Better Basics in Your Photography Business!
By: Bruce Hudson
We have been working harder than ever before to make the phone ring, service our clients beyond their expectations, and create the best possible images! The past few months we have seen a noticeable jump in sales. I attribute part of this success to the execution of the Better Basics I will cover during this article!
Here are 6 things that we are working hard to better every day in the studio:
(1) Phone Techniques- It costs a fortune in marketing dollars to get that phone to ring with the right client. The next time you take a phone inquiry, try this:
• Slow down!
• Ask more questions than usual
• Listen to their answers
• Don’t just listen to the words, listen for the meaning behind those words
• Try to pin-point their motivation
You will be surprised at how well you will connect with the person on the other end, even someone price shopping. With consumers watching their pocket books right now, each person inquiring about portraits has a motivation beyond the almighty dollar. Do your best to connect! You all know what you’re supposed to do—just slow down and do it! Photoshop can wait….
(2) Follow-Up ASAP in an Unexpected Way- When you get an email inquiry, take a moment and follow-up by phone unexpectedly! You will find that this makes an impact. I can’t tell you how many clients say, “Oh, my gosh, you called me back!” The same effect happens when sending an overnight letter rather than a normal letter. During this age of technology, your message needs to stand out. This principle was the reason for the invention of skywriting over 100 years ago! Definitely a new form of mass communication back then!
The second part of this equation is the speed with which you follow-up and respond. I deal with a lot of affluent clients and they expect an answer immediately. If not, they feel as though you’re not respecting their time. Bottom-line: Don’t sit on your messages, no matter what form they come in!
(3) The Technical Side of Photography- Get it in the camera! Yes, Photoshop and playing around with actions is fun, but spend most of your time on the part of the business that is going to make you money…Marketing! Time is money in this business. If you can get an image correct in the camera, it’s time you don’t have to waste trying to fix it. Avoid “time suckers” and get back to basics!
By: Bruce Hudson
We have been working harder than ever before to make the phone ring, service our clients beyond their expectations, and create the best possible images! The past few months we have seen a noticeable jump in sales. I attribute part of this success to the execution of the Better Basics I will cover during this article!
Here are 6 things that we are working hard to better every day in the studio:
(1) Phone Techniques- It costs a fortune in marketing dollars to get that phone to ring with the right client. The next time you take a phone inquiry, try this:
• Slow down!
• Ask more questions than usual
• Listen to their answers
• Don’t just listen to the words, listen for the meaning behind those words
• Try to pin-point their motivation
You will be surprised at how well you will connect with the person on the other end, even someone price shopping. With consumers watching their pocket books right now, each person inquiring about portraits has a motivation beyond the almighty dollar. Do your best to connect! You all know what you’re supposed to do—just slow down and do it! Photoshop can wait….
(2) Follow-Up ASAP in an Unexpected Way- When you get an email inquiry, take a moment and follow-up by phone unexpectedly! You will find that this makes an impact. I can’t tell you how many clients say, “Oh, my gosh, you called me back!” The same effect happens when sending an overnight letter rather than a normal letter. During this age of technology, your message needs to stand out. This principle was the reason for the invention of skywriting over 100 years ago! Definitely a new form of mass communication back then!
The second part of this equation is the speed with which you follow-up and respond. I deal with a lot of affluent clients and they expect an answer immediately. If not, they feel as though you’re not respecting their time. Bottom-line: Don’t sit on your messages, no matter what form they come in!
(3) The Technical Side of Photography- Get it in the camera! Yes, Photoshop and playing around with actions is fun, but spend most of your time on the part of the business that is going to make you money…Marketing! Time is money in this business. If you can get an image correct in the camera, it’s time you don’t have to waste trying to fix it. Avoid “time suckers” and get back to basics!
(4) Choose Your Actions Wisely- “Actions” in this case are not Photoshop actions, but actions you take on a moment-to-moment basis throughout the day. I’m not talking about just business either; this applies to life in general! I’ve been blogging about this for a few days on The Daily Mentor Minute. The actions you take in your business need to be ones that will move you forward. It’s things like going to your client’s home to finalize orders, picking up the phone to follow-up on leads, and limiting your time on the computer. It’s not always easy to stay on task during the day—try to find some balance between the fun stuff (like Photoshop) and the hard stuff (marketing & management).
Another component to this is…time! In today’s challenging marketplace, you have to implement things quickly in order to see results. Lately I have been pretty fortunate to have implemented some key strategies for closing sales. On July 13th I shared with all of you on The Daily Mentor Minute Blog what I have been doing. If you didn’t read it, take a minute and do so. My new action has been paying off handsomely with some amazing family portrait sales the past few weeks. Trust me, though: taking the right action can be tough. If I was gifted at taking action in all aspects of my life, I’d be a lot lighter!
(5) Creative Thank You’s- We all know that we are supposed to send thank you cards or letters to our clients throughout the sales process…right? So here is my question for you—how many of you actually do it? Come on, be honest now! I’m sure by now you have heard about our favorite new business tool for keeping in touch with our clients, Send Out Cards! SOC gives us the ability to create custom, personalized cards (with our client’s images on them) and send really cool gifts (gourmet food, gift cards, etc.), all for an inexpensive price. I have two purposes in sending thank you’s:
• Genuinely say “Thank you” to my clients!
• Create some “water cooler” marketing!
What’s water cooler marketing? It’s doing something for your clients that will get them talking about you around the water cooler I know, sounds cheesy, but on July 11th Josh (my son) had a great blog about this. Take a second read it and you’ll see what I’m talking about! Anyway, we use SOC at the studio everyday for thank you’s, reminders, confirmations, you name it! We also started using them for some smaller marketing campaigns! Check out this fantastic new tool! CLICK HERE to take a test drive and to send some FREE CARDS on us!
In addition to sending creative thank you’s, we also bring a gift to our clients when we deliver and hang their final portraits. It might be flowers, a gift certificate to a restaurant, or (in the case of the new client I just photographed) a bottle of his favorite Oregon Pinot! Listen to your clients, learn what they like, and then surprise them! It goes a long way…trust me!
(6) Better Web Traffic…and MORE of it! –In this digital age we are doing business in, you have to stand out on the web. Yeah, you could pay thousands to a consultant, or you can do much of the same techniques they would recommend for free! My son Josh has been a student of internet and social media marketing for some time now, he knows cheap and effective ways to drive more traffic to your site! More traffic, the better your site does on search engines. The more you get picked up by Google, Yahoo, and Bing, the more sessions you will get! He recommends reading Traffic Roots, an e-book written by Jens Berget of slymarketing.com. This e-book is only $7 and it will show you how to increase your web traffic tenfold! It covers:
Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Simple Keyword Research
Generating Back Links – Off Site SEO
Automated Traffic Systems- Blogs
Article Marketing Quick Start Plan
Seriously, the tactics and strategies are working for us! Internet marketing is one of those basics that all of us need to know in order to compete in this digital market place. Maybe in another blog I’ll have Josh explain the finer points of it. For now, get this e-book that Josh recommends and study up. It’s about 70 pages and costs next to nothing. Traffic Roots: Web Traffic Tactics- By Jens Berget
I hope you enjoyed this article! I know things are tough right now for many studios around the country, but focusing on some of these basics in business will help you through it! ‘Til next time, see ya!
Bruce
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This article is courtesy of http://www.mystudiomentor.com/. For more information about Bruce & Josh Hudson, please visit the website. Also check out their Daily Mentor Minute Blog, Image of the Week, and the highly subscribed to Monthly Mentor Program.
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