A wedding can be one of the most exciting, yet stressful events of a bride and groom’s lives. With all of the  details to take care of, brides and grooms have so much responsibility and potential stress to handle on this one special day that many couples feel moves far too quickly.

Elegant Images and Photographs

As a photographer, your duty is to capture your couples at their best. However, it can often be difficult to get a solid chunk of time to shoot the couple alone without being worried about the day’s schedule. With this in mind, successful photographers are choosing to shoot day after sessions for their wedding couples. Shooting day after sessions eases the stress for both the couple and the photographer. Without time limitations and the stress of keeping an entire group of wedding guests entertained and happy, the couple can really shine. Collages.net consulted with two successful studios that shoot day after sessions regularly for advice to share with other photographers.

Infinity Images

Heather Byrd of Infinity Images in McBee, SC says, “Our studio promotes day after sessions to all of our couples. The uninterrupted, no-stress time with the couple makes for magnificent images. Not to mention that it’s always preferred to have better control over lighting situations. Most of the time, the bride and groom feel very rushed to get to the reception, so they end up with very little time in less than perfect lighting conditions. We want our couples’ images to exude romance, whimsy, and most of all, their personalities. It’s so difficult to get that when you feel rushed.”

Infinity Images

Ross and Kammi Bothwell of Elegant Images and Photographs in Longmont, CO frequently shoot day after sessions and trash the dress sessions for their wedding clients. They truly understand the benefit of shooting portraits after the hectic wedding day. Ross states, “As far as day after sessions go, we love them. We include them in all of our destination packages. Day after sessions give us a chance to play in a relaxed, no-pressured timeline. We can be more adventurous with what we want to capture without worrying about getting the dress dirty and having to worry about holding up the reception.  Some couples even opt for another change of clothes, so it gives them greater freedom in choosing the look of their portraits. I think one of the benefits of shooting day after sessions is that our brides know about them going into their wedding day. When the weather is bad on their wedding day, they know that they have the dress and the man, and can go get some great images another day. Offering day after sessions to our clients has opened up a whole new world for creative images and also more sales.”

Elegant Images and Photographs

Both Heather and Ross are absolutely right. Day after sessions equate to better images and higher sales. In addition to engagement sessions, which we wrote about in a previosu post, day after sessions can boost both your package revenue and print revenue.

Images Copyright: Elegant Images and Photographs; Infinity Images

You’ve probably heard about Collages.net’s Event Cards, but why should you use them? Sure, they’re a good way to provide clients their event log-in information, but they are so much more. They are a powerful tool that can benefit your studio sales and promote your studio brand. Here are three key steps to using event cards to benefit your studio:

Step One: Pre-Post the Event – Pre-posting your events allows event guest to “log-in” to the event before the event site has been uploaded. They can leave their e-mail address to be contacted once the images are ready for viewing. To pre-post the event log in to your Administrative Area and click Upload Event. Fill in the Event Username, Heading, Title/Subheading, Client E-mails, and Event Type. Make sure to check the box next to Pre-post this event. Choose Save. You now have a pre-posted event! When you are ready to upload your images, simply log back in to your Administrative Area, click on the Event Manager tab, then on the Pre-posting status link.

Step Two: Order Event Cards – Open collagesColor + ROES and click on the Sizes button. Choose Non-Color Corrected Products from the Catalogs folder and click on Sizes again. Navigate to Endura Prints, then Event Cards, and choose your preferred event card template. Drag and drop your desired image into the template and type in your studio name, username, and password for your event. Remember to use the username you created when you pre-posted the event. The password will be your photographer code, unless you added an alternate password suffix in the event set-up process. When you are happy with the order, click Add to Order and then Review Order. Complete your order by navigating through the collagesColor + ROES shopping cart. Event cards take 2-3 business days to produce plus shipping, so make sure you place your order in advance.

Step Three: Shoot the Event and Hand Out Event Cards – On the day of the event, make sure to leave event cards on every table in the room. Personally hand event cards to guests at the event and let them know that they can view the images from the event by following the steps outlined on the event card. For weddings, make sure you hand event cards to the bride and groom and to each member of the wedding party. It is important to make personal contact with event guests as much as possible. Event Cards are also great to hand to seniors to pass out to their family and friends at school.

Once you have the images ready for viewing. Every person who logged into the site while the event was pre-posted will receive an e-mail notifying them that the site is ready for viewing. The end result is more online sales and increased brand awareness for your studio. Use this three-step process for your next wedding or event for increased reprint sales and traffic to the event site.

