Do You Have a Low Risk Product?

A low risk product is something either offered for free or for a very small amount. It’s a low risk so your clients can try it out at minimum financial investment.

A good example of a low risk product for a wedding photographer could be a free or half price engagement shoot. A commercial photographer who photographs restaurants could offer a week’s worth of social media posting images say 10-12 images. This then allows the restaurant to see for themselves how much more engagement they receive when professionally created images are posted as opposed to their own taken on a member of staffs I-Phone.

An interior or property photographer could offer an estate agent or architect one free residential shoot,may be a high-end home which they can photograph to showcase all the aspects of their services, including the use of interior and exterior photography and if you have drone photography you can offer this in the package also.

The estate agent or architect need to see the benefits in using your services. Let them see for themselves the wide angle views taking in an entire room, the quality detail and close up features of a beautiful fitted kitchen, the perfectly balanced view looking out from the interior windows of a country home.

All these elements the agent would have trouble producing themselves, but these aspects of your service can really create a stir with their potential clients and certainly lead to quicker property viewing and sales.

Remember, the idea of a low risk offer is that you can build a relationship with the client. You can’t expect a client to jump straight in and go for your top high-end package until they know you, trust you and believe in what you do.

A small low risk offer can also create clients for life, so think of the potential value in giving an hour or so of your time for free, it could be worth thousands.

What can you offer your clients at a low risk or zero risk to encourage them to have a go at using your services?

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You Always Have to Over-Deliver

Over-delivering is an essential part of building a solid customer base for life but most photographers don’t do it. Over-delivering is quite simply done by you giving the client more than they expected in the first place.

So, for example, you’re a portrait photographer, you take a set of portraits and tell the family that the pictures will be ready to view online within the next 7 days. To over-deliver simply message them within 3 days telling the family their photographs are ready to view by doing this you have already exceeded their expectations.

Another way to over-deliver is to always give something for free. By giving something for free you will not be reducing your profit because the free item is already included in your costings when putting your packages together, you just don’t show it to the client.

So say for instance you’ve put a package together with an album, a USB key or even a canvas print with some small prints included, what you can then do is supply the client with 6 beautiful photo keyrings for FREE. The keyrings should display one of their favourite images on the front and your company logo with website URL on the reverse.

Clients will simply enjoy these little touches, they’ll hand keyrings out to friends and family while telling them how much they really enjoyed their shoot with you. They’ll love them because they are for free and totally unexpected, its these little gestures that really do count.

Keyrings, mini albums, desk frames and what I call portable gifts are great PR for your business because when people ask where the photographs were taken, your details are on the reverse of the keyring or etched on the pocket album or on the bottom of your photo mugs.

It doesn’t have to be an expensive free gift, it just has to be something that they don’t expect. Obviously, your free item or free delivery will be costed into your package. The more money each client spends the bigger the freebie. If they spend a couple of £1000’s on a portrait album and USB, you might want to include a free canvas.

The canvas they can clearly see from your photography price list is valued at £400. However realistically it has probably cost you £40-£50 to produce. That free canvas is going to carry a lot of weight to them when they recommend you to their friends, telling people how amazing the experience was, how you supplied their images in record time and were very generous to include an amazing free canvas worth £400.

When you have successfully over-delivered and you’ve supplied your clients with the products that they have brought, it’s the perfect time to ask them for a testimonial. You can pretty much guarantee an absolutely fantastic testimonial in return and be sure the will recommend you to all their friends.

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Building an Awesome Photography Website

I’ve been looking at a lot of photographers’ websites recently and most photographers’ websites tend to follow the same theme. They tend to take-on a portfolio-based website which basically means they are full of lots of pretty pictures, but they don’t have much text. The reason they don’t have any text is that they are more like an online gallery and they don’t offer a clear message or a solution to their visitors.

Most photographers don’t like the idea of marketing it’s not something that appeals to us, but you must understand that even though your images look nice its emotionally driven words that will really sell your photography.

When using words that are going to sell your services you have got to offer a solution to a problem or build an emotional connection with the people you are looking at as potential clients.

So that said at the very top of your website you MUST have a headline when you open up your homepage. Your headline has to say what it is you do, whether you’re a wedding photographer, portrait photographer or a restaurant photographer your message needs to be clear. More importantly your message needs to say what you can do for the client, how you can make their lives better and be the solution to their needs.

So for example, if you are a food photographer you don’t just take photographs - you take attention grabbing images that creates stunning interaction on social media and brings more bookings to your clients door. If you are a wedding photographer you don’t just take photographs - you take beautiful timeless images in a hassle-free way, fun, natural and relaxed, so the bride, her friends and family can enjoy her special day without interruption.

You have-to look at what the core reason is potential clients are seeking out a photographer in the first place. How can you make their lives better, it’s not just taking pictures it’s the solution to their needs that is the real benefit for them.

Think about it, any wedding photographer can photograph a bride and produce good images, but what the bride really wants is to feel relaxed, at ease and enjoy her big day, knowing the photographs will be taken without interruption.

Every other photographer will be selling their images online just as pretty pictures. However potential clients can’t judge one photographer’s work any differently than they can judge another photographer’s work. They don’t look at photographs the same way as we do.

What you have to do is be different from everybody else and tell clients exactly what you can do for them. Don’t just display a set of pretty pictures and leave it to them to make up their mind who they are going to choose. You have to take action on your website and get your message across, tell them why they MUST book you.

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