Got a wee bit sidetracked last week working on the super intensive project of updating cover designs. My apologies for missing last week’s Fashion blog but, all in all, it was time well spent and look for loads of new cover designs to be added to our Finao ONE cover design guide in the near future.
With that in mind, I heard many times from folks at several of the recent conventions that Finao has SO many options. “It’s confusing!” and “I can’t show all these options to my bride.” and even “I can’t send my bride to your website to view all the options.” -.O
You are absolutely right! We don’t want your bride on our website and you should not be showing your bride EVERY possible thing you can do in an album.
Huh wut?
You heard (er…read) me correctly. “Well then what the heck am I supposed to do?”, you may be thinking. Here’s the deal. As I have heard Christine say many times, by the time a bride gets to a photographer, she has tried on, tasted and sampled hundreds of items. She doesn’t want to think…don’t make her think. It could get ugly. So how do you compete with things she can taste, touch and feel?
Chances are, she has a good idea of what she already wants for her wedding or event by the time she gets to you. It’s your job as the photographer to make her photography as special as everything else. She probably has colors already picked out, an idea of flowers, maybe even cakes. Find out how YOU the photographer can fit into that. It’s not just taking the pictures anymore. Have her bring in examples of things she has already picked out. Create a fashion board with her of things she likes. Check out The Dessy Group for some very inspirational fashion board ideas.
By finding out WHAT she has already chosen, YOU, the photographer, can work WITH her to give her something special. Something created JUST for her. Now, do you think she might be more likely to pay a little extra for that kind of treatment over the photographer that offers just a plain black album? If it were me, I’d buy into it. ;)
The other benefit about approaching client’s in this matter is that you are still able to give them choices…albeit EDITED choices. Let’s take a look at an example from The Dessy Group .
So, here is our client fashion board example and it’s pretty obvious what colors feature prominently into her theme. Based on that I pulled out materials from the leather swatch kit that I thought would compliment her existing materials.
I selected some basic materials as well as some materials I thought might make nice accents. I even threw in the dark Magical Mystery Glass sample as a possibility. Looking at what we have now…11 materials is much more manageable then an entire swatch kit of colors that will have no meaning to her AND could easily distract her away from the task at hand. Unless she changes her colors at a later date, don’t bother showing her the rest. You have still managed to give her several possible choices AND kept her to the task at hand. BRILLIANT!
You can always throw out there ideas of the possibility of adding in a nice metal, acrylic or canvas image cover. They are just another way of personalizing HER final album to HER wedding. Part of the key is to get her to LOVE her album concept as early in the game as possible. Make it part of your initial selling points and your consultations. Everyone else is treating and pampering her, why aren’t you?
The more you, the photographer, can educate yourself on products and options, the more you can do this. It shows you care and your client’s will FEEL like you care for them when you are able to present them with a photography package tailored just for them. THAT is the sort of treatment people pay extra for AND will return and refer people for.
Just something to keep in mind. :)
Happy Friday all.
L :l
Lisa Hoffman is Finao's official Image Enhancer for the Marketing Department. She makes stuff pretty...usually.
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