In a recent blog post, we outlined several marketing tips that any studio can put into practice to generate more business around Halloween. Now that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, here are a few tips that will help you market your studio this Thanksgiving.

• Send every client you booked this year a thank you card. Send an unexpected note to your past clients, thanking them for their business and wishing them a joyous day with family and friends. Use your studio’s logo or a portrait of your family and print them on Collages.net’s Press Printed Cards available through collagesColor + ROES. Offer your clients a special referring bonus in the card.
• Photograph local turkey day activities. Most towns have their own turkey trot, turkey bowl, or other activities on Thanksgiving to raise money for local charities. Photograph the event and hand out event cards on the day so people can easily see your studio and purchase their photos online. Remember to customize your own View an Event Portal to drive traffic to your studio. Then, donate a portion of your print proceeds to the charity.

• Emphasize the meaning of family. Send your clients a marketing e-mail or Facebook message from your family on Thanksgiving day. Thank them for their past business and share with them the importance and value of professional family portraits. Who wouldn’t be moved to book a portrait session after receiving a compelling message on one of the most family-oriented days of the year?
• Photograph your local Thanksgiving parade. Does your town host an annual Thanksgiving day parade? If so, photograph the event and contact your local newspaper and submit your photographs of the parade and crowd to be published in the next day’s newspaper.
• Assist at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Have your studio (or your family on behalf of your studio) help serve a meal in a soup kitchen or local homeless shelter. Not only is this a good thing to do. It’s good PR for your studio. Blog about it, Facebook about it, tweet about it, and don’t forget to write a press release about it and submit it to your local paper.

In addition to the above suggestions, delivering your clients’ albums before Thanksgiving is a great way to ensure your studio will be talked about around the turkey table. Submit your album order by the date listed below and choose FedEx 2Day shipping. You will receive the album by November 24th, so you can deliver it by November 25th.

Premium Leather Albums - Wednesday, November 4th
Genuine Leather Albums - Wednesday, November 11th
Brilliant Albums - Wednesday, November 11th

Photo Credit: Small Wonders Photography

Claim your vanity URL before it’s too late. As you may have noticed, Collages.net recently overhauled your Administrative Area’s Marketing Manager tab, which features an updated View an Event Portal with the option of a personalized URL. We couldn’t be more excited about this exciting new update!

You may be asking what the View an Event Portal is an why it is such a big deal. I’ll tell you! The View an Event Portal is a website that displays your event sites and allows your clients to log in to their event directly from y our studio website or blog. This means that you can pull more traffic to your studio website or blog. Picture this: hundreds of event guests or family and friends of the senior or family shoot you photographed, all visiting your studio’s site. Good picture, right? This can be a reality. There’s more, too!

These pages are now completely customizable. Add your studio logo as a header, create a greeting or generic message to your clients, and modify the background by uploading an image or choosing a background color to match your studio’s style. You can personalize your View an Event Portal using graphics and colors that match your studio website or blog to create a seamless transition.

Claim your name now! If your studio’s name is commonly used, make sure to customize your View an Event Portal’s URL before it’s unavailable. Log in by visiting this page and claim your name. Under the Site Address section, type in your studio’s unique URL. Customizing your URL gives clients an easy way to remember how to view their photos.

The View an Event Portal has never looked better because you are the designer! We are so excited about this feature that we will be giving away one free year of online posting to the photographer who is voted to have the best View an Event Portal by their colleagues! Check out our Facebook fan page during the next few days for more details.

Professional photographers gear up for the big seasons in the business: wedding season, senior portrait session time, and the holiday season. What about the forgotten holidays that can be capitalized on as a way for you to create additional marketing and sales opportunities? Are people going to be talking about your studio on Halloween this year?

We haven’t eaten too much candy corn here at Collages.net and lost our minds. Halloween is a great opportunity to create a buzz about your studio! Parents do not want to forget the years their little angels dressed up as goblins, cute little witches, scary scare crows, and let’s face it, Hannah Montana. Similarly, your adult customers want to capture memories and relive the fun feelings from childhood that Halloween sparks up.

Here are a few other tips you can use this Halloween to make sure your studio is part of the holiday party buzz:

• Throw your own Halloween party and promote it on Facebook. Open your studio up to past clients and community members. Create a Facebook invitation and send it to all of your friends and Facebook fans at least two weeks before the date. Offer door prizes and ask clients to dress up as they will be photographed at the event. This is a great way to remind old clients about your services and build your presence in your community. Set up a photo booth and share images on a Collages.net Premium Website. Using the social networking links available on the site to post the event site to your Facebook profile.

• Photograph charity Halloween events. Offer to photograph a Halloween or fall-based charity event for free. Hand out event cards during the event and post the images to a full service Collages.net Premium Website. You’ll gain additional revenue, exposure, and referrals.

• Start a costume contest. Create a Halloween costume contest for your client base. Ask your clients to send you images of them dressed up in their Halloween best from the past. Promote the details on Facebook, Twitter, and your blog. Offer the winner a prize such as a free portrait session or print credit from your studio. Be ready to see some truly crazy costumes, but don’t be shy. Make sure that you add images of yourself as well. This is a great way to connect with clients and let them see more of your personality.

  

• Schedule a Halloween photo shoot. Forget the session fee and book several clients in a 2-3 hour period. Give clients 15 minutes to be photographed in their costume and post the images to a Collages.net Premium Website within a week.

• Photograph your child’s Halloween party in school. For those busy photographers who balance their business with parenthood, offer to shoot your child’s school Halloween party or parade. You’ll get to spend more time with your child and build a relationship with the school and other parents.

There are always ways to capitalize on the holidays. Make sure your studio comes up in conversation. Delivering albums to your clients on Friday, October 30 is the perfect way to make sure they are talking about your studio and showing off their album all weekend. Submit your album order by the date listed below and choose FedEx 2Day shipping. You will receive the album by October 29th, so you can deliver the album on October 30th.

Premium Leather Albums - Tuesday, October 13
Genuine Leather Albums - Tuesday, October 20
Brilliant Albums - Tuesday, October 20

Photo Credit: Small Wonders Photography

Collages.net understands the importance of reliable customer service and the impact a good customer experience can make on a business’ bottom line. Like every other business, photography studios must maintain good customer service in order to book more clients in the future, increase client sales, and promote repeat business. Without word of mouth advertising and testimonials from past clients, many of the most profitable photography studios would never have experienced the success that drives their businesses today.

Providing personal touches and attention will go a long way in building relationships with current and future clients. The first step to providing an excellent customer experience is choosing a vendor you can trust that provides the service you’d like to reflect on your clients. After all, your service can only be as good as the vendor you use.

Select a vendor with reliable quality, fast turnaround times, and good customer service that will assist you with your questions and product inquiries. Your clients expect top quality products and services, so use a vendor that has these same values.

Do little things to surprise your clients. A little gift can go a long way when it comes to a customer’s experience. Send your client a free 5×5 soft cover matte finish book after a portrait session or wedding. Though the size is small, the payoff is huge. When these portable books make their rounds to family, friends, and coworkers, your studio name and brand will go along with it.

Another quick and easy way to surprise your client is to print an 8×10 of your favorite image and include it with your client’s order as the “photographer’s favorite.” Although they didn’t purchase that print, they will appreciate the extra item you included in their package as it shows personal attention to them as a client.

Finally, make sure to send a thank you note to every client after their event or portrait session. Print your studio logo on the front of a press printed card with your studio contact information on the back. Write a hand-written note inside, thanking your client for their business. While e-mailing a thank you can be easy, hand writing a note is a quick way to show your thoughtfulness and attention to detail.

When it comes to your clients, little actions can have a huge impact on your sales and referrals. Remember that the experience you create for your clients can only be as good as the vendor you choose for your products and prints. For more ideas, visit our Build Your Brand page.

It’s that time of year again. The time that most children dread, but many parents eagerly anticipate. It’s time to send the kids back to school! As a professional photographer, don’t forget to capture your own family’s special moments.

If you are a proud parent, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, or friend, now is the perfect time to capture the special moments in a child’s life. Instead of rushing around and taking last-minute shots before the bus comes to pick them up, ask your children to re-create their first day of school look before or after their first day starts. They’ll be much less anxious and you will be much more relaxed without the first day jitters hanging over everyone’s heads. Make the shoot as natural as possible - don’t force kids to pose - let them be kids! Also, ask them to include their favorite toy or prop in the shoot. When you look back at the photos years later, you’ll be sure to remember how they were at that age.

Don’t let these memories just sit on your computer or away in an external hard drive. Take advantage of collagesColor’s lower print prices and order prints for yourself or a family member. Upload the photos to a Premium Website and send a link to the entire family. Who doesn’t love seeing photos of the kids? You can also take the images you uploaded to that site and order a matte finish book with all of the day’s image to give to grandma to show off her pride and joy. A 5×5 book is the perfect portable size for keeping in her purse. Gallery wraps also provide a great way to show off children’s portraiture. Purchase a set of three or four square gallery wraps to hang in a row or in a square configuration in your home or studio.

