Innovative Way to Sell Your Photographs

Posted this today on my blog... this would work particularly well for portrait photographers.

http://www.photomarket​ingmagic.blogspot.com/

That might not be a bad idea... I'd be curious to hear how it works.

Very interesting concept, however; I would probably not want to do this in a camera store, just because anyone that goes into a camera store to buy equipment is either a photographer themselves, or is a wanna-be photographer and would have no need for a professional's services.

I wouldn't go to a camera store, the marketing is wrong. Who goes to camera store? Tumeg answered correctly.

Where do your clients go? Maybe an indoor amusement park...bridal store...if its families and events

To sum up the blog post threadstarter linked to (what is it with people doing that lately?): Person gets free coffee at a coffeeshop, and businesscard from financial advisors that payed for it. These three are in this coffeeshop, and have a lot of people thank them and set up appointments with them. Awesome strategy to get clients.

Threadstarter suggests doing something similar at a camera-shop. $5 discount on every item a customer buys.

How about the stuff that costs $5 or less, eh? Would get cleared out in no time. Unless you added extra restrictions. Which would be stupid, seeing as that is more complicated. People want simple!

At first I thought: Nah, a camerashop would be a silly place to do this. People there aren't looking for someone to take good pictures of them.

But then I realised this isn't true; People go to a camerashop because they think they need a better camera to take pictures that are good enough to capture the memories from their precious lives. (Yes, people. Stupid, no doubt about it. L-coholics, you listening?)

But for those special moments; infant children, weddings, engagement and all the other things ordinary people hire photographers for, they can't rely on themselves! After all; they don't have _really_ expensive camera-equipment and a lot of experience.

Nope. For these important things, they need you.

It really sounds like going over board to me. You'd have to have high package prices to account for sending 4 pages about the company/photographer, color brochure, a "stack" of business cards, a DVD, etc, etc. Your rates would have to pay for all of those that don't end up paying for services that you send that big welcome package too.

Even if 1 of 4 people buys a portrait package, you might need to add $30 to your package prices just to pay for these 'welcome packages' being sent to anyone who asks about portrait services.

HappySnapper90 wrote in post #10518552
It really sounds like going over board to me. You'd have to have high package prices to account for sending 4 pages about the company/photographer, color brochure, a "stack" of business cards, a DVD, etc, etc. Your rates would have to pay for all of those that don't end up paying for services that you send that big welcome package too.

Even if 1 of 4 people buys a portrait package, you might need to add $30 to your package prices just to pay for these 'welcome packages' being sent to anyone who asks about portrait services.

I have to say that I agree with Robert here. The concept and packaging is certainly slick and potentially very impressive, but not only is this sort of thing fairly expensive to produce, but it could cause the impression in the mind of the potential client of "wow, this guy's pricing is probably more than I want to spend."

James, I know you do a lot of professional writing and it's good writing - but I have to ask if you do pro photography? In other words, have you implemented any of these tips and recommendations yourself? This is not a criticism - I'm just curious if you've field tested these strategies yourself.

Plus, I really don't accept that most pro photographers "panic" when they get an inquiry in the mail of this sort. I'm not completely trashing the concept - I think there are some good merits to portions of it. But I don't know anybody who sends out next day Fedex packs unless they are attorneys, or realtors needing contracts signed.

I believe that a lot of photographers who receive email inquiries have well organized digital "response packs" in the form of pdf brochures, online galleries, slideshows, and other examples of their work that are instantly viewable on IPod, IPad, smartphone or PC. Anymore I don't believe most young shoppers rely that heavily on traditional mailers.

Jonta wrote in post #10512183
To sum up the blog post threadstarter linked to (what is it with people doing that lately?): Person gets free coffee at a coffeeshop, and businesscard from financial advisors that payed for it. These three are in this coffeeshop, and have a lot of people thank them and set up appointments with them. Awesome strategy to get clients.

Threadstarter suggests doing something similar at a camera-shop. $5 discount on every item a customer buys.

