Tag Archives: Photographer

Do You Know If Your Business is Offering Pain or Gain?

Posted on 03/26/2012 by admin
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In a post the other day I mentioned that customers primarily only buy for 2 reasons – Pain (avoidance) and Gain. Now in the Wedding Industry we are mainly on the happy side of things and the customers are buying for Gain, but WHAT are they gaining – a new dress, a cake, a photographer? Well yes all those things but the psychology behind it is a whole lot more.

When I talk about Pain and Gain what is meant? Well Gain is when people perceive they will gain from the purchase, they will gain things like peer admirations, higher standing in their social circle (why many people buy certain cars), makes you look better, makes you healthier etc. And Pain is reasons such as looking bad amongst your peers, losing money, losing health etc etc. The reason women spend billions on beauty products is to look better, but also because they don’t want to look old. The reason we all fork out on insurance is because we want to avoid the nighmare of NOT having it!

So what are your brides buying? Fancy stationery yes but more than that they are buying romance, one-upmanship on every other wedding they’ve been to, something that will add to the perfect day. In some way they believe that al the small things will make them look good, make the day happier and if they start married life with a perfect day then the marriage will be perfect too…..

Wedding planning is a perfect example of something that is booked because of the avoidance of pain – they don’t want anything to go wrong! And so is photography to some extent, yes the gain is that they have gorgeous images to remember the day but the pain avoidance is that they wont FORGET how they felt that day!

So, when you are marketing to your brides, instead of telling them what your selling, tell them what they want to buy – tell them what problem you are going to solve for them, tell them what they are going to gain from your product or service and tell them what pain they will avoid by working with you……

 

Claire x0x

 

If you want help with your business, I can offer marketing, mentoring and coaching all rolled in to one. Book your first FREE Breakthrough session, email me now claire@bombshellacademy.com

 

Sometimes You DO Get Something For Nothing…..

Posted on 03/23/2012 by admin
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Me and my 4 month old daughter, well mainly me, are BIG fans of everything made by the company JellyCat – their range is awesome, unique, tactile, cute and all the soft toys look like they have real character. They are NOT cheap toys but they are made well and I reckon worth the money.

The other day I had a lovely surprise in the post and it was a JellyCat book about Cordy Roy Elephant. The JellyCat range of characters all have books to go along with them that tells a story of the character. They are lovely stories with pictures and the child can sit with the toy and read the story. Back to the book, I received the book in the post from JellyCat because I’d entered a competition or something somewhere, thats not the important bit, the important bit is that I was SO thrilled with this book – they normally retail around the £5 mark so its not a cheap freebie but by receiving this book they now have a definite sale of a Cordy Roy Elephant at around £20 and not only that they have a guaranteed life long customer (who will probably spend a fortune over the years)  and a raving fan that will tell loads of people about how fab they are.

How can you incentivise your waivering customers? If you add up the cost of freebies you have to be realistic about whether you can afford it but you must think ahead and work out whether you can gain long term from these same customers over the years ahead. Its why the supermarkets are so keen for your loyalty to the extent that they send you voucers worth quite a lot of money, they know that in your lifetime you will spend a LOT of money with them and if they can get your loyalty its worth it.

As a wedding supplier you probably only think you are getting a one off sale with your brides but if you are a photographer, after the wedding you can do pregnancy, newborn, family photos etc – the lifetime value of that one bride is enormous!  And there are many other types of products and services that can benefit from that lifetime loyalty.

 

Claire xox

If you need help building your business or attracting more customers then get in contact to arrange a FREE initial Breakthrough Session. Email Now Claire@bombshellacademy.com

 

 

 

What’s your entry level product ?

Posted on 12/28/2011 by admin
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My baby is 7 weeks old this week and me and my partner have been taking loads and loads of photos of her almost daily. It would be nice though if I had some professional shots of her because I know she is only going to be this tiny once and that the moment soon passes. Whilst in hospital a photographer from Bounty came round and offered their services but I didn’t really want them at the time but now regret it slightly. So, I was looking around on the net for local photographers who do baby shots and found a couple but the prices amazed me to be honest, not only do I pay for the photo shoot which may or may not result in photos that I like but then I have to pay for each photo and unless I pay a huge amount then I don’t even get the photos on disk so that I can give copies to family etc. I know, copyrighting and all that but the upshot was that I couldn’t find anyone that suited what I was looking for. The risk to me, parting with my money and hoping I got what I wanted and then maybe having to start all over again if I didn’t just seemed to expensive for me. There was not one photographer that said, book the shoot with me, see the shots and then purchase the shots at your leisure – thats what I wanted. I would have probably ended up buying lots of shots AND if they were good I would not only have recommended them to others but I would also use them again in the future, who knows I might have another baby, get married, have a christening etc, etc – there are lots of future opportunities for business from me but small businesses seem to forget that!

