The Pro Photo Business Forum

You need to set a good foundation before you start to attract prospects to your front door. Before you place your first ad announcing your services, or even if you are already advertising, you must have in place a system to track the results of your advertising, otherwise you could be throwing your money away.

You must be able to calculate if your actions are efficient or not.  When people say their advertising is working, they generally just know that they are receiving calls and booking weddings.  You must know more than this.

You must know if your marketing is efficient or not.  The best way to give yourself the answer to this question is through the use of statistics. As a business owner that wants to succeed, you have a responsibility to track the statistics of your business. Through marketing you begin to attract individuals to your business. These individuals are inquiries. Where did your inquiries find your contact information?  How many of your inquiries did you convert into consultations? How many of these consultations did you convert into paying customers? Out of these paying customers, how many of these paying customers have done business with you a second time?

The answers to these questions will show you where you’re the least efficient. If you see that you’re only converting 10% of the inquiries you receive into consultations, and 90% of the consultations you have are converted into paying customers, then you know you must change the language you use when answering your phone or replying to people inquiring about your services via e-mail.

Tracking each and every inquiry will also tell you where your paid advertising is failing or succeeding.  For instance, I know that the advertising I paid for in Premier Bride Magazine did very well for me.  That’s one of my images on cover displayed to the left.

You don’t need to really focus on the ads that are doing the best, until you have addressed the ones that are doing the worst.  Your goal should be to find out the “cost per lead” for each of the ads you have purchased. For example, if you paid $1000 for an ad somewhere, and you received 10 phone calls from that ad, your cost per lead is $100. Being able to find your cost per lead for each of your paid ads is essential to becoming more efficient.  This information will allow you to make educated decisions when the contracts for your current ads expire.  You will know which ads to keep, and which to drop.

Or you may decide to change the language in one ad to see if you can create different results.  Or you may decide to take the money from one ad and use it to increase the size of another ad.  But if you don’t have a system in place that allows you to track your cost per lead, then you’re just shooting in the dark, and wasting your money and time, and that’s inefficient.

Tracking your results will help to keep you on track.

Two years ago now I had the idea of creating this forum. Today it’s a reality. For so long now I have been pushing in one direction; production of the site. Like an oil tanker, slowly moving in one direction as an unstoppable force. However, now that the site is built I feel that I can breathe a bit, but I am also realizing that I now need to change directions. I need to promote.

An oil tanker doesn’t just stop and turn on a dime though. Switching from production mode to promotion mode is going to take a bit of doing. I actually need to learn how to promote the site, as I have no idea on how to do that effectively. So, I’ve decided to no longer be an oil tanker. Instead, I’m going to think more like a humming bird.

The forum is not a free site, and while the cost of access is minimal, that cost is still going to make things much harder for this site to really thrive. The cost is a necessary evil for a site like this. I know I need to promote the site in order for it to work, and I am also aware that I know very little about large scale product promotion. The Oil Tanker in me would hunker down and start reading books and get seriously educated on the subject, and I still may do just that. However, I know it would take months, and perhaps even a year or more for me alone to really get the ball rolling, and I don’t have that kind of time. Nor do the members of the site.

The humming bird can stop on a dime and change directions. It thinks three dimensionally. Because I want to get things rolling fast, I have hired a PR Firm to promote the PPBF! This will allow me to stop on a dime and change my momentum immediately! This PR frim has surely already made all the mistakes that I am sure to make if I had decided to promote the site myself. I think it’s a smart move, and I’m glad I am investing in the idea.

I owe it to the paying members of the site to make this community all it can be, and I’m committed to doing just that. The PPBF is a place where portrait and wedding photographers can better themselves, and I want to see that grow.

We’ve set goals, and they start next week. I am so excited! Change is good, and I’m ready for it.

Wedding and portrait photographers, join the PPBF today!

Whose Pond Is It Anyway?

