Learn how to get the attention of more people and motivate them to contact you NOW!

JDPI will sponsor a series of five free Webinars each Monday at 1pm EST beginning August 9th and running through September 6th. These Webinars will be taught by Kirk Russell from 3Lenses.com, a professional photographer and expert in studio marketing.

If you’re looking for answers and specifics you’ll want to attend one or more of these Webinars:

• Seniors - August 9th
• Sports - August 16th
• Dance and Pre-School - August 23rd
• Families - August 30th
• Weddings - September 6th

Click on any of the dates above to reserve your seat today.

Each 60-minute webinar will teach you the nuts and bolts techniques that work, like how to segment the market with pricing, products, and session types to appeal to a broader group of clients. You’ll learn what you can do right now to get attention and motivate people to have a portrait made. Kirk will also examine some success stories, and even efforts that were not as successful, and WHY.

The goal here is to have you leave with solid information for getting your studio on track into the future and learn powerful rules of marketing that will apply to every studio.

What you will learn

• How to use New Marketing to attract the right clients
• What products and services people want TODAY
• How to price and sell products with higher profits.

As Kirk says, “Misery has enough company. Dare to be successful.” If you are ready to turbocharge your marketing efforts, this series of Webinars will work for you.

JD Photo Imaging has partnered with Kirk Russell, President of 3 Lenses Marketing & Design, to provide a new level of business and marketing support for our customers.

Over the next weeks and months, JD customers will be able to take advantage of several exclusive services from 3 Lenses including:

• Free and low-cost webinars focused on marketing and selling weddings, seniors, portraits and events.
• Professional evaluation of your studios products and prices, as well as specific recommendations to reach new sales goals.
• Private discussion threads where photographers can get answers to questions on business and marketing topics,
• Tips, tricks and techniques like phone scripts proven to increase sales up to 50%!
• Articles designed to inspire pro photographers to take their business to the next sales level.

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Kirk Russell, 3Lenses.com

The photographic industry is in the midst of a serious growth crisis. Even before the housing crisis, recession, and market crash, studios were booking fewer appointments, and clients seemed to be more price-sensitive.

Old-school solutions such as advertising more promotions or new flavor-of-the-month fads such as displaying images on boutique, graphic-enhanced web site and brochures, or using pretty delivery boxes won’t attract people who find most of today’s portrait studios outdated, unresponsive, and over-priced.

There is a parallel between today’s photo industry and the current housing market and auto industry. Luckily, we can learn from them and consequently avoid a similar fate.

Here’s the comparisons:

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A decade ago, getting your name and phone number in front of customers was simple. You put one ad in the yellow pages and one in the local newspaper.

Those days are over.

Today, over 80% of your customers will look for you online before they call. In order to make sure they can find you, below is a checklist of places your business needs to be registered so customers can find you online.

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Recently I read two articles about companies and their brands. One is building their brand, while the other seems to be throwing a great brand away.

Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) workers are using Dawn brand dish soap to clean oil off animals on the gulf coast. Dawn responded by creating a huge branding tie-in that resulted in increased sales as well as cash donations of over $400,000 to the cleanup effort.

The National Pork Producers have announced plans to drop the universally known tag-line “the other white meat” that has become synonymous with pork over the last twenty-three years. The VP of marketing was quoted as saying it was great at first, but now “it doesn’t help sales.”

Both these examples made me think of the importance of our brand to our customers. While an “offer” or an advertisement can create sales, a good brand can build your business.

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A few weeks ago I wrote an article entitled What is Your Studio’s Lagniappe? Basically it described the little unexpected gift you give a customer as a “thank you” for their business.

As you can see here, I think I’ve found a great one. These little photo key chains can be purchased on Amazon . The best rated Tao sells for less than 10 dollars.

After a bride has purchased thousands of dollars of photography from you, imagine her surprise when she comes to pick up the albums and you present this little key chain with 10-15 of the best shots from the album pre-installed. I’m guessing she’ll show it to so many friends, it will virtually pay for itself.

Here’s the trick - make the last image a jpg with your studio logo, website, and phone number.

Pick up a couple of these to give to your next high-dollar clients, and I guarantee you’ll generate some buzz.

I worked part-time at a drug store when I was in high school. Their wasn’t anything great about the store: they didn’t have great prices, and they didn’t have a great selection.

However, what they did have was 100% US Grade-A milk for 99 cents a gallon. Even then, that was a deal. I spent half of my senior year emptying and re-stacking milk crates so that the giant walk-in coolers in the back of the store were always full of fresh milk.

What does milk have to do with a drug store? Nothing. The milk was a loss-leader.

