Connection is Key

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Ways to bond with your customers:

Now more than ever it is important that you create a tight bond with your customers.  You want them to like you and enjoy being around you as a person, not just a photographer.  Creating a great customer bond goes far beyond pretty pictures.  More and more the trend for people purchasing higher end goods is less about the product itself and more about the bond people feel with the people offering those products.  As you get older (yes I said it) your clients are probably going to stay about the same age.  For example a newborn photographer caters to people who are most likely between the ages of 25 - 45.  Those ages aren’t going to change BUT you are going to get older. That means you need to  adapt how you think and feel about the sales experience so you keep up with trends which are the ages of your ideal client.

 Gen-X buys for different reasons and has different opinions on what they buy than Millennials.  So making sure you stay up with those differences is really important.  You can’t sell your services to Millennials the same way you might sell to a Baby Boomer.  They simply purchase items in different ways. 

To have a great business, creating a great connection with your customers is more important than ever.  Here are some ways to bond with your customers so they come back next time.

 Send handwritten thank you notes.  Who doesn’t love mail that isn’t a bill or advertisement.

 Talk to them more.  Not just about the job or your business, but just connect with them.  Find out more about what they like to do.  Be interested, share stories about your own life.  Treat them like a friend.

 Branding:

A logo means nothing to a small business or to one that is just starting out.  Photographers spend WAY too much time worrying about their logo when in most cases, it is the face and connection with others that is going to bring in the business you are looking for.  Unless you are a brand like Pepsi, Coke, or Sephora, your logo isn’t nearly as important as you think.

 I have gotten a new logo three different ways.  Paid a high end custom designer, chosen one from Etsy, and hired a designer overseas off of Fivr.com

 All three of these experiences resulted in a logo that I used for a while but the $29 logo had the same impact as the one that cost $2,000.  And that was they had very little impact at all. 

 All three times I changed my logo not ONE person said anything about it, it didn’t impact my business in any way.  So choose a logo that is simple but don’t put too much energy into it. At the end of the day, no one cares but you.

  Customer Experience:

 Become an expert in understanding your customer journey.  Do this by not only refining the journey you send your clients through, but also becoming a client yourself.  It is shocking to me how many professional photographers have never hired a professional photographer except for their wedding yet they are trying to put together a client centered process that works in their business.  That is like a great barista trying to make a great cup of coffee when they have never tasted a great cup of coffee.  It doesn’t make sense.   How can you truly understand and put yourself in your clients shoes, if you have never been in their shoes?

 That is why one of the first things I tell my coaching clients is to go and hire someone to take new images of them for their websites and social media.  Becoming a client can be the best research you can do for your business.  

Customer Journey

Do you have a set customer journey?  A path that makes sense for them to follow from inquiry to delivery?  If not, this is where I would suggest you spend your time on your business.  Create those emails for their journey with your business, make sure you are addressing everything they need to know when they need to know it,  and don’t make it overly complicated.  

When communicating the journey it is advised that you speak to your clients in words that a 5th grader would understand.  Many photographers like to heighten their word choice as they start to charge higher prices thinking that wealthier people speak in a different way than others.  But I have never heard any of my very wealthy clients say, “Dorie, I am interested in that handcrafted, heirloom, bespoke album that was produced in Italy by local artisans in a small village outside of Palermo.”  Nope.  They just say, “Dorie, we would love to take a look at the custom albums you offer.”  

Try refining some of these in your business and see what happens.