How to position yourself as a premium creative

Most creatives who want to charge more begin with the price. They edge up the day rate or the cost of their prints, feel awkward about it, then discount the moment someone hesitates. The number is rarely the problem. The problem is that nothing around it tells the buyer why it’s worth paying, and that’s what premium creative positioning fixes.

Positioning is the work of making a higher fee feel obvious to the right client. This guide covers what it involves for designers and illustrators, for photographers, for artists or makers who sell their own pieces. It also covers the honest trade-offs that come with going upmarket.

What does premium positioning mean for a creative?

It means clients pick you for who you are and how you work as much as for what you produce. A client who sees you as interchangeable compares you on price. One who sees you as the specialist for their exact kind of problem compares you on fit instead, and price drops to being just one factor among several that they weigh up.

Premium needn’t mean luxury. A designer who only works with independent restaurants can be premium in that world. So can a photographer known for shooting for architects. What counts is being specific and going deep. Gold foil is optional.

How do you choose a niche without boxing yourself in?

Picking a niche is the most useful single step towards premium positioning. It’s also the step creatives fight hardest. It feels like turning work away. In reality it makes you easier to recommend, and easier to find.

There are several ways to define one:

• By client type. Independent hotels, charities, authors, family-run food brands.
• By problem. Rebrands after a founder steps back, packaging for a first retail listing, portraits for people who hate having their photo taken.
• By style or medium, meaning a visual language so distinctive that people come looking for it.
• By outcome: what changes for the client after they’ve worked with you.

Think of a niche as a front door. It isn’t a fence. You can still take other work. You just lead with the one thing you most want to be known for. Working out that positioning, along with the story behind it, sits at the heart of brand design.

What makes clients see a creative as premium?

Selected work, presented with context

Show fewer pieces. Make them your best, then explain them. A short case study covering the brief and your thinking, then the result, shows clients how you work. That’s what they’re really paying for. A sprawling gallery of everything you’ve ever made sends the opposite message.

A point of view

Premium creatives hold opinions about their craft and aren’t shy about sharing them. Your beliefs about good work, plus what you will and won’t do and why, say far more about your expertise than any list of services.

A clear process

Clients who pay more want to know what’s going to happen. Lay out your stages and timings. Say what you need from them and how many rounds of feedback are included. A defined process reassures buyers, and it also protects your own time from the endless extra rounds and scope creep that eat into a project when nobody wrote anything down.

Consistent, considered presentation

Your website and proposals should look and sound as if they come from the same careful person as your emails, your social feed, even your invoices. If your own brand looks rushed, clients will assume your work might be rushed too. Strong portraits of you at work help a lot here, because premium clients usually want to know exactly who they’re hiring.

Proof from the right people

One specific testimonial from a client in your niche beats ten general compliments. Ask for comments that describe both the experience and the outcome. Get permission before you publish them.

How should premium creatives price their work?

Detailed pricing advice goes beyond a branding guide. Still, a few principles hold for almost every creative business.

• Price the project, not the hours. Day rates invite clients to weigh your time against someone else’s. A project fee tied to a clear scope gets them comparing outcomes instead.
• Offer a small number of options. A focused offer, maybe a core option plus a bigger one, is easier to choose from than a long menu.
• Put the scope in writing: what’s included, what isn’t and what happens if things change.
• Think about usage and licensing. Under UK law, whoever creates a work is generally the first owner of the copyright unless you agree otherwise in writing, as GOV.UK’s guidance on ownership of copyright works explains. Many creatives charge for how and where the work will be used as well as for making it. Get professional advice on any contract or licence that counts.
• Raise prices in steps. Apply new rates to new clients first and give existing clients notice.

Where does your website fit in?

Your website is often the first serious look a premium client takes at you, usually after a recommendation or a social post caught their eye. Its job is to confirm the impression they’ve already formed from that recommendation or post.

A free portfolio platform can do the job early on. Premium positioning, though, usually needs a site you own and control, and the guide to portfolio websites vs Instagram explains why. A professionally built personal brand website lets you shape the whole experience, from the first impression right through to the enquiry.

What are the trade-offs of going premium?

Be honest with yourself about the downsides before you commit.

You’ll get fewer enquiries, at least to begin with. A narrower, pricier offer puts some people off. That’s partly the point, but it can be an uncomfortable wait while the right clients find you.

Expectations go up. Premium clients expect premium service at every step, which means quick replies and clear communication with polish throughout, and the finished work is only part of it.

Your own brand needs investment. Better photography costs money. So does a stronger website, and writing case studies eats hours, all before any of it pays you back.

And it takes time. Reputation builds through finished projects and word of mouth. Positioning gets you there faster, but you still have to do the work.

If you’re happy with a regular flow of varied work at your current rates, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Premium positioning suits creatives who want fewer projects that go deeper, and who are prepared to invest to get there. For a sense of what a full personal brand investment looks like, see the guide to how much personal branding costs in the UK.

How we can help

We help creatives pin down their niche and story, with the messaging to match, through brand design. Then we bring it to life with a personal brand website and photography that live up to the standard of the work. Every project starts with listening. We agree the brief and scope with you, along with the fee, before any creative work begins. If you’re a photographer, our marketing for photographers brings all of this together in one place.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Ownership of copyright works