photography business blueprint

Photography Business Blueprint Designing your Business from your Client’s Point of View.

Research and Strategy Report from Small Business Insights

October 2011

This document is copyright and no part of it can be copied or sold to third parties without the express permission of the author.

Small Business Insights, Windrush, West Horrington, Somerset BA5 3ED• [email protected]

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INTRODUCTION

This report explains how to better acquire, retain and develop loyal customers. It describes what potential

clients are looking for, what stops them from engaging a professional photographer and how you can best

overcome their concerns. It then shows how to foster more profitable relationships with clients in the long

term and how they can be a more effective sales-force on your behalf for both wedding and portrait

assignments.

We look at the journey a client takes in choosing and commissioning a photographer: understanding the

qualities and benefits they look for, the amount they expect to pay and the sort of service they hope to

receive. By reading this report and, in effect, listening to what customers have to say, you will understand

better how to acquire more clients, satisfy their needs and send them out, happy to recommend you to

others.

As you’ll see from their responses, when a potential client begins to look for a photographer, they aren’t

looking for creativity or even the cost of the service, but for a photographer who seems willing to ‘Listen to

what I want’. This concern clearly illustrates the high price your customers feel are at stake when selecting a

wedding photographer and it’s the recurring theme running through the data within this survey. It speaks not

so much to the specific ‘tactics’ you can deploy to attract new customers, (though this report highlights a

number of those), rather, it emphasises the attitude and approach you should take as a photographer to

build a reputation that generates a profitable and recurring stream of clients. This is the overall ‘strategy’ to

adopt with your business rather than the simple tactics that might win over a one-off customer. Tactics may

win a battle, but the strategy you build your business upon will give you overall success.

© Copyright Graham Hall, Small Business Insights, 2011 !

Small Business Insights, Windrush, West Horrington, Somerset BA5 3ED• ! [email protected]! 2



WHAT SORT OF BUSINESS PERSON ARE YOU?

Before getting into the meat of this report and the picture that’s revealed by photography clients, it’s worth

taking a few moments to consider the various types of photographer currently plying their trade. This is

important because, as in many other industries, professional photography is governed by the 80/20 rule:

meaning 80% of sales are divided amongst 20% of suppliers. It’s obviously vital that you are part of the

successful 20%. The 80/20 rule governs most business categories from retail, to plumbing, to accounting

and it’s not just a coincidence but rather a fact of life. There’s even a mathematical formula called ‘The

Pareto Principle’, which explains why it happens.

This is important for you to understand because, as you read this report you need to recognise that the top

20% of photographers have created their success precisely as a result of placing their customers at the

heart of what they do. Go to one of the many photography forum websites and you see successful

photographers explain how ‘service’ is central to their business. ‘Service’ is just one way of describing what

customers are hoping to find when they look for a photographer to take their professional photographs.

‘Service’ is just one way of saying ‘Listen to what I want’, which, as you will see, is at the heart of the

customers’ concerns.

You can also see this consumer-centric attitude in the way top photographers approach consumer feedback

and consumer research studies such as this one. This is not so surprising given that customers consider a

photographer’s ‘ability to listen’ to be so important. Consumer feedback and research is just another way of

ensuring you are ‘listening’. As you’ll see, ‘Listening’ is more than just another chore to do; it’s an overall

attitude and approach to your business that permeates every aspect of the service you give your clients.

It’s the key differentiating feature of successful photographers.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle






You can see this when you examine the various types of wedding photographer out there.

Photographers, in fact, can be divided into 4 clear categories that we call ‘Skylarks’ ‘Cuckoos’, ‘Ostrich’ and

‘Love Birds’. Here’s a short field guide:

SKYLARKS

Skylarks are the ‘Early Adopter’ or ‘Lighthouse’ photographers who fully engage in the business of

developing their business. They make up about 20% of the market and are characterised by their desire to

improve their service and marketing. They fly high to get a better view of the needs of their customers, are

open-minded and above all, not complacent. They believe there are always new things to learn and new

ways to improve.

Clearly, Skylarks watch what other photographers are doing, but they don’t try to copy because they

understand the value in differentiating their offer in a competitive market. As a result, they’re brave and tend

to stand out from the crowd. As you are already reading this report, it’s more than likely that you are already

a Skylark and you see this report as an opportunity to develop your business based on a better

understanding of your customers. You’ll also want to take the recommendations detailed at the end of the

10%10%

60%

20%

Types of Photographer SkylarksCuckoosOstrichLove Birds

© Copyright Graham Hall, Small Business Insights, 2011




report and customise them to fit your personality and style, knowing this will help your clients feel more

comfortable dealing with a photographer they sense is genuine and authentic. The greater clarity you’ll get

from reading this report will help you do this with even more confidence.

