How To Give Your Photography Business A Spring Cleaning

How To Make Magic Happen In Your Business

Lady Gaga. American Idol. Glee. Apple.

Like em, love em or hate em, no matter how you feel about it, they all evoke a massive emotional response. They’ve created a national appeal that makes everyone around the world talk about what’s happening next.

Wouldn’t you like to have that same emotional response with your own business? Imagine if you could do something so striking, people instantly recognized you and started talking about you.

While your goal may not be to attract the attention Lady Gaga is getting, there are things you can do to get noticed, and have the magic start flickering around you.

1. Speak directly to your marketplace as if they were a single person. What would that one person want to hear? Nothing will create as much magic as if a person feels they are being directly catered to, and taken care of in a special way. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Get Clients Tagged With: growing the business, magic, marketing strategies, tips to bring in clients

How To Attract Affluent Customers And Make Your Photography Fit Their Lifestyle

by Virtual Photography 5 Comments

Are you a portrait photographer? Wedding photographer? Commercial photographer?

Who are you targeting, the people that are barely squeaking by, trying to pay the mortgage, or trying to cover the next payroll?

Times are tough right now, but not for everyone. 22 percent of American households have more than 55 percent of all earned income. This means that one out of every five households controls more than half of America’s wealth.

And while it’s easy to get sucked into the notion that people aren’t spending, the truth is these one in five are spending – and they are spending a lot! They are just being more cautious about what they buy, making sure they get the best deal possible for their money.

If the sheer numbers of people spending money hasn’t convinced you on why this target market is so important right now, here are 5 more reasons to push you to start marketing your products to this audience.

1. It takes less energy and less sales to meet your goals.

If your goal is to make $100,000 this year, you can do so in a variety of ways. You can sell 100,000 people something for $1, or you can sell 1 person something for $100,000, or somewhere in between.

That sounds basic, yet so many people don’t look at sales this way. They choose price then try to retrofit customers into their packages. Isn’t it easier to get 10 customers to spend $10,000, and target people that can truly afford this, then to hope you can find 100 brides at $1,000?

2. The affluent aren’t affected by the ups and downs.

When people reach a certain level of affluence, they rely less on one income source, and more on multiple sources. If one drops off or goes away, they have others that keep them stable while they replace it with something else. While they still may be cautious about spending, they know they can always afford what they truly want and love. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Six Figure Photographer Tagged With: affluency, affluent clients, lifestyle photography, referral business, wealthy customers

How To Make Your Small Photography Business Seem Bigger

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

When our business started growing by leaps and bounds, we made a conscious decision to stay small – Andrew, myself, an office manager, and two part time assistants – yet look like we were a very large photography studio that could take on clients anywhere in the world.

Guess what? It worked.

It doesn’t matter if your business is in a large office building, or run out of the basement in your home, there are certain things you can do to give it the large business appearance. Along with the comfy feeling of being a small time studio.

Brand Yourself For Mass Appeal

Your brand is your window into the world. Just because your current client lives 10 miles from your studio doesn’t mean she won’t be mailing photographs and sharing your information with a friend that lives 1,000 miles away. Especially in today’s world, there are no boundaries when it comes to promotion. We’ve had clients in Germany plan a long distance wedding and choose us as their photographer by viewing our online portfolios and making decisions through email – that’s a long way from Colorado.

Start out by looking at the name of your photography business and your tagline. What do they really say about you as a photographer? Does it say we stay local, or does it say we are willing to travel anywhere? When we were in the process of doubling our business, we changed our logo by deleting “Denver” from our tagline, and adding “Worldwide” instead. From that point on our business grew exponentially. Not only did we have a different attitude, our clients did as well. We received many phone calls asking if we had offices in different regions of the world – and they were always surprised to learn how small our employee base really was. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Six Figure Photographer Tagged With: branding, growing a small business, Photography Marketing, Photography Studio, small business

7 Deadly Sins Of Sales

by Virtual Photography Leave a Comment

Want to become a better business owner Become a better salesperson first. The heart of every good business is their sales process. And while you don’t have to spend hours every day refining your pitch, there are some simple things you can do that will polish up your presentations.

1. You don’t build the story and the interest.

Think back to the best movies or the best books you’ve read over the past year. If you were to synopsize them, chances are you would have a great beginning that pulls you in, a thrilling middle that captivates interest, and an end that leaves you satisfied. Your sales presentation should be the same way. Set up your story by using examples of clients that have come to you, what was wrong with the way they’ve done things in the past, and how you’ve helped solve the problem.