Don’t forget about seniors going back to school. For tips on how to market your studio to seniors, read a recent article we featured on our blog.

Photo Credit: Small Wonders Photography

Are you a Tweeter or a Twitter? Studios across the country and around the world are learning how to harness the power of Twitter to communicate their studio brand with future and current clients, network with other photographers, and build relationships with vendors. If you already use Twitter, you may already know its potential, but are you seeing the results you are looking for? There are some Tweeters out there who are failing to reap the benefits of their Twitter efforts. If you are one of these individuals or are new to Twitter, continue reading for tips, suggestions, and best practices from two successful photography studios.

Dustin Meyer, Dustin Meyer Photography

JP Elario, Joe Elario Photography

After signing up for a Twitter account and branding your page, gaining followers is key to making Twitter a successful marketing tool for your studio. A good way to gather followers is to attach a Twitter Feed to your blog or studio website. Both Meyer and Elario are fans of this practice. Speaking of fans, it is also possible to connect Twitter updates to your Facebook fan page. This is a great way to “quickly and efficiently link up your social networks to keep content fresh,” according to Meyer.

Meyer brings up an excellent point. Twitter should not be used in a vacuum. Yes, Twitter is a huge resource, but it can’t be your only way to connect with your clients. As Meyer states perfectly: “All clients are different in how they want to connect. Twitter provides another way to connect.” There are several social networking sites to consider, but Twitter and Facebook are the 800 pound gorillas in the social networking sphere. Combining these two services along with your blog gives your studio maximum exposure to your target market whether you shoot weddings, portraits, or birds.

Meyer says, “The bigger the web, the more flies you catch.” He has been using Twitter for five months now and has been more than happy with the results. Using a predetermined strategy, Meyer systematically posts new portrait sessions and weddings on Collages.net’s Premium Websites, asks clients to use the free social networking tools to link the site to their profile, creates a blog post, and then updates his fans and Twitter followers. This approach is working well in his studio to create buzz around the images and to spread the Dustin Meyer Photography brand. Meyer even created a video to show clients how to link their event site to their Facebook page.

Elario uses a similar process by using Tweetdeck to update his Facebook and Twitter statuses simultaneously. Whenever a new blog post is ready, he cleverly gets people’s attention with witty comments driving traffic to his blog. Personality is important. “I try to show I am me and not a computer generated Tweeter,” says Elario. “Be yourself and don’t sound like a machine.” Tweeting gives you a chance to show clients your personality and make a connection with your studio. Consistently telling them what you’re eating, watching on TV, or doing at work is okay within reason, but watch it. If all you talk about is your food choices, people will get bored and stop following you.

When tweeting, use a model of 70-20-10. Seventy percent should be interesting content. Think of your target market and what might be of interest to them. For brides, this could be wedding images, wedding blog articles, good ideas for favors, etc. Seniors may be more interested in celebrity gossip, music suggestions, or sports. Whatever your audience, post updates that will be valuable to them. Twenty percent of your tweets should engage people in conversation. This could be an @ reply or starting a dialog with an interesting comment. Both Meyer and Elario do a great job of this. View their Twitter pages for examples.

Finally, ten percent should be studio promotions. Talk about new products and include images using Twitpic. Elario advises that studios should try not to always talk about the studio, but instead include enough personal information to keep followers interested. Meyer says that mixing it up with a variety of messages and formats (Tweetmic, Twitpic) also keeps followers engaged. “Just keep it fun, interesting, and original,” he says.

There are studios out there that are hesitant to take the Twitter plunge. Elario says, “Why be hesitant of something that’s free and takes thirty seconds to reach a large audience of people?” So what’s stopping you? After all, “The number of people you can reach is insane,” Elario says. It’s true; the small amount of time it takes to Tweet has a huge impact. If you are stuck all day editing images, why not take a break every so often to send out a Tweet message with a cool image? Reaching your clients on social networks gives your studio an edge. Gain larger sales, more referrals, and a hip image with this free marketing resource.

Do you still have questions that have been left unanswered? Contact us at @collagesnet or leave a question or comment below and we will respond to you. There are several excellent sources on the web for using social networks to market your studio. One resource that has truly been helpful is @mashable. They have a Twitter resource that will blow your mind. Twitter has recently released their own site Twitter 101 for Businesses.

Collages.net would like to thank Dustin Meyer of Dustin Meyer Photography and JP of Joe Elario Photography for talking with us on how they have incorporated Twitter into their marketing mix. Follow them on Twitter @dustinmeyer and @jpelario respectively.

