Should Wedding Planners List Pricing on Their Websites?

Guest Post by Kristie McCauley

If you take a look around at wedding planners’ websites (come on, you know you’ve checked out the competition and your colleagues!) you might notice a trend in listing prices.

The majority of wedding planners that I know and speak to DO NOT list their pricing on their websites.

Is Leaving Off Prices the Way To Go?

The fact of the matter is, it can both benefit and be a disadvantage to wedding planners to list their pricing on their website. Listing prices as part of your website copy isn’t the best practice for every biz.

Let’s break it down to see some of the main reasons it’s a fab idea…and then why you might want to go ahead and leave them wondering.

BTW: When I was a wedding planner, I did NOT list my pricing on my website, either. Now that I’m the copywriter for wedding planners, I DO (no pun intended) list my pricing.

Why?

Not every wedding planner is the right fit for my business and I’m not the right copywriter for every wedding planner. The same is true in your biz, by the way.

Not every bride is the right fit for you and you’re not the right fit for every wedding (no matter how much you want to think you are).

The end result from listing my pricing:

• I have fewer phone calls from tire kickers that are shopping for prices because they already know what I charge.
• I have MORE projects than ever before (Yes, you read that right. I have seen an increase in sales since I started listing my prices.)
• I have more time to devote to working on my booked projects.
• I have more free time to spend with my hubs and daughter (and new baby daughter when she arrives this summer.)

The Skinny on Listing Your Prices

• Price list in context.  Listing prices is perfectly acceptable. Be sure, however, that you’re listing the price in context. What I mean by this is that you’re not just throwing up a package name and a price.

Spell out the benefits (not features) that the package offers, so the price becomes less of an issue and all of the great things they get out of the package become the focus.

• Pricing is part of the conversation.  Brides are already having it (with or without you) with other planners and all of their wedding vendors. Don’t you want to be part of that conversation?

Listing prices brings you into the convo because brides are on the hunt for the cost, even if it isn’t what’s driving their final decision to hire you. Plus, it’s going to come up in the end anyway. Brides don’t hire anyone without knowing their price.

• Listing the price gives brides perspective. They can figure out if they can afford your service or if it is totally out of their budget.HINT: List price ranges rather than specific prices, so it doesn’t pigeonhole brides into a specific price.  Not listing your price can make them feel as if your service is too expensive.
• Price matters.  Period. You can argue that no two weddings are the same and that’s why you don’t list your prices, but in the end, price matters.

A bride who cannot afford your services is not going to hire you anyway, no matter how pretty you paint the picture of what you can do for her, because nothing you say or do is going to change the amount of money she has to spend.

Secrets For Success With Listing Your Prices

Here are a couple of ways to list your price, BUT…and it’s a BIG but here…still manage expectations and not give anyone a coronary over what you charge.

1. Let your past brides speak for you. Use their testimonials to explain to other brides just how great you are, how you’re worth every red cent they spent on hiring you as their wedding planner.Brides relate to other brides who have walked down the aisle in their heels.  Not literally, but you get my point.
2. Be transparent by comparing yourself to the competition. Throw up a competitor pricing chart. Name the competitor, their price, and exactly what that price includes. Compare it your own.It totally removes the chance that brides aren’t comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges when it’s right in front of them in black and white, or whatever your font colors are.
3. Use a disclaimer.   You can ALWAYS (always, always) put a disclaimer.”If you need a service you don’t see listed here or do not need all of the services provided in the package, let us know. We’re happy to provide a custom quote.” BAM!

The Great Price Debate

It’s a debate going on in the minds of wedding planners all over the country: to list my prices or not. Some come up with some pretty compelling arguments as to why they don’t list their prices.

In the end, prices are revealed. It’s a matter of how you handle listing your prices with potential brides that can make the most compelling argument of them all.

What do you think?

Kristie McCauley is a former certified wedding planner, award-winning copywriter, published author, and former owner of a wedding planning business. Kristie works with wedding pros to create websites with words that pack a meaningful punch to BOOK MORE BRIDES.

Grab her free guide on the top ingredients of a winning website.

 

 

 

photo credit: Politics via photopin (license) (Original image cropped and text added)