Your prices guide is a new section on your profile containing an accurate breakdown of your rates. We know every job is different, so you’ll still be able to provide a bespoke quote for every enquiry you receive. However, displaying transparent pricing to your potential clients gives you a number of big benefits:
- Get more gigs. Clients love transparency. Our research shows that clients who see upfront prices are much more likely to enquire than those who have no indication of how much the quote they receive will be.
- Your clients will be more likely to book. Displaying all your pricing options increases the chances that you’ll be matched with a ‘qualified lead’ – someone who can afford your services and is therefore much more likely to end up booking you.
- Reduce speculative enquiries. We know that some clients in the past have used Encore speculatively, submitting enquiries just to get an idea of prices, and then not responding when you send them a quote. If clients can see this information up-front, they can continue browsing Encore until they’re ready to enquire, rather than wasting your time asking for quotes.
We’re certain that pricing information increases the chances of a client booking you – so if you complete your pricing, we’ll boost your profile in our search rankings.
If you haven’t already, we recommend heading to your profile to update your pricing now.
Let’s take a look at how it works…
Why add the Price guide?
The Problem with Quotes
When customers come to Encore, they usually have one question in mind – how much does it cost to book a musician?
It sounds like a simple question, but we know answering it is far from easy. Every time you quote you need to take into account line-up options, length of performance, travel, the time of year, the time of day, the list goes on… In short, it’s complicated.
So, we built the quotes model you’re familiar with. We ask clients to provide their budget range (which have to be above strict minimum rates), and then ask musicians to respond with as accurate a quote as possible.
This system works, but it has a number of major drawbacks.
Clients don’t like waiting for quotes to arrive and get frustrated if all the quotes they receive match their maximum budget. Here’s a quote from one client who was looking for a function band:
“Bands starting prices appearing from £500 then the bands quote at £1500. I was like, ‘No way. I’m not paying that’.”
It also wastes time if musicians end up quoting to clients who can’t afford their services. Upfront pricing solves this problem by filtering out the unsuitable clients before they get in touch. With the new Price guide, you can display your prices for multiple line-ups and timings, so it’s clear that you can serve clients with different budget sizes.
Transparent Pricing Increases Bookings
Showing pricing upfront doesn’t just save time and effort on the part of clients and musicians, it also increases the chance a client will book. Research from the Harvard Business Review recently suggested that consumers are more likely to purchase a product if they see it transparently priced.
“transparency actually works in the seller’s favour by protecting buyers from questionable prices and ensuring they know how the cost structure works”
We anticipate that musicians with complete pricing information will be booked more often on Encore. So, once you’ve completed your Price guide, we’ll give your profile a boost in our search ranking.
How to add pricing...
To learn how to add your pricing - head to our guide here.