One of the key topics of my program related to the “Big Three”, brides, babies and pets. After speaking last night it sure seems to make sense as a relevant blog topic today!

To start, I absolutely accept that my relationship with my dog is over the top, but here’s what so many photographers forget. Most pet owners are a little nuts about their dogs or cats. In fact, so much so, there are an estimated 170 million households with pets, making pet photography number three in the heirarchy of why people hire a professional photographer!

In a survey done by Kodak years ago and I don’t believe it’s changed one bit, the heirarchy went brides, babies and pets, in that order. What makes the big three exciting is they’re all related and can create a perfectly natural transition for diversity in your business.  Brides have babies and families have pets. The connections between all three couldn’t be more natural to help photographers bring diversity into their business.

Almost four summers ago, children’s photographer, Vicki Taufer launched what’s become the gold standard of community pet events. She offered a free sitting and one 5×7 of your pet if you brought in a donation for the Peoria Animal Shelter.  Vicki and her staff wound up doing over 120 sessions that day, leaving 40 people on the wait-list. It was a classic. Her original purpose was simply to get people to know who she was and see her studio. Today, in addition to her children’s business, she’s become one of the best known pet photographers in the area.

In addition, her promotion became one of the standards for partnerships with other vendors, community involvement and publicity.  I know of at least a half dozen other photographers who took Vicki’s concept and used it as a model to develop their own program, each time customizing the original concept and making it even stronger.

I’m a huge fan of diversity in your business model, especially in this economy. While there are some who feel it’s more important to specialize and stay with one category, e.g. weddings, children, family, seniors etc. I’m a believer it’s critical to never say “Sorry, I don’t do that kind of photography” to a client. I believe you need to be skilled enough to take on just about every request that comes through your door!

Think about the transition. If you did a great job on the wedding and the client loved your images and working with you, then why wouldn’t you want to be there when the first baby was born? And as the family grows, why wouldn’t you want to be there for family reunions, holiday portraits and even their commercial needs, depending on what kind of business they’re in. Brides have babies, babies grow up and become seniors and through the entire cycle their are endless opportunities for professional photography.  Along the way there are opportunities for maternity, weddings, day in the life kid’s portraiture and pets, just to name a few.

Just my two cents on diversity. It sure seems to make sense!

Yesterday I had a great conversation with a photographer who’s about to go full time. Her work is terrific, her website, while it needs a little fine-tuning is all in place and overall has a great feel.  Having been part time for the last four years, it’s that first jump “into the pool” that’s the hardest and she’s working through all the questions all of us have asked ourselves at one time or another.

Well, this post just seems to fit the issues so many of you are facing today… 

Robert Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in the wood, and I – took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Diversity can take on many meanings. In this post – it means standing out by being great at what you do.

So, let’s talk about the different path you choose to travel with your business with one big question – are you taking the road less traveled or the one everybody else is always taking? By that I mean, are you like those who say “It’s good enough.” Or are you the one who says “It can be better.”

Quality:Are the images you’re showing on your website and in your albums the very best they can be? I’ve seen so many websites with images that photographers have just loaded in to fill it up, paying no attention to the quality. You’re much better off to show just a few spectacular images than everything you have! This is about the finest steak at Ruth’s Chris, not the big buffet at Stuckeys!

With every image ask yourself one question, “If this was the only image I could show, would I hire me?”

Style: Are you working to be unique? I’m not just talking about your images, but your personal style. This is about everything from being personable and approachable to the composition of your images, the look of your website, your logo, etc.

Products:Are you offering presentations that are unique or, when you work with a client do you show them the same things everybody has? Yes, I know they’re a GoingPro sponsor, but remember, we pick our sponsors for a reason! I love the new look of so many of Album Epoca’s products, (www.albumepoca.com). You need a final presentation that shines through and above what every other photographer is showing!

Mining:There still aren’t enough photographers building business off of their past clients, in new directions and it’s definitely a road less traveled. Here’s the point, if they loved your work on the wedding then why wouldn’t you want to be there when the first child is born? And, if you don’t like photographing babies and kids, then how about working with another photographer in the area who does, and building a referral business and cross-promoting each other’s work?

Your past clients are your greatest resource. They’re already believers in your work and you have credibility with each one of them, unless of course you did a lousy job!  So, assuming they loved working with you, then here’s another aspect of diversity. Send them a personal letter and remind them of your skill set.  Plant the seed for an updated family portrait, an on-location day in the life shoot of the kids or maybe a new business head-shot. It’s Marketing 101 and you’ve got the perfect target – a client who already knows how good you are!

