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?

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Sales & Marketing framing, portraits, professional photography, 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

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Sales & Marketing marketing, professional photographer, selling

So many photographers (myself not excluded) have made the mistake at one time or another of ignoring their current clients. Some even make the worse error of referring to them as “past” clients.

The truth is that when someone becomes a client by allowing us to create photographs for them, we ought to treat them as though they are clients for life. They are now an integral part of our business family.

The only way to make sure that these people feel valued and a part of our family is to keep in constant contact with them – but without committing the sins of spamming or making them feel as though we’re constantly trying to sell them something.

So how can we keep in touch with our clients in order to remind them we’re there for them the next time they might be in need of photography services?

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Sales & Marketing client communication, marketing, professional photographer

Wedding photography is not an easy service to sell – we have to work hard at attracting prospective clients before we even have a chance to try to book them. Bridal shows, advertising, marketing campaigns – and many more avenues – all require huge amounts of effort just to get brides to notice that we’re there.

Then, the really hard work starts.

If we’re lucky enough to get a living, breathing, talking bride on the telephone we have the chance to find out as much as we can about their wedding plans, the kind of client they might be and whether or not they would be a good match for our business.

After all that hard work, we arrive at the end of the conversation and suggest that they meet with us for a consultation only to hear the response, “I need to talk to my fiancé or parents about this and then I’ll call you back to set up a time…”

Many of us at this point say, “Oh, okay, no problem. Talk it over and then call me back. I look forward to talking to you again soon. Bye.”

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Sales & Marketing professional photography, selling, wedding photography