If you’re in business for yourself, you’re already well aware that a majority of your time isn’t spent taking or editing photos, but doing all the other stuff that’s necessary to be successful. There is accounting to be done, phone calls and emails to return, and all that marketing you need to do to spread the word about you and your brand.

When it comes to marketing, we tend to think big - Facebook ads, having an online portfolio, business cards, and the like. But there are other highly effective ways to market your photography brand that are much more subtle and personal. Let’s have a look at a few!

Send a Print

What better way to impress a potential client than by sending them an actual print? Sure, a well-crafted email and a tasteful online portfolio can be impressive, but they just don’t have the same impact as one of your photos printed on high-quality paper with a nice, smooth finish.

If you want to make a lasting impression, invest in a set of cards like the Nature Collection from Plymouth Card Company. The cards are sized to fit a 4x6 photo - big enough so that potential clients can really have a good look at your work but small enough that they aren’t intrusive. They can be used in portrait or landscape format, and have an embossed border for added visual interest. Best of all, the cards are blank inside, so you can write a personal note to make your final pitch to the client or thank them for considering you for hire. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to make a real impression, whether you specialize in portraiture, landscapes, or wildlife photography, just to name a few.

Go Local

The chances are that most of your clients will be from your nearby area, so when it comes to marketing yourself, it’s essential that you pound the pavement to spread the word in your hometown. However, doing so doesn’t have to entail loud, brash salesmanship, like hiring a sign twirler to stand on the main drag and promote your business.

To go local, try a more subtle approach and visit other businesses in your area. Introduce yourself. Ask questions of other business owners. Make inquiries about local needs for photographers. In doing so, you can make connections with other community members but do so in a very genuine manner. Plastering your face or your logo on park benches is certainly one way to go about spreading the word, but physically interacting with other people, shaking their hands, and having a conversation will be much more effective in promoting your business in the long run.

Donate, Donate, Donate

Since you work in a service-based industry anyway, rolling up your sleeves and donating your time to a worthy cause shouldn’t be that much of a stretch for you. There are always organizations in need of help, whether that’s stocking shelves with food to distribute to needy families, bathing animals at the animal shelter, or serving on the board of a local charity.

But since you have been blessed with the artistic know-how of photography, why not donate your time to photograph these kinds of events as well? Taking a Saturday afternoon here or a Sunday morning there to document an event for free will further the bonds you’ve created by talking to other business owners and extend that good will to the greater community.

What’s more, you get to help improve the lives of your friends and neighbors, while also getting a little face time for yourself. Try not to make a fuss about handing out business cards or talking too much about how great you are - instead, do a good job, take the free marketing that comes with offering pro bono services, and reap the benefits of increased exposure. Additional business will come along in no time!

---

Let’s face it - building a photography business is tough work. There are the obvious duties like actually taking photos and post-processing them, but there are all the other non-photography duties that are essential to developing a business too - bookkeeping, hiring assistants, and advertising just to name a few.

Amidst all that, many photographers unintentionally begin to make certain assumptions about business. Perhaps you discount how a personal touch with clients can go a long way. Maybe you believe that advertising online isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You might have even gotten to the point where you feel like you know enough about photography and business to get by. But each of these assumptions can kill your business in a heartbeat!

Let’s review three important assumptions photographers make that have a negative impact on their business.

Assuming That Tokens of Appreciation Have Little Value

Sometimes in the rush of your day-to-day activities as a photographer, you concentrate so much on delivering a top-notch product that you forget how valuable the little things you do can be to establish a stronger working relationship with your clients. After all, delivering an incredible product in a timely fashion while being a consummate professional should be enough to retain a customer’s business, right?

Wrong!

In addition to offering people a great product and excellent service, you also need to take the time to show them your appreciation for their business. This goes well beyond giving a hearty thanks at the end of the photo shoot or sending a wonderfully worded email expressing your gratitude. Instead, sending clients something tangible to hold in their hands and look at with their own eyes will really show that you care.

A perfect way to do this is to send your clients a photo note card, greeting card, or custom-printed card from Plymouth Card Company. You can insert a small print of your client in a photo note card and add a handwritten note of thanks. Send a greeting card during the holidays, again with a short note just to let them know that you’re thinking of them and appreciate their past business. You can even have cards with custom messages and a photo printed to your exact specifications for a truly one-of-a-kind token of your appreciation.

