Fast forward 6 months, I get a frantic call from the bride and groom. In horror, they exclaim, that their wedding photographer was threatening to sue them if I didn’t remove the photos taken at their wedding from my Facebook page. At first I couldn’t understand what was going on. After-all, several of the guests at the wedding took photos and posted them on social media.
Free Personality Quiz (for new potential hires)
But, it get, it can be intimidating when you're considering hiring or outsourcing something. Fear of the unknown, right?… But before going down this road, (and I can’t stress this enough), you’ll need to find the “right” people for you. The wrong people can just as easily derail your efforts! Taking your precious time away from growing your business - to micro managing it.
Will Personal Branding photography make my business more successful?
How do I put myself out there (in my branding photos)?
4 Brilliant Things You Can do Online This Weekend to Attract More Clients
Have you ever felt like your marketing is lacking? That you could be doing something more, but you're just not sure what? Do you feel like you may be missing some things in your social media, your website, or in your brand?
I’m going to share with you 4 of my secrets to marketing that you can do THIS WEEKEND!! One weekend of work can transform your website and attract future clients.
And.... did I mention these 4 things won't cost you a dime?
You don't need to buy anything!
Let's jump in - here’s how:
About Page
Your Next 90 Days
Get Personal
Testimonials
1. ABOUT PAGE
Did you know that “About pages” are one of the TOP 5 most visited pages on websites?
That’s huge! But surprisingly, most us overlook this page ... or we just throw up some generic (useless) information. Truth be told, I fell into this grey zone myself.
But once I realized this, I discovered my about page was one of the most transformative pages that pursauded potential clients to contact me or not. Why? Because, it solidified the KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factor.
Action Plan: Rewrite your about page in an interview format. List 5 questions you wish prospective clients knew about you and 5 questions prospective clients usually ask you. Now write the answers to these questions. If you find writing about yourself difficult, this is a fast and easy method to keep the tone conversational and personal.
2. YOUR NEXT 90 DAYS
Have you ever heard it takes 90-100 days to achieve something? This is a common timeframe we worked with - back when I worked in the corporate world.
So what do I want you to do here?
Plan out your next 90 days! Sound daunting? It really doesn’t have to be. Let me show you how easy it is (see chart below). Break it down into chunks like months, weeks and days. Think about what you want to accomplish each month. For example, my October, November and December plan looked something like this:
Action Plan: grab a piece of paper and dot out a high level overview of who you would like to attract in the next few months. Come up with a message and share images that compliment your message with the world.
3. Get Personal
People buy from people they like. Even big brands are getting personal. Think Apple and Steve Jobs.
Be sure to sprinkle in some personal images and stories to give your brand some life. Prospective clients want to know if they’ll like you, feel comfortable with you, feel safe with you and if they’ll enjoy working with you.
On the same note, know that not everyone will click with you. But this will help in attracting the right clients and repelling the wrong ones.
4. Update your Testimonials Page
You may be thinking this is an obvious one. But when was the last time you actually updated your testimonials page?
Prospective clients want to know what other people thought and felt about working with you. Hate asking people to write a testimonial for you? (I do) Don’t worry! Look back in your emails. Have previous clients said nice things to you after a shoot? Simply send them a quick email asking if you can use their words on your website, social media and marketing materials.
It’s a win-win!
With love and gratitude and attracting more clients,
P.S. If you know someone who might benefit from this, go ahead and share it with them.
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5 Ways to make clients feel more comfortable
Understandably, people are usually feeling pretty nervous, vulnerable or anxious before a photo shoot. And I can totally relate! However after the photo shoot, my clients often tell me that it was easier than they had anticipated. Mainly because I made them feel comfortable!
To get that special connection in your photos - in the eyes and body language of your client - these are 5 things I do with my clients to make them feel more comfortable during their photo shoot. Remember to always smile + listen when using any of these 5 methods:
1. MAKING A NEW FRIEND
When a client is booking her photo shoot, be sure to ask her a lot of questions about herself.
It’s like making a new friend! Asking questions helps me get to know my client’s personality and also what she likes in terms of style and imagery. It gives us something to talk about. And finding any similarities between us, helps the conversation flow easily on the day of the photo shoot.
2. PROCESS
Just before the photo shoot begins, I warn my client that I will most likely be talking throughout the entire session - often gently repeating myself with posing and coaching instructions.
By informing my client of my process ahead of time, she never feels discouraged or like she is doing something wrong. She interprets my repetitious instructing as encouragement rather than criticism.
3. TELL A STORY TO SET THE SCENE
Tell a story to get your client into the right mindset or character.
Sometimes if can’t get my client to give me the connection or body language I am looking for, I tell her a story to get her into character. With couples for example, I may say “you both just snuck out of a formal dinner party and met up in this secluded area to share a private moment”. Or with a couture portrait client, I may tell her to picture herself as a celebrity she likes and ask her to show me how that celebrity would portray this look. This works wonders!