2. You offer too much.

People shut down when they have too many choices. We’re all busy in our own daily lives, and even though we may be looking for a new product or service, we want some hand holding along the way. If you’ve ever had a 2 year old child in your home, you know the best way to deal with their growing independence is to offer two choices would you like this or that The same holds true throughout our lives, and simplification will always win out over complexity. Start by allowing people to choose between two or three packages; and then customize it on the other side. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: becoming a better sales person, Deadly Sins Of Sales, sales presentation, selling your photography

Why You Should Strive To Be Unrecognizable In Five Years

by Virtual Photography Leave a Comment

Take a few moments, sit back, and think back over your life. What have you done? Who have you been?

Hopefully you see some drastic differences along your path. (Okay, if you’re 15, it may be a bit harder to recognize yet.)

When I look back over my journey, I see many things.

High school
College
Masters program
Job in a retail store
Job in a bank
Job with the government
First business
Second business
Third business
Writer
Author
Speaker
Consultant
Traveler
Daughter
Sister
Wife
Mother
Friend

The list could go on and on. Mainly because I’ve made big changes to my life, and never was comfortable with staying in one place. I’ve always been a student of change, and when things get a bit too comfortable, I throw in the towel and try something new.

Today I read an amazing article by Julien Smith – I’ve actually read it three times so far. I highly suggest you take a minute or two and read it too. He touches on so many things, and brought up so many ideas, I could go on for a long time. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Six Figure Photographer Tagged With: becoming unrecognizable, business growth, change, growing your business, making changes, personal growth

How Much Power Your Words Really Have

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

Pictures or Images?

Proofs or Originals?

Come in for your shoot. or Come in for an experience.

The way you communicate can have a major impact on the way you do business. In fact, it can mean the difference between an average business and one of the top businesses in the world.

Have any doubts? Watch this video.

Just by changing a few simple words, you can say the same thing in a much more appealing way.

Start by looking at your current marketing materials. Your brochures. Your sales presentation. Even your voice mail message. What do you say to your potential clients?

Now start analyzing each item. How can you change what you say and make it more appealing?

Lets look at an example.

Maybe you leave a quick note on your voice mail, telling people to visit your website to take a look at the pictures in your gallery.

The average consumer takes pictures. Pictures imply a pile of quickie images that you take on a point and shoot, develop at the local big box store, and throw into the drawer when you are finished.

What could you say instead?

Instead of talking about pictures, why not talk about your images? Instead of talking about your proofs, what about the originals?

By changing one word here and there, your message can be taken up to a whole new level. Yes, you may still be shooting, but by creating an experience for your clients, your customers will see you in a whole new way.

A little more elegant. A little more of a “wow” for the caller. And a little more value in what you do.

Filed Under: Get Clients Tagged With: blind, copy, copywriting, marketing, text, the power of words, web copy, word choice, writing, youtube

How To Give Your Photography Business A Spring Cleaning

by Virtual Photography Leave a Comment

I love this time of year. The trees are flowering. The grass is turning green. And with the gorgeous 70 degree days, nothing is better than heading out and cleaning out the gardens, getting ready for a new year of living outside every chance we get.

While much of my weekends and afternoons are spent outside in the gardens right now, I’m also spending an equal amount of time on the inside, looking at my business.

Have you heard the phrase, “two steps forward, one step back”? I like to spring clean by keeping that phrase in mind.

If you spend any time in the garden, you know some things grow, and some things don’t. Especially in cold climates like Colorado, some things make it well over the winter months, and some things die out. We plant all summer long, then spend the springtime looking over the garden, evaluating what came back, and what didn’t. Sometimes it means pulling out old to make room for the new.

The same applies to your business.

Every year, I come up with new ideas, design new promotions, plan new products and services, and release a lot of new things to my clients and prospects. Some things stick. Some don’t.

But while its okay to try new things, you also have to take a step back occasionally and make sure things are running efficiently. Are there things you can change that would make your business even better? Can you add things? Delete things?

Review Your Goals

By now you know I’m a huge planner, and goal setting is a necessity to stay on track. I talk about it again and again.

Is There Any Such Thing As An Impossible Goal?

5 Questions That Will Make You A Successful Photographer In 2011

Do You Want The Photography Life Or The Photography Lifestyle?

While its good to set up goals on a regular basis, it’s also a good idea to review and change them along the way.

I’ve read books that show you how to set up 100 year goals. And I’ve also read books that state setting goals for anything beyond a couple of years is a hindrance, because things simply change too fast. My views fall somewhere in the middle.

I agree that to set up long term goals of several years can be difficult in today’s marketplace. Technology changes and becomes obsolete every few months. Yet you have to understand your long term plans in order to set things in place today. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Planning Tagged With: business checkup, goals, plan your photography business, review