CUCKOOSCuckoos make up around 60% of UK wedding photographers and represent, in effect, the status quo.

Most Cuckoos are reasonably successful and, because of this, want to keep things the way they are. A

Cuckoo’s website gives off the aura of a professional and confident photographer but scratch beneath the

surface and you may feel a little formulaic. The more you look at a Cuckoo’s site the more you may feel it

wants to tell you how good they are, rather than be willing to listen to what you want. Perhaps its because

they consider themselves to be more of a business than a service. Perhaps it’s because they spend more

time looking inwards at their business rather then outwards towards the client.

Unlike Skylarks, Cuckoos don’t take risks. The only time they think about revamping their offer is when they

see a competitor doing something different. If it works, they’ll copy it and, sadly, that’s the reason there is so

little differentiation within the photography business. There’s little a cuckoo can learn from consumer insights

because they already think they know everything. Cuckoos charge thousands for their services yet dismiss

the idea of investing in consumer research.

OSTRICH

Around 10% of photographers adopt an ‘Ostrich’ mentality. For them, changes in the photo business over

the last 10 years has been so great that they don’t feel they can remain competitive. As a result, they’ve

become somewhat resentful.

The Ostrich learned their skills when darkrooms and fixing agents were part of the process, but to their mind,

digital cameras and Google have now turned the photography business into a lottery, making it harder for

them to keep afloat.





But don’t write them off; the qualities that once made the Ostrich a successful photographer are just as

valuable today as they were before we all went digital. They may not offer documentary-style photo shoots

but they still take great photos, and take care of their clients who sense their genuine interest. Their less

fussy and down-to-earth approach can sometimes mean that ‘less is more’.

Sadly, most Ostrich photographers have adopted a bunker mentality and would never invest in research or

marketing advice that might help them evolve.

LOVE BIRDSThe final group, which again represents around 10% of photographers are called Love Birds.

Love Birds are more artists than hard-nosed business people. Their goal is to provide a creative and

personal service to a small number of clients and friends. Consequently their marketing is rarely disciplined

enough to deliver the new clients they need to make a sustainable business. As a result, they have the least

impact on the overall wedding photography business.

Predictably, Love Birds don’t believe that ‘listening to clients’ or investing in consumer research is of any

relevance as they don’t think its important to engage with any client who doesn’t already understand them.

So hopefully, as you read this report, you’ll see yourself more as a Skylark than a Cuckoo (We can forget the

Ostrich and Love Birds!) and, as such, you’ll view the future as an opportunity. The future will happen

whether we want it to or not, and those that succeed will do so because they are willing to engage with the

challenges rather than be in denial and hope it goes away. Above all, you’ll recognise that, to flourish in an

increasingly generic market you must differentiate in ways that are relevant to the evolving customer. With

this in mind, read on!





PART ONE:! OVERVIEW OF THE MARKET

The most striking thing to see when looking at the photography business is that

consumers don’t fully appreciate the benefits they can get from it. Photographers

themselves don’t do enough to keep in contact with their clients, explain the service they

provide or entice potential customers with attractive offers. The result is a disjointed and

ineffective relationship. Rather than explore the option of professionally taken

photographs many potential customers simply let the opportunity slip by or make do

with photographs they take themselves.

Responses from the 108 people we interviewed suggest that most will only contact a

photographer for wedding commissions, or, far less frequently, for extremely special

occasions. In almost all cases, photographers were considered a luxury rather then an

everyday expense.

Less than 10% thought it anything other than an expense for special occasions.[Chart 1]




Given their lack of appreciation of the benefits, it is no wonder so

many choose to take the photos themselves. Just over half of our

sample (50.9%) thought they would use their own camera rather

than hire a professional for an important occasion.[Chart 2]

The most pressing job for any photographer is therefore to

persuade their customers that high quality professionally taken

photographs are something that will enhance their life and are

worth the extra expense.

So how does a photographer develop a stronger, more loyal

customer base?

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RECOMMENDATIONS AND ‘WEDDING BUSINESS BLUEPRINT’ PLEASE GO TO

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