Retainer Pricing Simplified: A Short Guide for Photographers and Videographers
As a photographer or videographer, you know the thrill of landing a project. You put in countless hours to ensure you deliver the best, from the initial concept to the final edits. But once the project wraps up, you find yourself in an all-too-familiar situation: waiting for the next opportunity.
The uncertainty and variability of one-off projects makes it challenging to sustain a reliable income. This is where retainers come in, offering a more stable and predictable business model.
What are retainers?
A retainer is a pricing model based on the agreement that a client retains ongoing services from you.
An example includes you providing a set number of photos or videos per month for a fixed fee, ensuring the client has consistent content for their needs.
The length of a retainer contract can vary to suit your business needs and client preferences. You can opt for a flexible month-to-month agreement, which allows for easy adjustments. Alternatively, you can choose a longer-term commitment, such as a quarterly (3-month) contract or a yearly retainer contract which can offer greater stability.
By defining the contract duration, you establish a clear understanding of the commitment and expectations, ensuring a mutually beneficial partnership. This flexibility in retainer contract length enables you to establish your photography or videography services to meet the unique needs of each client, creating long-term relationships and a stable revenue stream for your business.
Why are retainer packages valuable?
According to Paul Weaver, founder of The Freelance Photographer, retainers are valuable for brands because:
- They can plan their content
- They want to ensure they maintain the same content style
- It’s easier to budget
- They value long-term relationships
- They could lock in a price instead of having it changed from shoot to shoot
As a photographer or videographer, a retainer package means having a consistent and supportive partnership that allows you to fully understand a brand’s vision and goals. You can then use this insight to create personalized content that resonates with the brand’s audience, and continually refine your approach to best capture their essence. This long-term collaboration enables you to grow your creative skills and authority, enabling you to attract more clients.
What retainer packages should you create?
The best way to figure out what services to offer within your retainer package is by identifying the problem you want to solve for a brand.
“99% of CEO problems tend to fall into three big buckets,” according to Deya, a freelance Digital Business Manager. “These are time, money, and energy — they either do not have enough of it or want more of it.”
So to break that down, a business may:
- Have no time to create content
- Have no energy to capture content
- Grow too slow on social media
- Have no editing skills
- Not know how to create content
- Be overwhelmed by technology
This is where you come in as the problem solver.
Choose a problem to solve, and offer the solution in your retainer package.
Retainer packages for photographers and videographers could include:
- Providing ongoing video editing services where you edit and finalize footage captured by the client
- Capturing and editing a set number of images or videos per month (e.g., 10 photos, 2 videos)
- Offering monthly brand asset updates, such as updating headshots, product photos, or video testimonials
These all solve at least one problem for a brand, and that’s what you need to communicate to the clients you want to reach out to.
More on this as you read on.
How to price your retainer packages
While your pricing is unique to you, consider your competitive advantage to position yourself as a high-value service provider.
Your competitive advantage is the unique combination of skills, experiences, and qualities that set you apart from others in your field and make your services more valuable to clients.
This could range from your specialized knowledge, personal strengths, reputation, industry expertise, and a track record of success.
Knowing your competitive advantage helps you define your unique value, confidently communicate your worth, justify higher retainer fees, and attract long-term partnerships.
Once you’ve highlighted your competitive advantage, develop a package that includes your fixed costs. For example, if you plan on capturing content for a client once a month, your fixed costs could include your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and Google Drive subscription. These are costs that remain the same regardless of the project scope or client.
Understanding and incorporating your fixed costs will help you establish a baseline for your pricing, ensuring you cover your expenses while providing consistent, high-quality service to your clients.
After all, you’re running a business.
Now, when you price your packages, aim to attract clients who:
- Have the money to pay you
- Take their business seriously
- Value content
- Run digital ads
- Have frequent product releases
Keeping these points in mind, you’re more likely to land high-quality clients who appreciate your work.
How to turn your one-off clients into retainers
If you have worked with clients on past one-off projects and they had a good experience, those are the people most likely to indulge in a retainer contract.
Why? Because they trust you.
Most businesses aren’t going to jump into a retainer agreement unless they believe you are capable of delivering results. This is why it’s important to develop relationships with the clients you work with.
If you are new to the industry as a photographer or videographer and don’t have clients yet, start with a couple of one-off projects you do for less to build your portfolio and gain experience. This will position you to pitch to bigger clients and grow your business in the months ahead.
Blens is one of the friendliest platforms in Canada to connect you with potential clients and showcase your services- whether you’re established or not.
Now, In order to turn one-off clients into retainer clients, aim to get them on a discovery call.
In this discovery call, you get to understand what the needs of the brand is and what solution you can offer through your retainer.
Remember, before pitching your retainer packages, it’s important to have built a relationship with this client through a past project or mutual connection.
Here is how you could navigate a discovery call successfully.
Once you’ve learned more about the business and pitched your solution to their problems, all that’s left is sharing your retainer package and following up with your clients.
You’re now on the road to establishing a stable income stream as a photographer or videographer.
Conclusion
Retainer packages offer a sustainable and predictable income stream for photographers and videographers while nurturing long-term client relationships. By understanding your competitive advantage and formulating your services to solve specific client problems, you can create valuable and attractive retainer packages. Start with one-off projects to build trust and use discovery calls to transition satisfied clients into retainer agreements. With the right approach, retainers can significantly enhance your business stability and growth.
Written by Ogen Kanu
