Growing Pains: Reaching Customers Online and at Home

This weekend, I came in contact with two new clients in very different ways.

A plumber who fixed a leak in my bathroom noticed the 20x30 black and white print I have hanging up in my home of Teri and Avery (the photo on my blog banner) as well as other images I have on display in my hallway and home studio.

"Are you the photographer?" he asked. Yep, yep I am! We talked for a few minutes and he told me that he and his wife for looking for a photographer to take family portraits of them and their 3-week old baby boy, and he was struck by the image of Teri and her child. He asked me how much I charged for a session and was shocked when I told him $150. Another photographer he had contacted wanted $900 just for the session! He said he could tell I did great work and that he would be calling me to set up an appointment this Saturday once he consulted with his wife.

LESSON LEARNED? Find some creative way to display your work in your home. It could be an easy way to gain new clients or give existing clients ideas on more photos they could take (and purchase!). The same thing happened when one of my brides who had come over for a bridal portrait session liked a boudoir image I had hanging up, and decided to get a similar image done as a surprise for her new hubby.

Also on Saturday, I got an email from a client who wants senior portraits done for her son. My blog allows me to backtrack and see where my visitors are coming from. Turns out, my new client did a very simple Google search for "senior portraits, discounts and Denver," and my blog was the first item on the hit list.

LESSON LEARNED? Never underestimate how important and vital labels, tags, and keywords can be for your business. Think about the kinds of things potential clients might be looking for, or Googling online to help them narrow down their search, and write those "tell-tale" gems in titles of your blog post, throughout the post itself and in your tags and keywords. Make it easier for potential clients to find you!

Q and A: Tips on Getting Paid Customers

Yeah! I've been getting a lot of comments and questions lately from readers and passersby of my blog, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. One of the hardest things about being a journalist is that you often don't get as much feedback as you would like about your work. And the only time you do is when you've just messed something up, so it's easy to get disillusioned or cynical. When someone takes the time to write to me, it really touches my heart, and the encouragement for my photography will never be forgotten.

I make it a point to answer people who respond to my articles that run in the Denver Post (even when they are telling me how awful they think I am); and I wanted to do the same here on my personal/business blog. To that end, I'm going to start a series of posts to show my readers some love and answer questions when I can.

REDTHEDUNNS ASKS: Any tips on how to get paid customers??? You know-to share the wealth of knowledge back with the Digital Photography School people?

ANSWER: Hello Redthedunn, thanks for your question. Here's one tip that I've learned along the way. Try to take advantage of every opportunity thrown your way because things tend to snowball. I got my first paid client thanks to Efrain Cruz, the owner of Illuminate Photography Workshops in Denver. A client needed Efrain to shoot at a dinner/reception being held by the Denver Womens League of Voters, but Efrain had another committment. So Efrain sent out an email to several of his students letting them know about the opportunity. All we had to do was email the contact.


Denver Womens League of Voters annual dinner


I was shocked to find out later that I was the ONLY student who contacted the source! I don't know why the other students didn't. Mind you, I fought with myself because I didn't think I had the experience. But how are you going to get experience unless you GET OUT THERE? I got the assignment (see photos here) and I passed out business cards to everyone who would take them. The following month, one of those folks who got my business card contacted me later to shoot for a similar event for the Allied Jewish Apartments (see photos here) .....and one thing led to another and another, and another. You never know who are you going to meet at these kinds of events or who might need your services later.


Allied Jewish Apartments 36th Chai Celebration



Lessons learned:

1) Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, at least until you are so busy that you have to start turning things down.

2) Take business cards with you every where you go and pass them out! You never know when that initial contact will lead you to your next assignment.

3) Take advice from clients when they are gracious enough to give it.


The "Grip and Grin" Shot

Nancy Ulrich with the Denver Womens League knew this was my first big assignment, and she was extremely helpful in telling me how to improve my skills. Organizations tend to need what I like to call "Grip and Grin" shots for newspaper society pages. Those are the images where everybody groups together in a photo and smiles. I personally hate those kind of shots, but Ulrich helped me see that what the client wants should be the most important thing. I didn't take enough of those shots during this assignment because of my own foolish personal bias. But I took more of them during the next shoot, which pleased that client.