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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!
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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
Photography Marketing VIDEO Blog Entry – “Photography Website Gallery”
Wonder what your photo website should (and should NOT) look like? Watch this short video now to find out:
CLICK HERE NOW For More Secrets:
www.cjlewis.com/FreeSecrets.html
Photography Marketing: 4 Vital Tips To Photo Marketing Success
Photo Marketing Done Right Hits The Target Dead Center!
I often say that photography marketing is the “engine” of your photography business, because it absolutely is. If you mess up the marketing, your photo business goes nowhere. If you are smart about your photo marketing, you will grow and prosper – regardless of the economy, the competition or where you are located!
Here’s 4 little known photography marketing secrets that will help you build your business success. They certainly have mine:
Photo Marketing Secret #1: Never depend on word of mouth – it’s not enough. It certainly is true that one of the best forms of advertising is to have someone tell a friend about you and how “great” you are. But here’s the problem: There isn’t enough of this going on to make you any serious money. So do NOT depend on this to sustain your business. It can HELP your photo marketing, yes, of course, but do NOT depend on it to build a successful photography business all by itself!
Photo Marketing Secret #2: Don’t market too big – pick a target market and go after that with a passion. Most photographers really screw this up – by not doing it at all. When it comes to photography marketing, professional photographers are famous for thinking that “everyone” is their target market. “If they have a pulse, they are a prospect” they think. This is a huge marketing mistake.
You see, most of us professional photographers don’t have a huge marketing budget. So it’s very important to pick and choose carefully who it is you want to work with, and then concentrate on getting to them, and them only.
For example: My target market is: “Warm Fuzzy Females Who Value What I do.” By “Warm Fuzzy” I mean those type of people who are right brain dominant, who are extremely emotional, romantic, sensitive, and excited about emotionally sensitive photography and what it can say for them.
Photo Marketing Secret #3: Set a specific budget – almost no photographer does this and it’s a big mistake. You MUST determine how much money you are willing to invest to “buy” clients this year. That’s what you’re doing – you’re “buying” them. So how much should you pay? It’s different for each photography business, depending on what your capital situation is. But a good starting point is to take between 5% and 7% of your PROJECTED GROSS SALES for the upcoming 12 months. This at least gets you started with budgeting.
Photo Marketing Secret #4: Exhibit your photography around your community – and exhibit the types of photography you want to do. And you do NOT need to pay money for these exhibits. I have written other articles and will write more on this – but for here, just let me say that you can get free exhibits of your photography all over your town – in malls, movie theaters, restaurants, hair salons, office buildings, and many other locations. It works – and works GREAT. I’m living proof of it!
How do you get them? By showing the location how THEY WILL BENEFIT by displaying your photography in their establishment. And how will they benefit? Because you will go back to the studio and call those people whose photos you just put up in their establishment, and those people will tell all their friends (because it’s a big, exciting thing to them!) So people all over town will be talking about that establishment – and it didn’t cost a cent for them! (It’s a MARKETING PLAN for the place where you exhibit your photographs! It will bring people into their establishment for FREE for them!)
These four little known secrets are the backbone to my photography marketing, and they will work well for you, too.
No go out there and TAKE ACTION on what I just shared with you! Taking action is the key to your photography marketing. You’ve got to do it, and do it now!
For more on Smart Photography Marketing That Works, click here: ==> Smart Photo Marketing
All the best!
Charles Lewis
Photography Marketing & Selling Tips – 4 Key Sales Secrets
Photography Sales Tips That Will Make You More Money
Becoming a great sales person is vital to your success in photography. Yes, marketing is important. If your photography marketing sucks, no one will know you exist. But even with great photo marketing, if your sales skills are bad, you still won’t make any money.
Now, when I talk about “selling” I do NOT mean trickery, manipulation or pressure. That’s not selling at all, and we want NOTHING to do with that.
What I do mean is you must discover how to be persuasive. How to be able to gently influence your client’s and prospect’s decisions in a good, positive way.
Here’s 4 powerful sales secrets that will revolutionize your photography business if you use them:
Sales Secret #1: You sell what you show, absolutely. So be certain you only show in your business what you want to sell. In my case, it’s wall portraits as fine home décor. So there is NOTHING in my studio smaller than 24×30 (and only one of that size.) I show 2 – 40×50’s, a 40×40, a 32×50, a 30×40 and one 24×30. That’s all! Each portrait is beautifully enhanced, framed and displayed just like it will be displayed in a client’s home.
Sales Secret #2: Your telephone is your most important tool – not your camera or computer. Basically, all your business comes through this tool. Yes, you have people email you, but eventually each and every prospect should end up talking with you in person on the telephone. So be sure you use this powerful tool correctly.
For today, let’s just mention the #1 best way to use the telephone – ask questions of your callers. Don’t just talk and talk about how great you are. Instead, ask her questions that show you care about what she’s looking for and why she’s thinking of having a fine photograph created at this time. This builds trust and rapport with her, and encourages her to “move to the next step” in working with you.
Sales Secret #3: Volunteer your fees before you are asked – this says two things – 1.) you’re worth it and 2.) you’re proud of the fees. Don’t try to avoid this. Instead, after asking several good questions, volunteer the fees yourself, before she asks you to. This is what I call the “Volunteer Statement” and it must be memorized word for word so you say it the same way, every single time.
