Facebook is a free and easy-to-use tool that many professional photographers are using to book more clients, spread the word about their brand, and grow their business. If you’ve never used Facebook or have a Facebook profile, but aren’t sure how to use it to grow your business, don’t be intimidated! There are hundreds of Facebook tutorials out there - just use Google or another search engine to find a tutorial that suits your learning style best. Once you’re familiar with Facebook’s basic functions, it’s time to create a Facebook fan page.

Creating a Facebook fan page is important when using Facebook to grow your business. It’s a much better way to interact with your client than using your own personal Facebook page, which could be, well, too personal. Once you create a fan page for your studio, upload your logo or your favorite image as your profile photo and fill in all your important studio information. Make sure to include your contact information, details about your studio, and links to your blog and website. Then, upload a few sample photo albums including images with your studio’s logo or watermark for added protection.

You now have a Facebook fan page! However, you have no fans. Getting fans is easier than you think. Facebook makes it easy for you! On your Facebook fan page, right below your profile photo, click on the Add Fan Box to your site option. This feature allows you to add a box to your blog that provides a link to become a fan. You can also suggest your fan page to your friends by clicking on the Suggest to Friends option. Select all of your friends or just a few to send them a message requesting that they become one of your studio’s fans. You can also link your fan page to your Twitter account by clicking on the banner at the top of your fan page. This feature allows you to export your Facebook fan page updates to your Twitter account.

Another great way to generate more Facebook fans is to send an e-mail to your past clients and event guests, letting them know you’re on Facebook. As an incentive to become a fan, offer them a free 4×6 print or other small gift when they become a fan of your studio on Facebook. Once you are happy with your fan base, keep them interested by updating your page regularly. Don’t be afraid to ask your fans for feedback. Ask them to comment about what they’d like to see on the page and ask them to comment on your images.

Facebook is a free and simple marketing tool, so use it to your advantage!

You’re self-employed in a creative industry. What could be better? Your friends are consistently jealous of your Facebook and Twitter statuses that have you outside and about town during normal office hours. “At lunch in this super hip bistro.”  “At the gym. It’s so empty at 10:00 AM. “  “scouting locations in the city and found some delicious ice cream.” What your friends don’t know is that your to-do list never ends, and you go to sleep at night feeling like you didn’t get enough done.

Collages.net compiled a few suggestions on how your studio can increase productivity by becoming more efficient. As a professional photographer, you might be your company’s only employee, but that doesn’t mean your studio can’t become more efficient. Since we can all use a lesson in productivity, here are some of the many ways you can easily increase your studio’s productivity:

Outsource your most time-consuming tasks. How long does it take you to design an album? What could you be doing with the time it takes you to design that album? Designing an album is one of the most time-consuming tasks for professional photographers. Outsource your design to Collages.net and gain back valuable time in your studio. What about print orders? Why should you waste your time manually fulfilling your print orders when Collages.net can fulfill them automatically? Learn more about Collages.net’s automatic print fulfillment workflow here.

Set timelines and deadlines for yourself. It can be difficult, but set timelines and deadlines for your work. If you don’t set a deadline for work to get done, you’ll be much more likely to take on non-essential tasks. For those who find it difficult to stick to self-made deadlines, provide deadlines to your clients so you’ll be held to the date.

Set your own hours. Being self employed provides you with many benefits. You can work anytime, anywhere, but it’s important to set your work hours and stick to them. When you set aside certain hours of the day to work, your priorities will shift dramatically. If you schedule a standard eight-hour day to work each day, you will limit what you can and cannot accomplish in a day.

Eliminate distractions. Many professional photographers have access to the Internet 24 hours a day. It can be hard not to be distracted by non-business related phone calls, e-mails, and social networking. However, it’s important to set aside work time from leisure time. Now that you’ve set your work hours, don’t check your Twitter and Facebook accounts (unless they’re your business accounts), turn off the TV, and keep other distractions to a minimum.

Take a break. Nobody can be productive without taking a break. Make it a point to schedule a lunch or snack break throughout your work day so you can restore your energy and be ready to tackle the rest of your day at maximum productivity.

Stay healthy. Get exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep. When you feel tired or sick, it’s hard to focus on work. When your body is healthy and you get enough sleep, you will be more alert and able to focus.

