It was a great opportunity to share with so many of you through the PhotoBiz webinar recently. I had some great feedback, especially in regard to selling images. It seems as if no matter what aspect of my business I choose to discuss, the subject more often than not turns back to the selling of images.

Selling images is a process that we began with the purchase of our first digital camera. It only made sense from a business standpoint when we ran our numbers and figured what the profit margin was on a digital file. It also made sense to me from a creative standpoint because it forced me to be a better, more creative photographer. The more images I could sell, the more profit I could make, therefore, my images needed to be unique and different, creating a sense of urgency to buy from the consumer. I could no longer get away with one or two good images and hoping to make the profit on multiple prints of each.

If you choose to sell images, it needs to be done with great care and thought, keeping the ultimate goal in mind – to sell prints later. For us, the selling of images has become secondary because our clients have learned over the course of many years that our ability to print through a professional lab is far superior to any print that they can hope to make on a home printer and our efficiency for printing far outweighs any time they would spend sitting at a kiosk in a box store. Quite simply, we can do it better.

Also remember that when you price those images, you need to get a “fair” price for both yourself and your client. There is no way of telling what an image is “worth” because unless someone wants it, it really has no value and many customers understand that. They also know that the only market you have for that image is to them – there is no other buyer who might be willing to pay a higher price. Therefore, set a price that creates a harmonious relationship with your client and encourages them to purchase several images as well as to make plans for a return session sometime in the future. We have a target sale average that we like to hit with every sale and do so by pricing our images at a point where our clients believe they get a good quantity of product for the price.

Not every session results in an image sale and there are different types of sessions – promotional sessions especially – where we do not even offer an image sale. If you’re considering selling your images try a test run first before jumping in with both feet. Offer a family or other type of portrait special where the client can purchase the image if they desire and give it a test drive. If you find that it doesn’t work in your market or if you have difficulty wrapping your head around it, then that type of sale is probably not for you.

In the meantime, take advantage of everything PhotoBiz has to offer. With the price of gas on the rise, there is no better sales tool than your website and no better provider than PhotoBiz.

In this economy, we photographers have to be much more than just lighting experts, posing geniuses, computer wizzes and marketing gurus. We need to be tip-top idea maker-upers. And you never know when a good – or great – idea is going to hit you upside the head.

For example. It is that time of year when I regularly go visit all the required doctors so they can tell me everything is fine, except that I’m getting old, come back next year and don’t forget the checkbook. So while sitting in the freezing cold office of my dermatologist in that attractive paper gown, I had the choice of staring at the walls or reading a two-year old issue of Field and Stream. Since I’d read that issue at the dentist’s office, I opted to stare at the walls. Mid-stare, I realized that they really needed something on these walls besides posters about preventing the flu and a bad framed painting of some hunting dogs.

So when the doctor came into the office, I asked him what he did in his spare time. You know, when he wasn’t looking for skin cancer or lecturing people about sun screen. He began a story about how his daughter is a triathlete and he’d just gotten back from her competition in Hawaii. I asked him, “So why don’t you have sweet pictures of triathletes on your walls here?” He stopped scanning my moles, looked puzzled and said, “You know, that’s a great idea.” Hence, I gained a client and learned a valuable lesson. 

Plant an idea with your clients and it just might grow.

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Here it is, one week before Christmas and the fall-off of studio business has probably begun. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could maintain the high-traffic that we have the four to six weeks prior to Christmas? You know, hardly any place to park in front of the building, phone ringing off the hook, emails flying all over the place?

But this week before Christmas is almost depressing – like all of a sudden some nasty girl at the next locker told all the other kids that you had bad breath.

That’s when you have to stop looking at small ideas and grasp a big idea. And who better to provide a big idea than the big players themselves.

I happened through the McDonald’s drive-thru the other day. (Ed. note: I love McDonald’s, not because their food is good for me but because they are marketing giants. Regardless of who is trying to shut them down – the government, health food people, whoever – they continue to make money. That’s marketing genius in my book.) So I decided to head to McDonald’s and see what holiday gimmick they had come up with to battle the Christmas-Is-Almost-Over Syndrome. On the giant Golden Arches sign was a message – “Buy A $10 Gift Card, Get A Hot Drink FREE.” Since I’d been wanting one of those yummy-looking peppermint hot chocolate drinks and it was cold outside and my kids should always have a McDonald’s gift card, I bought not only one gift card, but four. In return, I got four yummy, peppermint hot chocolates. (Ed. note: I only drank one on the spot, saving the other three for subsequent cold days.)

Realizing I’d fallen head-first into the McDonald’s marketing trap, I scurried back to the studio and created my own version of this marketing idea.

“Buy $20 in studio gift cards – get $5 free.”

We posted it on the website and sent out a mass email, even offering free shipping. The next day, the phone began to ring and the email heated up again. We were popular again. Our offer not only appealed to our regular customers who knew what a great deal they were getting, but we appealed to those “last minute shoppers” who were wanting to get loved ones something more than a gift card for cheese or gasoline.

That’s why – when my marketing tank runs on low – you’ll generally find me in the McDonald’s drive thru line.

It was 28-degrees and dark at 6 a.m. this morning as I hit the road for my morning run.  As I passed through the local neighborhoods I could smell coffee brewing and caught the familiar sounds of the dogs who religiously await my passing three days a week.

Yes, I am a runner.

I don’t claim to be an “avid” runner, because that would mean I actually enjoy the pain that shoots through my feet, knees and hips when I run.  That would also mean that I’d rather be on the pavement at 6 a.m. in freezing weather than snuggled under my down comforter, hoping my husband has brewed me a cup of tea.  But I do it because it is good for me.

Since I’ve been running, my blood pressure has dropped, my waistline has gotten smaller and my business has almost doubled.  And if you caught that, then you’ll know I’m going to explain the connection between running and your business.

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I found myself in an unusual spot this past weekend and learned a lot about my customers because of that.

You see, my oldest daughter got married this past weekend and I was the Mother of the Bride. Normally, as a professional photographer, the title, “Mother of the Bride,” is enough to make the best of us cringe. I had decided that I wouldn’t be “one of those” mothers and I’d be totally different than all the moms I’ve had to deal with over the past 20-some years.

But, hey, it was weird. I was standing behind the photographer (one of the best, mind you), watching her work and I had the uncontrollable urge to grab my point-and-shoot and photograph over her shoulder. I fought the urge, but it continued throughout the afternoon. Then during the wedding ceremony itself, a guest sat down in the second row from the front and proceeded to photograph the ceremony – WITH AN ON-CAMERA FLASH. (Was it the on-camera flash or the annoyance that she was ruining the lighting of the candlelight wedding?)

And, last but not least, I found myself asking the photographer that awful question, “When can I see the images?”

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