I want to help my friend's business. What can I do for him?
WillCAD
Registered Users Posts: 722 Major grins
I have a friend who has been shooting weddings for about 4 or 5 years. He's quite good, IMHO, has excellent people skills, great composition, and has perfect customer satisfaction from all of his clients. But his business is not doing well.
The only advertizing he's done is to attend a couple of bridal shows, and to stock flyers and business cards at a local bridal mall. The shows generated some nice bookings, but barely paid for themselves, and the bridal mall fell through about a year ago because the person who ran the mall passed away, and her replacement has her own preferred photographers, so my friend's advertizing all got pulled. Now he relies entirely on word-of-mouth from his former clients.
He wants to do more shows, but he just can't afford them right now.
I'm trying to help him improve his web site, but he doesn't put a lot of confidence in it; he believes that the site is good for absolutely nothing other than showing his packages to people who have already heard of him from some other advertizing source. He simply refuses to believe that the site can refer new clients to him cold. And so far, it hasn't.
So, what advice do you have for him? What can he do to build up his business? I'm at something of a loss, myself; I'd like to help him, but I don't know how.
Can his business be saved?
The only advertizing he's done is to attend a couple of bridal shows, and to stock flyers and business cards at a local bridal mall. The shows generated some nice bookings, but barely paid for themselves, and the bridal mall fell through about a year ago because the person who ran the mall passed away, and her replacement has her own preferred photographers, so my friend's advertizing all got pulled. Now he relies entirely on word-of-mouth from his former clients.
He wants to do more shows, but he just can't afford them right now.
I'm trying to help him improve his web site, but he doesn't put a lot of confidence in it; he believes that the site is good for absolutely nothing other than showing his packages to people who have already heard of him from some other advertizing source. He simply refuses to believe that the site can refer new clients to him cold. And so far, it hasn't.
So, what advice do you have for him? What can he do to build up his business? I'm at something of a loss, myself; I'd like to help him, but I don't know how.
Can his business be saved?
What I said when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time: "The wide ain't wide enough and the zoom don't zoom enough!"
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Images in the Backcountry
My SmugMug Customizations | Adding CSS to Your Site | SEO for the Photographer | Locate Your Page/Widget Number | SmugMug Help Desk
Contrary to popular belief, if your customers love the work you did for them, your work is very good and current and your website is not a total disaster, the wedding photography business is going strong.
For people who are fighting it out in the under $1000. dollar market it is an entirely different story I imagine it is pretty dog eat dog.
The website should be considered the heart of the operation. If it is very fast and holds the viewers interest it will help your business, if it loads slow and the first 3 or 4 pictures do not grab the interest, people are gone to the next photographer.
If your customers love what you did for them you will get word of mouth business, if you are not getting that then your customers do not love what you are doing for them...no matter how much they tell you to your face that they loved it.
The other thing you can do is get out there and interface with other wedding vendors. Venues planners decorators caterers. These people give out A LOT of referalls. If you spend the time getting to know them and form relationships they will be a gold mine of business.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21695902@N06/
http://500px.com/Shockey
alloutdoor.smugmug.com
http://aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com/
The gallery is the part most in need of an overhaul, not only for the operational software, but for content, as well. I noticed when I looked it over that he has nothing but formals, even in the areas devoted to Reception and Prep. I think if he gets a SmugMug account, we can spruce it up quite nicely. I've asked him to select some additional photos for the gallery to represent common wedding events like bouquet, cake cutting, toasts, introductions, etc.
I also want to get him a new header graphic. The one on there right now always did look a little crude to me, but I'm not a graphic artist and am not great at that sort of design.
http://www.frankhoehnphotography.com/
I'll look into SEO techniques to try get him some traffic. It's almost non-existent now.
You're right. That looks like a geocities page from 1995. I'd suggest making him hire a real designer. Nice wedding sites show some real style to get customers' attentions.
Here's a link to do that.
http://www.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?gl=us&hl=en-US
Honestly, I would scrap the website that he has now and start from scratch. If he is going to get a smugmug anyway - I would use that for the homepage as well. He can do a nav bar, a main single image or a nice simple slideslow without knowing any code or web programming. If I was a bride looking for a photographer - I would click away from his site immediately thinking that he doesn't have an overall feel for what constitutes nice design and that aesthetic may carry over into the photographs. I wouldn't risk it. Just my $.02.
You might take a look at some of the sites linked in the signatures of the folks in the Weddings forum for some ideas.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
well those are my ideas hope they help.
My Tomestone Will Read : I spent most of my money on Cold Beer, Loose Women, And Fast Bikes, the rest I just Wasted !!!!
Dave.