High-school seniors, especially girls, are thrilled to get the chance to be a model for a day with our studio. It’s not always about the pictures for our clients and their parents, however. The main reason our studio has been so successful with high-school seniors is the unforgettable experience we provide from beginning to end.
One of the goals on the vision board of a lot of wedding photographers is the high-end wedding. Depending on where you are in the world, this can have a very different connotation. I’m in the New Jersey and New York City area, one of the most expensive regions to have a wedding, where high-end means multimillion-dollar weddings at places like Cipriani and The Plaza. Whatever high-end means to you, you have to find a way to appeal to more luxurious clients. This isn’t easy, especially if you don’t run in those crowds yourself (I sure don’t). But there are ways to position yourself and your brand so you get in front of those clients and make them happy when you do.
Value is a term we hear quite a bit with packaged deals and pricing. Perceived value is what people believe something is worth. It has nothing to do with physical value. It is what our work intrinsically means to our clients. If adding value has such a strong impact on how our businesses are perceived, what can we do to systematically integrate this practice into our client experience? Supercharge your client’s perception and create immense value by focusing on: Your brand (the why), Your relationship (the who), and Your craft (the what). Here’s how to tackle each of these pillars of value perception.
Our mission at So Many Angels is to use photography to transform children battling cancer into whatever they want to be when they grow up. We are still in the launch phase, and I want to share some of the steps we have taken to hopefully become a brand that is recognized for being the best at what we do. This article is not about the legal stuff you need to do to be recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. These are just some thoughts that are fresh on my mind since the year I started sharing my dreams of this organization with others. Hopefully something here will help start you on your way.
We have spent countless hours working on our brand—everything from identifying our purpose, to networking and building relationships, to becoming a recognizable symbol in our community. Before our organization took flight, we had to establish every detail, including behind-the-scenes administrative aspects of running a charity and then photo style, color scheme and everything in between. We were laser-focused on the concept of giving through the art of photography. Whether you want to give by creating your own nonprofit or by aligning your business with an existing cause, we’d like to share with you some insights based on our experiences.
One aspect of photography that has come into play in recent years is much more prevalent to photographers than it used to be. In fact, it’s now a crucial element for all businesses, big and small. It’s the brand. While most consumers don’t know the difference between good and great photography when looking at a single image, they now instinctively know it when looking at a collection of images. Thanks to social media outlets like Instagram and Pinterest, most consumers have been passively trained to appreciate a good, consistent brand image—and recognize a bad one.
Is your brand irresistible and unforgettable? Everyone, and I mean everyone, seems to be a photographer these days. We aren’t just competing with the pros, we’re competing with consumers who have smartphones with amazing cameras. There are five major points to master if you want to be a brand that’s irresistible. Get these right, and you’re on your way to standing out in your marketplace, no matter how crowded it is.
The last time we upgraded our site was in 2011, to a popular WordPress theme. Despite its ease of use, our careful lead tracking made it clear that some pretty major roadblocks must be preventing Internet traffic from reaching us. Let’s look at some of those roadblocks—and how to fix them on your website. By the time you read this article, our brand-new Showit site will have just launched. We’ve invested a lot this year to sit down with many of the most successful web marketers in our industry. And we kept hearing the same tips about effective website design.
Your brand defines everything about your business, from the quality of your work to your involvement in the community to your reputation. It’s about the power and frequency of word-of-mouth advertising and the experience people have working with you.
Your vision is your number-one competitive advantage. Not your gear, not your fancy camera strap or your quirky logo or company name. You and your work. When someone lands on your site, they are drawn in by your imagery. Next, your personality comes into play. You nail those two things, and you will book the job. So, what does this all mean? How do you translate any of this into something actionable? Let’s get started.