Charles Lewis Photography Profits Blog | The Blog for Photography Business, Photography Marketing, Photography Sales, And More

Photography Marketing Success Secret #3 – Don’t Look For The Magic Pill

Want the "magic pill" for photography marketing?

Have you ever wondered why some photographers are successful – even in tough times – while others are not successful – even in great times? What is it that separates the winners from those who are struggling? It almost seems like the successes are taking some special, secret “magic pill” that is causing them to become famous and successful no matter what.

But not true. There is no “magic pill” when it comes to photography marketing success.

So why are they successful? It’s not their photography expertise – although that’s important, of course. The real difference is their attitude and their actions. The winners have a great attitude, even when things aren’t going perfectly. They just keep going. They keep smiling. And they are very enthusiastic! (And that enthusiasm is contagious!) They are optimistic and encouraging. Everyone just seems to really like them, and respect them, and as a result, clients just seem to gravitate to them.

If you want to work with more people, and have those people be “warm fuzzies” – people who are happy, friendly, and love what you do – then be more “warm fuzzy” yourself. And get out there – take the action that the successful photographers are taking – meet other business people in your area. Speak at service clubs. Do radio trade outs. Get exhibits all over town. Write articles for the local papers and magazines. Success in the photography business requires you to do some things you might not particularly love to do, but if you have a proven plan, and work that plan, you will succeed.

So where do you get “the plan?” From someone who is where you want to be. Model that person, and do what he or she is doing, and you will find that you will end up where you want to be as well. But an important warning: Do NOT just copy or “model” anyone. Pick very carefully who you allow to influence you. Never take advice from someone who is not exactly where you want to be! Be ruthless about this. And, of course, never copy anything without permission. Build your business on honesty.

You just simply have to take action. You have to meet people. You have to become famous in your town. I call this the “power of presence.” Everywhere your target market goes in town, they see you, hear about you, or discover you because your exhibits and displays are where they are going in town every day.

So, how do you become successful in the photography business? Model a proven plan, and then work that plan like crazy. Just be sure it is a PROVEN plan. And don’t give up if things don’t work instantaneously. Our culture wants everything to be fast and easy and instant. Well, good photography marketing is none of those. It’s a steady, constant plan which builds momentum and ends up with you being famous, respected and sought after in your market area.

Click here for more photography marketing tips, techniques and strategies

All the best,

Charles J. Lewis, M. Photog., Cr.

Your Photography Marketing & Selling Success Totally Depends On Your …

Your Success Depends On Way More Than Just Your Photo Talent!

…any idea what the rest of that sentence is? If I had a gun to your head, and asked you to complete the sentence correctly or I’d pull the trigger, what would your answer be?

As I’ve mentioned many times, it’s extremely difficult to narrow anything down to just ONE THING. Everything in the photography business is interconnected.

But I just finished our “Inner Circle Call-In-Day” where I take personal calls and questions on the telephone from my members, and one of the conversations I had today caused me to write this post today…

Your photography marketing and selling success totally depends on your….

attitude. Let me explain:

This member was really depressed, discouraged and negative. (But at least he knew it, and that was why he called me today!) He wondered what he could do to “fix” the problem.

My answer: PTS Time – which I have talked about before, so I won’t walk you through it all again today. (By the way, this month’s Inner Circle Newsletter reveals the “9 Power Secrets” to my success in photography, and PTS Time is one of them, and I explain it all in detail!)

Anyway, we talked about the fact that if you don’t take time to USE your brain, before all the stuff you need to do starts driving your day, you’ll never grow and do the things you really need to do to be successful with your marketing and selling, and your attitude will suffer because of all the negativity in the world these days. You see, as the first hour of your day goes, so goes your day. So it’s up to you to be sure that first hour starts off correctly and positively.

So here’s the thing: If you are having troubles with your marketing or selling, look first at your attitude towards what it is you do – your photography – and what the images you are creating mean to your clients. If your attitude is the least bit negative or depressed – for any reason - this will totally affect everything else you do to build up your business!