It’s easy to make a phone call or send an email, and those things absolutely should be part of your customer service plan. But there’s nothing like sending a personalized note on high-quality stock to express your gratitude. Doing so will demonstrate to your client that they aren’t just another way for you to make a buck, but a valued member of your business family.

Assuming Having a Website Means People Visit It

Having a website, or at the very least, an online portfolio that showcases your work, is an absolute must in today’s world. It’s by far one of the easiest ways to get your name out there, connect with people near and far, and advertise your name and your brand.

But buying a domain name and parking a website there does not a successful website make. Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean people in your area searching for a photographer will be directed to it. In fact, without a lot more work on your part, your website likely won’t even appear on the first few pages of the search results. Far too many beginning photographers have made this mistake and have suffered financially as a result.

What your website needs to be is just one part of a much larger advertising and marketing solution. You (or your favorite techie friend) need to use the most current SEO practices to improve search results and drive traffic to your site. Your domain name needs to be present on all other marketing materials - your business cards, the photo insert cards discussed above, on your Facebook page and Twitter, and so on. These are just a few avenues you can take, but the takeaway should be that the success of your business will depend on the quality, breadth, and depth of your marketing plan.

Assuming You Know Everything You Need to Know

The moment you think “I’ve made it!” and use that as reason to stop learning is the moment your photography business will begin to fail. Sure, you can learn a lot along the way and hone your craft such that people are ready and willing to pay you a lot of money to take photos of them or for them. However, photography, like all things in life, is an incredibly complex and detailed endeavor. There is always something to learn.

New types of cameras and lenses will come out, new post-processing software that totally changes the way you edit photos will be introduced, and different business practices that make you more efficient with your time and money will come along as well. From composing photos to advertising yourself to working with customers, you have never-ending opportunities to better yourself. Keep those photography magazine subscriptions, stay active in forums on photography sites, keep watching YouTube videos, and read all the photography books you can get your hands on! Continuous education will be a critical key to your success.

---

How often do you take the time to shoot photos, only to have them sit on your memory card for months and months until you actually do something with them? If that happens more than you’d like to admit, chances are, you're not alone! Everyone has at least a few photos of precious events that haven’t yet made it to a photo frame or the wall. Part of the reason why this is such a common occurrence is a lack of ideas regarding how the images should be displayed.

But that excuse can’t be used any longer, as we’ve put together a few quick and unique ideas for displaying your photos.

Photo Magnets

Virtually everyone has magnets on their refrigerator, so why not use that space as a meaningful display for your family memories? Photo magnets are another unique way that you can show off some of your favorite images. Use it as a space to display candid or silly photos that might not be appropriate for a more formal setting or take pictures of your favorite meals and use the fridge as a canvas for displaying those images. Whatever you decide to put on display, the photo magnets won’t get in your way and provide all the functionalities of a traditional magnet. It’s a win-win situation!

Clothespins and Twine

If you’re looking for a simple, rustic way to display your photos, use twine and clothespins. Plymouth Card Company offers wall decor packs complete with the accessories you need to create a fun photo display on your wall. Just stretch the included 6-foot length of jute twine between two points and hang your photos from the twine with the clothespins. Plymouth Cards also includes a custom-printed photo insert card with the phrase of your choice, and four additional blank photo insert cards so you can complete your display. Whether it’s photos of your siblings or kids, friends from college, or your neighbors across the street, the wall decor solution from Plymouth Cards will help you get your photos off your memory card and on full display on your wall where they belong.

Photo Coasters

You can print photos on just about anything these days, including coasters. Like photo magnets, coasters aren’t just a fun way to display your photos, but they are also a functional tool. Keep those drink rings off your coffee table while also giving your guests something special to look at. You can even give your kids coasters with their own likeness on them, so there’s never any confusion as to which drink belongs to which person. Images can be printed on a variety of materials, including cardboard, wood, and rock, and will last your family for years to come.

Photo Mobile

In a twist on the classic mobile that hangs above a baby’s crib, a photo mobile is a creative medium for displaying photos of any type. The images can be printed on various materials, from high-quality cardstock to metal, and hang in any room in the house. Display your family photos in the living room to create a conversation piece that guests are sure to notice, or hang a mobile in the dining room to remember memories of family gatherings and family meals in years past. Photo mobiles also make great gifts for friends and family so they can display their photos as well. The best part is that mobiles need not be expensive. In fact, a photo mobile is often far less expensive than it would be to individually frame each image. Really, all the methods we’ve suggested here are inexpensive, so what are you waiting for? Get your photos off your memory cards, processed, and on display where they belong!

