I've been really focusing on honng my photography skills and for the last 3 years. And thankfully my bookings have increased every year. Now I'd like to really work on further increasing business with the use of marketing. I basicallly don't market myself at all.

I've been in business for about 3 1/2 years and I'm looking to see what you all think about what would be a good 1st step in a marketing plan.

And maybe you could share what you tried and what didn't work.

I tried print Advertising but that was a big waste of money for me. In a year of print ads, I only received one lead through a print ad. I get ALL of my business through word of mouth referrals and my web site.

So in your opinion what would be a next step for someone in my shoes? I'm not sure where to begin.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Ok.........

If word of mouth is 85 percent of advertising, then tap into your existing clientelle. Send birthday, anniversary, get well, congratulations, and 'thanks for the referral' cards. The general rule of thumb is that people lose 10 percent of their memory of you every month. That means that in 10 months they don't remember much about your service or your name. So... remind them. When you are sending your cards out... be sincere. Do not advertise! When you need to advertise send out an e-mail or physical newsletter to let them know what is going on. Get them to read it by offering free advice 'tips' on how they can be better photographers or how they can preserve their photos, etc.

Next........

Read the PPA benchmark survey. They have percentages on what works and what doesn't. My favorite thing now is projection. I do projection to show proofs and projection at the event and my sales and bookings have gone up over 30 percent.

And last....

Optimize and blog... be noticed on the web. My destination weddings are increasing big time.

Best to you and good luck.
Stuart

Yeah I gotta at least get some cards out to past clients. You've got some good ideas there. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

-Network with wedding planners!
-do not do any vehicle advertising ( I did a car wrap, expensive & did not bring anyone)
-online slideshows are great
-BLOG a LOT
basically I am at the same spot you are in but then again I guess thats why we come here to OSP.
Ohh and visit Matt Antonino's site, he has great ideas and info on branding.

You might consider doing a slideshow of "favorite shots from 2007 weddings" where you pick 2 or 3 pictures from the events you've shot this year. Then send that slideshow out to all of your clients (including ones from prior to 2007!) and your vendor contacts. You'll refresh their memories about their events, they'll enjoy seeing their pictures alongside others...and they'll likely use this "top of mind" awareness to tell their friends what an awesome wedding photographer they had this year.

Web site optimization and Blogging

FAILURE: Bridal show. I did one before I had discovered OSP. If I'd been exposed to all the awesome marketing experience that is shared here, I never would have done it. It was a huge money-loser and I will never do another one again.

SUCCESS: Building strong relationships with good reception sites in the area. I started out by contacting a couple of nearby popular sites and asking if there was any photography I could do for them at no charge so that we could get to know each other. I did photos for brochures/web sites for two sites and got all of my clients that year from referrals from these businesses.

Also a success: Making a nice mailer package (greeting cards from WHCC, a personal letter introducing myself, and an offer of an album featuring their business in exchange for a referral that books me). Sent that out to 160 local vendors (reception sites, planners, and florists). So far so good - I'm getting referrals from some of these folks. No bookings from them yet but booking time for 2008 has just started to ramp up in my area.

When my business first started out, I had moderate success getting people to look at my web site with Google AdWords. I liked that I could control the price and could stop it at any time. I did get two booked clients from that but stopped using it once I started getting referrals for free from the reception sites.

I've seen the most ROI by far, though, from selling my personality - just being friendly and fun when I meet with clients. I have one client who called me to ask me a couple of very valid questions a few weeks ago. She sounded all worried and nervous about calling me and was very apologetic for "bothering" me (during business hours?!). I got her to open up and talk to me about her anxiety about the wedding and the hard time she's had getting her questions answered by her other vendors. We ended up talking for about 40 minutes and I had her feeling much better about wedding anxiety and dealing with vendors by the end of it. I consider that time well spent, because a few days later I googled myself (because I'm a huge dork) and found that this client was praising me all over a couple of local wedding-planning boards! Yayyy! Contacts from potential clients have started coming in - they found me on those boards where Anxious Client was talking about how great I am to talk to and how much fun she thinks it's going to be to work with me on her wedding day (HOORAY!!)

I also found the joint blog of a past couple, where they recommended me as well because I was "hip" (Me? Hip? Awww!) and "funny" and "so easy to work with."

So I am really a fan of taking the opportunity to sell your personality as your main "feature." Use whatever means works to get clients to meet with you, then show them how friendly and fun you are when you meet. Also: Blog.

Dan, this is one of the best ideas I've seen in months. It's so great because it's easy and simple without being tacky, annoying or desperate.

But but tacky, annoying, and desperate has worked so well for me in the past!! I'm stickin with it.

Depends on where you are. Around here, bridal shows are the primary way of booking.


We all have great personalities. They will pick whomever provides the best value - and then praise their work and personality.

