In it, I discussed why, especially when you’re first starting out, paying for advertising is a bad idea. While it might seem like an easy way to get some clients fast, it turns out that there are a lot of free ways to score clients that actually work better than paid advertising!

2.2013: How to land more clients

(Click the image below to read the full article PDF)

>>Read the full article and get some free marketing ideas for photographers

Posted with permission by Professional Photographer Magazine

At the end of the post, Jenika suggests that photographers consider breaking up their photography prices into smaller chunks rather than stating the fee in one lump sum. She talks about how people spend money, and how they tend to look at spending $100 on 10 small items as less significant than spending $100 on 1 item. In other words, they spend $100 on 10 small items without even thinking about it. But they pause and consider value if they’re faced with the decisions of spending $100 on 1 item.

I don’t disagree at all, and think it is wise to break photography prices down in a way that makes it digestible for a customer’s own personal “cash flow”, so long as it never puts the photographer’s revenue at risk.

How To Protect Your Revenue

• Ensure the customer is always paying in advance of the services or products being rendered (you do not have time to chase after money or unpaid invoices)
• Resist the urge to throw in freebies (it’s eating away at your profit margin, unless you worked in the freebie pricing already and it’s just “marketing”)
• Be sure to break down installments into just that; do not discount the fee you’d make if they were to pay it all at once

And sometimes, despite your efforts to offer broken down payments, clients are just plain cheap. They don’t want to pay the photography prices you need to charge for your work in order to run a healthy and profitable business. This has absolutely nothing to do with the photography industry. This is prevalent in all industries. There are people who window shop in Apple stores, Coach stores, clothing stores, and more every day. While they’d love to own the products in those stores, either they truly cannot afford them because of essential cost of living expenses or they just don’t quite value the products enough.

And you know what? That’s okay.

Apple and Coach don’t mark down their items every time a window shopper walks out of the store without making a purchase, and neither should you.

How to spot a “cheap client” from a mile away:

• They haven’t even seen your work, yet, and their first question is “how much do you charge?”
• They try to negotiate with you on your session fee
• You engage them in a pre-sales discussion about how they’ll use the images you create, but they don’t engage much back with you, get excited or show other early buying signs
• When you finish your awesome script and ask them a million questions about what they’re looking for in a shoot, they bring it right back around to price immediately
• When you tell them what clients spend with you, on average, they pause, think for longer than normal or say “hmmmm…” out loud

Be the hot prom date.

I don’t know about you, but when I was younger, I always got googley-eyed for the guy who would never seriously date me. I wasn’t a competitive person, per se, but I did have a crush on a boy who did not feel one ounce of emotion toward me (I saw him at a high school reunion a few years ago, and he looked awful… in case you were at all curious).

So I’m going to be so bold as to suggest that you stop trying to win over these types of “cheap clients” by either entertaining their discount requests or by desperately saying whatever comes to your mind when they hesitate in sticker shock.

How to act differently toward “cheap clients”

Whenever you’re involved in a conversation with someone who qualifies as a “cheap client”, go on the offensive.

• I’m not for everyone: Say something to the effect of, “I realize I’m not for everyone, and if you’re not ready to invest in my photography, I completely understand.”
• Play hard to get: Follow the statement above with, “I tend to book out 4-6 weeks/months in advance, but I’d love to fit you in when I’m able to if you change your mind.”
• Get their email address and put them on your list: And then end the conversation, but not until you gather their email address, if you haven’t already. A little weekly or monthly email campaign never hurts as a reminder!

You’ve got other business to attend to, other clients (with money) to attract, and these “cheap clients” honestly aren’t worth your valuable time. If their definition of your value changes, they’ll be back. If their definition of your value doesn’t change, they won’t. And either case is a win/win for you, because you’re not jeopardizing the financial health of your business by spending time on the window shoppers.

So while it may seem like common sense, unless you define who you’re looking for, the chances that they’ll come knocking at your door are slim. After all, until you define them, you cannot redesign your business to match what they desire.

First, define photography clients you love

Grab a piece of paper to jot down your thoughts. By following this easy three-step exercise, you’ll begin to define the types of photography clients you want:

1. Name the customers you want to be working with. (If you cannot name names, here, because you haven’t worked with anyone you actually want to work with, yet, describe the person in as many words as possible, instead.)

2. What do you think they want from you? (Go a few levels deeper than just saying “photographs”. There are no wrong answers. Brainstorm a bit and see what you come up with.)

3. What are you appealing to, emotionally, for them? (In other words, how does the experience you want to create for them and the images impact their lives, emotionally?)

3 easy steps to find photography clients you love

Now that you know a little more about these clients, let’s discover how to find them, shall we?

Using that same piece of paper, write down your thoughts to the following three questions.

1. Where do the type of clients you named or wrote about above hang out? Where do they go for information or for other services like yours?

2. Where are you currently marketing your photography that they absolutely aren’t?

3. Does your current marketing clearly explain the emotional experience you have to offer, as it relates to the emotional impact you hope have on their lives?

After these two simple exercises of defining the perfect client and taking note of where they hang out, you’re better equipped to find them. In addition, if you noted any marketing you’re currently doing for your photography business that is not in a place where these ideal clients hang out, consider ceasing that particular marketing effort or phasing it out over time.

For most of us, building a business where we find photography clients we love working with equates to endless happiness and referrals to more photography clients just like them.

Want to make more money as a photographer and find photography clients you love?

To be sure to hear about the launch of my next e-book, sign up with your email address below.

Follow me on Facebook or Google+, too, while you’re at it to watch the build up to the launch.

When you head out to the store to buy a new shirt, an end table for your bedroom, or a box of rice, do you break out a calculator and ponder what it actually cost for the retailer to sell that item to you?

If you were to hire someone to do something special with your hair or pretty up your lawn with some custom landscaping, do you do the math to see how they broke even on the deal?

If the answer is no, then why would you create your photography prices that way?

Create value first, check the financial health of your photography prices second:

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you build your price list with no concept of how much you need to earn. Do you have to ensure your prices will allow you to break even, and then earn you a little more? Absolutely! This is an essential step that you should consider doing before you publish your pricing.

What I am suggesting, however, is that you approach your photography prices from a slightly different angle, first.

Here’s what I mean:

1. What specific thing are you super awesome at that very few can match?
If you feel there is some thing… I mean ONE thing… that you do better than your competition, start there. Identify that thing and have it in your brain. For me it’s shushing babies patiently. I’m not a better photographer. I don’t do lighting better. But I do shush babies better.

2. How valued is it for those potentially hiring you?
If your ONE awesome thing is not valued by the vast majority of those potentially hiring you, it’s worthless. In other words, it’s great you can do it, but it holds zero value. And when it comes to pricing, this becomes a problem.

I know that a #1 concern of early moms hiring newborn photographers is how the baby will behave. They worry and stress over it. If I can communicate how I’m the top awarded baby shusher in the Philadelphia area, I’ve won big value. And, as an added bonus, I’ve enhanced the mom’s experience because she’ll end up having a more enjoyable time at the shoot if baby is quiet and safe with me.

If your ONE awesome thing isn’t valued, go back to the drawing board and come up with a new awesome thing. Ask yourself whether it’s valued over and over until you uncover your ONE truly awesome thing (otherwise known as your key differentiator, value proposition or unique selling proposition).

3. How much is it worth?
I mean, really. How much is it worth to hire you to not only create amazing photographs, but to also gain access to your ONE awesome thing?

I’m imagining that at this point, all sorts of “head trash” is bubbling up in your thoughts. You’re beginning to guess your value and your worth. You’re deflating your value because you don’t think you deserve it, but, ultimately, by allowing this, you’re damaging the future success and well-being of your business.

So, instead, use those brain cells to imagine yourself providing the most amazing experience you could possibly provide to the most supportive and appreciative client on the planet (you know… the person who most wanted your ONE awesome thing).

How much do you think they would pay?

Starting to figure out your pricing based on this approach, first, allows you to think grander, to shoot higher and to realize a photography business based on value, not cost.

I’m working on something bigger: sign up to be the first to hear about it

I’ve watched the photography industry become plagued by a lack of value-based decisions. I’ve listened to photographers tell me their struggles with pricing and getting clients to pay them what they deserve. And rather than sit back and just listen, I feel commanded to do something about it.

I’m in the midst of writing a new e-book about building a value-based photography business. Be sure to hear about the launch, by signing up with your email address below.

Follow me on Facebook or Google+, too, while you’re at it to watch the build up to the launch.

The magazine is an asset to photographers and boasts some impressive articles, advice and coverage of various issues photographers face.

I received permission by the head of the publication to begin posting my column here, as well. She’s a very awesome lady named Jane Gaboury, and I’m proud to now call her a friend.

Here’s the first one from 2013. The remaining columns from the first half of the year will follow over the next few weeks, and then I’ll post them each month as the magazine comes out.

1.2013: Finding a good fit

The ideal photography clients are different for every photographer. Only you know what satisfies you creatively and financially. You can define that ideal client and increase your odds of having one for your next session. Grab a piece of paper and draw a big line down the middle. Label the columns “Bad clients” and “Ideal clients.”

>>Follow the next 5 steps in this article to learn what to do next, and get more photography clients you LOVE!

Posted with permission by Professional Photographer Magazine

There are few things that bring us photographers as much angst as our photography prices. Like the first love note we ever wrote plagued by scratch outs and worn thin with an eraser, we write out our prices, hit delete, stare at blinking cursors, then venture to competitor sites, go back to our own prices, subtract some dollars, add more package options, and hit save.

Then, we repeat the same exercise in a week, in a month and then every month thereafter. Even if we don’t get around to physically changing our photography prices, we are definitely thinking about it. Often.

A photographer’s guide to getting more sales using better photography prices

NOTE: Better DOES NOT MEAN less expensive.

No, better means with more thought and with more alignment to what your customers want to buy from you.

All too often I review photographer price lists where the photography prices resemble the infamous chinese menu.

One’s photography price list can be unnecessarily overwhelming and long. In the end, very few customers ever choose most of what you offer. And worse, in some cases customers are left feeling like they need an advanced degree to comprehend what you offer and understand it well enough to choose.

I challenge you to consider these enhancements to your own photography prices

1. Simplify your list to the three packages that sell the most often.
I know what you’re thinking. But what if someone wants something different? What if I lose a sale because a package isn’t listed that a customer wants? Well, what if I said that you might be losing sales because your current list of current photography prices is just too long?

If they really want it, and if they really want to hire you, they’ll ask.

2. Good, Better, Best.
After you select the three packages you believe sell best, make sure they are each at varying levels. For example, ideally each of the three packages provides customers with different price point options for what they personally value and for how much they trust you to provide what they want.

If the three packages you selected are very close in value and in your involvement, consider shifting things around until you have a “good package”, a “better package” and a “best/have it all package”. These names are just for illustrative purposes, and I encourage you to name them whatever you’d like.

3. Co-select the best option for each customer.
When a customer calls or emails and asks for more information on your pricing, I highly recommend the next words you say are “sure, but can I ask a few questions, first?”

Your job is to then inquire and get them talking about what they want. Before reaching out to you, they may not know what they want, exactly. And 99% of your customers need your help deciding (even though the same 99% probably won’t ask for your help).

Once you get a customer talking, you get them excited. You can ask more questions to draw out what they want from you. This may seem scary at first, but just like anything else, practice will only make you better. Anything is better than just emailing the photography prices and hoping they’ll take the right next step.

I’m curious to learn what your photography prices have taught you about what customers want to buy.

Share your experiences. You just might be included in my next project to help photographers rethink their services and sell more (while working less).

You weren’t a race car driver, baseball player or a police(wo)man.

And you didn’t want to be a pilot, doctor or a train conductor.

Mom, why did you become a photographer?

My six year-old son and I were walking to school one day. It was a day like any other day. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping. We were holding hands walking the same two blocks we walk to school together every day.

And truth be told, when I was 18 years old and checked off my major on my college application, I had no idea I would be where I am today. Holding this sweet little boy’s small hand. Pondering the right answer to his question.

So rather than one right answer. I gave him a few.

Because when I create photographs, I smile.

Because when I see how the photograph comes out, I always learn something.

Because when I see how the photographs make people feel, it means a lot to me.

Because being a photographer makes me really happy.

And when you’re choosing what you want to be, there is nothing more important than that.

After I was done rattling off answers, we both grew quiet.

My son’s quietness as he kicked a rock down the sidewalk made me wonder what he was thinking. I wondered if anything I had said made any sense. Or if none of it sunk in at all.

And then, in my son’s typical comedic form, he said something that made me laugh out loud.

It proved to me, at the very least, he listened.

He said:

But Mom, if you want people to give you money for your photographs, they have to be good.

Yick.

But writing your own photography blog doesn’t have to take the wind out of your sails. In fact, here are three never-before-seen ways to make writing and creating a photography blog fun.

1. Answer the questions you always get.
As photographers, we always get the same questions. What should I wear to the shoot? What happens if it rains? Or, the inevitable, can I get the whole disk of images?

Remember that a photography blog is more than a forum for showing off your images. It can be informative, and, when done right, it can be a fun way to better inform your clients.

Fear that you’ll write a blog post that no one will see? Make sure you drive eyeballs to the blog post. For example in a pre-shoot email to a new client, reference the blogs you’ve written on commonly asked questions using hyperlinks that go directly to the blog post.

Put some time into each post and add a little creativity. By driving traffic to these posts as you engage with new clients, you’ll not only be informing them in a fun way, but you’ll also be assisting with your own website’s search engine optimization performance by housing this information in your blog instead of being in email text only (which search engines cannot see, and therefore cannot give you credit for creating).