Writen by: Scott Villalobos

In the wedding and portrait photography business, sooner rather then later you are going to have to ask yourself this question, “Why am I competing with Uncle Bob?” Perhaps the real question we need to ask ourselves is, “Why am I attracting people that would rather hire uncle Bob as opposed to me?”

In the words of wedding photojournalist great, Denis Reggie, “If your fishing in a pond with little fish in it, don’t be surprised if all you catch is little fish. If you want to catch big fish, fish in the pond that has the big fish. This often means changing ponds.”

Many people just starting out get stuck in this exact situation. They charged low, low prices to attract business and build their portfolios. Then the brides friends start calling wanting the same deal their friend got one or even two years later. The problem is now your more confident, have gained experience, have a decent portfolio, and you’ve finally figured out that you weren’t making any money so you decided to raise your prices. That’s great, but is your clientele willing to pay the extra? Not if you haven’t gotten new clientele and I’m not talking about new faces but different clientele. So as Denis says, “It’s time to move to a new pond.”

If you are just starting out how can you gain valuable experience without getting stuck in the low-end market? There are many ways to gain experience and build your portfolio without having to slit your wrist for your clients.

One of the best ways is to learn by proxy. This means working for other photographers either as an assistant and working your way into a second shooter roll, or if you’ve already cut your teeth on a few weddings and want to shoot your own, look for a studio that uses associates. No you’re not going to get rich this way, but you will gain experience without having all the responsibility of being in business for yourself. You will also be able to create relationships with other vendors. Why is this important? Because other vendors may be able to help you drop your lures in the big pond, so treat them well, they are like fish finders.

One thing that I’ve noticed in the last three or four years is that many people think they can follow in the steps of the Bella Pictures of the world. The business model is volume driven and nationwide service. This means they use alot of local photographers especially in the bigger cities. While there is a market for this type of service, there is an even greater opportunity for new photographers to gain experience and knowledge of the industry by going to work for one of them. However, this can also be a double edged sword as you may find them to be your greatest competition in later years, and these guys work cheap and create albums cheap. But if you think you can handle your own weddings and want to perfect your style and technical savvy this might be the way to go. You won’t get rich, you may not even make enough to pay the rent, but you can make a name for yourself and if your good get referrals for future jobs.

But let’s look at the problem. You keep hearing that your competing for business with either a family member, a photography student or a relative who is an avid enthusiast. What do you do then?

The answer is not necessarily saying that I’m a pro-photographer with years of experience. I was at the Bridal Extravaganza back in July and one of the best photographers in Houston ($10K+) came up to me and said, “There sure is alot of great photography here.” Many of these photographers are in their first couple of years in the business and the truth is they were darn good at their craft. There are alot of uncle Bob’s that are also darn good at their craft even though they are not professionals. How will you convince a bride and groom or even worse, the brides mother to lay down 3 to 7K with you?

To answer this question you need to know that being a professional means alot more then charging to photograph wedding or portraits or whatever. It means being a businessperson, a marketer, customer service oriented and good with people. If your not good with people you won’t get very far in this business. People have to like you. When people can make a connection with you they will be drawn to you and your services. You have to give the customer a professional experience. You need to show professional products in a professional way. You need to have a polished presentation & pricelist. You need to offer products that stand out. You need to let your customers know that you are not just a shoot and dump photographer, but that you actually care about them and their finished products. (I’ll get more into detail about this aspect in a later post.)

Ultimately if your choosing to compete with uncle Bob you will find that your not going to get anywhere fast. On the other hand, if you choose to compete with professionals, be a professional. However you choose to do it, if your starting from scratch and you find that your greatest competition is a guy named uncle Bob, you may consider changing ponds.

Some have said that the written word is the most powerful force in our universe.  I have been, and always will be, searching for the right language to use when replying to people who contact me about my wedding photography services.

