Since we know that couples book their facilities before they book their photographer, make sure to take very flattering images of every reception facility where you find yourself. Make prints of these images, making sure to tastefully include your company name and contact information on the image itself, and then send the images to the facility free of charge. Include an invoice with the images. Show the value of the images on the invoice, and then show a 100% discount. List the reason for the discount as “professional courtesy”.

If the images are of good enough quality, it is possible the facility manager will use your images as a sales tool to reserve couples for their facility. In essence, the facility manager becomes your agent. When you have made your vendor images, be sure to deliver them in person. Use the opportunity to build a professional relationship and contact. Let them meet you face to face. Let them experience your passion and professionalism.

Now that you have this general idea of vendor prints, put it to good use. Send images to the florist. Who made the cake? Who made the dress? Who sold the wedding bands? Send them all images they can advertise with. I’ll bet they would love to show your images.

Vendor Referrals is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

When writing a blog entry about a specific facility you photographed, make sure to include the name of the facility. With any luck, when someone searches for that facility name on Google, your blog and site will appear in the search results. More than likely anyone searching for that facility is also in need of a wedding photographer. You can take this tactic one step further and include the company name of every vendor that participated in the wedding you photographed. Talk about who made the cake. Talk about where your client got her dress. Talk about where they got their rings. Talk about the florist. This may help your blog show up in search results for other search terms other than your own. If you haven’t photographed at a certain facility, but you want to shoot there, write a blog entry about that desire. Write the entry with the knowledge that once you post the entry, people searching for the name of that wedding facility on Google may now see your blog entry come up in their search result.

There is one more thing that you need to consider when writing a blog entry with the intention of including wedding vendors in the entry with the hopes of having your company name show up in search term results. Couples planning a wedding purchase and reserve the services of the wedding vendors they require in a certain order. Understanding this pecking order will make you more efficient.

The first thing a typical couple will reserve when planning their wedding is the location of their ceremony. The second thing they will reserve is the location of their reception. Sometimes the ceremony location and the reception locations are the same.

With their facilities safely reserved, they can then begin to shop for additional vendors. The reason couples do not begin shopping for vendors first, and locations for their wedding second, is because most wedding vendors require a retainer to reserve their services, and in most cases these retainers are nonrefundable.

Whether they know it or not, next on the couple’s shopping list should be the vendors that can only be at one place at one time. The photographer and the band are normally at the top of this list and I would say for most couples the photography is of course more important.

So what does this information tell us? It tells us when we make our blog entries we should always include the names of the facility where we photographed. Of course, we can include the names of the florist and the cake maker in our blog entries, but when it comes to the pecking order of how our clients shop, we know that they are going to normally purchase the flowers and a cake after they have reserved the services of a photographer. This means that you will get very few referrals from florists and cake makers. Your largest source of referrals is going to come from facility managers and catering directors.

If you know the name of the catering director or facility manager, make sure to include the person’s name in the blog entry and make them aware that you have done so. Let them know you are marketing their services. Simply send an email to the catering director with a link to your blog entry.

Happy blogging.

Efficient Blogging is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series of articles about albums for the professional photographer. In this article we will examine the album as a professional value added product. Not just being a material object, the album is another way for your client to have an emotional re-connection to his or her event or moment. Sure, photos will be framed and hung on the wall and there may be a DVD; but unlike these, the album is a treasure to be viewed at one’s own pace. The experience will be an amazing and visceral time. The reason for this impact is that an album is an emotional, artistic and unique platform for photo presentation. It will become a family treasure, a keepsake allowing your client the ability to relive the moment in a stylish and personal way. Most importantly, your client has the ability to bring it anywhere he or she goes. This is what we call mobile marketing.

These are your images that your client will be showing off to everyone she or he knows. With your studio logo and contact info placed strategically into the design on the last page, your work will receive attention and be known as yours by your client’s family, friends and acquaintances. This is a key feature and benefit of adding an album to any package or making it a hot item that your client cannot ignore. An album also allows all kinds of different marketing purposes by getting it to your vendors and by displaying it in the studio so it will highlight and showcase your business and your best images. Beyond marketing purposes, an album is another avenue for studio branding. With an album, you get another chance to show off your style to your potential and current clients. So by adding an album to your current package you are increasing the importance to your package and increasing your earning potential. By offering an album, in a package or a la carte, you are offering another product that helps you, as a professional photographer, stand above all the amateurs and prosumers trying to undercut your business. This is especially true when you offer an album product from a professional album company like Forbeyon.

Through product differentiation, an album is an exciting and unique value added product that allows your client another way to view his or her pictures and reconnect with his or her event or moment. The album is also a professional product that increases your earning potential, differentiates you from the prosumer market, heightens your studio branding, lets you stand out from the other photographers and can be your strongest marketing tool. See your studio take off in this changing economy by adding this wonderful product into your product and service lineup. Next time we will be talking about image selection and how it relates back to the album as a professional value added product.

Albums as a Professional Value Added Product is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum