There’s more to it than taking photographs - Marketing Your Product (Part 2)

Part 3 on the business aspects of being a successful photographer by Ron Pybus ma aswpp.

Page 2

Wedding photographers need to work with their regular venues. The venue should have an album of their work on display and the photographer should ensure that the albums are up to date and be full. The hotel I am in at the moment has a wedding book, but there are only 10 pictures in an album that holds 30, and they are very much a photographer’s pictures aimed at the bride. If the pictures are selected with the venue in mind they will use the album to market their venue and your name will be quite visible. Venues always have a need in January and February for images of their hotel and its grounds with summer sun and summer foliage, together with a bride and groom. Stuart Schofield has gone one step further and brought together a hotel, a car company, flowers and cake supplier, and himself with a combined marketing package. This aims, not to sell the Friday or Saturday wedding but was sold to each participant company on the basis that they would be able to gain weddings on other days. It regularly brings in mid-week wedding bookings for all who buy the package, and the hotel, where brides go first, markets the package on behalf of everyone.

I also offer a discount package to parent groups at schools in the locality. This is not for school photographs but for family photos in my studio and again it brings in a regular flow of customers. The Parents’ Association receives £5 from me for each sitting and thus is keen to promote the scheme in their newsletter to all parents.

These are just a few ways of promoting your business through others. There are many more. It is really up to you to research your locality to find suitable outlets and suitable schemes.

To market yourself, especially if you work from home, requires a display somewhere in the town centre. The baby shop referred to above moved some cases and was about to blank off part of a window to allow more interior display. I offered to produce a display which fitted on to the back of their shelves but faced outwards, thus saving them the cost of blocking out the window and for a small fee I now have a display in the window of the local toyshop and baby shop which is next to the door and is two metres high and one metre wide. A similar opportunity was spotted by the entrance door of an insurance broker who had his offices upstairs but a door and side window on the ground floor on the high street.

Moving or changing pictures attract people more than static ones in today’s fast-moving world. If you have a display stand at a wedding fair or similar event it is essential to have a set of quality images, displayed on an ever-changing screen.

These days a website is vital to market yourself and your images, but more on that in the next issue.

There’s more to it than taking photographs Are you just starting out in business or thinking of going into photography? Do you want to know more before the next issue?

Ron Pybus runs 2-, or 3-day courses designed to meet your specific needs. These are usually one-to-one or at most one-to-four. They can cover all business aspects plus practical studio work, lighting, etc and are held in his studio and training centre in the heart of beautiful Wiltshire. Courses start at £150 for two days. For more information contact Ron on 01225 774440 or email pybus@btinternet.com or see the website www.pybusstudios.co.uk

Further details:
Ron Pybus, MA, ASWPP, AMPA, ARPS, DipPP, Cert.MPP
The Pybus Partnership
25 Bratton Road
West Ashton
Nr Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 6AZ

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Photo Quote: The ear tends to be lazy, craves the familiar and is shocked by the unexpected; the eye, on the other hand, tends to be impatient, craves the novel and is bored by repetition. - W. H. Auden