The list could go on and on, but here’s the point: There are thousands of photographers all accepting mediocrity. What are you doing to make yourself and your work different? Have you chosen the right road?

A trip to Las Vegas in February isn’t just about WPPI anymore. It’s about adding new building blocks to your business and some of them are outside WPPI programming. For two years I’ve started every marketing presentation with the same statement.

Just because the media says it’s going to be a bad year, doesn’t mean it has to be!

That’s a big part of the GoingPro theme and Bootcamp. We started the project because there are so many aspiring photographers interested in going pro and missing the boat on the right way to get started. Frustrated, they jump into the market with lousy quality and low-ball pricing. Instead of building a business on a solid foundation, they try and build it on the word “professional”, having no understanding of the importance of how to sustain a business.

Well, it’s been two years since we started the GoingPro, which originally was just a book with Random House. Now it’s a blog with an estimated 50,000 followers and sixty-four podcasts, resulting in 120-150,000 downloads a month. Last but not least, it’s our second Bootcamp, an all day event helping you with everything, but photography.

George missed the last GoingPro Bootcamp, but we didn’t and neither did a 100+ aspiring and working professional photographers. He’s got another chance and so do you! With the combination of Michele Celentano, Scott Bourne and me we’ll help you with ideas on marketing, pricing, building your business, insurance, social media, community involvement and local networking, just to name a few. Most important of all, we’ll help you figure out how to promote yourself and your work so you can get your second customer.

Anybody can get their first customer. The trick of building a solid business is getting your second customer and even better, getting the first customer to come back a second time. You know how to focus your camera. Well, we’re going to help you focus on concepts like quality, value, integrity and the ability to exceed customer expectations. Those are the key attributes of any business that brings customers back!

And speaking of exceeding expectations – that’s just what we intend to do on February 18. It’s only $99 for the day. So, whether you’re just getting ready to take the plunge into the pro side of the business or you’ve been out there for a few years and need some help – we intend to exceed your expectations. 

See you in Vegas! Signing up for GoingPro Bootcamp is just a click away!

This year’s holiday cards were a kick, but two stood out as the best of the season, Bleu and Allison’s annual card and Catherine Hall’s. They’re two completely different approaches, but they each got the message across.

Bleu Cotton and Allison Pierce are photographers in Costa Mesa and we’ve been good friends for a lot of years. Every year they dress up with a holiday theme and this year was one of the best. They even managed to work in the baby-sitter as the Ghost of Christmas Future.

At the complete opposite in style and approach was Catherine Hall’s card which utilized one of her fine art images from a past trip.  Catherine, while a lot of her focus is about high-end weddings, much of her photography is stunning photojournalism with a fine art flair, or maybe it’s stunning fine art with a photo-journalism approach. You can be the judge.

Both cards represent an easy to understand concept – wishing people happy holidays and utilizing their own artwork. They both included a hand-written message inside the card and an additional message on the back, reminding you what business they’re in.

…and Catherine tied in more contact information.

As always, there’s a point I want to make. You’re a photographer and should never be sending out a store-bought holiday card. The same goes for your stationery. You’ve got ten months to get your act together for a holiday card featuring your own work for next December. Take advantage of the opportunity to show your own images.  If you don’t, nobody else will!

You’ve got to Tweet several times a day for people to know who you are. You need to post at least three times a week or more. Old posts serve absolutely no purpose and you won’t build brand recognition putting up a post here and there. Building traffic is about consistency and you’ve got to be out there all the time.  In the last few weeks I’ve been really surprised at the number of blogs I’ve run into that just aren’t kept up to date and many of them by some of the best photographers in our industry.

Facebook is the same. You’ve got to be involved to build traffic. You’ve got to be making a contribution for people to remember you’re out there.

Make it a point to at least “hit” the social media button in your day, first thing every morning. Try and develop a routine for both contributing to your own pages and reading other posts from people you enjoy. Pretty soon it’ll be second nature.

That’s it – end of point. Post and tweet regularly or forget about social media becoming an effective marketing tool for your business.

But, there’s hope for truth in advertising. Every now and then there’s a company that not only steps up to the plate, but actually gives you something to hang on to by sharing who, why and what they stand for.  Well gang, I ran across this short video from SmugMug Pro and really enjoyed the sincerity behind it.

What hit me was what everybody is saying in this three minute piece and you really need to listen to the words.  For example, I love photographer, Michael Soo’s comment,

I’m a photographer because I have to be!