4. SHARE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Share your own experience of being photographed focusing on how you felt during the process.
I often share my personal experience of being in front of the camera and how nervous and vulnerable I felt. Let your client know that you can relate to how she is feeling. And how the poses may feel really awkward, they actually look good in camera. This will help reduce your client’s stress and you will see her shoulders relax.
5. SHOW POSITIVE EMOTIONS
When a shot looks great don’t be afraid to show your excitement!
During the photo shoot when a pose or shot looks great, I can’t help but get excited and let out a little squeal! This always gives the client an extra boost of confidence and reinforces that she is doing a great job! She will also inject more effort and enthusiasm in her next poses.
I hope you found these tips helpful! I’d love to hear any tips you have on making your clients feel more comfortable in front of the camera.
Thanks for reading! Leave your comments below!
With much gratitude,
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Animoto Video - Yay or Nay?
So I did it! I took the plunge signed up for Animoto and created a video!
Now I’ve heard people in the photography industry singing the praises of Animoto for a while. Namely the super talented Sue Bryce! And I must admit, my initial reaction was how great can it really be? I mean I use a Mac.... and iMovie is simple enough.
I’ve also tried Photodex Proshow Web. Could this really be any better? - I said to myself.
Well, at the end of this article I’ll tell you the reasons why I think Animoto is a better tool - for my needs - and they probably aren’t for the reasons you think!
I’ll also touch on some different ways you can use video for your wedding, family or glamour photography businesses!
Why
But first let’s start off with why video is even important to your photography business!
These are some interesting and rather compelling statistics in my opinion. The article “The Science of Video Engagement” found that:
60% of web site visitors will watch a video if one is available before reading any text
88% of visitors stay longer on a site where there is a prominent video
homepages or landing pages that have a prominent video lead to 800% more conversions
website visitors have a higher likelihood of remembering videos compared to other forms of information
visitors who watch videos tend to look deeper into your product/brand and later purchase from you.
So video is pretty important. But how can we use it in our photography business?
How to use video
I’ve put together a list of some fun and easy ways I’ve seen and heard of video being used - and ways you can use it too:
show behind the scenes at a wedding or in studio
interview
show your studio and office
client testimonials
image galleries
surprise client with their images put to music
showcase final images mixed with behind the scenes video/images
family shoot: interviewing the kids mixed with final images from the shoot
business commercial
brand story with images and your voice-over
showcase products e.g. wedding albums, folio boxes
up-sell packages
That’s all great, but where can you use these videos? Uhm… just about everywhere! And the best part is you can easily re-purpose your videos. Think - homepage, blog post, Facebook, Instagram and other social media.
My Animoto experience
I wanted to surprise one of my beautiful portraiture clients with something extra thoughtful.
My typical portraiture blog posts prior to this, I’m sad to admit, were 1-2 images from a photo shoot that I would post here and there if I found time.
This time I wanted to say more. This time I wanted to show more. And I wanted to say more without words and without just throwing a bunch of photos up consecutively one after another.
So I logged into my Animoto account and I picked a theme that I thought would be fitting with the style of photos I wanted to showcase.
Tip: when viewing the themes, try to look past the default placeholder images - your photo genre may give the theme a completely different vibe.
Next I uploaded my photos, added my logo, a few lines of text, picked some music from their suggested royalty free music library and voila - I published my video! (Big Smile)
Animoto, automatically timed my video to the music, transitioned between the different slides and gave me straightforward options to export/publish my video.
Since you can control the time of the video, (if you’d like), you can also make shorter complimentary videos to use on Instagram.
Tip: Instagram cuts videos off at 15 seconds.
So in addition, I made a shorter 15 second version of the video to match the look & feel of the original video.
Then, with the touch of a button, I exported the videos to my youtube and vimeo accounts and also downloaded them to my computer.
And the very best part... my video looked ultra professional! All shiny and polished!
Why I love Animoto
iMovie and other online video programs can do the same thing right?
Yes for some features, but these are the reasons why I prefer Animoto to other software I have tried:
it’s a super simple process
it saves me time! I’m a photographer and I don’t have time to fiddle around with video software.
it’s drag and drop
it’s really fast and slick
it’s online
you can import photos from smugmug
if you dislike the theme you can easily switch it without re-starting your project from scratch
it makes exporting easy
it exports quickly
all of your videos are in one place
it connects to your vimeo and youtube accounts
it easily embeds video into your website
you can upload both videos and still images
you can clip your videos in animoto
you can upload voice-overs
it has a huge library of royalty free music (hola!)
it has a blank template that you customize for projects that don’t fit with any of their other themes.
If you’ve been considering using video for any aspect of your photography business, I hope this article has been useful! I’d love to hear about your experiences!
Also, if you want to explore more about how to use animoto to boost your business check out Sue Bryce's super Creative Live course here!
Be sure to leave me a comment below.
P.S. Here is my video
With love and gratitude. And wishing you all the success in photography business,
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