---

There might be a lot of high school seniors out there, but there are also a lot of senior portrait photographers. The competition is fierce because senior portraits are a very lucrative business that can really set you on a path to having a tidy income.

There are all kinds of things you can do to break into the senior photography scene. Creating beautiful photos, offering competitive pricing, and providing niche products that other photographers don’t have are a few ideas for getting your big break. But for the purposes of this article, we want to offer three tips on the marketing side of things.

Make Connections With Parents

When it comes to senior pictures, parents and guardians are the primary contact point. They pay for the sessions and ask their friends who they would suggest for their child’s senior portrait session. As a result, it’s imperative for you to make connections with area parents and strive to impress them, both from a price standpoint and with the products you deliver to them.

So how does one connect with parents?

First and foremost, word of mouth marketing is extremely important. While you need to take other avenues to market yourself, among them using social media, having a website, placing ads in local newspapers, and the like, for senior portrait photographers, word of mouth is what will really get people in the door. Parents will be looking for a photographer that takes beautiful photos that highlight their child’s personality and individuality. The more you work to make the photos you take unique and a reflection of each individual client, the better the product will be and the more your clients and their parents will be impressed with your work.

But the products you create are only part of the equation. How you interact with your clients is of the utmost importance as well. Teenagers can be an interesting and challenging lot to work with, so you will need to invest some time in honing your communication skills to ensure your photo shoots are as productive as possible. Be yourself. Encourage the kids to be themselves. Ask questions. Be willing to highlight things kids love in their photos, be that their car, their dog, or the tractor from their farm. If you can do these things and pair that with good prices and quality products, you will demonstrate to parents that you offer an excellent value for the money. Delivering on these fronts will certainly help spread a positive word about you and your business.

Something else that impresses parents is if you can accommodate last-minute jobs. It can be a pain, but if you can bite the bullet and take on clients that are behind the ball, they will be both grateful and impressed, which will lead to even more positive word of mouth marketing. Of course, you also need to strive to have a fast turnaround time for all your clients. Putting the product in your client's’ hands sooner rather than later is also an impressive trait that will encourage parents to talk you up to their friends.

Know When and What to Advertise

Key to your success will be knowing when to advertise. Each school system is a little bit different, with deadlines for yearbook photos coming in virtually all parts of the school year. As a senior portrait photographer, you will need to keep abreast of the deadlines in your area so you’re sure to advertise your services well in advance. Running ads on Facebook or in the local newspaper in November when the deadline for photos was in October won’t do you any good! What’s more, if you stay on top of local deadlines, you can share that information with potential clients and help them stay on track as well.

Part of your marketing scheme should hit upon your intimate knowledge of the local area. Sometimes, senior portrait photographers get comfortable with a handful of locations, resulting in photos that look the same from client to client. But since each of your clients will be a unique individual, it’s your responsibility to have a large catalog of locations that you can utilize for your portraits. Look for areas that are unique or fun, and be open to the idea of taking photos where your clients want their photos to be taken. A great senior portrait photographer will listen to his or her clients and be flexible to meet their needs and wants.

Advertise With High-Quality Products

It’s one thing to tell potential clients about the products and services you offer. But it is another thing entirely to actually show customers the types of products and services they have to choose from.

Advertising becomes much easier when you have high-quality products to show off, whether you use photos you’ve taken in the past or highlight supplemental products like graduation cards. Your Facebook posts, tweets, newspaper ads, and other forms of communication will have far more impact if you include photos and descriptions of custom products that other photographers don’t offer.

Tasteful graduation cards that feature your beautiful senior portraits will speak volumes to potential clients. What’s more, by partnering with a company like Plymouth Cards, you can offer even more products, like laser-cut graduation cards, graduation announcements, wall decor, and other custom-printed products that will make your client feel special. Items like these also help them commemorate their big day and help you extend your reach and connect with more potential clients in a more personal and valuable manner. Doing so will establish you as the go-to senior portrait photographer in your area and get you the big break you’ve been looking for!

---

There are few photography subjects as precious as babies, which is why so many people offer baby photography services. But if you’ve spent any time photographing babies, you know that baby photo shoots can be full of surprises - some good and some bad.

To prepare yourself to become a better baby photographer, consider these simple and easy tips that will improve your photos and help you sell more images to your clients.

