well, the first thing is Gen Z. We're going to be talking about Gen Z a lot over the coming years because all of a sudden the wedding market is shifting.

Whereas we've had a lot of millennial couples, we are now starting to see more Gen Z couples coming through and Gen Z do not know life without the internet. They are. Always used to one click purchasing, they are tech savvy and they are the most informed generation of buyers because they care about the products and services they're buying and they know how to research them online. They know how to do that due diligence and therefore they are really savvy shoppers.

Exactly what I was just talking about. You know, Gen Z are the generation that are used to things like Amazon, where you can order any product and it will come the next day or even that day. Uber, where you can literally order a taxi from anywhere in the world and turn up somewhere else in the world within a few minutes. Uber Eats, where you can get any restaurant to deliver to your door and you know, one click ordering. Instant messenger. Everything is happening and it's happening now.

Everything is technical and everything makes sense to them. So they can look on Uber. I mean, has anyone been on Uber recently? When you go to order an Uber, it gives you about five or six different options of the car you want. Do you want this executive car, the Uber XL, the green car? And you can See transparently the pricing, you know how much you're going to pay before you get in the Uber.

That is so much more enjoyable than getting in a black cab and being at the mercy of the driver and not knowing how much it's going to cost. People want transparency, they want to know your pricing and these are the buyers that are coming through. Now, the great thing about Gen Z is because they're informed buyers, they are doing a lot of their wedding planning research before they speak to you at all. So they know how much money they've got. And it doesn't mean they've got a low budget.

They quite often have a high budget, but they know their money and they know how they want to spend it. And therefore they're going to be doing their research to see what's the best thing they can get for their money. If they come on your website and there are no prices, they are more likely to just go to another website because they haven't got time or even the will to reach out and spend ages on the phone to you working out the price they want to make decisions.

So if you have really clear prices on your website, it allows them to roughly put together a budget and start planning. When someone gets engaged, they've never planned a wedding before on the whole, unless they work in the industry. So, it's totally new for them. How are they supposed to know how much anything costs? I think the thing I know least about in the wedding industry is flowers.

Like, I literally know nothing about how much flowers cost, and they're always more expensive than I think they would be in my mind. Like, we just don't understand flowers. Now, I work in the wedding industry day in, day out, and I don't understand flowers. So, how are this new couple that have just got engaged meant to understand how much it costs to get a bouquet or to get a flower arch or to have silk flowers versus real flowers?

So, if you can put together transparent pricing to help them, that's going to help them budget and plan and help them decide whether or not they can work with you or not. The second reason is to stop wasting your own time on those people that can't afford you. We talked a little while ago about time wasters, but when you don't put prices on, you have to go through a whole conversation with someone, even maybe a phone call before you can even ascertain whether or not they can afford you.

Now, people don't like answering this question. How much budget do you have? For a couple of reasons. One, they don't like talking about money. Two, they don't want to say the wrong thing. And three, because they don't actually know how much it costs and they don't want to get ripped off. And they're worried if they say they've got 10, 000 that you will just charge them 10, 000.

Even if that's not your regular pricing, so you end up going backwards and forwards, having all these awkward conversations where no one wants to talk about money. Whereas if you could just lay it on the table and say, these are the options, this is what it costs, which looks most like where you're thinking, or which of these sits within your budget, then that's a much easier question for people to answer.

Now, as well as not wasting time on people who can't afford you, you're also going to have a lot less time going back and forth and putting together quotes. Really, you don't want to be putting together massive long quotes and spending hours and hours on things until they've actually paid you some money or a deposit. So the more. transparent you can be in your pricing, the more decisions they can make before coming to you.

Now, a savvy shopper will have looked at your website, looked at all your images, looked at your reviews, looked at your previous work, looked at your prices, worked out that they can afford you, worked out that they like you, and now they're just coming to you to say, Are you available? And let's have a final conversation before I sign the contract as a much better position to be in than just having loads of random inquiries that you don't even know how much money they've got.