If you calculate the potential you can earn from a customer over the years its worth going the extra mile to get them in the first place, which doesn’t mean you have to offer something at a loss, you definitely don’t, just make sure you offer exactly what they want and make it easy for them to do business with you.

Think what you can offer your customers in order for them to ‘try you out’ without spending too much money, and for you to take away the fear of doing business with you. Free engagement shoots are a nice touch and many of you already do these, how about selling sample cupcakes so brides can try all the flavours at their leisure, you could even sell these over the internet. What about if you are a florist? Maybe a small bouquet for £5/£10 so that a bride can get a feel for how her flowers will look on the day?

There is no limit to what you can offer, just use your imagination and you’ll come up with something your customers will appreciate AND part with cash for!

 

Claire xox

 

If you are having trouble coming up with your own entry-level product then just get in touch for some ideas and thoughts.

 

How Upselling Can Immediately Increase Your Sales by 5 Times!

Posted on 07/04/2011 by admin
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Upselling is probably the easiest and also the most efficient and cost effective way to instantly boost your sales. So what is it and how do you do it successfully? Well one of the biggest names in online retailing is complete wizard at upselling and thats Amazon! You go on their site with the idea of buying one book for about £7 and then before you know it you’ve bought a whole load of books and spent 50 quid! So many people use Amazon for purchases but its incredible how few people still mimic their brilliant upselling techniques.

So why does it work? Well, in psychology terms its a lot harder to get someone from a no-buying state into a buying state, once you’ve actually got them to the buying state the price is almost immaterial, in fact research shows that once in the buying state people will happily part with up to 5 times as much money as they originally intended. Amazon knows this and so do all the big retailers and especially the supermarkets, they know that if you are buying then they can sell a WHOLE lot more to you. Its why you go to the supermarket only needing a couple of things and come out with a whole trolley load!

Successful upselling has to be done once the buying decision has been made by your customer, once they’ve said Yes you can then tell them about add ons, if you are a photographer then introduce them to the next package up, if you are selling jewellery or accessories online then introduce them to other items in the range or things that would compliment their purchase – the take up rate for this type of upselling is ENORMOUS and can immediately boost your sales figures with very little extra effort.

The other great  time for upselling is when the customer has got their product and is feeling really happy about their purchase. At that particular time they feel good about themselves for choosing you and you should use the opportunity to sell them something else. If you upsell at this particular time then you should make any offer very time limited, the longer they delay in placing the order then the more the euphoria will where off so it has to be something that will encourage them to take immediate action. Photographers – you could say order a 2nd identical album within 48 hours and receive X discount. Accessories to match your purchase if order today will get free delivery or X £’s off. You don’t have to make the deal fantastic, its not the deal that spurs them into action, its the TIME element of the deal that will get results, the deal could be something as simple as free delivery.  The point is you are taking advantage of their current buoyant mood.

 

So – get thinking how you can introduce upselling into your business right away and see how much your sales increase.

 

Claire xox

 

If you would like first hand help with attracting more clients and developing your Wedding business then contact me today about the Wedding Wealth Program, 100% of my clients have said that it helped their business.

Are You Discounting or Adding Value?

Posted on 03/28/2011 by admin
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I often get asked whether you should include prices on a website and to be honest I have no idea whether there is a right or wrong answer to that. If someone is going to go elsewhere because of the price they see on your website then it really saves you the hassle of them making contact, you chatting, maybe visiting them and then them saying its too expensive and going somewhere else. On the other hand you could argue that without quoting the price you have a chance to ‘sell’ to the potential customer and they will be so taken with you that they’ll pay anything…… Personally, and this IS only my personal opinion I don’t think it makes any difference because weddings are so emotional occasions that if you provide something a bride particularly wants then the price aspect goes out of the window immediately and I think very few brides actually purchase based on price.