You’ve seen them before. Supermarkets put something on sale in the back of the store so you have to walk past everything else to get to it. In exchange for the great price, you put up with the inconvenience.

Marketing pros know that once you’re in the store, you’re likely to buy a few other items at full price. Nobody likes to waste time, and since you’ve already got a deal on the loss-leader, it won’t hurt to pick up a few other things. Sound familiar?

How could this work for your studio?

• If you’re a portrait photographer, offer a low-cost sitting fee.
• If you’re a wedding photographer, offer a low-cost starter package.
• If you’re shooting churches, offer a low-cost 8×10 print.

I don’t recommend this marketing strategy to everyone. Cutting prices - if not done carefully and strategically - can lead to lowering the value of your service in the mind of your customers. And some customers will frustrate you when they buy the loss-leader - and nothing else.

However, if you need to quickly generate some traffic into your studio, offering a loss-leader is a tested marketing strategy that really works.

Even if you’re studio is already on Facebook, you’re always looking for more fans. The question is, how can you get them?

Kraft Foods did it by asking folks to become a fan, then fill out a form to get a coupon for a free box of Mac & Cheese. To date, they have about 200,000 fans.

The take-away message here is, if you want to get something, you’ve got to give something. It would be easy to duplicate this for your studio, collect email addresses, then send a coupon for an upcoming special.

• Holidays
• Senior Portraits
• Wedding Consultations

Don’t just launch this Facebook promotion alone. Instead, make it part of your next marketing campaign. Use the same coupon in your email newsletter, mail it to previous customers, and put it on the front page of your website. Multiple impressions are a proven way to boost your campaign’s success.

Give it a try!

• My friend recently decided to repaint and carpet her home. She asked her 14 year old son if he’d like any changes in his bedroom. “Sure,” he said. “Can you take out the TV? I don’t watch it anymore.“
• We have a college student working as an intern at the lab. Call his cell phone, and he doesn’t answer. Send him an e-mail, and it may take hours for a reply. Send him a text, and he responds almost instantly.
• I was at a party watching a twenty-something young lady sit in the corner alone, texting on her iPhone. I asked her “who are you talking to?” “My friends,” she replied. “I’m on Facebook telling them what a great party this is.“

These three Generation-Y young adults - children born in the 70’s through the 90’s - are your new customers. They are purchasing your graduation and wedding photographs. they are starting new families. Marketing to them is different than the traditional marketing we’re all more familiar with. Here are 7 items to put on your checklist when you plan your next marketing campaign:

1. How to reach them. Social networking has replaced the phone and email. Think Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and texting. Gen-Y won’t read your email newsletter or see your ad on TV or in a magazine.

2. What to say. Sales language turns them off. They’ve already heard tens-of-thousands of ads in their lifetime, and are totally immune to old-school marketing speak. Instead, be authentic. Start by listening to them.

3. What they purchase. Apple, Jet Blue, Trader Joes, Jones Soda, Mountain Dew, Hollister, Old Navy and Red Bull. Pay attention to each of these brands when you see them in videos, magazines or in stores. They have a “little attitude” in their sales pitches, are unique players in their respective markets, and sell a lifestyle at a relatively low price .

4. What they’ll pay. We’ve all heard Jet Blue sells cheap airline tickets, but what about $3 bucks for a can of Red Bull? While that might seem like a lot of money for a tiny can of pop, Gen-Y will gladly pay it. Like Jet Blue, They trust this product to give them what it promises (Red Bull = energy) and it delivers.

5. Good Quality. Google any product on the Internet and you can read dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of opinions about that product’s quality. If you’re not offering great quality products and service, people will talk and others will listen and trust them. Once you get a reputation - good or bad - you can’t take it back.

6. Fast Service. If you quit answering your phone at 5pm, the customer who calls you at 5:05pm will be calling your competition at 5:10pm. Gen-Y doesn’t leave a “voice message” then wait for for you to call them back.

7. An Experience. Perhaps the most difficult to quantify, but the most critical marketing tip for long-term success. For an example, go down to your local mall this weekend and walk into a Hollister clothing store. The sights, the sounds and the smells all combine to make you feel like you’ve landed in a southern Californian beach party, the clothes and the sales staff all match the brand, yet the prices are not much different than you’d pay at Macy’s or J.C. Penny’s.

If you can focus your marketing on Gen-Y clients, you’ll be on your way to capturing the next generation of customers for your business.

Since the beginning of commercial photography, professional studios have used folders to frame, protect and present images to their customers.

Think of a professional photography like a gift. Gifts always looks better when they are artfully presented. If you think presentation doesn’t matter, ask a kid if they like opening wrapped presents at Christmas!

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