Zenologue

Sometimes I’m not the most organized person in the world (well, okay, more than sometimes), and I actually ran out of business cards a few weeks ago. Since we recently moved the studio from our home to a retail space late last year, I needed to redesign the business card anyway, and have been trying to get around to it.

So, this week, I sat down at the computer and produced a new design that I was fairly happy with (it looks pretty, has all the right information on it, no spelling mistakes etc.), fully intending to send it off to the lab to be printed.

Then, this morning, I opened up the files for one last check, but a single thought stopped me in my tracks:

“Is the business card, as we’ve all come to know and love it, dead or dying?”

What could prompt such a thought? After all, everyone is supposed to have a business card, right? Where would society be without those credit-card sized pieces of paper that we love to swap like trading cards?

The vision I had that stayed my hand was simply nothing more than handing someone a card and watching it vanish into a pocket or bag, never to be seen again.

What possible use is a business card that can be forgotten about so easily?

Then I thought more about the purpose of the card itself. Why give it to someone in the first place? Is it to encourage them to call us to create a family portrait, photograph a wedding or their high-school senior? Or, is it to lie in wait until they decide they need a photographer and it can magically influence their thoughts to call us?

Thinking back, I think I can honestly say that I believe the number of jobs I’ve received directly from the act of handing out a business card has been about zero.

Why is this? Are my business cards that bad? Did I put the wrong phone number on them?

No (at least I hope not)…

Is it because photography is an emotional purchase? There’s nothing emotional about hiring a plumber, for example, (except for the feeling of panic one gets at watching gallons of water pouring through a ceiling), so we can easily grab the nearest business card or scan the Yellow Pages to find someone (let’s face it – anyone!) that can serve our immediate plumbing needs.

But (with a few possible exceptions), photography is not an emergency need. Emotions and other intangible forces come into play when someone decides they would like to hire a photographer. A business card that fulfills only the function of giving name, rank and serial number doesn’t do anything to encourage someone to call unless they are already familiar with our work.

So, I’m trying an experiment…

Instead of a standard business card, I’m going to try something a little different. The new “business card” is now really a bookmark, about 2×8 inches in size. Now, with all that extra real estate, I can include an emotional personal message about my approach to photography and what it means to me, as well as some sample images.

It should be interesting to see what happens when I give this thing to people – it’s too large to slip into a wallet and is not so easily forgotten. Maybe it will make it to that most hallowed of places where useful information is stored – the door of the family refrigerator!

I’d be interested to hear of other innovative approaches to the standard “business card”. I’m sure there are many indeed, most of them far more inventive than the one I’ve described here. Please feel free to share them via comments.

Marketing business card, Marketing, professional photographer, professional photography

One of the biggest, but less often considered, challenges we face as photographers selling our work is the choice between selling images straight from the lab or as finished framed pieces ready to hang on the wall.

It doesn’t seem like a big challenge on the face of it, just another of the many business decisions we have to make.

But, there are consequences that stem from either choice – consequences that truly affect how we’re perceived in the market place.

So, we’ll start with a quick question…

Do you sell framed photography, loose prints or a mixture of the two?

Like many photographers, I started out by selling loose prints only – framing to my mind seemed like a whole different kettle of fish entirely and wasn’t something I was ready to jump into.

Heck, at that time it was hard enough to convince the client to purchase an 8×10, let alone have to go through the extended process of having them purchase a frame with it! So, before I knew it, clients were taking away 8×10s, 16×20s and even larger prints just as they were when they came back from the lab – mounted, but no frames; “naked”, as it were.

Whether or not “unframed” or “framed” is the “right” decision for your own business is a question only you can answer, but I began to feel that somehow I was letting my clients down. I would find myself worrying about what became of those precious photographs – were they given appropriate frames and hung proudly on the wall, or left in their bags in a lonely corner until the owner could get around to framing them? I imagined 8×10s lying at the bottom of a drawer somewhere, never to see the light of day again.

More importantly for me, here I was trying to sell photography at a premium but then allowing it to walk out the door in an essentially unfinished state. There was an apparent disconnect between my business philosophy and my own actions that I felt needed to be rectified.