Whether you choose to display prices or not there is one thing that I often see people doing and I would really, really ask you to think twice and that is DISCOUNTING!!!!  We’ve all seen the ads on tv over and over again for DFS furniture and their sofas are reduced to some tiny amount compared to what they are apparently worth, and what are we all thinking? We are thinking that the reduced price is probably what they are worth, not the inflated price at all, and it actually deflates the VALUE of the product. Top supermarkets, who spend millions on their marketing have done extensive research on how to offer their products. Which offer would you prefer:-
Half Price
50% Off
Buy One Get One Free
Basically they are, of course all the same but Buy One Get One Free consistently gets 300-500% more sales than the others!

If you want to make an offer to potential clients, maybe at a wedding fair or as a limited time offer, rather than make a discount increase your VALUE instead. You can do this by adding something of value to your package. If you are a photographer for example offer a FREE engagement shoot (you might do this anyway but make it known!) and make sure you tell people how much this shoot is worth, add a VALUE to it.  If you are making an offering that involves just your time make sure you add a value to it and advertise that value, attach an hourly rate to your service and make it known to your potential customers exactly what they are getting.

So next time you are tempted to discount and reduce the value of YOU and YOUR service think again and get creative about how you can instead add VALUE to your offering.

 

Claire x0x

 

Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW

The Difference Between Features And Benefits….

Posted on 03/14/2011 by admin
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When I start working with a new client we have a good look at their website and marketing materials to see what message they are sending out and one of the things I often see is the listing of lots of FEATURES of their service but not the BENEFIT and this is a mistake thats always done and easy to correct, so whats the difference between features and benefits?

Well if you are a photographer for instance you may say that you take over 1000 photographs per wedding- THATS a feature! Your potential client will read that and think to themselves “What does that mean to me?!” Well the answer to what it means to the bride – It means that she has loads more shots to choose from and it ensures the perfect moment is captured is the benefit!

Let take a stationery example which many designers use…. “Our designs are completely bespoke and tailored to you” Thats great but its a feature, how is relevant to the bride? Well to get the feature all you need to do is complete the sentence so…
“Our designs are completely bespoke and tailored to you” which MEANS that your wedding will be completely unique and all your stationery will expertly and tastefully match the feel and style of your wedding day <—-NOW THATS a benefit!!!!

When writing anything to your potential clients you MUST focus on the benefits to the client, the features are all about what YOU do but the benefits are all about whats important to the customer.

So read through your copy today and decide whether you are highlighting features or benefits and if you are in any doubt then just get in touch and I’ll happily point you in the right direction.


Claire x0x


Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW

Can You Sell More Than Just Your Time?

Posted on 03/10/2011 by admin
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When my Wedding Planning business started taking off one of the things that bothered me was the fact that I only had so many physical hours in the day which effectively meant that there was a limit on what I could earn. Of course I could raise my prices but the limit would still be there. Luckily with Wedding Planning I was able to train people so that they could work for me and I could in effect do more than just one wedding on any single day and when business was booming I was doing 4 weddings a day. Unfortunately, many of the professions within the wedding industry mean that it is impossible to clone yourself such as lots of stationery, photographers, designers etc which mean there is a ceiling on your earning potential right? Well no!

Many experts say that the mark of a good business is if you could go away for a year and come back and its still running, could you do this with your business? If you can’t then you don’t have a business, you have a job! And unfortunately for many if us the job we have doesn’t come with the perks of working for someone else because you don’t get bonuses, holiday pay, sick pay, company parties etc, etc.

So how can you get out of this time for money trap and start to build a REAL business? Well the answer is to sell your knowledge. We all have a whole ton of wealth and experience in our heads and this is what people pay you for, but what if you could put some of this knowledge and experience down on paper and sell it? If you’re a wedding planner can you do online workshop advice or sell checklists or planning guides? If you are a photographer could you sell a guide to doing your own wedding photography??  But claire, I hear you say, if I do that I’m going to lose customers!!! NOOOOOOO !!! You will NOT lose customers, if anything you will gain them. The people that will buy your guides are NOT the same people that are your clients, they wont pay your prices, BUT you never know, some may be so impressed by your expertise that they end up booking you!

So, if you want your BUSINESS to grow and to start earning a PASSIVE income, think about what you can sell. If you want help with developing the PASSIVE INCOME side of your business then click here now, the Wedding Wealth Program covers this and many other aspects of growing your business and soon you’ll be earning money in your sleep!!!!!


Claire x0x


Do you need help to put together a Marketing Strategy for your business that will make it SOAR? Are you ready to Step Up??? Click Here NOW