A Marketing Opportunity and Your Blog

© iQoncept - Fotolia.com

I caught a TV commercial for a law firm recently.  Their approach was interesting and brought to mind a suggestion I've made a few times over the years.

They finished the ad with a series of questions, each starting out with "Before you hire an attorney..." They then listed things like, find out how many clients they've represented, how many times have they actually gone to court, etc.

With a good blog you have the ability to write a post, with the same type of theme. "Before you hire a photographer..." The post itself is going to look generic, but the truth is, you're going to make sure you can always give a positive answer to every question for your own business.

So many of you have terrific skill sets, but need to do a better job reinforcing your qualifications, track-record and proven experience. This is an interesting way to approach your qualifications, while still being helpful. In fact, you don't even need to answer the questions regarding your own experience, but the answers can become talking points when you're contacted by a client.

Just remember one key point...NEVER NEGATIVE SELL. Don't take shots at your competitors, but spend the time reinforcing your skills and understanding of the business.  Here's a prime example:  Years ago Rollei ran a print ad with the headline, "While Hasselblad has slept, Rollei turned dreams into reality!" They even had a picture of a Hasselblad on a pillow in the background.

Well, the ad was so strong, putting our name first, that I offered to help subsidize it from the Hasselblad advertising budget if they'd continue to run it! My point...don't try and shred your competitors, but stay focused on being positive about your own work.

Tips I'd include might be:

• Ask to see several different albums.

• How many weddings a year do they photograph?
• How long have they been in business?
  

• Ask for three different references from the past two years.

• What other things do they offer to do with images in addition to the wedding album?

• How soon after the wedding will you be able to view images?
• How long does it take to get your album, once you've made your image selections?
  

• What's the plan if there's some sort of emergency and the lead photographer can't be there?

 
While I've written this primarily for wedding photographers, you could do the same thing for any specialty in imaging. The list can go on and on, but think of it under the title, "Eight Major Questions to Ask Your Photographer"

Feel free to add those you think I missed and if there are enough we'll add them in another post.

---