Start your photography business out on the right foot. Add every client you have to your mailing list.

Here are some ideas of things you can put in your newslettert.

1. Offer a free family portrait session to the first ten people who contact you.
2. Show examples of an executive portrait you just completed.
3. Make a special on wedding album sales for people who did not purchase a wedding album.  Do you think you can sell a wedding album with a single email?  If you have a large mailing list, you may be able to sell more than one if you use the right language in your newsletter.
4. Create three annual family portrait specials, each in a different quarter.  Portraits in the park, beach, Mother’s Day.
5. Announce efforts you have done with a local charity.
6. Post an image from your last bridal, engagement, or family portrait session.  Talk about them in detail and educate people as to why it is a good image.
7. Create a photographic tour of your studio.
8. Have you acquired any new photographic equipment?

A newsletter reminds past clients that you are still out there.  While you may be extremely passionate about your photography and craft, the truth is they have already forgotten about you.  Your past clients are just as passionate about their own craft and have little time for anything else.  More than likely, they are not thinking about you.

Start a newsletter today.  Right now! I use Mail Chimp, and it’s FREE.

By the end of the day today, create a newsletter and contact your old clients and let them know you are thriving.  Provide links for them to refer you to their friends.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised what you can accomplish with a well constructed news letter.

You might even want to start a separate newsletter just to communicate with the other wedding vendors in your area.  Tell them about the continuing education you are doing.  Share vendor shots that you have recently taken.  Share links to entries in your blog that feature a certain vendor.

A newsletter can be a powerful tool, or, you can just go about your business trying to generate all new clients each and every month and forget about your past happy clients.

Your call.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Daily Photography Tip – The Power of Newsletters is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

My eBook, Actions You Can Take To Promote and Protect Your Studio,  normally sells for $9.95. Receive it free by joining our mailing list to the right.  Please feel free to immediately unsubscribe from the list once you receive your eBook.  Seriously.  We understand that you don’t want to be bothered.  Our goal here on the PPBF is to educate amateur portrait photographers.  However, if you would like additional free photographic education, then you might want to consider staying on the list for a week, just to test out the waters.

For a limited time, as soon as you join our mailing list, we are going to send you a discount code good for 50% off a membership to our forum.

Once you fill our out form, you will be asked to confirm your subscription, and once you do you will be sent an auto responder with a link to download your free eBook.  Once you have your book, simply unsubscribe from our list.  Simple.

Just fill out our subscription form to the right to get started.

We hope you enjoy your free eBook.  Here are a few things people are saying about it.

“I‘ve been a professional wedding photographer for 14 years, and I can honestly say we have generated thousands upon thousands of dollars for my studio by using just one of the calls to action described in this eBook, and we continue to use this business technique today. The information is worth so much more than the price of the eBook!”
David Jones, CPP

“Aric quickly takes you to the next level in your profession as he shares his secrets of success.”
Alvin Gee
Master of Photography PPA
Photographic Craftsman PPA
Camera Craftsmen of America

“If you are even considering entering the Wedding Photography World, this is a must “hands on primer”. Read the book, study the book, then DO the book.
Aric has such great practical ideas to save you such headaches and heartaches, and well as the all important Money matters…..You should know this book like you know your camera manual!
Best wishes and blessings to all who strive to create such precious memories and stories for others.”
Carol Andrews
Master Photographic Craftsman,
Approved Business Instructor
SMS photographic Consultant and Instructor
PPA Board Of Directors

“These no nonsense tips aren’t just for beginning wedding photographers. Everyone can benefit from Aric’s insight. I wish someone had told me some of these when I was first starting out – it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.”
Brad Barton
A major contributor of The Texas Photo Forum with over 10,000 posts.

Do you feel like you are a business owner standing in a 50′ hole?

FREE eBook is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

Are you folks familiar with Garry Winogrand?  If so, then great – this will make perfect sense.  If not, click on the link at the end to a short story written by a gentleman who took a workshop with Garry.   So, how does vague and seemingly unconnected start have anything to do with Wedding Photography?   Good question…

While I was sitting in a workshop with a mentor of mine, Don Giannatti from Phoenix, AZ, he was telling us a story about a photographer named Garry Winogrand. What set Garry apart (among other things once you read some biographies) was that he never looked at images right away.  Most of the time, he waited a year, sometimes two, before processing the film.  His thought was that he should have no recollection of taking the image because it would cloud his vision on whether or not it was a “good” photograph.

Of course, there were always exceptions.  So, it was noted that if Garry felt particularly excited about a photograph – or just wanted to see it right away – he would develop it immediately.  However, as I understand it, the norm was that the film sat in their canisters for quite some time before ever being developed.

So, as a Wedding Photographer – you certainly cannot allow your images to sit there for a year before you look at them.  You wouldn’t have any clients.  But, what you can do is go back after that year and look through the wedding to see if anything jumps out at you.  I discovered this by accident.

We are working on creating a few new sample albums for our studio – and one in particular was from a Wedding in June 2009.  We had, for some reason, never made a sample album from it.  We had a few favorites from that wedding that we had used in marketing and such, but I realized that I was looking at the images in an entirely different way because it had been a year since I had seen them.

What I realized was that as my tastes changed, and I had another year of education, photography, and experience behind me – I was able to see things in the photos that I hadn’t seen before.  So, I encourage you to go back through your weddings – with a more experienced eye than you had before.  Find some new photos – you can potentially enhance your portfolio without having to do too much work.

Stay tuned to the Pro Photo Business Forum – next week I’ll be posting a workflow article on keeping track of your favorite images that way they’re easily at hand for promotional purposes.

Thanks everyone for reading – below are some links referenced in the article.

A story about Garry Winogrand
Lighting Essentials by Don Giannatti

Take a look back is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum