Does Email Still Work To Find Photography Clients?

I opened up my email program to find 350 new messages.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I don’t use email like most. I don’t have them downloaded into my mobile so I can keep a pulse on what is happening at all times. I usually open up email three times per day – morning, after lunch and before I turn off my computer for the day. If I’m out on appointments, that may decrease by one.

Out of the 350 email, I deleted around 340 of them just by looking at the subject line and the recipient. And I’m sure I’m not alone. I’ve read statistics that show email is now around 90 percent spam related – 10 percent true email. And I can definitely attest to that.

Which means to get an email opened, it has to have a great subject line and be from a trusted referral. Without one of those two items, it doesn’t stand a chance.

Do you use email in an attempt to gain photography business?

After reading that question, you probably went one of two ways.

Yes, and I gain new clients every time I send an email.

No, email is now a complete waste of time.

If you are in the yes crowd, congratulations. You’ve learned that email is a long way from dead, and it still offers a lot of potential in connecting up with potential business.

But if you are in the no crowd, now may be the time to rethink your approach to email. [Read more…]

How To Clone One Client And Turn Her Into One Hundred Clients

Jenna has been planning on having a family since the day she married her best friend. They were going to work for a year, buy their first home together, settle down and start their family. One year came and went. So did the second year. And the third.

Finally after many trips to fertility experts and tens of thousands of dollars in treatments, Jenna and her husband were pregnant. They were ecstatic. They wanted to enjoy every moment of this child from this point forward.

They found Trish, a photographer who specializes in maternity and baby portraits and instantly knew they had to use her to remember this experience forever. Two weeks before the baby’s due date, Jenna and her husband entered Trish’s studio, and captured the joy and love they felt for their first child. Three weeks later, the baby was born – a little girl who became their pride and joy. Another two weeks flew by and Jenna brought in her baby girl for her first baby portrait.

Jenna didn’t just love her portraits; she loved everything about the experience. She purchased everything Trish recommended – from wall portraits, to albums, to collages and digital albums she could share online with family and friends far away. She became an evangelist for Trish’s business, raving about her in every play group and meeting she attended.

Sounds good, right? Wouldn’t you love to have a client like this? What about having 100 clients like this?

When you see it written out like this, its easy to get excited and see how this one client could help your business grow massively.

Yet then something happens. The mail comes. The phone rings. An order is “lost” and an “emergency” suddenly commands attention. And the thought of your perfect customer disappears.

So customers come and go. Some are good. Some not so much.

Yet if you stop and think about it and reflect back on who your perfect customer was and who you would love to work with again and again – Jenna’s name pops up every time.

So the key to success isn’t bringing in more customers. Its bringing in more Jenna’s.

But how do you do that?

Clone her of course.

Okay, I’m not serious about cloning her. We can’t do that yet 😉 But if you’ve fallen in love with “Jenna” as your client, you can bet there are 100 more “Jenna’s” out there that are in similar circumstances and they would make just as great customers as Jenna was.

How do you reach those other 100 customers? You speak directly to them. [Read more…]