I didn't want to come right out and expose your tacky marketing scheme, Sara. I like to think I have more class than that

failure : wpja. totally a regional thing and if you ask a bride (at least the brides that book me) what the wpja is they are all like "whoop-jah"? what is that?

success : pushing weddings to be published in the knot. it has been fantastic and get me a very large national viewing to brides I would never bet my name in front of.

How do you get a wedding published in the knot? How do you push and where? I need some help with this area. Word of mouth has been all that has worked for me thus far.

Just sell harder to your existing clients and make more money per event, marketing smarketing.

A few website designs ago, I had one call to do a birthday party but that fell through. I wasn't really ready for that because I hadn't got all my gear nor my business licence back then. That was my sole website contact. Generally (even on my other websites which are aimed at software professionals) I don't get that many hits or sales. If I make the price of having the site each year, I'm very happy. Even when I or my wife was selling stuff on ebay it was never a great success all of which convinces me that the web is useful up to a point but that point is so small that it's not really worth investing a great deal of time or money in site design. The photo site that had the call - a series of photos from a wedding I'd just done together with my phone number, email address and rates. Simple and one single page. Text was Times New Roman 14 point. The images were 120x80 pixels. The background was plain white. Nothing fancy at all.

Some years ago, in another city in another country I advertised in the local freeads and had zero responses. Another time, in yet another country I advertised in a regional paper and had several phonecalls including one booking that did get me 3/4 of what I paid for the adverts. If I'd advertised more then maybe it would have worked out but I just went for the free option of sticking adverts on noticeboards instead - which got me more trade anyway.

A long time ago, a friend in Moscow wanted me to help her to find a husband. I duly placed adverts in the free papers and online. The free papers responses mostly went into the bin (I did censor what she got because I had to post it all to her and the less weight the better). As for the online adverts - none of those responses were worth forwarding. I'd been quite specific - Russian lady, 45 seeks man aged 50 - 60. I had hundreds of replies from 18 year olds looking for sex and from married men looking for sex. Thus I have a somewhat jaded view of press and online advertising.

Another time, I went around all the small businesses with flyers and received not one single call back.

I have had advertising on my vehicle for a couple of months and on my clothing for a couple of months. In that time, my vehicle advertising has received no response. My clothing adverts have solicited several responses.

I conclude from all this the following:
1. No single mode of advertising is going to sell jack. You need to use all forms and use them continually.
2. Quality is not as important as quantity for advertising.
3. Up close and personal advertising works better than remote advertising (press, websites, banners, car adverts etc).
4. An advertising campaign has to be sometimes prolongued.

I have considered but not implemented the following forms of advertising:
1. Hitting the salons, spas and women's venues with flyers.
2. Sandwich boards beside the main road.
3. Street posters on billboards etc.

Once you have happy clients, they tell others and you get viral marketing.

lol

Wow! I sort of forgot about this thread so it's good to see some responses.

BTW. In an effort to track and market my customers more effectively, I have created a database in Microsoft Access that enables me to enter all my clients information, track their wedding dates, and most importantly generates email lists that I can use for future marketing efforts. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the replies all!

"Advertising" only lets people know you have a product or service for sale.

"Marketing" tells them the value of the product or service you offer.

"Branding" convinces them that what you offer is unique.

VERY WELL PUT !!

I disagree. I've heard some really sad things from clients who considered other photographers but decided not to book them because they were pushy, distant, inconsiderate, or abrupt and rude. I think being an open, friendly person who is approachable and appealing goes a very long way toward convincing a client that you have the best value. My price is a little bit higher than some others in my area who are offering comparable quality and products, but I'm not having any trouble getting bookings. I'm getting calls from brides who've heard that I'm fun to work with and really funny and relaxing on the day of the wedding.

At least for my business, having a salable personality goes a long way toward adding the all-important value and making clients decide to spend a couple hundred extra. I guess value is wherever a potential client perceives it to be.

Re: bridal shows - I wish we had it like that in this area. It would be nice to have a tried-and-true marketing campaign already in place for a newer person like myself to fall back on. There is *one* show in this region (out of many) that tends to generate good bookings for photographers but it's got a very long waiting list to get in. By the time I get in there, I suspect I will have more word of mouth going on and won't feel the press to get bookings as badly! But I'm on the waiting list anyway, because it's such a cool, big show. If only they were all that awesome. In a couple of years, I'll let you know whether that one gives me more success than the other one I did.

Wow - I could not possibly have had a more different experience than this. Since I upgraded from a functional but rather plain web site to a polished, slick, attractive one that's got a blog on it, my business took a dramatic jump. Immediately after putting up the new site. It more than paid for itself within a week of going live.

Maybe you're just not approaching having a web presence the right way.

I do agree that your best bet overall is getting past clients to tell all their friends about you. But you have to get a few new clients before you can make them into happy past clients. For most brides, the web site is the first contact they have with you. If you're presenting a beautiful, interesting, unique-looking first contact, they're going to think of you when it comes time to choose their photographer. If you present something that's utterly forgetable, that's exactly what they'll do.