The Real Magic Bullet in Marketing your professional portrait photography business today is YOU. Your Personality, Skills, Energy, Consistency, Persistence, Enthusiasm, Friends and Faith are the keys. Show how you are different not just claiming to be better.
Budget some time in your calendar for making contacts with potential and previous customers. Ask about new opportunities and suggest to them some ideas you have been thinking about that will help them in their business or life.
Put your marketing activities in a calendar so you don’t miss opportunities or rush to hit deadlines, causing less-than-wonderful results.
This takes a little thought and effort. Define your “ideal” clients. Consider how best to reach them — where they are, what they see and what will cause them to respond.
Your customers and prospects are constantly changing. Just because someone might have declined an offer previously does not mean they will be unresponsive today. Some of the best jobs have been landed by just asking one more time after the sales person had almost given up any hope of making the sale work.
A very good example of an open question to ask during your next sales presentation was blogged by Jonathon Fields at FreelanceSwitch
He was contacted to write some hard-hitting marketing copy for a product on extremely short notice. After a short phone discussion he asked this magical question that helped him choose how to differentiate himself with this potential client. “What’s important about the person you choose to do this job?”
Knowing what was important to the client he was able to taylor his response to tie in his unique skills with the requirements of this job.
It is also advisable to find out “What have you budgeted for this project?”
To summarize, an enthusiastic person with amazing professional photography skill in lighting, posing, composition and very importantly personal communication and rapport with the client is the key today. Sell yourself and the emotional benefits to your customers of the services you provide.