Wednesday Wisdoms

Include the number of final images into your licensing term as a safeguard setting the tone that your usage fee increases if they add more images. 

Save time and make the most of each marketing outreach session by sticking with a similar theme. 

OUTREACH Helpful Tips:

1. Stick to one main message to copy and paste, just swapping in their name and something personally related to them. 
2. Focus on one company or one type of client to use the same overall message. 
3. Start with mutually connected people to find the right contacts and use who you know to warm up the conversation.
4. Have one specific point of timely information giving a purpose to your message. 

15 to 20 percent of a photographer’s marketing budget and time should be spent on outreach to potential clients, whether they are past clients or new ones. Having a specific point or question to ask when reaching out is essential, as it shows that you have taken the time to understand the client’s work or interests. Whether connecting through social media or in-person meetings, it is important to have something meaningful to say and to share updates about your own business growth and progress. By doing so, you can establish a rapport with potential clients and increase the chances of securing new business.

Knowing the client’s budget, I like to sneak in $500 more to get as much as possible without my response risk being too high. My response is to stay within their playing field but still do my job to get us paid as much as possible. 

Stepping forward is not about knowing the precise direction you are going; it means you are actively advancing. 

You are in the trendsetting business of getting hired to help move clients forward. This exploratory motion is the infrastructure of a long-term career in the creative industry.

Bidding can sometimes lead to an intense panic mode like we are in a time pressure machine that feels so real. Last-minute production decisions involving many people can feel like a monumental crisis. I’ve seen it and felt this panic myself as it will rise and then simmer down with a flick of a switch.

Know that this potential frenzy state of emotion could be a regular piece of the bidding puzzle. 

The 3 Steps Clients Look for in Your Portfolio:

1. The seamless message of your style with a purpose. 
2. An emotional story, the audience is pulled into feeling: striking a chord with their brand’s message.
3. The reassurance that their customers feel this emotion if they hire you. 

Biggest myth is thinking you have to be the one doing it all, taking every opportunity to save some cash and do it your way. Photographers, you don’t have to do it all to run your business. Short-sighted vs. long-term eye on the prize goal, you choose which way to spend your time investing in your company. 

Don’t you want to know where your bid total stands with the client?

It can be helpful to have an excuse to check in on your bid after submitting it. 

If the client left out some piece of info about the job, I could put in a low price, knowing they may come back to ask for more. 

That check-in can allow us to feel out the budget and see if there is room to bump up the price. 

Timing matters!

Outreach can be unpredictable, but sometimes you have that distinct positional placement of being right in there freshly on a client’s radar. Timing can be the key to fully opening the door when it’s been slightly cracked open for us. Use it or lose it is the saying that comes to my rep mind. 

One of the untold languages of our business during triple bidding is when the response to your bid is requesting you to increase a particular line item usually means you are not the first choice. Ouch. I know it’s not easy, but it is best to know where you stand and what you are probably dealing with.