It’s totally YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to maintain a good, positive, healthy attitude at all times. No one else can do it for you. And if you fail at this responsibility, everything else will fall apart around you. So do whatever is necessary to get yourself at the “top of your game” as far as your attitude goes.

Here’s a couple of suggestions on what to do:

1. Read or listen to positive books, CD’s videos – every single day – at the beginning of the day. Put the positive in, to help yourself remain positive for the entire day.

2. Set some great goals – those are what will keep you motivated and positive. For example, maybe you’ve always wanted to take an Alaskan Cruise. Set the dates, pick the cruise, and then set a goal you must reach, in order to be able to actually take that cruise.

3. Stay away from the negative, dangerous people who will tell you that now is not the right time, or you can’t do it, or things are so terrible, etc. etc. Surround yourself with positive people and get as far away from the negative people as you can.

4. Pick a positive, successful “mentor” to communicate with and to model yourself after.

If you will do these things, you will see magical things start happening! Your marketing will start working better! It’s like a miracle. And you’ll start doing additional marketing that you knew you should be doing, but just didn’t feel like doing! Things will pick up! And your sales will improve dramatically. People can easily tell what your real attitude is, and that attitude has a HUGE effect on your sales!

Hope this was helpful, and for more photography business building tips, techniques and ideas, go to http://www.cjlewis.com

If you’d like to know about my Inner Circle Photography Money Making Group – go to http://www.cjlewis.com/innercircle.html

Chuck

Photography Marketing Tip – VIDEO: “Website Testimonials”

If you don’t have very powerful testimonials as part of your photography website, you’re missing out on a major photo marketing secret! Check this photography business video tip out right now…

CLICK HERE NOW For More Secrets:www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html

Photography Marketing Video Tip – “Find Your Target Market”

Successful photography marketing is all about getting the right message to the right TARGET MARKET. In this photography business and marketing video, I’ll reveal how we’ve discovered the best target market for portrait and wedding photography.

CLICK HERE NOW For More Secrets:www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html

Photography Sales VIDEO TIP – “Photo Product Lines”

Ever wonder how to best set up your product lines to insure the best sales from your photography clients? In this photography marketing video, I’ll reveal how to set up your photography product lines quickly, in a way that will help bring new photo clients to you FAST.

CLICK HERE NOW For More Secrets:www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html

Photography Marketing VIDEO TIP – “The Power Of The DEADLINE”

In this video tip, I’ll reveal the importance of having DEADLINES in all of your photography marketing. Use this tip, and see your photography business skyrocket because of your effective photo marketing campaigns!

CLICK HERE NOW For More Secrets:

www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html

Photography Marketing Success Secret #2 – Market & Sell The Emotion – Not The Paper

Photography Marketing Success Feels Great!

Photography marketing is difficult. In order to be effective, it’s critical you realize exactly what it is you’re really offering to people.

A quick story: I’m a real Walt Disney fan. His brother, Roy, tells this story: “There was this fellow who worked on the Disneyland railroad train and he handled the public rather curtly. Walt said to one of the employees, ‘See if you can’t give that fellow a better understanding of the business we’re in. Cheer him up or if he feels that way, he shouldn’t work here. We’re selling happiness. We don’t like glum pusses or sour faces.’”

Walt knew exactly what he was marketing and selling – and it wasn’t an amusement park.

Well, have you ever thought about what it is that you are really marketing and selling? Do you think it’s photography? Because it’s not.

Many professional photographers get trapped into thinking that they are marketing photography, because no one told them anything different. What you and I are marketing and offering to our clients are EMOTIONS, memories, relationships, feelings, personalities and tenderness.

This means that if you are thinking in terms of pieces of paper with photos on them as what it is you’re marketing, you are going to have problems with your marketing and selling, and the success of your photography business.

I discovered this the long, slow, painful way. For years I tried to market and sell my photography by talking about the photography. But I really struggled.