Those of you who know me personally know that I absolutely love this industry. I’ve been in it my entire adult life and cannot imagine anything else I’d be happier doing. Like so many of you, it’s a part of who I am and why I wake up every morning smiling. I honestly don’t believe there’s another career field quite like the photographic industry. So, like Michael Soo, I’m in this industry because I have to be!

I loved John Harrison’s comment about his images, “If nobody sees them, then what’s the point?”  There it is Marketing 101 for photographers, all in eight words! Leaving me to ask so many of you, do people know who you are? Are they seeing your images in the very best presentation? Are the images you present your very best work?

Last on my list of why I love this video – the founders and staff members of two great companies are putting themselves out there for you to meet.  SmugMug is about relationships, listening to the market and as Bay Photo founder, Larry Abitbol says, ”We’re proud to be providing the professional print services for SmugMug.”  If you know Larry you know this isn’t just about SmugMug, he’s doesn’t take on relationships he’s not proud of.

Here’s my suggestion to get the most out of this video. Watch the video and just listen to what’s being said. Then go back and watch it one more time, while thinking about how you relate to your own customers. If you were to shoot your own video about your business tomorrow, what would be the message you’d want to present?

I won’t deny that SmugMug is a sponsor of this blog, in fact, I’m proud to be working with them, but me sharing this video with you wasn’t on their request list. In fact, I found it on YouTube, entirely by accident.  We’re coming up to at least two major shows where SmugMug will be exhibiting, IUSA and WPPI. Take the time to wander over and introduce yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

You’re the only one who knows what works in your market, but after yesterday’s post from Scott Bourne on a check-off list for your gear, I want to try and give you the same type of list to help you plan your promotions.

1.  It shouldn’t be on this list at all, but let’s get the obvious out of the way. You’ve got to be an outstanding photographer to offer anything promotionally. No matter how good the promotion, nobody is interesting in images that are mediocre. So, if your skill set still needs work, then hold off on promotions and find the help you need to give every image you capture and create the “wow” factor.
2. Define your goal for the promotion. Is it an increase in sales or awareness for your brand?
3. Identify your target audience. Who’s the promotion going to to appeal to?
4. Does your promotion match the needs of your target audience?
5. What can you do to make your promotion unique? 
6. Does your promotion have value to your target audience?  
7. How are you going to communicate the promotion?
8. Do you have enough time to get the word out?
9. Is the promotion easy to understand? Who’s proof-reading the copy for the promotion?
10. How long will the promotion run?  
11. What’s your real cost for the promotion? 
12. Have you considered partnerships with other vendors?
13. Do you have everything you need to fulfill the promotional offer?

While it goes without saying the last question you want to ask yourself is, “Will people get excited when they hear about the promotion?”  While it might seem obvious, you could have solid answers for every question on the list and still miss your mark with a promotional concept that was perceived as boring.

It’s the perfect post to wrap up 2011 and one of the best ways to wish all of you a happy and healthy new year. I’ve said it a hundred times and written about it almost as much: The best part of this industry has nothing to do with photography, but the friendships that come out of everyone’s passion for the craft!

As you plan the year ahead, pay attention to those friendships. Keep in touch with old friends and make it a point to put time aside for new ones. You’re part of an amazing industry and nobody has ever written better advice than Terry when he said,

Smile big, laugh hard, make people happy!

Happy New Year everybody! Thank you for your support, your friendship and so often your feedback!

Terry Clark sent me a great quote two days ago.  It comes from the CEO of Restoration Hardware, Gary Friedman,

“Great brands don’t chase customers; customers chase great brands.”

• To start, the quality of your work has to be outstanding. I talked about your galleries and your portfolio a few days ago. Is the work you’re showing in your portfolio and website the very best it can be?  Would you hire you?
• Do people know how to contact you? This is about being accessible. Too many photographers, for some reason, don’t want to put a phone number on their website.  Give people a way to contact you and then answer your phone!  Website templates that give people an email system and no other way to make contact are a waste! Think about your own experiences as a consumer when trying to contact any company. Don’t you like to talk to a live body rather than correspond via email and letters?
• Does your community know you?You’ve got to be involved. People need to know you’re giving back to the community, not just taking from it.
• How’s your reputation? This is all about consistent performance. You need to come through on all your promises. Everybody misses something now and then, but if your track-record is consistently good, it’ll get people talking. Actually, if it’s bad it’ll get people talking too, but that’s not the conversation you want to be a part of!
• Advertising and promotion – what are you doing out there? How are you getting the word out to the public? While we’re a word-of-mouth industry that doesn’t change the necessity to look for effective ways to advertise and promote your brand.  Everything has the potential to increase awareness, including Facebook, Twitter, print advertising, direct mail and email.