You don't know if they can afford you and you could be spending hours and hours putting together quotes for someone that just isn't the right person in the first place. And the final thing is it's a lot easier for you to plan. I talk a lot about setting sales targets and working out financials. Can you pay yourself across the year and all of those kind of conversations. But if you have your quotes varying wildly from 10 up to 10, 000, it's really hard for you to work out budgets.

Whereas when you know your pricing inside out and you know that it goes up this much each year and it goes up on April the 1st or whatever it is for you, it makes it a lot easier for you to start. Budgeting for the year to work out how much money you can anticipate to come into the business, how much you're planning to spend on the business, how much profit you're going to make, how much you can pay yourself.

So having these rough guides on pricing and putting them together can really help with your own planning as well. So to recap, the reason I think you need pricing on your website, first of all, we're dealing with Gen Z. They are want everything now. They want to be able to compare the prices. They want to be savvy shoppers. They are informed buyers and they will just ignore you if they can't find prices. Secondly, you're going to stop wasting time on people who just can't afford you.

We want to repel those people. There is someone out there for everyone and if you are going for a lower end of the market budget wise, that's fine. Tell them that so that they can come and find you. But if you are not, if you have a minimum spend, put that on your website. It allows you to spend a lot less time going backwards and forwards. And finally, it's a lot easier for you to plan out your financials. Hopefully by now you are thinking, yes, Becca, I get this.

I want to put prices on my website. So I'm going to give you a couple of different ways that you can go about displaying prices because it's not a one size fits all and different clients of mine do it in different ways. And I want to explain to you some of those ways to help you decide what you should be doing yourself. So the absolute minimum, and this really is the absolute minimum because it's not very transparent but it's better than nothing, is to have a from price.

Our prices start from 500, 1, 000, 10, 000, 5, whatever it is for you. This automatically tells people they can't afford you if they haven't got at least that money and it also tells them that's a from price so it's only going to go up. from there. So if that's right at the top of their budget, again, chances are unless they go for a basic option, they're not going to be able to work with you.

If you do not at least have a from price on, please can I encourage you by the end of this week to get a from price on your website somewhere so that you know that people aren't going to be spending time wasting their time with you even when they can't afford to work with you. Okay. The second option is price ranges. I work with a wedding planner who I think does this incredibly well. So she has three different kinds of services that she offers.

She has on the day management, she has partial planning and she has full planning. And within those, she's put together some price ranges because she knows that some of these different factors may vary. Travel may vary, time of year may vary, all these kinds of things. So you can go onto her different package. Pages and at least get an idea that this is going to cost you between 3, or between 10, 000 and 15, 000 and you can understand that idea.

So you know this is the bottom that it's going to be and this is also the top it's going to be. So if your budget fits somewhere within that region. Great. Now the thing with a price range is you need to be able to explain to someone once you get to consultation phase, why you've come to the price you've come to within that range, why it's not bottom of the range or why it is top of the range. So you need to have your own processes in place to know how you're charging within those ranges.

And so you can clearly explain that to someone again, if you're transparent about it and you explain, well, the reason that I'm charging you more is because you're having a bigger wedding. Therefore, I need to have an extra coordinator on the day. It's, um, Back to back on another wedding and you're going to need to have me there two days. So there's going to be a surcharge for that. And also you're in Scotland and I'm in Southampton.

So I've got to add on travel and therefore that's why it's come to the top of the range. If you can explain that to someone clearly and precisely, you won't have a problem. It's when we try and hide behind it that we have an issue. So price ranges may be something that you could think about. The next option is packages. I don't know if you've ever heard of the Goldilocks pricing strategy. I've recently been listening to Stephen Bartlett's new book and he talks about Goldilocks pricing strategy.

So I've been doing some research into it. It's very similar as well to what my lovely friend Kelly Mortimer teaches. But basically the Goldilocks pricing strategy is what a lot of businesses are using. So the idea behind it is you put your pricing into three sections, three price points, probably some kind of package around those price points. And you have one that's the lowest one, you know, That's too small.