Avoid multitasking. Studies have shown that multitasking decreases productivity. When you can’t fully focus on one task to complete, you won’t complete each task to your full potential. As hard as it may be, try not to multitask and focus on the most important task on your to-do list.

Go paperless. Scan and save all of your business-related documents to your computer. Dealing with paper contracts and bills is a time waster as it’s usually difficult to keep organized. Also try going paperless with your business’ bills. When there are fewer pieces of mail to open each day, you’ll save yourself even more time.

Manage your staff’s time. If you don’t work alone or are responsible for a staff of photographers, delegate tasks and manage your staff’s time. Employees need direction and must have deadlines in order to work efficiently. Develop a schedule and a timeline of tasks so all employees are clear about their work expectations.

It’s never too late to make your studio more productive and efficient. Even during your busiest season, you can become more productive and save your studio time and money in the long run.

Photos From: http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/images-4/clock.jpg
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In our recent blog series “How To Sell More in Your Photography Studio“, we presented the positive and negative aspects of offering packages, a la carte products, and shoot and burn packages. Because these options don’t fit the needs of every studio, hybrid package structures provide professional photographers greater flexibility to choose what works best from each of the options.

If your studio is looking for a hybrid package, here are a few alternatives and suggestions you might want to consider:

Product and Disc Package: Do you want to offer shoot and burn packages because of the convenience, but feel like you’re missing out on potential sales? Try offering your clients a disc of their images only when they purchase a product. For example, in order for your client to receive their disc of images, they must first order an album. In other words, clients cannot receive a disc unless they purchase a product. Once their album has been produced, you can mail the disc in the same package as the album.

Limited Image Disc: If you are opposed to selling discs of images because of potential loss in sales, but your clients beg for a disc, why not compromise and offer a disc that contains a specified number of images? Instead of giving your client the rights to all of their images, stay in control and only choose a few images to provide on a disc. Your clients can do whatever they’d like with the images on the disc, but they’ll have to go through you for product orders that highlight the entire wedding day or portrait session.

Delayed Discs: For clients who purchase an image disc, provide them with a lengthier than normal turnaround time. Even though you might have all of their images edited, delaying sending the disc will allow you to capitalize on print sales both online and in the studio. Upload selected teaser images to a Collages.net Event Site, but wait to send the entire image disc to your client. The anticipation of seeing the images for the first time will have a big impact on print sales. When you delay sending the image disc, clients will be much more likely to order prints directly from the site. Keep in mind that you should always give your client a specific time range when they will receive the disc.

Remember that every studio is unique, and tailoring packages to your studio’s needs will only benefit your sales. Don’t try to base your offerings on other studios just because of their successes. Look into what will benefit you and your clients the most and remember to be flexible.

This week’s installment of How to Sell More in Your Photography Studio is our series wrap up. In our series, we discussed packages, a la carte pricing, meeting with clients, and shoot and burn packages. Each week, we reviewed several advantages and disadvantages, ideas, and factors to consider. The series was designed to help you learn more about the selling process and what’s important to remember when it comes to your business.

If you’re just starting out or are reviewing your current pricing structure, take the time to consider the various advantages and disadvantages to all types of pricing. Take the time to determine what will work best for your studio - not what works best for your competitors. Whether you’re just starting out or are a veteran in the industry, it never hurts to learn more about how you can better your business.

Now, we want to hear from you! We want to hear all your feedback and suggestions about the series. What did you think of our series? Did you learn anything from the information we provided? We’d also love to learn more about what’s worked for your studio. How are you selling more in your studio this year? Do you have advice that other professional photographers could benefit from? Let us know by leaving a comment on this post or by e-mailing marketing@collages.net. We love hearing your feedback!

Make sure to stay tuned to our blog for more information on selling more in your studio. Don’t forget that there is a wealth of industry information on selling more in your studio. Check out MpactPhoto, an online resource with information on sales, techniques, social media, and more for professional photographers.

In this week’s installment of How to Sell More in Your Photography Studio, we’ll be discussing shoot and burn packages.

