You Will Make A Lot More Money Doing What You Love To Do When You Have ‘Unique Factors.”
It’s vital to your photo marketing success that you know exactly why someone should select you over all the other photographers in your area. What’s special about you? And then it’s vital that you TALK about these important “Unique Factors” to all your prospects – in all your marketing, your phone conversations, and in person!
As you know, marketing & selling is involved with EVERYTHING you do. Frankly, who cares how “good” we are, if no one knows we exist or if we can’t sell it? How many great photographers do you know who are having difficulty paying their bills? Why? Because they can’t market or sell it. Sad, but true.
Now, whenever I say the word “selling” I want to be sure you understand that we’re NEVER talking about trickery, manipulation or pressure. Selling is finding out what people want, and then helping them to get it. And one of the most important parts of your selling skills is ……knowing and talking about your “Unique Factors.”
It’s also important you understand we’re not talking about offering bad work to your clients. Not at all. What we’re talking about is being able to produce good work, and then help people make the decision to hire you over all the other photographers in your market area, even though you aren’t the least expensive photographer in town.
So here are some examples, of a few of our Unique Factors, to get you thinking about your own.
Unique Factor #1. We guarantee everything we do. If you’re not thrilled, we either create additional images, or give you all your money back. No hard feelings, either. We are absolutely committed to creating the finest portraits you have ever had created.
Unique Factor #2. Both myself and my wife, Cheri, work together with every client – to create the finest portrait possible. This helps you feel much more comfortable during the photography. Plus, she has a wonderful eye for composition and design, and is super – detailed about jewelry, hair, clothing, etc. This makes your images just wonderfully perfect and beautiful. And there’s only one studio she works with – ours! You can’t get her talent and her eyes anywhere else!
Unique Factor #3. We only do a maximum of three portrait sessions a day, so you are not rushed through like a factory – so we can take the time necessary to make really beautiful portraits of you. We are much more interested in creating wonderful images for you, rather than working with hundreds and hundreds of clients each year. You simply can not rush when you want to create a truly beautiful, meaningful portrait!
Unique Factor #4. We meet with you prior to creating the portraits, to help you with make-up, hair, clothing, locations, etc. Cheri, our Portrait Consultant, will guide you and help you with everything, and also be in with me during your session. Plus, we meet everyone, in person, prior to the session, so everyone knows us. This is especially great with young children who otherwise might be afraid, and thus not look natural and comfortable in their portrait.
Unique Factor #5. We specialize in creating portraits on location, at a location that is emotionally meaningful to you – this makes the portraits much more personal, and special to you. It means so much more to you than if we simply created the portraits in our studio. Plus, there is no additional charge for this!
Unique Factor #6. My grandfather was a portrait artist in the early 1900′s. I found many of his glass plates in my parent’s basement when I was 12, and learned the photo process so I could print those plate negatives onto paper. Many years ago, my father passed away, and those beautiful images my grandfather created of my dad are priceless to me. That’s why I do this, because I want to capture the very essence of your personality, and your relationships, so you and your family can enjoy them for many years to come. I will throw my heart and soul into creating a wonderful portrait for you.
We have more unique factors for our studio, but this gives you a good idea of what I’m talking about here, so you can build your own personal list.
Can you see how having these at the tip of your mind when talking with prospects, or doing marketing, or working on your web site, etc. will make you much more persuasive, and how people will tend to want to work with you, regardless of your prices, or the economy? It makes you stand out – way ahead of the other photographers in the area – who are just talking about prices and sizes and finishes!
In my next article, I’ll share with you some of our Unique Factors for Wedding Photography.
Until next time – go for it – the only way you can make your photo biz better is by actually taking action on what we’re talking about in these articles!
All the best,
Charles J. Lewis, M. Photog., Cr.