Here’s our Volunteer Statement for our studio, for portraiture: “Before we go any further, let me give you an indication of what you can plan on investing. Is that okay? (Wait for her to answer.) Most people in your situation can plan on investing between $X and $Y and get a larger one for themselves, and a few smaller ones for gifts. Does that fit within your budget?”
Sales Secret #4: The first impression is the lasting impression, so be sure that first impression is a good one. This involves things like how you are dressed, the vocabulary you use, how meticulously clean the studio is, how the exterior of your studio appears as she walks up to the door, etc.
Remember, you are dealing in appearances. One of my favorite sayings is: “The reason people say ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,’ is that everyone does.”
Put more of your time and efforts into perfecting your sales skills – it will pay off in a big way in your photography business!
Click here for more tips on photography marketing and selling
All the best to you and your photography,
Charles Lewis
Photography Marketing & Pricing – 5 Key Techniques That Work Like Magic Today
Photography Marketing & Prcing Doesn't Have To Be Frustrating!
Photography Marketing & Pricing can be frustrating – but it’s doesn’t need to be. Here’s 5 secrets regarding your photography marketing and pricing that will make you a lot of money with your photography business:
1. Decide NOT to keep your prices really low – it’s just not necessary. If you keep your prices low – you won’t make hardly any money, and you’ll be gone before you even got started. If people are not hiring you right now – it’s NOT because your prices are too high. Not a chance. It’s because your marketing is not effective and you can’t sell effectively. But it’s NOT your prices being too high!
2. The actual prices aren’t anywhere near as important as the WAY you merchandise them. For example – I have discovered that packages (or “collections”) almost always outsell a-la-carte pricing – so offer packages. This makes the decisions much easier for your clients and prospects. (I suggest you also offer a-la-carte pricing, too, so you can use this to your advantage – see #3 below.)
3. Always state how much your clients will save by choosing a certain package over investing in individual images one at a time. So you set your a-la-carte prices substantially high – fair – but high. Then you put together packages or “collections” which will give your clients a great savings over what it would have cost them if they had invested in the same sizes from your a-la-carte menu.
4. Never put your prices on your website. It’s one of the most common mistakes photographers make. It totally screws up your business. Why? Because the number one reason people call you is to find out the price. If you give that to them on your site, there’s no reason to call you, and you will never have the chance to build trust and a relationship with them, and then book them.
5. Raise your prices twice a year – no matter what. I call this “Auto-Pilot Pricing” and it’s amazingly effective. Twice a year, you raise your fees between 10% and 20% each time. This is not much of an increase. But, as you do this twice a year, it really adds up, and before you know it, you’re fees are very substantial.
So there you have it – 5 powerful tips regarding the pricing (and marketing, too – they are interrelated) of your photography services that I have found to be extremely effective in my photography business.
Hope this has been helpful,
Charles J. Lewis
Photography Marketing & Selling: Three Key Tips To Grow & Prosper Now
Good Photography Marketing, Selling & Pricing will make you a lot of money
If you are listening to most photographers now, you’re probably hearing about how the photography business is not doing very well. Between the cheap competition everywhere, the recession, and inexpensive digital cameras available everywhere to everyone, you’re probably worried about the future.
But the facts are completely different than what “most” photographers are saying and feeling.
Here’s what you can do right now, regarding your photography marketing and selling, to build the photography business of your dreams right now:
1. Pay very close attendtion to who you listen to. Remember, the majority is not usually wrong, the majority is ALWAYS wrong. So when the majority is saying one thing, the actual truth is something totally different. So don’t allow the negative, “dangerous people” in our industry to scare you. The photography business is a wonderful business to be in – but – and this is a big “but” – but you’re going to have to distance yourself from the majority, and NOT listen to them. Instead, keep your dream alive. Feed your love and enthusiasm for photography. Realize that if you want to be successful in photography, you must learn and do the things that the failures don’t want to learn or do.
2. Your photography marketing needs careful attention right now. I realize you don’t like marketing as much as you like photography – but if you want to grow and prosper in your photography business, you’re going to have to put way more time and effort into your marketing, and less into your photography itself. Why? Because it’s the marketing that is the “oxygen” of your business. You MUST get the right people to contact you, and do it now. And to accomplish this, you need to put time and effort into it. Sorry, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s the truth.
3. Frankly, you need to be a better photography sales person. This is a key to your photography success. You must reallize that no matter how “good” you are, your photography will NOT SELL ITSELF. You need to know how to be persuasive – how to influence people’s decisions and get them to trust you and do what you recommend. Now, I’m not talking about presure, trickery or manipulation here – I’m talking about honest, truthful sales techniques that are very effective. You must put more time, money and effort into this if you want to grow and prosper in your photography business now.
So, put one third of your time and effort into your marketing skills. Find someone who is where you want to be, and model what he or she is doing to get good, qualified clients into the business right now.
And put another third of your time and effort into your selling skills. Again, model someone in the photography profession who is where you want to be right now. Learn from him or her. Listen to every word, and then take ACTION on what he or she recommends.
Then, yes, put the other third of your time and efforts into keeping your photography the very best it can be.
Hope this was helpful. Click on the various categories over on the right side of the page, to read many more detailed posts about photography marketing and selling.
All the best,
Chuck Lewis