Shoot and burn packages have become increasingly popular for both professional photographers and their clients. Some professional photographers love the ease and time savings, while clients love the flexibility of shoot and burn packages. Here is something to consider though, when you offer only shoot and burn packages, are you really saving yourself time and money, or are you shooting yourself in the foot?

Consider the following advantages and disadvantages of shoot and burn packages before you settle on your package structures:

Advantages: Offering shoot and burn packages seems like a smart idea for photographers who try to avoid the studio sales process at all costs. When you offer only your shooting time with a disc of images, there is very little selling to do. If a client is sold on your style, you won’t have to meet with them to sell products and prints. Additionally, when you offer shoot and burn packages, there are very few costs you’ll incur. This can then be translated into a lower cost of the client’s package. What client wouldn’t love a cheap package? Shoot and burn packages are also quick and easy. After the wedding or event, edit the images, send them to your clients, and forget about it. Move on to the next client! For the high volume, but low-staffed studio, shoot and burn packages can be a real time and money saver.

Disadvantages: Shoot and burn packages provide your clients with very little perceived value. The only tangible item they’ll receive is a disc of images, which seems like very little for what they paid for. You’ll have to sell your clients on the value of your time, which can be tricky. For all studios, especially those that have low volume, shoot and burn packages also don’t provide you with the ability to upsell and earn more revenue during slower periods of the year. When you don’t offer products, you can only generate revenue from the bare minimum, which is your images. This can translate into losing out on big profits. Products are often marked up to at least twice their value and have very high profit margins. If you shoot only ten weddings a year, this could make or break your studio’s bottom line. Additionally, your images are not on display for people to see. How often do brides keep images on disc and never get them printed? Very often. This means less exposure and less referrals for your studio. For brides who do have their images printed, you don’t have control of how the images will be printed. Do you want your studio represented by consumer-grade print products with pixilated images and poor skin tones?

If you choose to offer shoot and burn packages, you might want to consider offering non-shoot and burn packages, too. There are several advantages to offering shoot and burn packages, but you may also lose out on potential revenue and sales that could boost your studio’s profits. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on different hybrid package options.

In this week’s installment of How to Sell More in Your Photography Studio, we’ll be discussing how to sell during client meetings.

Client meetings provide you with the one and only opportunity to upsell your products and services to clients. It may seem like a daunting task, but if you are armed with knowledge about your products, truly understand why they will suit your clients’ needs, and have the confidence in your work, you will be well prepared for selling. There are four important factors to keep in mind when meeting with clients:

Know Your Products: Have you ever been in a situation when you ask a salesperson a question and you never receive an answer? It’s a frustrating experience for a client, so make sure you know your products. Get comfortable with all the options that are available to your clients. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t sweat! Let your client know that you’ll investigate the answer and will get back to them. They’ll be much happier receiving a late answer than receiving no answer at all.

Know Your Clients: Do your research! It’s easier than ever to find out more about your clients’ interests. Always take time during the beginning of the meeting to ask the clients important questions to both build rapport and learn client likes and dislikes. Facebook and other social networking sites make it easy for you to get to know your clients. No, this is not stalking! It’s investigative research. Send them a friend request, then look at their interests, try to figure out their style, and note any important personal details about them. For example, if your clients are vegan, you wouldn’t want to offer them leather albums.

Be Event Specific: More and more professional photographers cater to several different types of clients. Wedding photographers are now shooting seniors, babies, and children, so it’s important to differentiate your clients’ product options. Sell specific products to specific clients. For example, traditional leather albums are great to sell to wedding clients, but if you’re selling to seniors, you might want to offer something that’s more modern like a photographic cover album. However, many products are perfect for all types of clients. This is where your creativity comes in! Give your products unique names. Instead of calling the sign-in album a sign-in album, call it a wedding journal for wedding clients and a senior memory maker for senior clients.

Be Confident: What makes a great salesperson? Confidence. You have to be confident in the products you’re offering and the work you have done. This confidence will sell the products to your clients. Remember they want what you’re offering. You captured memories. Your confidence in your photography skills will impress clients. It’s important to ask yourself several questions. What makes my products better than my competitors? Why should my clients choose me over another photographer? Remember that your uniqueness is a selling point in itself. To learn more on how to use your uniqueness as a selling point, read our blog post, “The Unique Selling Power of You”.