So, I made the decision that no photograph larger than a 5×7 should leave the studio as a loose print. Everything 8×10 and larger should be in a frame and ready to display. I was even uncomfortable with sending out loose 5×7 prints – I would rather them go out in a small album than in a simple packet. This is really moving into the area of merchandising, a whole topic of conversation all by itself.

The main problem with this “everything must be framed” approach, of course, is that the cost to the client of the finished work goes up accordingly, making it a little more challenging to sell – but by no means impossible. Then we do hear some of the usual objections:

• “I don’t want it in a frame…”
• “Framing is a hobby of mine…”
• “A friend has their own framing business…”
• “I want a larger choice of frames…”
• and so on…

All of these objections can easily be dealt with at the initial consultation stage and even at the time we qualify our clients, if not at the actual sales session. If the clients are aware up front that we only sell finished artwork, but they don’t want to abide by our policy, then we can politely send them away.

Another, more subtle yet equally effective way, is take to advantage of the fact that we sell what we show. If the client sees only framed wall art in the studio, with no loose prints of any kind anywhere, that sends a very clear message to them that this is what we expect them to invest in.

Just as importantly, projecting the images into a framed canvas sends another powerful signal to the client.

To keep things very simple, I offer only a basic selection of frames – three different color tones (light, medium & dark) in each of three styles (slim, medium & deep). The frames are chosen to complement the style of work I do and there is usually one that suits both the finished piece and the location where it will be displayed. The choice of frame is only made after the client has made their portrait selections, so as not to put too many decisions onto them at any one time.

I’m not saying that everyone should adopt the exact same approach to this, far from it because every photographer and photography studio is unique. But, if you feel something nagging inside you every time you hand a client a “naked” 11×14 print, you might want to consider testing out the inclusion of frames in your sales.

Sales framing, portraits, professional photography, Sales, selling

“Location, location, location!” – the often-touted necessity for a successful business. But how true is that statement really? I’m not really talking about the fine detail of location here; after all, common sense would dictate that an office located between the city dump, county jail and the water treatment facility might not be a great choice. I’m referring more to the perceived differences between one city and another, or between different parts of the country.

Any photographer that studies or learns from other successful photographers eventually hears or even speaks the objection, “that won’t work in my town!” It’s very tempting to think that most marketing tactics that work in one part of the country simply won’t work in our own locale, for a variety of (false) reasons:

• Our town or city has no people with money
• People are different here
• I live in a bad market
• There’s too much competition in my area

The truth is that this is just the lazy and negative part of our own minds trying to rationalize our lack of effort or belief in what we’re doing. The lizard part of our mind, that primitive part that doesn’t like change, is simply attempting to convince us that it’s no use even trying.

The reality is that the successful photographers are not magically living in some enchanted place of abundance. They’re simply applying tried and tested marketing methods to attract their target market.

If you think you don’t truly believe this, try a simple thought experiment…

Imagine for a moment a photographer whom you admire as someone successful. You can see them in your mind’s eye running their studio, being busy and enjoying the successes of operating a great photography business.

Now, imagine that they’ve just opened up a new studio across the street from you. How do you imagine they will do? Can you see them being successful? Can you imagine them making the same excuses for lack of clients? If you met them in the local coffee shop and talked to them I doubt they would be saying, “man, this town stinks, no one has any money, there are no clients, it’s a crummy market, and there’s too much competition here. I think I’m going back to Magic City where the grass is always green…”

Don’t allow your own mind to limit you and keep you constrained by what you “think” you can or can’t do. People are basically the same everywhere, all over the country, because they are governed by the simple rules of human psychology, which is how marketing and sales work after all.

Photography is an emotional business – that is what we sell. It’s not about pieces of paper or which neighborhood someone lives in. It’s not even about how much money they have, although they should have enough to buy from you, but even then it could be on a payment plan or layaway. It’s all about how you and your photography make them feel. It’s about the value that a captured smile, a fleeting expression or a simple look can have for someone.

Emotions are a very human thing, and there are humans everywhere, no matter which “market” your studio happens to be in.

Marketing Marketing, professional photographer, Sales, selling