Marketing Essentials International

I wrote about this once before, but it’s such a good topic.   Sheila has a great expression every time I find myself looking back and saying something like, “I should have done this a long time ago!”  The response is always the same, “Don’t should on me, Cohen!”

Here’s the cool thing about business today, nothing is forever, especially in photography.  If you’re unhappy with a direction you chose then take a break.  Stop long enough to think it through and then refocus your energy towards something new.  It’s not easy making a change, but it is easy to let yourself dream and come up with a new strategy for the future of your business.

Implementing changes just takes time and you need to take baby steps.  The wonderful thing about photography is, you can make changes all along the way.  Let’s assume you wound up as a wedding photographer, but really want to photograph kids, on location.  You don’t have to throw away your business and start over.  Sooner or later your wedding clients are going to start a family. 

If you’ve done a great job with your wedding clients then your data base is already in place for children and family work.    A well written letter to your past clients along with a special offer for an on location sitting will start to build your client base, while still keeping the business going on the wedding side.  

So, if you’re hearing that little voice in your head that’s screaming at you that it’s time for a change, then start working in a new direction.  Start the process to change so that a few years from now you won’t be saying, “I should have…” There’s nothing worse than shoulding all over yourself!

Okay everybody, it’s September, with Labor Day coming up and while you might think it means the start of the Fall, back to school or the end of Summer, for me it means you’ve got a month to find an image for this year’s holiday card! 

There are very few promotional elements for your business easier to do than a holiday card.  It’s one of your images on the front with a short holiday message on the inside, but it’s the back of the card that’s really significant!  On the back, centered at the bottom just like a Hallmark card, is your name or your studio name, with your URL and all your contact information.

Next, is putting together your data base for the mailing:

1) All of your past clients and there’s no such thing as going too far back.

2) All the vendors you might have worked with over the last year or two.  As a wedding photographer that might mean wedding planners, venues, limo companies and florists.  As a children’s photographer it could mean local groups you’ve worked with, the president of the PTA, the local children’s store in town etc.

3) Business associates and other vendors in town.  Here’s where the card is a reminder you’re in business and a “neighbor”.   Don’t forget the presidents of groups like Kiwanis, Exchange Club and Rotary, just to name a few.  Then there’s the mayor’s office, the Chamber of Commerce etc.

4) Buy a list!  This might be the year to test 250 or more names pulled within a zip code range for your area.  Remember, when purchasing a list, you can pull by lifestyle categories.  A children’s photographer would want to pull from a data base of new parents, summer camp prospects, parents of elementary school kids etc.  A wedding photographer would want new engagements.  A commercial shooter would want to mail every business within a geographical area.

5) Last but not least, don’t forget your friends, neighbors and associates.  There’s nothing wrong with mailing your competitors.  There are only so many days a year to shoot.  Sooner or later you’re going to be booked and need to refer business to another photographer, but you need to build those relationships.

Now, here’s the tricky part…you’ve got to mail them!  (Sorry, it’s Sarcasm Thursday!)  Seriously, this little project won’t do any good, if like so many photographers out there, me included, you procrastinate through the key time benchmarks and miss the opportunity!  So, your goal is to have your cards stamped and in the mail EARLY – you want to get through the noise and be one of the first cards people receive and that means they need to be in the mail just before Thanksgiving!

For those of you who buy a box of Hallmark cards at CVS a week before Christmas, Molly the Wonder Dog and I will hunt you down and you won’t get a decent night’s sleep until Spring!

At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to be Stephen Covey with his best seller,  The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, it’s not a bad platform on which to launch this morning’s blog.   Think about those photographic icons we enjoy the most.  What are the characteristics that have made them a success, not just in their client’s eyes, but in ours as well?

Quality:  They don’t do anything halfway.  From their images and the products they deliver to their clients, there is never a compromise, but the word quality runs so much deeper.  In a presentation they keep us in our seats.  Their slides, if they’re doing PowerPoint, are dead on target with the theme of their workshop.  In their friendships and support to the industry – everything they do is done with quality!

Involvement:  They’re involved, not just in the photographic community, but their own.  You’ll often hear about them doing a program with a charitable tie-in, something they believe in that gives back.  They give more than they take!

Enthusiasm!  Ever seen a depressed icon?  Okay, everybody is human, so we know they have their private moments, but their persona when we see them just makes us smile.  They’re always upbeat and they’re always excited about something new.

Early Adopters:  They’re the trend setters.  Often it’s as if they’re sitting in their offices waiting for technology to throw something new out there.  They’re pioneers at adapting new ideas and picking up on the trends that set the pace for the rest of us.  In fact, many of them are responsible for the key components in the way photographers shoot today, especially when it comes to work-flow.

Confidence:  When it comes to the craft, they know it cold!   Put anything in their hands that “takes a picture” and they can shoot with it.  They understand film, digital and now many of them are adapting and jumping on video with Fusion Technology.  There’s no hesitation, they know exactly what an image looks like with every focal length in their bag and you’ll never see them “chimp”.  But, like quality, confidence also runs deeper.  They’re confident when they share with us.  They’re confident when they’re working to convince us to change.  They believe in themselves and what they’re sharing with us.

Exceeding Expectations:  Whether it’s with their clients or any of us in the audience, they always exceed expectations.  They deliver more than we expect.  Now translate that into working with a client and it becomes one of the strongest reasons for their success in business – they give their customers more than they ask for!  They make themselves habit-forming!

