Let’s make it a date

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Sometimes a potential client will ask a photographer, “What day is good for you?” or “When are you available next month?”

The photographer should never answer with something like, “Oh, any time is good for me” or “I’m open on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 25th and 28th of next month.”

Both of these answers suggest that the photographer is sitting around doing nothing. While this may very well be true, there’s no need to broadcast that business is slow. If a restaurant has no customers, something must be wrong with its food, right?
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About the About

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Most photographer web sites have some type of an About Us page where the photographer writes something about their background. Often, this is a waste of a web page.

First, potential clients don’t care about a photographer’s hobbies, where they went to school or what their dog’s name is. All of this is irrelevant to a customer who’s really looking for some indication that the photographer might be the answer to their photo needs.

Second, by talking only about themselves, the photographer leaves one person out of the conversation: the client.
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Telling not selling

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Most photographers don’t want to be a salesperson selling photography. Many hate to advertise or promote themselves. Most don’t want to call attention to themselves by yelling, “Hire me!”

Photographers generally just want to go out, make some nice pictures and then have a cheque magically arrive in the mail. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. You must show loud confidence in your business. If you’re not confident about you then the customer won’t be confident about you.

In the previous post, I wrote about advertising, marketing and being remarkable. In that post, it was suggested that advertising isn’t always the best option when marketing a business. But other forms of marketing are possible and even required.

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Remarkable Marketing

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Andy Sernovitz, a marketing guy, wrote:

Advertising is the cost of being boring.

If your customers won’t talk about your stuff, you have to pay newspapers and TV shows to do it for you.

Robert Stephens,  founder of the Geek Squad, made a similar statement:

… advertising is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.

Have you ever seen an ad for Google or Facebook? When was the last time you saw a Starbucks TV commercial? How often does a pro sports league like the NBA advertise its product?
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List of ingredients

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Many years ago, professional photographers would often state that they used Nikon, Hasselblad or Sinar cameras. By pointing out that they used these highly-regarded brands, the photographers were hoping to be seen as being more professional than photographers who used other camera brands.

If a commercial client knew the photographer was using a Nikon, Hasselblad or Sinar, that client would be more confident that the photo assignment would be a success.

“Ingredient branding” is when an ingredient or component of a product or service has its own brand identity. An ingredient brand adds its own brand value to a business, product or service. Ingredient branding can help differentiate and elevate a business or product from its competitors. This can influence customer preference and help support higher pricing.

Well-known examples of ingredient brands are Gore-tex, Intel, Teflon, NutraSweet, Shimano, Lycra, Kevlar and Dolby.
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Professional Passport

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While renewing my passport, I noticed a few odd things on the application form:

• The federal government doesn’t recognize self-employed or unemployed people. The two choices are: having an employer or being a student. Two other permitted answers are “retired” and “homemaker.” Didn’t the term “homemaker” go out of style 20 years ago?

• Why are someone’s marital status and weight required for getting a passport?

• Why is mother’s maiden name a requirement? For some folks, this information is not known. Maybe this should be like when you sign up for an online service and you have to choose your “secret question” for identification purposes (e.g. name of first pet, name of high school, favourite food, etc.).

• The passport picture not only has to be in focus but it also has to be clear and sharp. Does clear mean transparent? Does sharp mean I have to look sharp? Should I wear a freshly ironed, see-thru shirt for my photo?

• Most important: no smiling allowed in your passport photo. If it looks like you’re having fun, the government will reject your picture. Some countries, like Canada and the UK, ban passport smiles under the slightly misguided belief that a smile will hinder facial recognition software.

• The Canadian government commands that only a “commercial photographer” is allowed to shoot passport photos. That’s right, no amateurs allowed! Only a professional photographer can shoot $8.95 passport pictures. Professional photographers own the lucrative passport picture business! We’re saved!

 

Eight days a week

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If a photographer wants to gross $100,000 per year, all they have to do is:

Make $50/hour, forty hours per week, fifty weeks of the year.

Or, do just one $275/day newspaper job every day of the year.

Or, shoot just one $1,925 corporate assignment per week.

Or, just one $3,850 wedding every other week.

Or, complete just one $8,340 advertising job per month.

Or, shoot just one $100,000 international marketing campaign per year.

Easy right?

 

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