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It’s Okay To Make Money With Your Photography

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“I don’t want to look like a used car salesman.”

How do you approach sales within your business? money

A successful business owner charges enough to build a healthy, thriving business. They charge what they’re worth. They charge to grow. And they charge based on what they should be getting, not what others around them are charging.

The used car salesman puts the image of forceful sales into our minds. The last thing we ever want to be is seen as pushy.

But there’s a big difference between being pushy, and giving people the products and services they want.

One of my favorite authors is Jeffrey Gitomer, who has written many books on selling. One of his quotes is, “people don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy”.

If you’re good at what you do, and your passion shows through, selling is the easy part. People will seek you out, and make your job of selling easy.

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Getting Personal With Your Blog

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I’ve been talking with a lot of PTCO groups here in my local area about jumping on to Facebook, and using different social networking tools. While my main focus with these groups is to talk about security when their children use them, we also touch on how beneficial they are for businesses.

At each of the meetings, one question always jumps out at the beginning.

“How personal should you get?” networking

The answer of course is different for an adult versus a child. But from my perspective, being personal is what makes you human. It’s what gives you personality. It’s what helps you build relationships.

No matter what you buy, chances are you buy it because of the relationships you have with the workers at the store.  You shop at one grocery store over the other because they seem friendlier as you’re heading through the checkout lane. Or you visit one discount store over the other because you like the interaction with the workers.

You have a preference because of the way you perceive the surroundings of the area.

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A Blast From The Past

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Well I just noticed I reached a milestone. I have 340 posts on the VirtualPhotographyStudio blog, and well over 150 pages of articles, information and resource pages. Which means with over 500 pages of content – there are A TON of resources for you to go through to help build your business.

But as I reflected on my milestone, I also got to thinking about the amount of overwhelm you may be feeling if you’re new to photography, or looking for ways to build up your photography business.

So I went through my most popular posts, and I’ve linked to them here. Enjoy.

Do The First Thing First – In this post I talk about how to prioritize your day according to what will help grow your business most.

Is A Studio Necessary To Start A Photo Business? – In this post I talk about getting around the idea of needing to have a physical location to run your photography studio.

Mindset Your Way To Success – Do you hate selling? There is no such thing as a born salesperson. In this post I look at how to change your mindset, and make your business more successful.

The Pendulum Swing Of Photography – From the best of times to the worst of times, I discuss how to create a business that can weather both.

10 Ways To Grow Your Senior Photography Business – If you photograph high school seniors, take a look at this list and start the new year out right.

The Difference Between Amateurs and Professionals – If you have decided to make photography your career, make sure you’re on track to showcase yourself as a true professional.

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5 Things To Make You Quit Your Photography Business

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The headlines everywhere read doom and gloom. It’s the toughest time of all to make profits with a business, not to mention the possibility of starting one up. Should you take all of this to heart? If you’ve always dreamt of starting and growing a photography business, and turning it into your career, is now the time?

Yes!

I’ve started up 3 separate businesses over the past 20 years, and I’ve seen [Read more...]

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It’s Not The Picture, It’s The Presentation

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Can you sell a photo like this to your bride?

Well, maybe. It is a pretty cool photograph of the table se46-wedding-photographytting. But let’s face it; if a bride is making cuts, she’d much rather have an image of her family and friends than a photo of the table.

But if you show her how an album layout can be put together including the table image, and show her why it tells the complete story of her wedding, you’re much more likely to sell her that image.

That’s where 90 percent of all photographers fail.

They take their images, and hand over the proofs/CD/DVD of the images and let the bride choose.

The bride doesn’t have your vision. She doesn’t know what to do with the images. She only wants memories.

You need to sell her the story – not the images.

She wants a special way to remember her wedding. If you hand her a stack of “proofs” or 4×6 images, or a CD/DVD, they will forever remain in that format. And she won’t have a very good impression of you, her photographer.

But if you help her design a fantastic storybook of her wedding, one that she can share with people anywhere, anytime, she’ll remember you. And so will her friends.

People want the final product – not the process. Your job is to use your marketing to convince them that the other 90 percent of photographers are wrong – they’re only giving half the service!  

And the BIG fees come with it. Imagine selling hundreds or even thousands of images INSTEAD of handing over the CD.

Choice is yours. Which will you be doing?

[Check out my Album Creation to learn more about selling albums for hundreds - even thousands of dollars.]

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What’s Your Wienie?

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If you keep doing what everyone else is doing, you’ll never jump ahead of your competition.

Sure it’s easy to emulate what other photographers are doing in your industry, but that will never set you apart from them. What you really need is … a Wienie.

What’s a Wienie? Mark Ramsey did a great post on one of the all-time great marketers, Walt Disney. Even when others thought he had achieved perfection, Walt new something was missing.

That’s really what a Wienie is. It’s that one special thing that sets you apart from all others. It might be the way you perform at a wedding. It might be the way you present your final albums. It might be your customer service. But it has to be something that you really don’t need – but you do anyway to make you stand heads above the rest.

What’s your Wienie?

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Photography and Facebook – A Great Combination

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Has your photography business hit a slump? Are your sales down from last year? Or, are you ready to move to the next level. Enter the Facebook social arena. Facebook and photography can exist with great complimentary connections. Here is a fan page that we put together on Facebook to introduce one of our services. – Facebook sample page – take a look and if you are not a member, register at no cost and explore this next generation of marketing.

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Photography Business – Where Are The Leads?

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Well that all depends on how much business you need in your studio.

Let’s say that you want to photograph 30 weddings per year. How many leads you need to generate those 30 weddings would depend on a number of factors:

  • How much you charge for your weddings?
  • Do you leads know and understand your pricing before they contact you?
  • How good you are at turning leads into sales?

If your leads are pre-qualified, have a lot of information on you and your services before they contact you, know and understand your pricing, and have a strong referral, you might only need 30 leads to book your 30 weddings.

But if your leads come in with little knowledge of you or your services, they call in ‘blind’ from a vague advertisement with little information, and don’t match your criteria for your ideal client; you may end up having to meet 10 to 15 prospects before turning one of them into a client.

Which would you rather have for your business: 30 prospects turning into 30 clients, or 450 prospects turning into 30 clients? Obviously, your ultimate goal should be the first option. The better you define your perfect client, and the better your marketing strategy to reach your perfect customer, the easier your business will be.

Lead generation is all about understanding your customers, and reaching out to them in a way that makes them need what you have to offer. Refine what you have until you’ve developed your “perfect” message. Not only will you become better at business, but you’ll also have more time to concentrate on other things.

Filed Under: Blog, Planning Tagged With: , , ,

Hidden Opportunities – Capture Them Through Marketing

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Hidden Opportunities – Capture Them Through Marketing

One of my favorite marketers, Dan Kennedy, shared an idea in one of his latest emails.

Most people attract and accumulate wealth from more than one source – the multiple streams of income theory. One of things he enjoys most about his business is helping his clients uncover hidden opportunities within their existing business.

Reading his email confirmed my feelings for my clients. I too love helping people create a new money source – one that may have never existed before; one that we create online that suddenly pushes their business to a whole new level.

And the great thing about the Internet is it’s still such a new tool. If you’ve never learned anything about how to make money online, now is your chance. Whether you have a small business without a website, or a business that has a solid stream of online income – let’s chat and discover other ways for you to use this amazing tool.

And create another stream of income!

GetKnownMarketing.com

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