Almost every client wants their digital image files nowadays, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they want the high-res originals to reprint.

In fact, most clients are simply looking for low res digital images to display online.

Instead of fighting this trend (and losing business), you can use this to your advantage by offering clients a CD of images “perfectly sized for Facebook, for cell phones, or for sharing with friends.” Then using Photoshop, follow the steps below to quickly build a folder of re-sized images you can email or burn to a CD.

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I was at a party recently, and ended up talking to a lady much younger than I am. We didn’t have anything in common, so I kept the conversation going by asking her two questions: “What did she do?” and “Where did she go to school?” She did most of the talking, but it was enjoyable, and after a few minutes we both drifted off into other conversations.

A week later, I ran into the same young lady at another event. Only this time, she acted like we were long-lost friends. As she chatted away, it occurred to me that the conversation we’d had a week before had somehow got her to trust me.

It works the same in marketing. Sales start with trust. Trust is built by communication, and communication starts with questions.

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I know a professional photographer who has a side business many photographers ignore. She does professional head shots. Now I’m sure you are thinking “I can do head shots too,” but are you getting any business?

Here’s how she does it.

The client pre-sets an appointment with the studio, comes in, has 3-4 shots taken, and picks the best pose off a monitor with the photographer. Within a few minutes, an assistant color corrects and emails the image to the client. The entire process takes less than half an hour, and costs $50 cash, check or Visa for each image selected. No prints. No billing.

Could this work for you? Every professional needs a current head shot, but most don’t have one.

Why not?
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If you don’t take credit cards, or if you’d like to take credit cards at an event, you should check out a new service called Squareup.

Squareup is an application that runs on any iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android phone that is connected to the internet. It lets you scan a credit card with the free Squareup credit card reader, then submit the payment online. You get a response if the credit card was accepted, the customer will get a receipt via email, and in a few days, the payment will be deposited into your bank account.

I can think of a dozen ways you could use Squareup. For example, you could take print orders from guests during a wedding reception, an event, or while shooting families in the church for portrait directories.

Here’s what you need to get started:

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When is a customer most likely to purchase professional photography? For photographers, the answer is obvious.

People purchase photography in order to record life events or milestones like weddings or graduation. However, since most folks only graduate and get married once or twice in their lifetime (no offense to Zsa Zsa Gabor), we need to educate customers about other opportunities to purchase photography.

Some studios do this by sending out postcards or emails to their old customer list before every holiday and before school starts. The problem is, the young newlyweds who just purchased a wedding album have no interest in senior graduation portraits.

While you could “segment” your mailing list like big companies do, here’s an alternative: as a professional photographer, you already know the next time any client is likely to need your services. Encourage your clients to schedule their next sitting when they pick up the prints from their last one. Your clients will never feel professional photography has a higher value than at that moment. So instead of waiting to motivate customers sometime in the future, do it while they are still in the studio.

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A potential huge client will be in the studio in the next few minutes. If all goes well, this could be your biggest sale of the year. It could put your studio in the black again. The importance of the job begins to make you perspire a little bit, and your mind begins to race around the studio looking for things to tidy up.

So with 15 minutes until the client arrives, how should you spend your time?

According to Sian Beilock in her new book Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To, panic under pressure happens to everyone. One of the secrets is to not feed the panic with negative thoughts about bad possible outcomes (the client is really broke, they don’t like your work, etc.).

So how can you apply this to your business?

I suggest you make a scrap album of all your best work, the stuff you’re most proud of. The album isn’t for anyone else but you. Fifteen to thirty minutes before the client arrives, look at each page in the album. Pause and remember the pride and accomplishment you felt when you took that image. Focus you on accomplishments, not worries.

Once you’ve settled down, walk though the entire sale in your mind. Imagine the feeling of confidence as you tell your story, handle any objections, and close the sale. Imagine always saying the right thing, and being proud of how well you will serve your new customer.

Then when the big client arrives, put the book away, and go meet them. You’ll be ready.

by Kirk Russell, 3lenses.com

Imagine the following: You’ve just created the perfect website. But as with many studios’ sites, at the end of the quarter, sales haven’t increased.

What happened? You created a beautiful site. It has galleries that feature your best images. Your web address is featured on all your marketing materials. You hire a company to register your web address with all the search engines, and to make sure your site will rank high enough to appear on the first page, if not the first one or two results of a search. And you get hits, a trickle at first, and then hundreds. You feel great. Your new marketing effort is a huge success!

It’s easy to explain. You got people interested in your photography, and then left them on their own to figure out how to buy it.

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I read an interesting article on thinkvitamin.com where a business was able to double their online customer response rate by changing the words in their website’s call to action.

You have a call to action on your website today, even though you may not realize it. It probably says something like “call now for your free consultation” or “call us today”. It is the thing you want your visitor to do after reading about your studio.

The problem with a phone number call to action is that it is really a ploy to get a potential client in the studio and sell them a package before they know what the price will be. Folks who shop online are smart enough to know this. They don’t want a high pressure sales pitch (remember free vacations in Florida if you watch a condo presentation?), so they go to the next website.

So instead of their original call to action Free Trial they tried See plans and pricing. Their response rate doubled.

If you wanted to duplicate this test, put the words “See plans and pricing” on every page on your website with a link to a new page or a one-page downloadable PDF file with your package prices. Then put your phone number on that page. If you have a second line, use that number to keep track of calls, or you can name your packages something special like prix réduit, service complet, and extraordinaire (budget, full-service, and deluxe in French). Always offer 3, most folks choose the middle one.

Try it for a month, and see if putting your prices online generates more calls.

JD’s Padded Float Wraps are mounted on a hardboard with a foam padding between the print and the mount board. A lustre or matte lamination is applied to your image. A mounting block is added on the back for a floating effect when hung on your wall.

To order Float Wraps, in ROES selct Options to choose your paper type, your finish or thin float wrap mount.

Orders for Senior Rep (also called Senior Ambassador) Books are starting to come in. If you are a senior portrait photographer, now is the time to place your order.

To get you started, we have a special for you: order any size Senior Rep Book, include an order for 96 Senior Rep business-size cards, enter the code “BOGOSEN” in ROES, and you’ll get the cards half off! To make it easy, you can order the Senior Rep Kit from the Press Printed Catalog in ROES.

And there’s more…

Order a Senior Rep book at the same time you order the cards with this code and we’ll give you a coupon for a free 16×20″ senior portrait print!

If you’re not a senior portrait photographer, here’s how it works:

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