But the real bottom line, Terry mentioned at the very beginning of this post…

…Smile big, laugh hard, and make people happy!

For most of you this is a down week. The Christmas orders are out and you’re hopefully finding time to just kick back, enjoy your family and here and there think about the new year.  Find some time this week to think about your business in terms of the services you offer.  Are there opportunities for add-on sales? Can you increase your average sales with add-on products and add-on value?

When I was at Polaroid, back when Polaroid was a Fortune 500 company,  I was involved in a series of consumer surveys for product development.  The surveys repeatedly showed that consumer satisfaction for a product dramatically increased with the number of accessories available.  As a result, when Polaroid launched the Spectra camera, it was a complete system.  There was a full line of accessories including self-timers, cable releases, albums, bags, table top tripods and even Cokin filters, just to name a few.

You’ll find the exact same philosophy with most of the major consumer purchases we make today, especially in consumer electronics.   Photography isn’t any different and if you’re only offering your clients an album and a few different options on print packages then you’re missing the boat.

Let’s beef up what you’re offering your clients starting with online hosting and slide shows.  (The crew as SmugMug is ready to help you completely change the look of your site and get your images in a presentation that screams, “I’m a professional!”) Then let’s move into all the hard goods available.  Albums of every color, shape and size are out there.  (We were just in Italy last month and were blown away by what Album Epoca has in their lineup!) One of a kind table top books like the Asukabook line give you another outstanding direction to offer clients a quality product that’s different.   Frames are an outstanding add-on sale.

A canvas print becomes an amazing enhancement for those one or two special images from a wedding, a portrait sitting or children’s shoot.  And, while it might not be for every client, purses, bags and backpacks with the kid’s pictures on them are outstanding add-ons from a children’s shoot.  How about the types of images you present?  Sure, there’s black and white and color, but how about the look of infrared, special effects and cross-processing? (Ever notice there are an infinite number of combinations of plug-ins you can use, thanks to Kubota Image Tools?) And there are hundreds of different things to print on, including metal, whether you’re doing it yourself or working with your lab.

And don’t laugh, take a look at novelty products.    There are some outstanding items out there, from mugs to mouse pads!   For those of you who are purists and hate the idea, I’m not saying you need to be out there selling coffee mugs with the bride and groom’s face on them, but what an incredible marketing tool.  What a way to make a great client laugh and remember how much fun they had at the engagement shoot with you, when you send them a matched set of coffee mugs with their pictures on them!

I’m tired of hearing photographers complain about “Uncle Harry” stealing business.  I’m not saying the Uncle Harrys of the world don’t create problems, but they don’t have access to the hundreds of products and companies that make up the professional photographic market.  As a professional photographer you’ve got virtual exclusivity when it comes to the broadest most diverse selection of add-on products from the finest group of manufacturers in the history of photography!

When you put it all together add-on sales create added perceived value and in the end create higher customer satisfaction and return business, but best of all, it helps add to your bottom line!

Okay, so that was written almost two years ago and the potential for add-on sales hasn’t changed.  If we’ve learned nothing else from MacDonalds, try their approach in your selling skills with every client and simply ask, “You want fries with that?”

As a combination of the tough economy and advances in technology, virtually anybody can call themselves a professional photographer these days. The market is filled with “wannabe” professionals who have absolutely no right to call themselves photographers, let alone professionals.  Every day we hear more horror stories of “professionals” charging too little, not delivering images on a timely basis and presenting images that aren’t any better than Uncle Harry would have captured.

The sad thing is there are so many places to get help and elevate the quality of their work.  Scott Bourne and I started the GoingPro project to provide new photographers with material to help them address the business and marketing side of photography. WPPI and IUSA, both coming up in the next ninety days, offer photographers dozens of workshops and programs to expand their skill set.  DIMA, sponsored by PMAis offering attendees two days of intense programming, including Kevin Kubota teaching a series of lighting techniques.

Then there are books and DVDs published by some of the finest photo educators in our industry, all available to everybody. Software Cinema and Photoshop Cafe offer great videos at reasonable costs. Kevin Kubota’s new Lighting Notebook is destined to be a best seller. Kenny Kim, Dane Sanders, David Ziser, Eddie Tapp, Jerry Ghionis, Doug Gordon, Matthew Jordan Smith, Bambi Cantrell andSandy Puc are just a few who come to mind with books, DVDs and que cards all designed to give you help.