2. Write about shoots you want to do.
Don’t use your photography blog to document shoots you’ve done (that’s what the gallery is for!). Use it as a want ad, instead. Blog about the kinds of shoots you want to do. Heck, even grab a few friends for an afternoon and shoot a mini session in order to illustrate what you’re capable of creating.

Perhaps it’s a couple who isn’t afraid to be photographed in the misty rain.

Or maybe it’s a commercial ad for a new line of baby attire.

Even better, perhaps you want to get into an entire new kind of photography and want to tell the world about it.

Whatever it is, make sure you’re marketing your interest and your abilities using your photography blog.

3. Blog in your underwear.

With your fav guilty-pleasure song playing in the background.
Some of us take for granted how lucky we are to be photographers and small business owners. For the most part, we get to control our schedules. We control when we wake up every day. We control where we work.

To make blogging more fun, do it somewhere more fun!

If your back is aching and your eyes are burning from editing, consider blogging on a blanket outside under some trees. Or perhaps you head out to your favorite coffee shop for some inspiring aromas.

Where ever you choose to do your blogging each week, make it somewhere fun. It will assist you in not only looking forward to it more, but also in your creativity and the life you put into it.

Oh… and if you’re wondering, I’m actually blogging on my floor in my pajamas. A minute ago I was watching Dancing With The Stars (now my guilty pleasure is out… I’m uber embarrassed), but it just ended. And if I could actually type and paint my toenails at the same time, I would. Since I can’t, I’m using that as my motivation for wrapping this puppy up. Now, to just pick a color…

Do you have photography blog tips of your own to share?

Share your own tips for making blogging more fun. I promise to comment back, and offer further free advice on blogging for anyone needing some more help.

Three tips for creating not-so-sucky photography marketing

1. Don’t offer a limited time percentage off coupon. Offer something different.
The only people who are going to jump on a limited time offer coupon and redeem it are people who were thinking of hiring you anyway. You aren’t going to attract drones of people out of thin air, and therefore, you may risk your own profitability.

At best, you landed some clients paying you less money than they otherwise might have. At worst, you appear as a “cheaper” photographer willing to adjust your pricing on a whim.

However, there may be a way to always offer something to people who would otherwise be on the fence. Perhaps it’s a mini-session that’s perpetually on your package list. Or perhaps there is something creative, fun, highly enjoyable and of lower cost than your normal packages.

2. Run a Facebook contest
Consider a contest that encourages clients to share their images for a chance to win. Clients who share your images to hundreds — if not thousands — of people puts you in front of a large audience of potential clients.

If running Facebook contests makes you squeamish because of Facebook’s strict contest rules, consider making things easier by doing it through a company like OfferPop.

While you may not get 300 calls, your contest will be successful if you grow likes. Growing likes (especially within your target audience, and your past client’s friends should be like them, right?!) is something to leverage moving forward.

A Facebook contest is a longer-term strategy for creating a community to market to over time.

3. When you blog, remember who you’re talking to
All too often photographers enter diary-style blog posts. They’re full of beautiful images, of course. But they’re homages to past clients, rather than acts of courting new ones.

Your future clients may care what your style is all about, but they’ll visit your portfolio or gallery for that. Your blog, on the other hand, should contain content that aims to educate the potential client.

An example of a photographer who does an amazing job at educating her buyer is Kelly V. Photography. Every Wednesday, for example, she posts inspiration boards displaying photo shoot wardrobe ideas for her clients. At the bottom of each post, she also includes links of where to purchase the clothing items, in case her clients want to get items in advance of a shoot. An example outfit inspiration board is found here.

What more marketing advice, totally FREE?

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>>Sign up here.

How do I know? Because you said so.

I recently engaged in a chain of comments on Facebook from photographers wishing they knew how to better balance life and a photography business. Out of all of the struggles photographers face, striking a balance was the one you faced the most.

I couldn’t agree more.

You see, balancing life and any new business IS ridiculously hard. Whether you’re starting a business while working at another job, or just trying to find time among all the other life to-do’s, being a photographer is very demanding.

In my guest post on Tiffinbox, I talk about my honest, non-expert tips on how I’m launching my own photography business with an embedded sense of balance.

Find out if there’s such thing as balancing a photo business >>

I also posted on the Photocrati blog this week about photography websites and the things you need to do to ensure they’re going to convert for you.

After all, as you launch a photography business, having a website that sends you a whole bunch of new clients can’t hurt, right?

Learn how to make your website perform >>