You have one that's the biggest one, it's too big, and then you have one in the middle that's just right, just like Goldilocks and the Free Bears, if you know that story. Now the idea behind this is it shows people a range and it shows them what they get within the range. Now the place you will see this all of the time is on software websites. If any of you use anything like Calendly or Email marketing software or anything like that.

When you go to sign up, they usually have three price points on the screen in front of you. They have one that's low, the basic or possibly free version. They have one that's high for big businesses, normally the pro version. And then they have one that's just right for you. They're in the middle, go to some of those websites and you will see this displayed in front of you. It shows you all the benefits and features of each of the price levels, and you can make an informed decision.

So how does this work in the wedding industry? Well, the low package is the lowest minimum amount you're willing to go out for, for your service. It might be only available on off peak dates, or it might just be a very basic level of service. Your high package is everything, bells and whistles, really, really expensive. The highest price you could possibly go out for with everything included. And then the just right price is the one that most people will buy.

That's the whole point of the Goldilocks effect. And it's the one that is kind of your average booking value. Again, you should display these on your website. If you're going to go for packages, the same way the software companies do. That is why it works. They do this because it works for them. So you should be doing the same. I often say, look at what the big players are doing in the market because they spent a lot of money and a lot of time researching this stuff.

If it's working for them, it's likely to work for you as well. So that's the pricing. model in packages, Goldilocks pricing strategy. And then the final example is one that I've seen a couple of my clients do, and it's worked out quite well for them. And they tend to fall into that cake maker or florist category. You know, the one we talked about earlier where everything's bespoke and it's really hard to give prices or make packages.

I had a little chat with a cake maker a while ago and having listened to me talk about pricing before, she started on her website and Instagram every time she posted a cake picture, putting the thing underneath it that said approximately how much it would cost to have that cake. I love this idea. It's so transparent and it really gives people an idea of what they can afford for their budget.

Because again, I don't understand the difference in costs between a cake that's got lots of sugar flowers on it versus a cake that's just buttercream because I don't understand the ins and outs of baking. So if you show me 10 different cakes and they all show me how much they cost, I can make a really informed decision. I can see, well, if I go for this kind of cake, it's going to cost me more. This kind of cake is going to cost me less. And you can start to build a rough idea of pricing.

Even though you know, your cake is going to be bespoke. It's a really interesting idea. Maybe it's something you could consider doing. I really like the idea of it. It's so transparent and you can give rough prices. You know, this kind of cake would cost between 500 and 700 pounds.

This cake would cost between 1000 and 2000 pounds, whatever it is for you, but give maybe a range or a from price, but putting the price next to the items can give a real clear sense of transparency where you feel that everything you offer is. You can also do the same kind of price packages, but just give them as rough examples. So, if you wanted a basic cake that's just whatever the most basic thing you can do is, that would be the cheapest option, which will cost this.

Uh, an average three tier cake, which is iced and decorated, will cost this. And if you want ten tiers with all the bells and whistles, it's going to cost you this. And that gives them a jumping off point. It doesn't mean they have to pay that much, but it means it gives them an idea when they come and sit down and speak to you, because again, you don't have to say to them, What's your budget?

You can show them the three options that they've already seen before and say, okay, thinking about your budget, which of these options do you think is closest to what you're looking for? Now you're going to get an idea of what they've got and you can start to build from there. Okay, so we've talked about how to display the prices, but where do you think finally we should be displaying these prices?

Okay, I'm going to give you a few different places where I think you should be definitely displaying prices. First of all, directly on your site. I think it's really important to have a pricing and packages page that you lay out everything and have it clearly navigated from the top bar, because if I'm looking for pricing, I am looking for the word Pricing or packages to understand where to go. So don't mask it by calling it something fancy. Say it as it is.