Optimistic and Happy!  Okay, it’s the closer – they’re just plain happy.  They smile a lot and they absolutely believe in laughter and having fun!  Remember fun?  It’s one of those words lost in business today and we all tend to lose it now and then.  We become so wrapped up in trying to second-guess the economy that we forget to have fun!  Isn’t that why you got into photography in the first place?   It’s that zest for life that only comes when you’ve got a camera in your hands and you’re sharing what you do best with a client, a friend or a member of your family.

We all attend the workshops and programs taught by our favorite icons, but, at least for me, what I learn from each of them at every program is about their outlook on life – they simply love it!  

And from theologian, Howard Thurman:

Don’t ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive!

How I love the Internet!   This is a perfect example of why you should have a couple of favorite blogs you read on a regular basis.  Yesterday I wrote about consistent quality and the stimulus for the blog was an album I had seen with completely inconsistent skin tones.  Every page had a “different” bride. 

Just a little while ago I ran across a great post by Jeff Youngren on the Pictage Blog.  He’s provided you with a ton of good solid information and the topic?  Natural Skin Tones!  What I love the most about what Jeff’s written is he’s giving you suggestions on how to get it right in the camera, or in tough situations “more right”!  

Getting it right so that it’s relatively clean right out of the can is so important to your sanity and especially your marketing efforts.  You need to be spending your time building your brand, not sitting behind the computer cleaning up images!  Obviously there will be situations where Photoshop becomes an incredible tool, but if you think through the solution to the problem on the front end, it will cut down on time later on.

Some great tips from a great photographer and a great blog that should be set up in your RSS feed!

Spending the weekend with Gary Blair at our house, we obviously talked a lot about photography and especially how much things have changed.  There were moments, when talking about the past,  I was sounding like my grandfather when he would say, “I used to walk three miles to school every morning!”  But let’s face it, there has been a serious change in the quality of the finished product as more and more photographers jump into the industry and think they can deliver mediocrity!  The difference comes in a lot of new photographers not paying attention to the quality in the same way a good lab would do, especially back in the old days, the film days.

The issue of outgoing quality is so serious, that industry icon Tony Corbell, at IUSA not too long ago, put his program aside and just talked about quality to the point where he made everybody pledge to stop taking the shortcuts and “stop producing crap!”

Fortunately, Tony, along with countless other icons are starting to get the message through.  I think a lot of people are slowing down a little and paying more attention to what they deliver.  They’re also working with some great labs, instead of trying to do it all themselves,  but here’s a challenge I saw recently that everyone needs to pay more attention to:  inconsistent flesh tones.  

Recently I was looking through an album being submitted for competition and there were at least six different versions of the bride.  At one extreme she looked anemic, then Asian and finished the book dark complected with a horrible sunburn.  The solution to the problem was all in the photographer’s hands, but he pushed to get the book done and never paid attention to flesh tones.

Okay, here I go sounding like my grandfather… 

In the “old days” the lab would print to the Shirley.  Shirley was the nickname for the manikin Kodak used for flesh tone balance – she was the standard.   Shirley, was sadly caught in a horrible accident.  She was run over by the 18-wheeler of digital and came back without a consistent flesh tone, as thousands of photographers, often on uncalibrated monitors, stopped paying attention to her and eyeballed her images and said, “Yeah, that looks good!”

So, the thought this morning is this:  When a potential client looks at your work, either in a real album or on line and they see an inconsistency in quality from image to image – don’t you think they wonder which photographer they’re going to get if they hire you?   Don’t you think they might just question how they’re going to look in your images?  I’ve seen images on websites so inconsistent that as a potential client I’d wonder, “Will I get Jekyll or Hyde?”

It was inconsistent flesh tones that got me going today, but think about quality in general, on everything you do.  NEVER compromise on the quality of the finished product.  We’re in a word-of-mouth business and there’s no stronger calling card than consistent great quality and exceeding your customer’s expectations!

I just spent the last couple days with good buddy and portrait photographer, Gary Blair, who came in for the weekend.  Gary and I have been friends since we met in ‘87 when his Dad, “Big Daddy” Blair, was a spokesperson for Hasselblad.  Oh, who am I kidding, if you knew “Big Daddy” he was a spokesperson [...]

Okay, so somebody help me out here…I got an indignant email from a person I didn’t “friend” the other day on Facebook. They were “disappointed” I didn’t allow them in my Facebook “family”.  I didn’t because they had no head shot; we had no friends in common and there was nothing that suggested they were a photographer.  [...]

The full registration site for each of the programs should be live next week, but here’s an update on what’s happening to finally bring some great programming to the Midwest.
1) The Hilton Akron/Fairlawn is the new location for all events.  It’s much more accessible, since it’s only a mile or so off route 77, making it a [...]

I got the funniest email from Gretchen McFarland one of our Summer School attendees.
Sooo… Please convey to your best buddy, Scott Bourne, that exactly 30 seconds after I posted his “Jump. and the net will appear” quote on my Facebook status ( to encourage a friend in need) – I fell and broke 5 bones [...]

For those of you who understand photography, know your exposures and never “chimp”,  reading the rest of this blog this morning is probably a waste of time.  However, for those of you who photograph with a no-big-deal-I’ll-fix-it-in-Photoshop mentality it’s time to wake up!
If you’re fixing it in Photoshop later, then you’re wasting valuable time you could [...]