Last on the list, are webinars, many of them absolutely free,  from companies like Profoto, X-rite and Creative Live, again, just to name a few.  And there’s even more from magazines like my favorite, RETV, with an entire series of interviews with great photographers, all designed to help you grow in the craft.

We can’t do anything about those people who jump into the industry claiming to be professionals and only looking for a fast buck. Every industry has them.  What we can do is encourage new photographers and established ones as well to take advantage of every opportunity to raise the bar on the quality of their images and their presentations.

There are more educational tools available today than at any time in the history of photography.  Are you taking advantage of all the opportunities?

Everyone reading this blog knows that I’ve been doing wedding photography for quite a while. I’ve seen lots of changes in our profession over the many years, but none have been so game changing as with the introduction of digital cameras.

In the wedding business, it even took a few years for many of the pros to make the switch.  I personally made the switch to digital in 2000. It was scary just like anything else you try that is new.  No problem, we made the switch, and I have to tell you, I would never go back to film.  

In the wedding industry, in the early days of digital, things were pretty calm.  Many were making their switch and the competition from  new photographers was a little more even keeled than in today’s market.

But things started to change about two years ago. Cameras got cheaper, Facebook got famous, everybody started blogging, Craig’s List became popular, and cameras got even cheaper still. Now everyone with a new Digital Rebel or Nikon D3000 wanted a piece of the wedding market.

Don’t leave yet – it gets even more interesting, hence the topic of today’s post – “How Much Of A Professional Are You?”

Last week a friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video of Judge Joe Brown lambasting into a so called “professional photographer”.  The bride booked a photographer and after seeing their images from their wedding, felt they were not representative of what the photographer showed as her samples. 

The bridal plaintiff basically wanted a refund of $1000 of the $1300 she paid to the “professional photog”. The judge awarded the bride, not the $1000 she asked for, but $2500 in damages!!!

My first intent was to post this as kind of a “humor” piece – lousy photographer gets what she deserves.  But, upon reflecting on it I decided it was a much more serious issue that that.  Here’s why…

The “pro photographer” was shooting the wedding with a Canon Rebel with a “kit” lens, had the images processed at WalMart, and delivered then to the bride in the WalMart parking lot.  The sign of a true “professional” – right? Wrong!!!

Judge Joe Brown didn’t see it that way either asking the photographer why she wasn’t shooting with a pro camera like a Canon 1D, 5D, or 7D.  It seems the judge knows his cameras and a little something about wedding photography, too. He didn’t come right out and say it, but it looked to me like the judge may  have shot a wedding or two.

OK, like I said, I planned to just post it for the “giggle” but then some thing happened while at WPPI.  I attended a program by one of the presenters and was surprised by what I heard.  Not by what the presenter said, but what I heard after she said it.

She mentioned that in her early days of shooting she used a Canon Rebel.  About 25% of the room cheered her remark – they must be Canon Rebel shooters too – at least that was my impression of their response.  It seems to me that this section of the audience felt vindicated by their use of this amateur camera for shooting events that should be shot with professional gear.

That seems both scary and sad to me. A wedding is a once in a lifetime event for most folks out there. When a photographer books a wedding, they assume a lot of responsibility for the outcome of their photographic result. How is it they can feel they are delivering “pro” results with “amateur” cameras.

DAZNOTE:

That presenter by the way, now shoots with Canon’s top line EOS Canon 1D cameras.

This whole attitude; “I’ve got my Canon Rebel or Nikon D50 and some business cards. I’ve got my Facebook page, I like shooting pictures, I’ve got my blog, etc. , etc., etc. I must be a professional.” To me it shows a total lack of professionalism when any photographer engages a client for the job of shooting the wedding and shows up as “Amateur Anne or Andy”.

We have been witnessing the “cheapening” of wedding photography over the last 2 – 3 years.  It has put good studios out of business, sacrificed quality photography for brides, created an entire era of paperless, picture-less couples, given wedding photographers and wedding photography a bad name, and does a major disservice to all the real “pros” in our business.

So to those who cheered the use on the Rebel as a wedding camera, I suggest you think twice before booking you next wedding.  I suggest you ask yourself just how much of a real “pro” you are. Do you really know your gear, your lenses, your lighting? Do you really know what shots to capture at the wedding? Do you know how to handle yourself in an emergency situation like when your gear fails?  Can you still capture the images? These are just a few of the questions real professionals know how to answer.

If you are having trouble answering any part of them, you may want to change that or you too just may find yourself in front of Judge Joe Brown.

-’Nough said          David Ziser