Let me go there and find out and make my own decisions. Stop being afraid of people seeing your pricing. You are confident in your pricing. You know why you're charging what you charge. Therefore, share it with people. Don't hide it behind this secret wall. So have it direct on your site, have a pricing page. If you can put it all on one page, this makes it really easy for you to direct people to.

Whenever anyone asks that question about pricing, you could just send them a URL straight to that page, which explains everything they need to know. Okay, the second place is some kind of digital brochure. I know lots of people, particularly venues, but other suppliers as well, like to put together a digital brochure. This can be a really nice way to send something to your couples, for them to have a look through and see the different options and the different prices that you have.

Now sometimes people put these behind an email wall. What I mean by that is you have to put in your email address in order to download it. And I understand why people are doing that because they want to capture email addresses, but I also don't think this is the best idea. Why? Because some people don't want you to have their details when they're just looking at prices. They're worried you're going to hound them even though they then can't afford you, right?

We're going back to the same problem as we had at the beginning. Because now they've told you they're interested, so now you might contact them and they can't actually afford you anymore. The other reason is, and this is really true, I know quite a lot of people that think they're getting engaged and therefore want to start doing their research. Now, and they don't want to put their name in. They don't want to put their email address in.

They don't want their partner to know that that's what they're doing, but they do want to get their ducks in a row. So as soon as they get engaged, they know where they're going first because they've done their research. So if you are going to have a digital brochure, don't hide it behind some kind of wall. Make sure you've got your prices available and then have that brochure downloadable or sent to them on email as an additional thing.

There are other ways you can capture email addresses without it being through the brochure. Obviously, you can collect email addresses when they make the inquiry. You can have some kind of lead magnet, you know, 10 top tips for this or your guide to this. But don't hide your pricing behind that kind of wall because you are going to put people off.

And again, they might just not inquire with you because they can't see your pricing and they don't want to have that embarrassing conversation when they realize they can't afford you. The next place is I think you should put that link to your pricing in everything. So if someone inquires on your website, automatically send them a reply that says, Hi, great to hear from you. Hopefully you've had a chance to look at our pricing page because they don't always see it.

So make sure they've got a link to it. If you've looked at the prices and you're ready to chat, here's a link to book into our calendar. Thanks, Becca. All right. Put your pricing everywhere in your followup emails. Have you had a chance to look at our pricing yet so that they can see it? Because we know that. Not everyone looks at everything. People are time poor and therefore they might need a little reminder to go and check that out.

You're out of office is also a really good place to put a link to your pricing because if people are contacting you and you're on holiday or you're off for the Christmas break, it gives them a reminder. So it's like, Hey, we're currently out of the office. However, you can find all of our pricing here and you can also book into our calendar here and it allows them to do things even when you're away. And the final place is social media. Don't be afraid of putting your prices on social media.

Exactly like I just explained before about the cakes and the flowers. If you're posting things, why not put a rough budget circa this much? You will not know how many couples go onto Pinterest and look at big floral arrangements and then guess how much they think they cost and have no idea. So why not be the person that starts to educate them and show them roughly how much something like that would cost or how they could bring that cost down using faux flowers. Or different kinds of flowers.

Be the person who educates them on price. Help them out and you're more likely to make the sale. Talk about your range of prices. Talk about your pricing, talk about your from price. Talk about how you've come to that on social media. Let's normalize talking about the money rather than hiding. Behind it. Okay. In this episode, we've covered a lot of ground when it comes to pricing. I've overcome your objections to why you don't want to put your pricing on there.

I told you the reasons I think you should put price on your website. I've told you how and where to display your prices. So the question is, do you think your pricing is transparent enough? Or does it need some work? I'm going to leave you with that question as we finish today's episode. If you enjoy listening to this podcast, I would absolutely love it if you could leave me a rating or review on whatever platform you're listening to.

If you listen on Apple, please go ahead and leave a review there. The same on Spotify, the same on Amazon. Ratings and reviews help people find the show and the bigger the show gets, the better the guests I can get on to teach you all about growing your wedding business. I will see you next week. Go out there, put your prices on your website and be transparent.