Then I slowly began to realize that people invest in photography for EMOTIONAL REASONS – not price reasons, and not to get pieces of paper, or images on a CD. (At least this is true for the people who I enjoy working with, and who invest substantial amounts of money for what I create for them.)

What this discovery means is you need to keep reminding yourself, that you are NOT selling pieces of paper – you’re selling what your images say to your clients.

So how can you best use this fact in your photography marketing and selling? Here’s 3 ways:

1. Do your very best to NOT talk about sizes. Those are numbers, and numbers are the OPOSITE OF EMOTIONS. You want to keep your clients and prospects FEELING – not THINKING. Do you see the difference here? Thinking uses the left side of the brain – the LOGICAL side. Feeling uses the right side of the brain – the EMOTIONAL side. So do your best to not talk sizes, but rather to talk emotions.

2. Ask lots of questions of your prospects and clients. Questions which get them talking about their family and loved ones – NOT talking about the photography itself. You want them talking about the relationships between each of the family members. You want them talking about each person’s personality and likes and dislikes, and talents and interests. This just helps your prospects and clients see AND FEEL how much a finely crafted photograph will capture these feelings for them.

3. In your marketing and selling, be sure YOU also talk about the emotions, feelings, relationships, etc. that each photograph captures. That’s what’s really important to your clients. Don’t get all hung up on talking what size a photo is. Forget the paper. Talk about how this photograph captures the priceless relationships between the people. Talk about the valuable memories this image captures. Talk about how sensitive the image is and what it says about the people who are in it.

See how this works? Now, of course, in order to be effective with this, you do need to honestly feel this way yourself. It works so well for me, because I just love creating images that cause my clients to cry tears of joy when they first see them. I live for that, and I tell my clients that. It’s the truth. Yes, I’ll take the money, of course, but it’s not really the driving force behind what I do. My driving motivation is to capture the emotions and feelings for them to enjoy for years to come.

Just remember from this day forward, that people invest in photography for EMOTIONAL REASONS, and tailor everything you do in your marketing and selling to address this fact. Click here for more Photography Marketing Techniques.

All the best,

Charles J. Lewis

Photography Marketing Success Secret #1 The “P.R.O.S. Photography Marketing Plan”

If You Aren't Using The Right Marketing Plan, You Are Burning Your Money!

For Photography Marketing to be successful, you must have an organized plan. There’s an old saying that goes like this: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” This is certainly true in photography marketing.

If you mess up this plan, or worse yet, don’t have a proven plan, you are literally burning money!

As a Professional Photographer, I use a 4-part plan. I call it the “P.R.O.S Photography Marketing Plan” Here it is:

Positioning: In photography marketing, the principle of “Positioning” means you determine exactly where you want to be in the hierarchy of photography businesses.

Do you want to be in the low price/higher volume arena; the medium price/medium volume arena; or the high price/low volume arena?

To use a car analogy, do you want to sell Yugos, Chevrolets, or Cadillacs? I want to sell the Cadillacs. So all my marketing has to go after those people who want to own a Cadillac. If possible, I don’t even want to waste my time marketing to those people who want a Yugo or a Chevy. (That’s not all that easy, but it’s good to be thinking like that all the time.)

So in my photography marketing I have found that the best way to get to those people who want to own a finely crafted portrait that has a significant investment requirement is to EDUCATE them as to the differences between my photography and that of all the other photographers in my area. This is carefully done in terms of BENEFITS to the prospect, and “Unique Factors.” (I talk about that in other areas of this blog and in my marketing E-book.)

Record – It’s crucial to your photography marketing success that you keep really good records of what’s working and what’s not working.

For example, you need to know what your average sale is by client type for this year-to-date as compared to last year at this same moment.

Plus, you need to know how many “Original Inquires” you have received, both on the telephone and through e-mail, for each client type, year to date, compared to last year at this same moment.

And then you need to know how many new clients, of each client type, you have worked with this year-to-date as compared to last year at this same moment.

If you don’t have those three pieces of information, it’s like you’re driving down the expressway in your car with a blindfold on – you have no idea where you are going – you’re blind, and the result is NOT going to be good.