How about the stuff that costs $5 or less, eh? Would get cleared out in no time. Unless you added extra restrictions. Which would be stupid, seeing as that is more complicated. People want simple!

At first I thought: Nah, a camerashop would be a silly place to do this. People there aren't looking for someone to take good pictures of them.

But then I realised this isn't true; People go to a camerashop because they think they need a better camera to take pictures that are good enough to capture the memories from their precious lives. (Yes, people. Stupid, no doubt about it. L-coholics, you listening?)

But for those special moments; infant children, weddings, engagement and all the other things ordinary people hire photographers for, they can't rely on themselves! After all; they don't have _really_ expensive camera-equipment and a lot of experience.

Nope. For these important things, they need you.

I thought this thread was about the coffee shop/ camera store referral thing, not about packaging?

There are probably better stores to work with than a camera store. You can target your client better than a camera store. If your after maternity/babies clients, then do this sort of thing with a local/thriving baby clothes store. If your after seniors, pick a store that they shop at. This is the one I am interested in, but im not sure what store to do that with. Perhaps a trendy clothing store in a local mall.

But this all sounds rather expensive. If you give $5 to each purchase, and if they do more than 100 sales in a day, you may end up spending $500 and not get anything in turn for it. But with seniors and senior portraits, just a couple scheduled appointments could pay for this gimmick.

I do like starbucks though, the people that go there usually has money from what ive seen. Those that are on a tight budget probably doesn't buy coffee from there.

You may want to put a stipulation on the deal though, one $5 off per customer per day, that way someone buying 10 things cant use 10 coupons.

What about the Entertainment coupon book? Ive been thinking that might be a good spot to advertise, but then again its probably not aimed at the clients I want.

I'm not sure if I'd do the business card thing in a camera store.

Ask yourself, why weren't the financial advisors doing it at a bank or a check-cashing place? They found someplace completely unrelated to the service they were advertising, and they got a steady stream of people talking to them. They probably got some clients, too.

How about a sporting goods store, where Moms and Dads have to go to buy cleats and helmets and gloves? How about a store like "Party City" (a party supply shop)? Hell, everyone wants pictures of parties. I know when I have a party, I'd rather not be the guy taking pictures; I'd rather be enjoying my guests.

Just a thought.

A 4-PAGE sales letter? If I got that, I'd set it aside indefinitely. Points 1 & 3 are redundant. I just want a little background info., a few samples, a web addy (to view her portfolio), and a price sheet. (Basically, I should be able to get all I need from her website and via email.) Save yourself a heap of cash on the packages.

the sales letter, etc would probably be good for a high end client, but not for every client.

I like the idea of the party store and sports stores. Interesting.

Actually, no. I don't panic. I talk to them. They ask me questions, I give them answers. After they become a client, they get a catalog.

Welcome packets are silly. They're not joining a country club. The best thing you can do is have a comprehensive website that has all the information they need already available. It's greener.

OP must have money to burn because he's suggesting we spend $500 in one morning on coffee for everyone at the local coffee shop and overnight a welcome packet via FedEx to every schmo who inquires about our services...

msfvirginia wrote in post #10518805
I thought this thread was about the coffee shop/ camera store referral thing, not about packaging?

It was. Original link was to OP's home page of the blog... not the coffee post... so once a new post was made, people hopping over to check out what he was talking about got a different idea...


OP take note... you should link to the article if you want a discussion on the notes presented in the article... otherwise you get sideways threads like this...

The correct link for the coffee discussion (currently the second post down on the blog):
http://photomarketingm​agic.blogspot.com …g-coffee-for-clients.html

Link for the welcome package discussion (currently the first post):
http://photomarketingm​agic.blogspot.com …-welcome-package-for.html

Carry on.

Concretin Nik: Thanks for clearing up this confusion. I just couldn't figure out what msfvirginia, YankeeMom and cdifoto were on about. Didn't notice that the link in the first post was to the blog, and not specific article.