SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

Fast Food Friday - For Professional Photographers

6/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​I started this series to give you small doses of things you can do to fine-tune your business and help make 2018 your best year in business yet!  My Friday "specials" are in no particular order, but have been topics that popped into my head sometime during the week usually as a question from a photographer or thread in a Facebook forum. 

Whether your business is up or down this year, we're into the busy season, and it will continue through the end of the year.  You have to pay attention to the trends, your audience and all the vehicles at your fingertips to help expand your reach. Thanks to social media, you have the same reach today that only small newspapers and magazines had a decade ago.

This is number 15 in the series, and we're hitting on one of the most serious topics - pricing. There's no better place to start than with the Master himself, Sal Cincotta. This video is at least seven years old, but Sal's focus is entirely relevant, especially in today's competitive market. However, regarding building a stronger revenue stream, I expanded on the topic with more ideas to help you raise the bar on the products/services you're selling.

Is it time to review your pricing strategy?

​One of the biggest challenges is being competitive WITHOUT discounting. It starts with the quality of your work and finishes with exceeding customer expectations. Your goal is to make yourself habit-forming and you can do it without getting into a pricing war in your market, which turns your work into a commodity!

Find Alternatives to Discounting!

​Sal hits on it in the very beginning talking about nothing being more destructive to your business than lousy pricing and discounting is all part of that challenge. I know we live in a SALE driven society, but there are ways to add value to a promotion that doesn't require you to turn your business into a battle with your competitors.
  • Packages: Sal talks about different packages. Package pricing is perfect to allow you to put together various components for a limited time promotion.
  • Talk to your lab: There's so much going on today, and you might want to add a canvas or metal print to the mix. Ask your lab a simple question, "What's new?"
  • Be a full service photographer: Michele Celentano has made herself a "full service" photographer. She helps the client decide on the size of the portrait, the frame and then she shows up when it's ready, complete with hammer, level, and picture hooks! Nothing is preventing you from also becoming "full service."
  • Extended coverage: As wedding photographers, you can create added value with extended hours of coverage or an expanded engagement session.
  • Contact with your album company: There are so many add-on products to enhance the core album.
  • Are you offering hybrid solutions?  Slideshows are back with a vengeance, especially when you can combine still images with video and great music. Offer your clients a unique product and expand your reputation as a storyteller. And, Photodex could not make it easier for you to do! 
  • Holiday cards, invitations and virtually anything you can do with an image become a fun promotional addition to your mix of products. And don't forget framed prints, but you have to show them on your site and in your studio to plant the seed. 
  • Look for ways to cross-promote with other vendors. Get together with the limo company, florist, caterer, etc. and find unique ways to promote each other's products.

Last but not least, you've got to do a better than average job of getting the client to understand what an album is, especially in the wedding category:

A wedding album is the first family heirloom of a new family. It captures memories that years later are long forgotten and answers the question to an inquisitive granddaughter who asks, "Grandma, what did you look like when you and Papa got married?"
Picture
Missed any of the past Fast Food Friday posts?

They're all just a click away, and each one identifies another aspect of business to help you make 2018 an outstanding year. There are so many different things you can be doing to build a stronger business, and most of them take so little time to add to your strategy!

And, if there's an area we haven't talked about yet, just leave me a comment and we'll start the research for a future post.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 100 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    F64 Lunch Bunch
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    In The News
    Lessons Learned
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mark's Corner
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
PhotoTexting

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us