Selling can seem like a complicated and daunting process. When you prepare yourself and are confident in what you’re selling, client meetings will be a breeze.

In this week’s installment of How to Sell More in Your Photography Studio, we’ll be discussing a la carte pricing.

The Good: A la carte pricing is perfect for clients who know exactly what they want. Offering products a la carte allows your clients the most flexibility in choosing products. It can also give your studio the appearance of being less expensive than a competitor as prices are determined by what is being purchased.

The Bad: Not every client knows what they want. A la carte pricing also doesn’t allow for easy upselling. While packages are typically rigid and include a set list of products that must be purchased together, offering products a la carte could mean clients will purchase only what they think they need. A good way to combat this issue is to offer print or product credit with the cost of shooting the event.

When setting up a la carte pricing, keep these factors in mind:

Shooting Time: Since you’ll be charging your clients based on each item they’d like to purchase, shooting time will be a separate cost to your clients. Will you charge daily our hourly rates? Will you charge overtime costs? Do you use a second shooter? Will you include an engagement session? These are important questions to ask yourself before you determine your prices.

Products: Choose which products you’d like to offer. From albums, books, and gallery wraps to cards, prints, and DVDs, the product options available to your clients are limitless. Although you don’t want to overwhelm your clients, make sure to consider all of your product options before settling on which products you’ll be offering in packages. Your products reflect your studio’s image; make sure that you are using a vendor that will represent your studio well. Fast turnaround times and quality products are not easy to find, however, Collages.net is happy to let you know that we do offer all of the above products at competitive prices. Check out our full line of products at collages.net/products.

Know the Actual Costs: Just like determining product pricing in packages, make sure you know the true cost of each product you offer. Once you decide on which products you’d like to offer, determine the true cost of each product. Consider the cost of the product itself, but also the cost of the time it may take you to create and/or order that product. For example, it may cost $300 to order an album, but that does not include the cost of you designing the album. Taking these factors into consideration will make sure you’re earning your true potential. Because each item is able to be purchased individually, the mark-up on each product needs to be tallied. Also, since a la carte pricing doesn’t allow for perceived cost savings, consider offering discounted rates or grouped items to increase the perception of a good deal. Are you lost on where to start with pricing yourself? Look at local, state, and industry competitors for a starting point.

Product Recommendations: With a la carte pricing, you’ll more than likely be offering multiple product lines and options. Consider product recommendations for clients. A long list of a la carte products can be intimidating to a client, so suggesting products based on your clients’ needs could be a welcomed gesture.

Whether you choose to offer packages or a la carte products, the main emphasis is to keep it simple. Clients don’t want to be bombarded with countless product options, and they trust that you, their product expert, will guide them towards what will work best for their situation. Whichever option you choose, always remember that being flexible with your clients goes a long way to gaining referrals.

Father’s Day is right around the corner! This special holiday provides you with a great way to market your studio’s services to current and future clients alike. Forget the ties and socks - dad has enough! This year, you can help make your clients’ Father’s Day celebrations truly special.

Try offering any or all of these suggestions to your clients this year:

Dad’s Brag Book: For the new moms out there, offer to print a 5×5 1 up soft cover proof book of their new bundle of joy to give to dad. These books are portable and lightweight - perfect for fitting in a large pocket or briefcase. For you, the photographer, these books take five minutes to order. No design needed as they are one image per page.

Be Like Dad Photo Shoot: Do you know dads who are firefighters, policemen, or in the military? Do they have a favorite hobby like fishing or playing golf? Take these job or activity-related items and shoot babies and children in dad’s work or hobby gear. Nothing’s cuter than a toddler dressed up in dad’s work gear!

Daddy/Daughter Dances: Do you shoot daddy/daughter dances throughout the year? Now is the perfect time to encourage clients to purchase their photos from the dance. Re-activate the Collages.net event site where you posted the images and encourage clients to purchase prints online.

Kids’ Art Prints: Take a photo of your clients’ children and print it BIG! Mat the photo, and have the children paint their hands and mark them on the mat board. Once it’s framed, it’s the ultimate in personalized gifts for dad.

