Blog - Photography Business Institute

Marketing Help: Is Your Website Worth Every Penny?

How important is it as a boutique business to have something tangible to hand a prospective client that gives them an immediate impression of your business rather than saying you should check out my website (when you get home and hopefully you remember me when you are in front of your computer)? No matter how great your website is (which it should be fabulous), as a boutique business you need to do the unexpected.

People expect you to hand them a business card. They expect you to maybe have a brochure to hand them. They expect you to say “Go check out my website.” What they don’t expect is for you to hand them a mind-blowingly creative marketing piece. We suggest creating one (yes, we said just one) marketing piece that becomes the “This is who we are” establishing piece. We would rather you use your budget to create that one wow piece than waste funds on a sad little template postcard or other mass advertising effort. When you can afford to do a second activity really well, then add that.

How To Avoid Discounting Your Photography

There may be slow times in your business when you think the only way to attract clients or generate transactions is to offer a discount. But we challenge you to an alternative that is better than discounting—adding value to your existing offerings.

In your business, you can more readily attract the right clients by adding a value-added incentive when your clients make a purchase. For example, you might offer a free body-sloughing treatment when clients purchase a full day at the spa. Or you could develop a loyalty program that gives your clients an incentive to return to you, maybe even more often than they typically would. This could be anything from a free gift with purchase to a special service to an extension of their service.

This value-added strategy focuses on rewarding your clients when they spend more versus discounting the product before they’ve made an investment. By doing this, you keep your entire margin and you aren’t devaluing your brand to your clients. They are motivated to purchase because of the extra incentive you are offering.

Worth Every Penny Online Video Launch Party

Where do you look for new ideas to perk up your business when you’re in a rut? Sure you can find great things from industry leaders who are top of their game but once you, too, become a master in your industry, how do you keep innovating?

Is Your Small Business Worth Every Penny?

After two years of planning, writing and frankly hemming and hawing about whether we wanted to do this or not, our soon-to-be-released book, Worth Every Penny: Build a Business That Thrills Your Customers and Still Charge What You’re Worth, has finally arrived. And while that’s obviously exciting for us, what’s more important is how this book can help you. And even if you don’t read the book, what can you take away from the model Sarah used to build one of the most profitable boutique photography studios in the country?

Regardless of what industry you compete in, this model can work for any small business. In fact, in the book we share 31 different businesses from a variety of industries – from home construction to online retail, printing services, real estate, restaurants, higher education, a comic book company, salons and spas and more who are putting this model into practice and reaping the rewards.

It all starts with five key ingredients you must get right in your business that enable you to create more value for your offerings so that price is no longer a sticking point with your clients.

Small Business Blog: How to Attract the Right Customers

You own a small business and you’re probably pretty good at what you do if you’re still in business and making a living in this economy.

Small Business Blog: Will You Meet Your Goals This Year?

Wow, how is it almost February? With the rush of getting everything ready for IUSA and Photo Pro Expo this week on top of wrapping up our I Do wedding event for photographers, January has been a blur for Sarah and I and our team. That can be a scary feeling if you’ve set big goals for 2012. Realizing that now you have 11 months left to achieve them. The clock is ticking for all of us. So how should we make the most of our 2012? How can we make sure we’re keeping our calendar booked with the right clients who want to do business with us and not wake up in a panic worried that we don’t have enough in the bank to cover our costs?

5 Photography Convention Tips for Maximizing your Investment

Attending industry conventions are an important part of staying fresh, meeting others and learning how to grow your skill set. It is also a powerful way to learn new small business marketing ideas. However, many people lose the knowledge they learned because they come home and fall into the same rut they were in before. Others are like kids in a candy store buying everything offered in the trade show or by the speakers as if it was their last piece of sugar. Here are 5 things you can do to maximize your convention experience as well as the investment you make.

Are You Risking Too Much In Your Boutique Business?

It’s a new year with lots of new opportunities that will present themselves. And if you’re like me, you get excited about the possibilities out there for your business. One of the things we always try to remember is that as a boutique business, you only play to be the best. And that takes some calculated risks.

The Biggest Photography Giveaway Ever!

To start off 2012 with a bang, we’re sharing some of Sarah’s Favorite Things with you!

Move over Oprah, there are a ton of prizes you can win, just by registering.

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5 Ways to Know If Go Boutique Live! Is For You

Calling all photographers who want to make 2020 their best year yet… I see you over there, and I KNOW this is your jam… Maybe you’ve been wanting to make a change for a long time now, but don’t know where to start… Here’s what I know: The best way for us to make...

Photography Studio Tour: Is This the Coolest Studio in the World?

I’m doing a giddy happy dance because I get to share the coolest boutique photography studio tour of my new studio for Sarah Petty Photography in Springfield, Illinois. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bo6QJXAwxE When I started looking for the first place to call my...

The Photography Business Model That Generated $3 Million In Sales

I almost got stuck with a career I hated when I said goodbye to my 8-5 ad agency gig 21 years ago and opened Sarah Petty Photography. Luckily I got out of the wrong photography business model before it was too late. I didn’t have to suffer through a lifetime of...