Work the Angles

When photographing babies, especially newborns, it’s critical that you work from various angles and distances to capture the best views of the baby. Newborns often have bumps, scratches, and misshaped heads, so you’ll need to work your magic to find the best perspective. Getting down low on their level is a great angle, and gives people an eye-level view into the baby’s little world. Getting in close is another great option, and allows you to create a more intimate portrait of the little one.

But perhaps the best angle is found when the baby is being held. This opens up many opportunities, from getting down to the baby’s eye level to peeking over mom or dad’s shoulder to everything else in between. You can maneuver around to get a shot of the baby in mom or dad’s arms, step back for a nice portrait of the baby with his or her parent, or zoom in for a close-up of the baby as well. The possibilities are endless!

Keep on Shooting

If you wait five minutes, a baby’s mood and temperament can change. When taking portraits of babies, just put your camera in continuous shooting mode and click away! The crying and screaming that you’re confronted with to start may very well segue into a calm, peaceful, sleeping bundle of joy, and somewhere in the transition from one to the other could be “the shot.” Make sure you’ve got good lighting, dial in an ISO of 100 or 200, open up the aperture, and fire off images as quickly as you can.

Let the Little One Be Your Inspiration

While it’s certainly good practice to have a shot list in mind before heading out to your photo shoot, there is something to be said for letting your little portrait model be your source of inspiration. Every baby is a bit different, from its personality to its physical features, and those things can lead you into photographic territory you may not have considered before arriving on location. In fact, the very best images you take might just be the ones that were completely unplanned and that happened organically. If possible, give the baby some room to move - to stretch, breathe, and yawn. Amidst that movement, you may find that one characteristic - a smile, a birthmark, or the eyes - that takes the image from being good to being incredible.

Sleep Time is the Perfect Time to Go Macro

If you’re working with a baby that’s fallen asleep, it is a perfect time to pull out your macro lens and get some really up-close shots of the baby. Being asleep means the little one will be much less fidgety and you’ll be able to capture close-ups without worry that the baby’s movements will interfere with the sensitive focus of your macro lens. Little fingers and toes, a nose or lips, and curls of hair are the kind of detail shots that can add a whole other dimension to a client’s baby album.

Sell More Baby Photos

Of course, learning ways to improve your photos is just half the battle - you also need to devise methods by which you can encourage your clients to buy more of the photos you take.

A great way to boost your sales is to simply make it more convenient for your customers to order and re-order prints. Plymouth Cards offers a number of products to help you achieve this end. For example, you can send prints to clients inside the card sleeves offered by Plymouth Cards. The card sleeves allow your customers to easily see your name, address, contact information, and other details, along with a call to action, like “Call me today to order more prints” printed on the back of the card. So when mom and dad get the new prints of their baby, all they have to do is flip the card sleeve over to see how to reach you when they want to order more prints or to schedule future photo shoots as their baby grows.

Not only does this make it more convenient for your clients to place orders, but it also gives them an easy way to spread the word about you to their friends and family. These attractive card sleeves make the perfect accompaniment to the prints that mom and dad send to family and friends. So every time your clients send a print of their baby to a loved one, that person will, in turn, have access to your contact information. That means grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and family friends can order prints of the baby from you with ease. You can’t beat putting an actual, physical print in the hands of clients and their family and friends to encourage more business!

Conclusion

Baby photography is an excellent opportunity to help others create beautiful memories of one of the happiest moments of their lives. But baby photography is no easy task! By working the angles, shooting continuously, allowing the baby to inspire you, and selecting the right time to go macro, the results you get will be much improved. And, once you have improved photos, there isn’t a better way to generate more business than to send out high-quality prints and card sleeves with your contact information right on the back!

---

Personalizing the Process and Offering Special Products Will Help You Generate More Business

Photographers are a dime a dozen these days. We’re everywhere, offering all kinds of services and products that just about every other photographer offers. Standing out from the crowd takes a lot of time, patience, and work, including branding, advertising, and competitive pricing.

But if you want to increase your revenue without spending a lot of time or money, consider adding a personalized touch to your sales pitch and offer products that set you apart from all the other photographers in your area.

Get Personal

One of the best ways to get more business is to put your contact list to good use. You should get the email address of every customer that hires you. That way, you can send them personalized emails. For example, send a follow-up email asking your client how they’ve enjoyed their photos a few weeks after you’ve delivered them. Not only does this show that you’ve got an interest in how they like the product, but it also indicates that you care about them as customers and as people. Personalized service like that certainly sells.

