12 Marketing Lessons From Santa

Everything I know about marketing, I learned from Santa Claus.

Set yourself up for an incredible new year with the 12 marketing lessons every photographer should learn from the man in red…

1. DELIVER ON TIME – Would we still believe in Santa if he missed a year, or came late?

2. EVERYONE LOVES A GIVER – Don’t be a taker. Move the free line, and win your prospective clients over with your generosity.

3. HIRE A TEAM OF HARDWORKING ADMIN PEOPLE TO MAKE YOU LOOK GOOD – Santa gets the glory, but the elves work hard to make it all look easy. Maybe you need to hire some elves next year (Think hardworking, talented, and offshore)

4. BUILD YOUR DATABASE – Santa makes a list and checks it twice. Most photographers don’t even have a list 

Are You Ready

How is your photography business going?

I guess the answer to that question is different for everyone. It depends where you are in your photography business story, because a business like the life that it is attached to, is continually moving.

I come across lot’s of these stories a s a photography business coach.

You may be where Linda was in the story below. Read on and see if you can you relate to part or all of it.

Linda’s Story

“I was so excited! I love photography and two years ago I started a business from home. I just did portraits of children and did a “shoot and burn“, offering a CD of images for $175.

After a little mindset change and going through a lot of learning curves, and after making some hard decisions, I am now charging closer to my real worth, and I am regularly selling nearly $1,000 per sale. I have also had quite a few sales even higher than that.

What it took me so long to learn, was that people will pay a lot more than what you think you are worth.

I used to photograph a lot of sessions a week, and I thought that I was making good money. But the time and effort involved was just not worth it.

I was just about to give my photography passion away, and go back to my previous job as an administration officer for the local council, when a close friend who was also a photographer, suggested I contact Bernie to see if he could help me.

I didn’t have much hope that anyone could help me, as I am no good at selling, so I could not see any way out of my situation as I only knew Shoot and Burn.

I would show my customers their images on my computer and then give them the CD, and they would leave.

I organized to have a free Skype session with Bernie. He asked me lots of questions, and then suggested that he could help me in the key areas that I was lacking.

One was that I needed to stop Shoot and Burn, and start selling wall portraits.

Then to design a structured price list, and then to adopt a simple selling system.

The structured price list was the most important thing. Once I had that, all I would have to do, was to adopt Bernie’s unique, and easy selling system.

I would show the customer the products that I have for sale, go through all of the prices, and sit back to let them make their own decisions.

Simple really. But it worked!

Having an effective photography pricing strategy, combined with a simple selection of products to sell, resulted in less work and a lot more money.

By the way, I understand if you’re charging less than $35 each for your Gift Prints of  8×10 inches, because I was doing the same.

All I can say is that you are probably cheating yourself, because I know from my own experience that the customer is willing to pay heaps more than you think.

If you love what you do, and are passionate about your photography, sometimes you forget about the money.

You take photographs because you love it. It could be the only thing that you have found that you are really good at.

I just got so tired of working so hard and having no money in the bank.

I have spent the time, money, energy, and then even more of my time to take better photographs, so why was I giving it away?

Yes it was scary at first trying to lift my self worth and lift those prices up.

But when I did, my customers respected me more, and raved about their photographs.

My advice would be to get rid of that nervous and devalued mentality, if you have it, and get help to develop a photography pricing plan and selling structure that will take you to developing a strong photography business.

Do it for you and your family.”

Are you ready?

World’s number one photography business coach