Tomorrow I am meeting with the event coordinator at a nice country club in town. I have shot there once before. I am planning on bringing with me a sample album that is made of shots from the wedding I did there. I would like to give it to them, but then I would have to order another sample album! (this is currently the ONLY sample album I own and if I have a consult, then I will have nothing to show until I get another album). I also have a 16x20 print from that wedding which I would gladly give (loan) to them to display.

Since my bookings are down this year and since this is only my second year shooting weddings, I was thinking of doing an incentive. That if a couple comes to me and is having their reception at XYZ Venue *** AND *** it is a venue I would be interested in shooting, I will give them % off or maybe an album upgrade, print credits, etc... to book with me. Then of course I would give the venue prints, etc... to display.

Thoughts?

Thank you,
Neal

don't give money off, that doesn't help you and they already know how much you cost, right?

instead, include an engagement shoot and from the shoot produce a little engagement card (like post card or business card size) with a link to your site that you can give to the couple. they will put a stack by the place card table, or somewhere like that, and it will drive guests to your site.

another idea would be to give them free save the date postcards from the engagement shoot, and that would drive people to your site, also.

OR offer them 200 free thank you cards with an image from the wedding on it, order extras to give to the venue, etc . . .

i agree with liesl.

as far as the venue. do NOT give them your sample album, or any of your samples. when you meet with the venue, ask them if they would like any photographs? i have found that a lot of venues do not have storage space, and it's not their job to market you. it would be nice if they had a print with your ©name on it, of their venue - just one strong shot - that would be mounted and framed inexpensively - or a little stack of 4x6's with your ©name so that they could hand one to their potential clients. keep your budget on this LOW. you can do beautiful small, framed prints for under $20 - like a 5x7 in a museum mat and simple black frame - i have some in my studio, and they look beautiful. you can do 4x6s for even less, but let the venue decide if they want anything, or you will be wasting money on something they do not want.

if you establish a relationship with the venue, referals will come your way. there is NO need to pay them, bribe them or try to 'get them' to refer you.

Thank you Liesl & Robin:

I already do include an E-Session with all of my packages. I was thinking about doing a guestbook made of images from their e-session.





I wasn't going to pay the venue. The incentive would go to the couple.

Well, this is what I do, but take it with a grain of salt. It has worked with some poeple but not with all. I think that when it hasn't worked it's because I don't stay in touch with some of them very well, and so they don't really know me, or keep me in mind.
At every wedding I make sure that I get a good shot of the flowers, the venue, the hair, etc. I then make up at least one (more if I got lots of good ones) 8x10 print for each vendor and then put them in a nice binder. All the pictures have my name on them at the bottom, so that it's visible but not in your face. THe vendors so far have loved it. I've come back and added pictures to a couple of binders already and they seem to appreciate having pictures of things that they did, or their venue.
After all the marketing stuff I've been reading lately I know that I need to do a better job of trying to have actual relationships with the people I want to work with. Be friends with them. This is a great opportunity for you because you already hve your foot in the door with the club. In a week or couple of weeks invite them to have lunch with you again just for fun. I'm taking my own advice and calling some people today to see when we can get together.
Good luck with the venue!!

Oh, and I also do the cards from their engagement session and they work really well!

this goes for the couple, too, neal... in my opinion (and different things work for different situations) the incentive of your photography needs to be enough.

i think that when you try to attract a client with an incentive, rather than an honest referal you will end up with people who are less than excited about their photography. it's harder to get these people to be excited, because they aren't excited to begin with.

if you offer a bonus, make sure it's something small and is not going to cost you too much time OR money.

as an example, we do offer a bonus - if the client pre-pays any album credit, they receive a 10% bonus. if they pre-pay $1000, the credit in their acct will be $1100. this is the incentive for them to pre-pay. they get something, and it costs me very little, and NO time.
another example is to upgrade a book to another. when someone is prepared to spend several thousands of dollars, upgrading the book to a different style/company is no problem. they appreciate it, and i still make a profit, and this costs me no time - i just send the pages to a different album company.

the bonus come AFTER their decision to book/buy and the bonus is kind of a 'thank you'. i think it's a subtle difference that says 'i'm not trying to buy your biz'.

here's why i think this way...
we met with a potential client last year, and we have a little bag that we give our clients when we meet with them. it's a canvas tote and it's filled with goodies. they met with a lot of photograpers and they did not book us. they did, however, send a very detailed letter to all the photographers they met with explaining their decision and how they made it - it was WONDERFUL feedback. one of their comments was about our bag - they took it as a 'bribe'. while we sincerely mean it as a thank you to people for meeting with us, and we think it's a great way to present all our 'stuff', they didn't see it that way. now the bag is given at the END, and sometimes it is shipped to them, as a thank you gift.
just a word of caution about 'incentives' - they can easily come across as looking like a bribe, if you don't time it right - or if you have no reason to be giving something away, you will be just giving away profits/time -

one more example general example i can think of is a coupon...
a discount (or bonus) coupon is to BRING IN NEW biz that you would not have normally gotten. you don't give one to someone that was going to book you without the coupon.

this is a subtle difference i hope this makes sense, and helps. it's difficult for me to specify where to draw the line between the incenive and the point of looking desperate, but if someone is going to book you, the incentive should be more of a 'thank you'. don't just give something away - remember, if you give it away, it has no value to the client, even if it costs you.



EDIT -
i don't want you to think i am against incentives. after i re-read this, i thought it might come across that way. i think incentives are a good idea, and i think they need to be carefully thought out.

Thank you Robin, very good food for thought, as always!

I wish I could make it up there for OneLight & your bonus seminar, but I am having Zack here in May.

Wonderful insight as usual Robin and Liesl. You guys are such studs.

E

Robin:

I re-read this and I agree with your post.

As a thank you for booking with me, I am giving them (unknown to them) a guestbook made of images from their E-Session. This is something new I started at the end of 2006, so, so far I have not had anyone to make the guestbook for. Although I just did get a booking last week.

I would like to shoot more venues around home. There are some nice places out here and there are a few new places that are opening this summer and next summer. I have already talked a few times with their banquet coordinators about working with them. One place that is opening this August will be a Wyndham Hotel. They will need pictures to show and I would like to be the photographer to give them the pictures verses some other photographer getting the first wedding in there and getting some choice images!

I was thinking of doing something like if they book XYZ Venue & book me, then get a print credit, album upgrade, etc... but of course that would go back to what you were saying about the couple being attracted by the incentive and not being excited about having me as their photographer.

Today I met with the banqueting coordinator of a country club that I shot at last year. It turns out that I wasn't even on their preferred vendors list! Well, I showed her the sample album from that wedding and she loved it, she even showed it to the dinning room manager. She said that she will talk to the person that puts together the vendor list to make sure that I am on it. She also brought up the fact that I had mentioned something about an incentive to couples that book the country club (because I had mentioned that when I talked on the phone with her last month). So, I told her that I had not decided yet exactly how I will handle that. So, she said that when I come up with something, let her know.