Another avenue you can take is to send emails to clients to let them know of a special you have or to inform them of a new product or service you will soon offer. For example, if senior portraits are something new for you, go through your contact lists and send an email to each client that has a high school-aged child. Just planting the seed that you now offer a service they will soon need can get you more business as well.

Offer Special Products

Another great way to generate more business is to offer your clients special products that other photographers may not yet provide. For clients that have recently gotten engaged, include an optional “Save the Date” card as part of their package options. For clients with children, offer fun photo cards to announce the birth of a child or to invite people to a birthday party or graduation. You can even provide a line of thank you cards, recipe cards, and other photo note cards to fulfill just about any need.

The nice thing about offering products like these is that you can tap into another realm of income. Often, people will go online and create these products on a website, so why not offer them the convenience of adding these items to your list of offerings?

If you think it’s difficult to do, you’re mistaken! Plymouth Cards offers all of these items and more. With a wide variety of quality products, Plymouth Cards can help you take your business to the next level. Give your customers the option of ordering photo note cards or wall decor, holiday themed cards, or any number of custom projects, and you’re sure to see repeat business time and again.

You can even order custom photo cards that have your business information printed on them. Use them as a business card or insert them into your clients’ photo packages so they can easily contact you later on. They might even share them with friends and family as a means to refer more business your way!

Conclusion

No matter which products you choose to offer, giving clients additional options above and beyond their photos is a smart choice for any photographer that seeks to boost their bottom line. And, when combined with a personalized approach to your advertising and marketing, you’re sure to see more business. These methods work to retain current customers and draw new ones in as well, so what are you waiting for?!

“May 16, 2015 our first son came into this world.  My wife and I are hooked on keeping family stocked up with photos of our precious little boy.  First crawl, first step, first birthday (coming up!) and so forth.  Our process is simple: we print the photos, place in one of the Plymouth Cards (color determined if I sent or my wife sent) and place in the mail.  Relatives have a card that serves as a frame too!   What I personally enjoy about these cards is that they are made right here in USA and are made from recycled paper.  Green company!  Thank you Plymouth Cards for such an awesome product!”  - Alex Schult President/PhotographyTalk

---

Event photography is a genre that is ripe for the picking for professional photographers. From personal events like anniversary parties to corporate events for hundreds of employees, photographers can make a handsome living by documenting important happenings in the daily lives of everyday people.

But like other photography-related jobs, there are lots of photographers in pursuit of a finite number of gigs. As a result, you need to establish yourself as the best in the business. So, how do you do that?

Learn to Work the Crowd

Being a photographer is a social job to begin with, but being an event photographer requires an even greater level of social skills. The best event photographers know how to work the room and the people gathered for the event to get the best photos. On the one hand, a good event photographer is open, welcoming, fun to talk to, and can get people gathered for the event to relax in front of the camera. Event photography requires a warm personality and maybe a few jokes on hand to get people to laugh and smile for more candid type photos.

On the other hand, a good event photographer also knows how to get great shots without directly interacting with the people they are photographing. Blending into the room, taking photos from afar, and avoiding being obtrusive allows event photographers to get images that have a more behind-the-scenes feel that give authenticity to the collection of photos.

Develop Laser Focus

It’s probably a safe assumption that most event photographers get into that type of work because they enjoy meeting people and helping people celebrate and remember the event. The problem is that without the ability to focus on the work at hand, it can be pretty easy to get distracted, get into a conversation with an event-goer, and neglect your duties as the event photographer. The last thing you want to do is get hired by a large company to document their yearly charity fundraiser, only to spend half the night in the back of the room chatting with people.

Part of developing a laser focus is honing your ability to know when and where to be. There’s the big moments at events - introductions of guests, giving out awards, and speeches, to name a few - that obviously require your attention. But those aren’t the only occurrences that should be photographed. Little moments here and there of people talking, laughing, dancing, and the like also need to be photographed. Those events are perhaps more difficult to document because you’re more likely to have guests approach you to ask you questions or request to see your photos during quieter moments. As a result, you also need to develop your ability to politely keep moving so you can get the photos you need.

