Marketing is a year round activity. As photographers, sometimes we get so involved in servicing our current clients, that we forget about the need to market our services to the next batch of potential clients…
This is a guest post by Lara White of PhotoMint, who was also kind enough to spend some time chatting with me about submitting wedding photographs for publication in order to build exposure, garner publicity, and build better business relationships with clients and other vendors.
This is an area that is overlooked by the vast majority of wedding photographers.
Done correctly, and consistently, this is something that can really help to distinguish your studio from all the other photographers in your community.
Submission, as you will see from her post, and hear during her interview, is not restricted to magazines.
Nor is it confined to just the biggest and most popular publications…
Before you read her great post, members can listen to our interview here:
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Guest Bloggers
photography marketing, wedding magazine, wedding photography
These days, it seems as though there’s a wedding photographer on every corner, and the genre appears to be the most popular choice for many photographers just starting out in the business. Yet, despite the continuing demand for wedding photography, it remains one of the most challenging niches to be truly successful at. Sadly, the majority of wedding photographers are facing constant struggles with marketing, sales, pricing and making bookings.
Successful Photographers Are In Control
However, there are still a group of wedding photographers who are able to make a successful business just from wedding photography alone. They don’t work every weekend, they have a controlled volume of clients, they charge fees that support the health of their business, and they understand how to market their work in ways that ensure a steady supply of qualified clients.
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Interviews
chris cummins, photography business, photography marketing, wedding photography
As professional photographers, we are storytellers. In fact, we take pride in creating imagery that tells a story – a wedding day, engagement, or a child’s personality. We mention it in our marketing, on our websites, and blogs, as a means of letting our clients know that we care about them and their lives.
Don’t Stop There
Unfortunately, too many photographers (and I include myself amongst the guilty) stop there, in the belief that our photographs alone will be sufficient to tell the story. I guess it has to do with the old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but in most cases the real story remains untold.
But we’re committing a great disservice! Essentially, by doing this we’re stopping just short of the finish line. We have great images that capture the essence of a wonderful story, but then we stop, thinking that the story will tell itself.
It doesn’t really work that way…
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Sales & Marketing
emotional photography, telling a story, wedding photography
As photographers we often pride ourselves on getting into the minds of our portrait subjects to try to identify, and then reveal through our images, the essence and personality of our clients.
It’s one of the defining skills of a talented portrait photographer, but how many wedding photographers can really do the same thing? There are a lot more people involved in a wedding than in an intimate portrait session, which can make this kind of deep personal connection very difficult to achieve during a wedding, except perhaps during those rare quiet moments. Then there are the time constraints that we need to be respectful of too.
Why Do We Focus Instead On Selling Books, Prints & DVDs?
When I sat down to write this post I was thinking about a recent sales call that I had with a wedding prospect, where I really didn’t do a great job of persuading her to come to the studio for a consultation. She loved my work, was exactly the kind of client I was looking for, her date was open, even the investment was within her expectations – everything seemed like a great match… but I just couldn’t get her to commit to a meeting where I might be able to persuade her to hire me.
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Sales & Marketing
emotional selling, photography sales, wedding photography
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
If you’re a wedding photographer, you don’t need to be in business very long before a prospective client comes back to you with something like this: “I have an old friend who wants to get into wedding photography and has agreed to photograph my wedding for a great price…
What can we say to this? Is there anything we can do to win this client back? Or is the sale lost forever? Worse still, can we rescue this client from the possible dangers of working with a non-professional?
I believe the best solution to this issue is to be proactive and deal with it before it happens. This can be achieved through the process of educating our prospects about the reasons why it’s a good idea to hire a professional rather than a friend, family member etc.
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Sales & Marketing
professional photography, selling, wedding photography
This is a short overview of Photovision #73, hosted by Ed Pierce, a periodical educational DVD for professional photographers. To be clear about this article – I am not affiliated with Photovision in any way and the overview is intended as my opinion only. [Learn more about Photovision 2011]
2009 is well underway and time is going by faster than expected already! I always look forward to receiving my Photovision DVD in the mail every two months and issue #73 is the first one to appear in my mailbox for this year.
As usual, the DVD is well presented and very professionally put together with just under two hours of great material on it. In addition to some information on the sponsors and some industry news, this issue has five major sections:
- Sarah Petty – “Feather Angel”
- S. Antisdel & K. Bondurant – “Senior Boys Insight, Part I”
- Parker Pfister – “Kentucky Wedding, Part 3″
- John Ridgeway – “The Baby Whisperer, Part I”
- Tim & Bev Walden – “Studio Tour”
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Reviews
baby photography, child photography, education, Photovision, professional photographer, senior portraits, studio branding, wedding photography
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