Sports Fan Shoot: Is dad an avid sports fan? Have his wife purchase him a session where he can dress up and live out his professional athlete dreams. He can dress up in his favorite team’s gear and put his game face on!

We’d love to hear about gift ideas you’ve used for Father’s Day. Leave a comment and share your favorite Father’s Day gift idea with us!

Photo Credit: Barbie Hull Photography and Small Wonders Photography

In this week’s installment of How to Sell More in Your Photography Studio, we’ll be discussing package pricing.

The Good: Packages are a great way for professional photographers to leverage value and perceived cost savings. When you offer packages, you sell more products and make more money. In turn, your customers are happy because they leave your studio feeling that they made the most economical decision. It’s a win-win situation.

The Bad: Not everyone likes structure. The drawback to packages is that people may not be getting what they want. A great way to avoid this is to be flexible. Allow clients to choose what they want in the package or offer a pick your own package a la Panera where you can pick two items for a certain price.

When setting up package pricing, keep these factors in mind:

Flexibility: Depending on your preference, choose whether you’d like your packages to be strict or if you’d like to allow your clients to customize their packages to fit their needs. By doing this, you can quickly say goodbye to discounts. Rather than giving a discount to lower costs, you can simply remove products.

If your client doesn’t want cards and all of your packages include cards, are you willing to replace them with a different product? We believe at Collages.net that cards should always be included in packages as cards can be a studio’s best marketing piece to gain additional referrals. If your clients don’t want to pay for cards, give the cards to them for free as a gift. This marketing expense will not let you down.

Shooting Time: Your packages may or may not include the cost of shooting the wedding, event, or portrait session. Decide whether you’d like your package to include shooting time or if you would rather charge a separate cost for shooting the event or portrait session. Remember to consider any overtime costs and second shooting costs when applicable.

Products: Choose which products you’d like to offer. From albums, books, and gallery wraps to cards, prints, and DVDs, the product options available to your clients are limitless. Although you don’t want to overwhelm your clients, make sure to consider all of your product options before settling on which products you’ll be offering in packages. Your products reflect your studio’s image; make sure that you are using a vendor that will represent your studio well. Fast turnaround times and quality products are not easy to find, however, Collages.net is happy to let you know that we do offer all of the above products at competitive prices. Check out our full line of products at collages.net/products.

Know the Actual Costs: Once you decide on which products you’d like to offer, determine the true cost of each product. Consider the cost of the product itself, but also the cost of the time it may take you to create and/or order that product. For example, it may cost $300 to order an album, but that does not include the cost of you designing the album. Taking these factors into consideration will make sure you’re earning your true potential. Are you lost on where to start with pricing yourself? Look at local, state, and industry competitors for a starting point.

Number of Packages: Clients don’t want to be bombarded with twenty different package options, so keep it simple. If you’re having trouble streamlining your package options, consider package flexibility and allow your clients to choose from a list of products to include in their package.

Don’t Forget the Monster: When creating your packages, don’t forget to include the monster of all packages that includes almost everything you’ve got – with the price to match. This will create a healthy perceived value for your studio. The odds are that no one will ever purchase it, but the perception remains that your services are worth that kind of money.

The main takeaway from package pricing is KEEP IT SIMPLE. This will make selling easier for you and it will be easier for your clients to make a decision. Your clients will love the images that you show them, so make it easy for them to buy and you will be amazed at the bottom line results you will see.

As a professional photographer, you focus on capturing the perfect image and making your clients look their best. For many professionals in the industry, selling products can be a challenge. Collages.net understands that not every professional photographer is also a sales professional extraordinaire, so we’re here to help. Each Wednesday in June, we’ll be posting an article focusing on how to sell more. From packages and shoot and burn to a la carte prices, we will help you understand your selling options so you can successfully sell your products and services to clients.

In our first entry next week, we’ll provide the positive and the negatives for both a la carte and package pricing. Both options can be successful for studios, but knowing both the positives and negatives will allow you to select the best option for how you sell to your clients.  In the following weeks, we’ll discuss client meetings and the ever-popular topic of shoot and burn.

Do you have questions about selling? Leave us a comment or e-mail us at marketing@collages.net and we’ll be happy to answer them on our next blog post!