Offer Special Products

In addition to working hard and creating photos that will impress your clients, it’s important to offer your clients products that will enhance your photos and help make the memories of the event that much more special. Photo cards from a company like Plymouth Cards are a perfect compliment to the images you create. They can be used for any type of event, from high school prom to charity events to weddings. These cards can be custom made for many purposes as well, including invitations, save the date cards, and thank yous, to name a few.

By teaming up with a company like Plymouth Cards, you can not only expand the products and services you offer your clients, but you can also establish yourself as the go-to event photographer in your area. With fully customizable, high-quality products at your disposal, your clients are sure to be impressed. What’s more, each photo card can have your branding on it so you can more easily spread the word about your services.

When you combine these products with learning how to work the crowd and developing the ability to stay focused on your work during even the most raucous events, you’ll set yourself on the path to being the event photographer everyone wants to hire.

---

Wedding photography is a lucrative business, but one that is highly competitive as well. Landing clients takes a lot of time and effort, and once you get them, you certainly want to do everything in your power to please them. Their word of mouth will be among the best marketing you can hope for, and their repeat business for future anniversary parties, birthday parties, and kids’ graduations will be more money in your pockets.

So how does one go about getting that kind of repeat business? We’ve created a list of three smart, business-savvy, and easy to implement ideas that are sure to get clients coming back for more.

Be Efficient

Everyone knows that weddings rank as one of the most stressful events in life. With so much going on, so much to plan, and so many people involved, the last thing your clients want to do is have to manage you too. You need to be autonomous so your clients have a worry-free experience!

Work with the clients to develop a shot list so you know well in advance the types of images they want. Offer them a pre-made, typed list of common wedding shots, and allow them to select the ones they want. This not only saves you time, it also gets your clients thinking about what they want instead of having to generate all the ideas from scratch. Provide space for them to add other shots to the list as well. This will allow you to plan accordingly and equip yourself with the gear you need to get the shots. The better you plan, the fewer lens changes that will be needed and the less time searching for the right accessory, meaning you have more time to dedicate to taking the photos your clients want.

Part of devising a shot list and a solid plan for the day includes knowing how to double up on your time. For example, while the bride and groom are getting ready for the day, take that opportunity to get photos of other members of the wedding party. Spend that time on the detail shots as well - the rings, the bouquet and boutonniere, and the decorations in the venue. Photograph children and elderly members of the wedding party as early as possible to capitalize on the energy they have at the beginning of the day. Maximizing your time means you will get more shots of more people, and no bride or groom will be disappointed with that!

Make It Personal

First and foremost, if you’re to make it as a wedding photographer, you need to have the tools that will allow you to make working with clients a personal and meaningful experience. On the one hand, you need to learn names, become adept at effective and timely communication, be able to help couples make compromises, and be willing to adapt what you offer to better meet the needs of your clients.

On the other hand, you need to provide the small touches that your clients will appreciate and make them pause and think fondly of you as their photographer. In today’s digital age, it makes an extra special impression upon clients when you send them something in the mail. Partnering with a company like Plymouth Cards allows you to do just that and select from a wide variety of products that help you make a more personal connection with your clients. Maybe you offer them a small gift, like a 4x6 print, as a way to say congratulations. Perhaps you send a nice card as a thank you for allowing you to be a part of the big day.

The point is that not only does a printed card give you the opportunity to take a more personalized approach to business, but it also allows you to highlight the products you use and give your client something they can cherish for years to come. That’s a winning combination!

Focus on Customer Service

While there is certainly a difference from one wedding photographer to the next in terms of the quality of the product they produce, what truly sets one photographer apart from another is their commitment to customer service. If you want to build a successful wedding photography business, you’ll need to spend some time devising methods to make the customer experience one that is unbeatable.

Part of this is certainly making the process personal, as discussed above. Additionally, the little things matter - returning phone calls and emails in a timely fashion, getting contracts and proofs to clients when you say you will, and checking in early and often to ensure you’re in on the latest plans or changes to plans for the big day.

Throughout your relationship with your clients, from the first time you meet until they drive off as a married couple, cater to their needs. Ask lots of questions so you’re sure to be locked in with their vision for the day. Be available to answer any questions they might have as well, whether that’s via email on the weekend before the wedding or as the bride is making her way to the venue to walk down the aisle. In short, treat your clients like royalty; they did you the favor of selecting you to document one of the most important days of your life, so the least you can do is make everything you do for the betterment of the day. In the end, your clients will come back to you again and again because of this kind of top-notch service!

---