Website Structure - The purpose of a website
- Thread starter TJS
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possiible, BUT I can't go 3 weeks with ZERO inquiries in February. This is booking season. I gave it another shot being optimistic, but I truly believe that putting prices up on the website is something that works better for other wedding vendors. Not necessarily for DJs and Entertainment. We need an oppotuniry to talk with the prospect some. ...Especially if they are coming from the internet, and did not see you at a previous wedding or was a direct referral.
***I just spoke with this bride. It will be a Indian Wedding at a hotel near BWI Airport. 9 HOURS LONG. ...I offered her a $3,000 price quote on our Gold Package since she wants up lighting, and interested in effect lights. She is very interested. ...If I get this booked it will be my highest booking of the year, and in a long time. Sending her some more videos to watch.
She told me she browsed the site for just a few minutes, and watched a portion of a video before she went to fill out the contact us form.
She also mentioned she only saw the website on her phone. So she did not see the intro video on the home page since that does not play when someone browses the site on their phone.
I don't think it's not good for DJs/Entertainment. I think it has to do with your price point. If you're at the commodity level, then you're going to get more inquiries and posting prices will weed out tire kickers. If your pricing is more towards premium then posting price (not just starting price) will cut way back on the leads. I think in Ricky's situation it works against him. He needs to get to talk with as many people as possible.
Purpose of a website is to get money in my pocket.
What makes it do that?
Hard to say..I think it depends on many things - a BIG one of which is WHO is looking at your website? As in a 20 year old woman or a 55 year old man? Someone who knows nothing and is learning or someone who is just price shopping?
Can you appeal to everyone? Unlikely.
I do a price range or starting at, and some explanation as to "every wedding is different, so I want to give you an exact price for your big day and not charge you more than you need to pay" or something along those lines. "A wedding of 400 needs more sound and lights than a wedding of 50 or 75 does" - people get it.
I had pricing..worked good, I got jobs. I dropped pricing..could quote higher prices.
TIME OF YEAR maybe..it's booking season, no prices, and the phone is pretty quiet on weddings...booking other things though. Hmm...maybe I need to put some pricing up there again...worth a test I guess.
What makes it do that?
Hard to say..I think it depends on many things - a BIG one of which is WHO is looking at your website? As in a 20 year old woman or a 55 year old man? Someone who knows nothing and is learning or someone who is just price shopping?
Can you appeal to everyone? Unlikely.
I do a price range or starting at, and some explanation as to "every wedding is different, so I want to give you an exact price for your big day and not charge you more than you need to pay" or something along those lines. "A wedding of 400 needs more sound and lights than a wedding of 50 or 75 does" - people get it.
I had pricing..worked good, I got jobs. I dropped pricing..could quote higher prices.
TIME OF YEAR maybe..it's booking season, no prices, and the phone is pretty quiet on weddings...booking other things though. Hmm...maybe I need to put some pricing up there again...worth a test I guess.
I agree ... BUT...wouldn't this also mean brides will associate no prices to 'expensive'?
And how do YOU use a website?
A big thing is you want PRICE, right? And not some come-on price. "Weddings from $299!" (Oh, that's 3 hours on a tuesay afternoon in march...add a grand for a saturday!)
So a prospect googles and finds 5 DJs. they look at all 5. 4 have no price, 1 does. It's a 'fair' price they think, so they call. Book. Done.
the other 4 never have a shot.
Just a guess...but at times I swear it works this way.
I know being the first to get the call, or answer the phone, or return the call, is MUCH MUCH more likley to get the booking than if you are the third to make contact.
And how do YOU use a website?
A big thing is you want PRICE, right? And not some come-on price. "Weddings from $299!" (Oh, that's 3 hours on a tuesay afternoon in march...add a grand for a saturday!)
So a prospect googles and finds 5 DJs. they look at all 5. 4 have no price, 1 does. It's a 'fair' price they think, so they call. Book. Done.
the other 4 never have a shot.
Just a guess...but at times I swear it works this way.
I know being the first to get the call, or answer the phone, or return the call, is MUCH MUCH more likley to get the booking than if you are the third to make contact.
This thread, and reviewing a few competitors' pages got me to re-thinking the whole "display your pricing" thing. For the past 6 months, I had removed the price list (it had gotten too complicated) and only gave a "starting at" price. This morning, I just put pricing back onto our website. For one, our schedule has filled in nicely so I'm not as concerned about getting every possible contact. Over the past 6 months, I've had probably 80% of the inquiries, who I respond back to, then never hear from again (tire-kickers). I'm also thinking that, even at our higher prices, the trend seems to be leaning towards putting all your cards on the table. In looking at our site analytics for the past month, you can see that the pricing and special deal page (also pricing) are THE most popular content, beside the landing (home) page. It also kinda surprised me that our photography and DJ page views were dead-even. Notice that pricing was viewed almost DOUBLE what either photo or DJ pages were viewed. It also surprised me that "About Us" got as many views as it did. It's buried within a sub-menu. BTW, I just added our son to the about us page. I think he's really leaning towards making this biz his career and taking over once we retire. Comments welcome, especially if you'd care to comment on the new pricing page.
Pricing page - Pricing — Nashville Wedding Photography, DJ, Lighting - (https://www.rickryan.com/bundled-packages)
Pricing page - Pricing — Nashville Wedding Photography, DJ, Lighting - (https://www.rickryan.com/bundled-packages)
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Let me ask you this and please be nice. Who are you targeting your business to when you have your prices on your website? Now you said your starting price is $700. For some that might be a nice stretch and others no big deal. What do clients get for $700?
I'm not asking because I want to beat you up. Having prices on your website can be a good thing if the right prospects are checking it out. One thing for sure is we all only pay for something if we think it's worth it. For example someone can go into a store and see a TV that the price is 3k. They won't hesitate to buy that TV. Another person looking at the same TV might say that's too much to pay for a TV. It's all in the perception one has.
So let's say you have a potential client who is looking to spend no more than say $500, it may be a stretch to get them to agree to spend an extra $200. It's all in your sales pitch and what you're offering a potential client.
OK .. if that $500 client is one YOU want, YOU start your website pricing at $500 .. or $400 .. or $300. Your BUSINESS PLAN will help identify the customers and the pricing.
No saga sir. Let's take a look at 2 stores that are still in business. Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Both stores are not stores you go into looking for a bargain. They are expensive high end stores. A mens tie starting price is $140. I saw thin leather wind breaker jacket for 2k. Now for some they can see why it's worth 2k for that jacket and others no way! Me personally I couldn't afford to spend that much for a jacket. If I did my van would be repossessed. Obviously someone is spending money in those stores or other wise they would have long been out of business.
2 of my favorites are Taso and Bob Carpenter. Both have their prices on their website and both are not cheap either. Bob showed a picture of his office. His office looks better than a lot of DJ setups. Both are successful at the price they charge because quite a bit of their business comes from people who highly recommend them to others and they are targeting their websites to people that are willing pay what their price is. Of course they don't win over everyone who contacts them. Yet they are very successful at getting bookings. You don't do this unless you know how to sell yourself and who to sell your services to.
The saga is you keep asking similar questions .. yet haven't done the basics of putting down in writing what you actually want your "business" to do.
A business plan isn't some 3000 page document .. it's really a introspective look at what you want, what you are truly able to do, the people that might pay you to do what you want and what it would take to be able to do it. Might be 2 pages of actual identification and analysis ...
You seem to want to do a lot of things YOU are not able to do. Hash it out or pay someone to help you do it.
Wow! Interesting to see the other side of the fence on that. Thanks for sharing the update to the post too!
There is no right answer to this from general standpoint... however, there is a better answer when targeting a specific goal. I have gone through every phase of pricing, from being "cheap" for my area (under $1000) to mid range, to high end ($2000+ starting), and each phase I did something different to achieve a certain goal. When I was low end, price was not something I wanted to post or share publicly. I needed to get as many people to call me as possible, so I could get as much exposure as possible. My pricing was not as structured, and I considered people's budgets and was willing to work with them if it would be beneficial to me, such as being able to reach a new market or clientele or just to simply make some money. There were weekends where I had a $900 sweet 16 on a friday and a $350 bday party the next. As I desired to raise my price, I didn't focus so much on posting my prices, but more so fixing my online persona and appearance... such as better social media content and more frequent posting and building a following, better pictures, demo videos, offering more enhancements and showcasing that I do. I wasn't strictly Wedding/Sweet 16 only, so I couldn't scare my smaller parties, as I still needed them, but I needed to justify the higher prices that I was starting to charge with a quality site and content, including building my video recap portfolio (this was the best thing I ever did). ONLY when I decided to strictly go high end, and want to start to squeeze out the low end parties, did my pricing become significantly more structured (all events had the same starting price), as well as starting to post my pricing. At first it was a little more hidden, and then became bolder and more prominently placed. 4 years ago I went from doing 13 different types of events in 1 year, to this year of only having 4 types of events, so the results were effective... with no negative impact on my bottom line since I do the same amount of events each year, but the lower end events were replaced with higher end events. I now not only include a starting price, but also the average amount that people pay, to fend off those that think they'll end up booking for just the starting price. I don't list pricing for every item as I offer over 20 different items, and I do offer bundled pricing, so for that I'd rather send a nice catalog with videos and photos to go along with it after I get an inquiry from them.
You could also argue that putting out prices at any price range can be beneficial... as millennials love to see prices... however the only thing that would be an issue with that is you can't say this event is one price and another event a different price. The general public doesn't understand why one event costs more and would turn them off potentially. So if your pricing is based on a one pice for all concept, then it can work, but if you want to be able to charge one event a certain starting price, but weddings or proms a higher starting price.
Figure out what you need to accomplish.
You could also argue that putting out prices at any price range can be beneficial... as millennials love to see prices... however the only thing that would be an issue with that is you can't say this event is one price and another event a different price. The general public doesn't understand why one event costs more and would turn them off potentially. So if your pricing is based on a one pice for all concept, then it can work, but if you want to be able to charge one event a certain starting price, but weddings or proms a higher starting price.
Figure out what you need to accomplish.