The first words you use to reply to a prospect will communicate volumes to the reader/listener.  Immediately they will instill trust and confidence in you, or they won’t.  Indeed, the words you choose will be pivotal on your success.  Your words can produce a sale, or leave you dumbfounded, thinking to yourself “why did I say that?”  Your words can leave you questioning yourself for days to come, wondering what it was you said that caused your prospect never to call you back, or caused them to reserve your services.

I often ask myself what the sequence of words are that I can use which will cause a prospect to book my services right then and there?  I believe those words exist.  I also believe that those words are different for each and every prospect that comes through my door.

Trying to find the right words to illicit a response is not trickery.  The people that take the time to contact or visit with me want to spend their money on the services I offer.  It is up to me to educate the prospect as to why they should spend their money with me, as opposed to a fictitious photographer who has a business next door and charges the same price that I charge.  It is my responsibility to sell my services to the best of my ability, without being misleading or obnoxious.

As photographers, we are extremely lucky, because our images can speak for us.  There are times when I find that talking less is more, and letting my images talk for me can say volumes.

I will forever continue my education on the use of language.  It’s one of my favorite things.

As a wedding photographer, I like to have what I call wow products to show my potential clients when they come into the studio for a consultation.

When a potential client visits my show room, everything is in its place. Things look, smell and feel right. The stage is set for a presentation.

At the end of the presentation, I present my clients with my wow products, the first of which is Honeymoon Photography. In order to make the presentation of this wow product more memorable, this product is displayed in some of the most unique wedding albums I can find.

By presenting the product in this manner I accomplish many different goals.

1. When the prospect leaves they are sure to remember my studio and their experience.
2. The most important accomplishment is the fact that I have given myself an opportunity to sell my largest product. You can’t sell it if you don’t show it.
3. Even if the client doesn’t invest in the option for honeymoon photography, they still know that there is an upper level of wedding albums available to them.
4. A higher end of wedding albums makes the rest of my wedding albums look that much more affordable.

Wow products are so important when you a wedding photographer. It’s coming up with the idea of what those wow products should be that is so difficult.

You must be able to calculate the efficiency of your advertising efforts. When wedding photographers say their advertising is working, they generally just know that they are receiving calls and booking weddings. You must know more than this.

You must know if your marketing is efficient or not. The best way to give yourself the answer to this question is through the use of statistics. As a business owner that wants to succeed, you have a responsibility to track the statistics of your business. Through marketing you begin to attract individuals to your business. These individuals are inquiries, and you must ask each inquiry one basic question in order to create the statistics you need:

How did you hear about us?

Keep track of the following after your initial contact with your inquiry:

1. How many of your inquiries did you convert into consultations?
2. How many of these consultations did you convert into paying customers?
3. How many of your paying customers have you converted into repeat customers?

The answers to these questions will show you where you are the least efficient. If you see that you are only converting 10% of the inquiries you receive into consultations and 90% of the consultations you have are converted into paying customers, you know you must change the language used when answering your phone or replying to people inquiring about your services via email.

Tracking each and every inquiry will also tell you where your paid advertising is failing or succeeding. You do not need to focus on the ads that are doing the best until you have addressed the ones that are doing the worst.

You should be able to find out the “cost per lead” for each of the ads you have purchased. For example, if you paid $1000 for an ad somewhere and you received 10 phone calls from that ad, your cost per lead is $100. Think of it this way, when that phone rings, you are spending $100.

Being able to find your cost per lead for each of your paid ads is essential to becoming more efficient. This information will allow you to make educated decisions when the contracts for your ads expire. You will know which ads to keep and which to drop. You may decide to change the language in one ad to see if you can create different results. You may decide to take the money from one ad and use it to increase the size of another ad that is working better. If you do not have a system in place allowing you to track your cost per lead, you are just shooting in the dark, wasting your money and time. That is inefficient.

This next point is important. If you do decide to change an element in your weakest advertisement, make sure you only change one thing at a time. In the long run, this will give you clearer understanding as to whether or not the changes you have made are working. If you change too much all at once, you have no idea what specific alteration created the change, good or bad, and it will be harder for you to repeat the action in the future.