In this economy, many photographers are looking for creative ways to market their studios, increase referrals, and generate more revenue. One of the most overlooked, yet cost effective ways do all three is to shoot engagement sessions. As easy as it sounds, you might be surprised by the benefits of shooting an engagement session for every wedding client you book. Here are just a few of the many benefits of shooting an engagement session:

Increase the Perceived Value of Your Packages: When you include an engagement session as part of each wedding package, its perceived value increases. Clients understand the value (and cost) of your time and by adding an engagement session to each wedding package, clients will feel they are getting more for their money.

Put Your Clients at Ease: When you shoot an engagement session, you are given an opportunity to get to know you clients better and let them learn more about you. Let them ask questions during the session and assure them about any qualms they might have before their wedding day. It’s also a great time to make your clients more comfortable in front of the camera. Your clients will feel more at ease when you shoot them at their wedding if they are comfortable with you shooting them. You also benefit by learning which angles do and don’t work for your clients and what you need to do to get the perfect shot.

Increase Sales Opportunities: After you shoot an engagement session, post it online to a Collages.net Premium Website. Clients will surely want to purchase images from their engagement session and share their photos with friends and family. This easy step equals increased print sales. Engagement sessions are also a great time to shoot photos for guest sign-in albums, wedding invitations, save the dates on magnetic backing, or photo boards for guest signing during the wedding. The possibilities are endless!

Build Your Portfolio: Engagement sessions provide you with fresh images to post on your website and creates an excuse to post a new entries on your blog. The more opportunities you have to shoot your clients, the better your work will become and the stronger your portfolio will be.

Kathleen Trenske of Robert & Kathleen Photographers in Bridgeport, CT understands the importance of shooting engagement sessions before every wedding. She states, “We love engagement sessions and recommend them to all of our couples. It gives the couple an opportunity to see how we work and get an idea of what it will be like to be photographed, which makes them much more comfortable on the wedding day. It gives us a chance to further build our relationship with them and learn about how their interact with each other. By the time we walk in on the wedding day, we’re greeted like old friends.”

Husband and wife team Eric and Alice Yeh of Serendipity Photography in Sugar Land, Texas, also believe in the important of shooting engagement sessions. Eric states, “To us, engagement sessions are not just a portrait session. It’s the only time before the wedding to hang out with our couples and have fun, just like a double date. When couples display their sign-in albums and enlargements at the reception, we get rewarded by showing off our work to their friends and families. Engagement sessions bring our clients closer to us and that’s why we include an engagement session in every wedding package.”

Whether you are just starting out or are a veteran wedding photographer, shooting engagement sessions can have a positive impact on your studio’s success.

Photo Credit: Robert & Kathleen Photographers, Serendipity Photography

Online posting is a great tool to use for client proofing and ordering purposes, but it can also be used as a marketing tool to grow your studio’s business. The most successful photographers understand the importance of posting everything they shoot on a Collages.net Premium Website. Studio exposure means more business. By posting all of your clients’ images online you promote your studio to current and potential clients as your direct clients share their site with family and friends.

David Cartee of LCD Photography in Kirtland Hills, Ohio states, “My studio currently photographs over 100 weddings annually. Collages.net has helped us to incorporate the online community seamlessly into our workflow. Collages.net Event Sites allow the bride and groom’s friends and family to view their pictures online. Ordering prints is quick and easy. Essentially, Collages.net Event Sites provide free advertising for my studio and a great avenue for any professional photography studio to generate extra income with minimal effort!”

Most photographers create a blog post within a week after every wedding or portrait session as a teaser for their clients. Why not upload the entire event to a Premium Website and post the log-in information in the teaser blog post? Studios who are going this right now are seeing the results in their sales. Don’t forget that clients love sharing their images with friends and family. If your clients share a link to your blog post with family and friends, provide them easy access to ordering prints by including the event site log-in information. Posting every event online and adding the log-in information to your blog also allows potential clients and individuals who have found your blog to view more of your work. Remember that every Collages.net event site is Flash based which gives your images the highest level of protection.

Social networks provide another innovative way for you to connect with current and potential clients. On every event site you upload through Site Builder, instructions are available for linking the event site to a Facebook, MySpace, blog, or website page at no cost to your studio or your clients. Check out this video that Dustin Meyer of Dustin Meyer Photography created for his clients.

Putting your work in front of as many potential customers as possible is critical to growing your business. Online posting is a great way to share your images with current and potential clients and is the perfect way to provide quick and easy access to your work.