Objective – In your photography marketing, the next part of the plan is to have a very specific objective for those clients you work with. For me, it is to have every client get something for the wall. It can be either a “wall portrait” or it can be a “love grouping” of several images. (Preferably both!) I set this objective years ago, and it gave me direction. You must have a direction for your business, too. It can’t just be “to make more money.” That’s not good enough at all.

Specialize – In your photography marketing, you must know exactly who you want to work with – what kind of photography you want to specialize in. For me, it’s high quality Family Portraits created at a location which is emotionally meaningful to my client. Don’t try to be all things to all people. If you do, you won’t be anywhere near as successful as you could be.

So that’s my “P.R.O.S. Plan” for photography marketing. If you’d like more details on how I market my photography business, be sure to get my free e-book “The Top33 Photography Marketing Secrets.” You’ll like it! You can get it immediately right on this page of my Blog.

All the best,

Chuck

Photography Marketing Tip: 8 Steps To Getting Free Exhibits Of Your Photography

Photography Marketing With Exhibits Works Like Magic

How’s your photography business doing? Is the telephone ringing as much as you want it to?

Most Photographers Don’t Understand That The Backbone To The Photography Business, The “Engine” If You Will, That Drives The Photo Business, Is Getting Lots And Lots Of Qualified People To Know You Exist, And To Call You Now.

And the single, most effective way to market your photography business is through EXHIBITS of your photography throughout the community where your target market lives, shops, eats, has her hair done, etc.

You see, the “job” of your photo marketing is not to get the phone to ring a lot. It’s to get the phone to ring with QUALIFIED, EDUCATED prospects who like your work and honestly feel they just might want to work with you. It makes your sales work on the telephone much easier! And it saves you a lot of time on the telephone, talking with people who end up not being qualified at all.

Here’s 8 steps to getting FREE exhibits of your photography all over town:

Step #1. Order the least expensive 16×20’s of your best work. I recommend you order two or three of each image, as the duplicates are less costly. Many times I use the same portrait in several of my exhibits around town. No problem. (Start with 16×20’s. You can go up in size later as cash flow allows.)

Step #2. Travel around town and make a list of at least 20-25 places where you would LIKE to have an exhibit. I recommend you not waste your time, at least not to start, with franchises. Look for locally owned and operated businesses.

Here’s the most effective places I have found work the best:

Malls
Movie Theaters
Restaurants
Hair Salons
Office Buildings with high traffic
Children’s clothing stores
Bridal Stores
Banks
Performance Halls
Book stores

Step #3. Next, begin by picking the top 5 places on your list where you really want an exhibit, and put on your calendar what day you are going out to talk with them within the next week. It must be in your schedule, or you won’t do it.

Step #4. Suggestion: Don’t call ahead. Just walk in, unannounced, carrying two 16×20 framed portraits under your arms. One of a child, and one of a bride. I never call ahead of time. Just walk in and ask for the owner.

Step #5. Talk in terms of how they can benefit. You are NOT asking for a favor. Not at all. What you are doing is presenting a “Joint Venture” marketing plan for both of you. And be ENTHUSIASTIC about this! (More on exactly how to do this in an upcoming article!)

Step #6. When they say yes, let them know you will be back in a few days to put the exhibit up. You are going to custom make it for them, to go with their decor, etc.

Step #7. Put the exhibit up either on the walls, or on easels. If you use easels, use different heights, some high, and some low, and be sure to use several rather large baskets of silk flowers mixed in with the easels, to add to the beautify of it, and to help hide some of the legs of the taller easels.

Step #8. On the day you put the exhibit up, be sure to take some high quality ambient light photos of the exhibit, so you can add them to your portfolio of displays, and show them to everyone else you talk to about getting exhibits. (More on this in my next article, too.)

Your key to success lies within the actions you take. You need to do the right things – those things that are PROVEN to work – and you DO HAVE TO TAKE ACTION! You can do this!

All the best,

Charles J. Lewis