Just a fun video:
Discard Discounts
A photographer can’t discount their way to success. If it was possible, don’t you think every photographer would be doing it?
When you discount, you penalize customers who pay your normal price. For example, after buying a $400 winter coat, do you feel cheated the following week when the same coat is discounted 50%?
When you discount, it means you have no other value to offer the customer.
Discounting attracts price shoppers. Is that what you want? If you offer a discounted price of, say, $99 for a business headshot, then you’ll attract $99 customers. If they like your work, they’ll tell all their $99 friends and you’ll get more $99 customers.
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Ninety-nine percent chance
There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that the next potential customer who phones will ask, “How much?”
So how are you going to respond? Just hem and haw? Mumble something like, “It depends”?
Ideally a price should not be given over the phone. It’s always better to use e-mail. When you give a price over the phone, the customer will remember only the price and nothing else you said.
A customer asks “how much” usually because they don’t know what else to ask. While price may be important to them, the true reason they call is that they’re trying to figure out if you’re the right photographer for them. Do you understand their needs? Can you do the work properly? Do they feel reassured by you?
When that inevitable question is asked, you have to be ready without missing a beat. The way to do this is to have a prepared script or checklist which includes a number of questions for the customer, for example:
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Quotable Stress
A photographer wrote to say:
“I don’t know why sending out job quotes still stresses me out too much after all these years. I tie too much emotion to my business at times.”
She went on to say that she wanted to learn to separate her business from her emotions because, she said, it’s not personal, it’s just business.
If you view your photography as art then perhaps you should also view your business as an art. And art tends to be emotional.
Cut Out The Middleman
If you’re an event photographer, you may have noticed there are some online businesses that offer to connect you with customers. How nice of them.
One such company, based in Europe, is currently sending emails to photographers in several cities around the world. This company claims in its email that it has a customer with an urgent need for photo services in the photographer’s area.
You might ignore this email because of its generic wording or because it looks like spam. But you’ll get more similar emails in the following weeks and months. The emails have a fake “unsubscribe” link that does nothing.
All these additional emails claim that the company has yet another customer with an immediate need for event photography in your area. Of course, there is no customer. The oddly worded emails are often the same with the name or date of the unidentified event changed.
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Working with news photographers at your event
If you’re planning a corporate event or any other type of event that you hope will attract the news media, then you may need some tips on how to work with the news or press photographers who will attend.
While the six media relations tips provided in that linked article may sound obvious, many companies, both big and small, can get it very wrong. It was no secret that Canada’s previous federal Conservative government was horrendously bad at running press conferences and photo ops.
“Photojournalists are not there to make your client look bad or good. We are there to represent the truth to the best of our ability and strive to maintain objectivity at all costs,” advised [Amber] Bracken [President of the News Photographers Association of Canada]. “At the same time, we also strive to capture the world beautifully, your client included.”
You need non-partisan press photographers to cover your event or photo opportunity so your company might earn the media blessing. Editorial photography published by news outlets is the most credible type of information. People trust what they see in a newspaper or magazine.
Similarly, most public relations photography and press release photography should also be editorial in nature and contain human interest. The best way to achieve this is to hire a photographer who has a journalism background and who has worked for a news publication.
Licensing Fees for Photography
There are usually three components to a commercial or corporate photographer’s price: production expenses, photo fee (or creative fee) and licensing fee (or usage fee).
The first item, production expenses, refers to all expenses directly related to the job at hand. It doesn’t include your cost of doing business. It should be straightforward as to how to determine and charge for production expenses.
Photographers often charge a markup on some of these expenses but some clients ask for receipts and will refuse to pay any markup.
One important expense is your own equipment. Some photographers charge each client a rental fee for using their own photo equipment. Other photographers put the cost of their own equipment into their cost of doing business and wrap that into their photo fee. I’m not sure which method is better but remember that the cost of your own equipment must be recouped.
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