How important are online reviews? According to online marketing research, 6 out of 10 potential clients look for online reviews of your studio before contacting you, and 8 out of 10 consider those reviews critical to making a purchase.

This means that even if potential clients know your name, 48% won’t consider contacting you without reading positive online reviews.

While that number should scare you, the solution is easier than you realize. Here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

by Ted Suss, Prism Photo

Is the money you’re “saving” really costing you more and not allowing you to grow your business?

Are you printing your own? Have you become a lab? Be honest; how much time are you really spending making prints and how much money are you really saving?

As a photographer, you make the most money and grow your business by marketing, shooting and selling. Everything else is secondary and non profitable. Here’s why:

Read the rest of this entry »

Dress designers do it. Car companies do it. Cell phone companies do it. Every year, new products with new features are rolled out to consumers.

People like “new”. It generates excitement. It gives them bragging rights.

Why should professional photography be any different?

To say that great photography is timeless may be artistically correct, but it doesn’t mean more sales. Read the rest of this entry »

On January 19, 2012 Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Although you’ve probably heard it elsewhere, we wanted you to know that Kodak’s bankruptcy WILL NOT have any impact on our ability to provide you, our clients, with any of the products and services you’ve come to expect from JD Photo Imaging.

We’re proud to be a Kodak lab and proud of their products.

Like any small business, the professional photographer should be constantly looking for ways to improve their website. But often, it isn’t clear which changes you need to make to “tweak” your website to make it more attractive to potential clients.

That’s why I was so excited to find this article over at SearchEngineLand.com. They asked 1,790 consumers across the country to rate what they felt was most important on a local business website. This simple graph says it all. Read the rest of this entry »

While JD is constantly adding new products to our ROES catalog, we also update older products. Occasionally a client tells us that they still see old artwork when looking at updated products.

Sometimes the ROES program just behaves strangely, and there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do to fix it.

The solution in either case is to clear the ROES cache. Here’s how:

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been talking about lagniappes for years, so I was surprised to read a new book by Stan Phelps (What’s your Purple Goldfish?) about them. Here’s what Drew McLellan writes in the forward:

True lagniappe can’t be faked or forced. We banter the word authentic around too much these days. But for lagniappe to work, it must be just that — real and offered without expectation of anything in return.

In other words – you do it because you want to, not because it’s in a marketing plan document or because your ROI calculator told you it would generate a 42.36% return. (And no…there’s no such thing as an ROI calculator!)

This is absolutely true.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kirk Russell will speak on “Effective Marketing” at the Professional Photographers of Michigan Photo Expo February 11 at the Motor City Casino Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. The session is sponsored by JD Photo Imaging.

According to Kirk, “Studios who aren’t finding ways to attract, motivate, and engage clients quickly find themselves hung out to dry. How are you hanging?” During the session, Kirk will show step-by-step examples of how to reinvent a photography studio. He will share great ideas for new products, marketing, and new processes that move people to action.

Complete information on the PPM Expo and training seminars are here.

Custom iPhone covers with your pro images are a great new product for you or your clients.

Unique and durable, these iPhone 4 cases protect phones with style. Create an image from your photography, designs or text using our easy Photoshop templates, then order it in ROES.

These iPhone 4 cases will be an amazing gift for any iPhone 4 owner. They are compatible with both the Verizon and AT&T models of the iPhone 4. In fact, our custom iPhone 4 cases offers the perfect fit for any carrier!

Each cover is vibrantly printed on durable metal, then affixed to a raised black poly frame that protects the edges of the phone.

Covers are $14.99 each. Similar covers sold online retail for $35-40 each. Start your order today!

Read the rest of this entry »

Beginning this week, we’ve redesigned our 8.5×8.5 inch press-printed photo books so that they are now 8×8 inches. This size matches our 8×8″ photo print albums.

Although you and your clients should never notice this small change, it will simplify the workflow in our book binding department.

This means slightly faster turn-around times on your 8″ photo book and album orders.

If you have any questions about the change, please contact heidi@jdlab.com or call us at 888-858-8084.