ASLU 081: Premium Pricing Models for Your Creative Business
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In Part 1 of a 2 part series on pricing models for creatives and their businesses, Melissa and Heather talk about premium pricing models for both creative services and physical products - and why this particular model is about so much more than just your price!
If there are two topics guaranteed to draw a lot of listeners to a podcast episode it’s pricing and mindset issues. And seeing as so much of pricing gets tangled up with mindset, is it any wonder both topics are so popular?
Pricing is an ongoing challenge for small businesses and big businesses alike and spoiler alert:
The challenge never goes away.
That’s right - whether it’s your first year in business or your 30th year in business, pricing is always something to be revisited and evaluated. There’s technology, the price of raw materials, labour costs, your expertise and experience, exchange rates and, good old inflation. They all fluctuate which means pricing is forever changing even if your financial needs don’t. And we’re not even talking about lifestyle wants or needs, being able to give back, or building wealth (gasp… yes… female creatives and artists are allowed and able to build wealth!!). If you want to have money you need to get comfortable with pricing your work appropriately.
And so for the next two episodes we’re going to be talking about different pricing models, how they work and which one (or perhaps both) is right for you. Today, we’re focusing on premium pricing models for both services (design, photography, commissioned work) as well as physical products (finished artworks, jewellery, candles, books, etc) and digital products (also books, music, digital artwork, stock photographs etc).
This Episode Is For…
anyone debating a change to how they price their products and services.
anyone tired of working 40+ hour weeks but still struggling to pay the bills with their business.
anyone who knows they're pricing their products and services too low but they're not sure how to raise them without frightening off customers and clients
NOTE: in this episode we are assuming you already have the nuts and bolts of pricing down and that you are pricing your work to be profitable. If you are not doing this, you need to work on this first and foremost and we’ll link to other pricing episodes below in the resources section at the end of the post.
If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.
Listen To the Episode
Here’s a to this week’s episode. You can also listen via the player below or on your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, and more). Just search for And She Looked Up!
In This Episode We Talk About
In this episode we talk about:
different pricing models: premium pricing, value or budget pricing or a hybrid model
why there is no wrong pricing model and why there is room for all pricing models in the creative world
what does premium pricing mean? What does it revolve around?
why the actual price in a premium model is actually not the first thing on the list of things that are important in this model
why branding is critical to a premium pricing model
premium pricing is often a very high touch model where all aspects of your business need to ooze customer service and client care
premium pricing can also be a model that focuses on speed and ease of delivery of the product or service
you will need to spend a lot of work positioning yourself to be a premium brand
VIP Days
the psychology of the premium pricing client or customer
why your back-end systems need to be well thought out and operating properly
why you need to have support staff and contractors who understand and execute your premium experience for your clients and customers
the pros and cons of a premium pricing model
coming to terms with the fact that not everyone is your ideal customer and that’s OK.
what is your value proposition?
think it through
Mentioned in this episode
- Why Your Logo is Not Your Brand
- @smallbizmemes on Instagram
Episodes on Pricing Your Work - Episodes 14 & 15: How to Price Your Work
- Episodes 55: How to Raise Your Rates
- Episodes 56: Pricing Your Products (and Productized Services)
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