These days, wedding photography is a dog-eat-dog business. Every potential client that consults with you for services has done the same with several other photographers, as they should. After all, they are looking for the right person to document one of the most important days of their lives!
So, given that competition is often fierce, you need to make a strong, positive impression that will leave potential clients saying, “You’re the one!” Here’s a few ways that you can blow away your consults and land more gigs.
Educate Them
Often, consultation sessions turn into you talking for a half hour about what you do, the services you provide, your workflow, and the like. It’s really kind of selfish! While you need to inform potential clients about how you can help them, it needs to be in less of a “let’s talk about me” tone and more in an educative tone that will help them make a sound decision.
How do you do that?
Focus on things that matter to the client. Discuss how long a typical wedding day shoot will take. Explain the procedure for getting all the posed shots before the ceremony. Give them an idea of what the workflow will look like inside the venue, such as where you’d like to be positioned and where your second shooter will need to be. Give them pointers for a smooth wedding day experience as well.
Better still, offer your insights into what they need to look for in an ideal wedding photographer. Use this as a vehicle to explain the nuts and bolts of your services - pricing, products, and the like - and focus on your particular strengths. If you can be educational about the process rather than salesy, you’re more likely to turn potential clients into paying customers.
Give Them Options No One Else Does
In addition to taking an educative approach to your pitch, you also need to highlight some of the things that you offer that no one else does. Maybe you have the best prices in town. Perhaps you offer special photo shoots, like engagement photos, as part of your wedding photography services. You might even offer gimmicky services like drone photography for the reception.
While any of those ideas will certainly make you a more unique choice, there’s another idea that not only makes you unique but also helps the clients get their ideal wedding album and print package - Album Registry.
Album Registry is the first photographic gift registry in the world. Essentially, it allows your client’s guests to crowdfund your photography services. Taking a cue from traditional wedding gift registries, Album Registry allows guests to go to a special URL for the event and pledge whatever amount they wish towards the photography products that the honorees have selected.
This does several things. First, it makes it more likely that the couple will get the album and prints that they most want because guests have pitched in to pay for them. Second, it ensures that the couple will have at least some high-quality photography product by which to remember their event, because even if the desired products aren’t fully funded, you can still create and send a special memento, like a smaller album. Third, using Album Registry helps you make more money because by crowdfunding your products and services, your clients are less likely to feel the monetary pinch, making it more likely that your top-end products will be chosen and funded.
It’s a win-win all the way around. You become a more unique option for wedding day photography, and your clients get an incredible product in return! See what Album Registry has to offer!
Help Them Resolve Their Fears
Getting married is an incredibly stressful event. Planning and paying for it is even more stressful! Bearing that in mind, when you consult with potential clients you’re dealing with people under a lot of stress and who likely have a lot of questions and fears about the process. That means you have a great opportunity to help potential clients resolve some of these anxieties during the consultation.
The best way to do that is anticipate what questions or hesitations your potential clients might have before you ever meet with them. If they are concerned about time, give them an overview of your suggested timeline for photos. If they wonder about logistics in the venue, give them a few options for shoot locations during the ceremony. If they are concerned about price, give them a tour of Album Registry and explain how it can help ease their financial burden.
Not only does answering these types of questions help you calm your clients’ fears, but it also helps demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how stressful weddings can be. It’s an opportunity for you to connect with the couple in a very real way and show empathy as well.
So, the next time you have a consult scheduled, give these three tips a try. You might just find that doing so generates more business. After all, who doesn’t appreciate a photographer that’s educative, empathic, and offers fun and unique services that save money too?!