By Michael Connors
President and Co-Founder
You’re up and running with your photography business. You’ve purchased all of your equipment and supplies, such as camera, lighting, business cards, software. Now, how do you go about getting your first customers?
Two rules I have always lived by,
- My estimate is that 80% of people hire the first person they talk to even if they speak to 4-5 others.
- The more people that know who you are the better off you will be.
Hence, if we use the 80% rule, we need to try to be the first company potential customers talk to!
Here’s a great example. Hair salons will be one of the most important places to market your service. The average person goes to the hair salon every 4 to 6 weeks. They’ll sit in the chair and tell their hairstylist what is going on in their life — graduating, getting married, anniversary, company picnic – you name it! Reach out to salon owners and talk to them about how you can help their business (and yours in return). The conversation might go something like this:
“Hi my name is Michael from Michael’s Photography Company. We specialize in family, and graduating seniors and wedding photography. I would love for you to recommend me to your clients. Of course, since I’ve never worked for you, I know that would be impossible. So I thought I would come in one morning at no charge and take a group shot of all your employees. It might also be fun to get your employees to bring in their children for a group shot of all your employees’ kids together. I’ll enlarge the images and even frame them for you. All I ask for in return is if you like my work you are willing to recommend me!” (Note, be sure to include your company’s name on the photo.)
This is a proven strategy to get more business!
Another approach that works very well is to buy a light tent/ photo studio table lighting. It lights up small items such as jewelry and glassware. Go to your nearest downtown , go shop to shop and introduce yourself.
“My name is Michael from Michael’s Photography Company. We specialize in families and children’s photography. I’ve been looking at several local websites and noticed the photography can be improved, so I thought I would come in to town once a month and help my fellow business owners get better images of their products. I will only charge you $10 an image and give you the image to use as you wish. All I ask when using the image is that you give me credit for the photo.”
Of course, I’m not thinking that this is going to make you much money. That is not the point of this idea. It’s to get out and introduce yourself. Although the first photographer that tried my idea made $1,200 on the first day trying it!
In addition, a marketing technique that I learned from a Ted Talk works amazingly well.
In the talk, a marketing person asked the audience. “What do you think people want to know you for – product, brand or your service?” The answer – none of the above. The familiarity of being like others is what they are searching for. They want the experience of people they look to, the feeling of being just like them. Photography, in particular, has the power to do just that.
Take weddings for example. A couple calls you for an appointment to come in and discuss photographing their wedding. They tell you they’ll be getting married at the Water Front Inn, When they come in, have an album with pictures at the Water Front Inn ready to show them.
First, when putting that album together, you have to ask yourself what pictures would the couple look at and think “I want to be like the people in the photo.” Most likely, they want to be madly in love, so the only pictures that will make the most impression in the album are photos of couples showing lots of love for each other at that location. No pictures of cakes, kids, flowers – none of that matters to them at this point. When testing this idea , the couples would go through five or six pages and want to hire the photographer right away. From my experience, price typically goes right out the window, because they want to be just like the people they are seeing in the pictures.
Need more ideas? Stay tuned…..Part Two coming soon! In the meantime, More Photos is always here to help you. Contact us today!
