Seeing is Believing: Stimulating Your Client’s Sense of Sight

Posted on March 30, 2007
Filed Under The Basics | 22 Comments

Sense of Sight If there is one thing we photographers have going for us, it is that we have one of the five senses covered. Our creations, the photographs themselves, provide a visual element to everything that we do. But can we do more visually to add to our work?

Of course we can! And we do that through packaging.

One of the first things that we can do is to make sure that the visual way our photographs are presented to the clients is clean and professional. Plastic bags are probably not the way to go here. Your client just paid good money for these photographs and they are dear to them. The last thing they want to see is their photos flopping around in a plastic bag.

For loose photos, invest in heavy paper folios or folders to contain them. For framed or mounted images, place them in a box (and I don’t mean a brown cardboard one).

Even the photos themselves can use some visual help. A mounted or framed photo is always perceived to be worth far more than a loose one, with very little financial investment.

There are also things you can do beyond the packaging that impacts your client sense of sight. Making sure that your studio is well lit throughout (this includes your entry area) and that your studio is inviting looking will also stimulate your client’s sense of sight.

Don’t let bare walls and tables be all your client sees. You should also have well packaged samples and examples of your work out for your clients to peruse while they are in your studio. Hang them on the walls and place them on the tables. They may see them only in passing but these elements are more stimulating than bare space.

All of these elements are things you can do to appeal to your client’s sense of sight. The more you have for them to look at, the more visually fulfilled your client will feel, which directly translates to how they perceive your work.

Packaging for the 5 Senses

Posted on March 27, 2007
Filed Under The Basics | 9 Comments

In my last article, we talked a little bit about how your client uses their 5 senses to try to determine the quality of the product in front of them. And if you remember the tissue paper article from a few weeks ago, you will recall that good marketers know that the more of the five senses they appeal to, the higher quality the customer will perceive the product in front of them to be.

With this in mind, it makes “sense” to make every effort for your business to appeal to all of your client’s five senses. “Oh sure”, you say, “and for smell, what do I do? Let them smell the mounting adhesive or protective photo spray? And taste? Eat the photographs?” Believe it or not, there are things that even a photography studio can do to cover these senses in a positive way (without sending someone to an emergency room). You just have to be a little creative.

Over the next five articles we will take a look at what you can do with each of the five senses. In the meantime, can you think of what sorts of creative things you can do to cover all five of your client’s senses?

It’s The Little Extras That Make The Difference: Adding To Your Photo Packaging

Posted on March 23, 2007
Filed Under Packaging = $$$$ | 11 Comments

Details For most photographers, over half of your clientele is probably requesting that you record a major event in their life. Most of the photographable events are typical ones, like Graduation, Weddings, Birth of a New Baby and Religious Ceremonies. The one important thing about all of these events is that to your client, these events are the most important things in the world.

When you are trying to impress a client and make your service a memorable one, one of the best things you can do is to make your client feel that this very important event in their life is also a very important event in your life as well.

This may seem like a major task, but in reality it is not. It is amazing how easy it is to help your clients feel that you care about them and the events in their lives. One very easy way is through how you package your photos.

Let’s say that your client hires you to take their child’s senior portrait. A very simple action of making sure they get the final package all tied up with ribbons that match the school colors of the child will make it abundantly clear that you have more invested in that client that snapping a few photos. It shows that you took time to find out just a little more. For you, it takes all of two seconds to look up this fact, but for your client it means you care.

Another example would be when you are photographing a brand new baby. There is nothing in the world more proud than a new parent. One little inexpensive touch you can add is to include a small print of their new baby in an easel mount or frame. These make it so that the parents can immediately have a sharable picture of their child. It can go in a purse or on a desk. It is something they didn’t ask for, but you know it is important to them and you show that they are important to you when you do it. Not to mention that if your logo is imprinted on the print or mount, your studio will look good to all of the people that pround parent will show the photo to.

With wedding clients, you have a whole slew of things you can do for your client. One of my favorites is to provide “stress reliever treats” in the initial discussion meetings. Giving your client a small tube of perfumed lotion or a scented sachet with a comment on how you realize that this is a stressful time and you are there to help make it easier, will help to make your client feel like you are there for them and not just their checkbook.

Ornaments also make the packaging special for any occasion. I pick up little themed ornaments from my local craft store in bulk and attach them to the box I used for final packaging. Little booties for babies, senior caps for graduations and bells for weddings are tied onto the box with stylish ribbons. These make for little inexpensive extras that make a big impression on the clients.

Can you think of a few little extras that you can do to help make your client’s feel special? Do you have some little extras that you do that you could share with me?

Buying the Experience: What Your Photography Clients Are Really Paying For

Posted on March 20, 2007
Filed Under Marketing Yourself | 12 Comments

Paparazzi When I was a teenager, I had a job at the third largest amusement park in the country at the time. I was only a lowly trash sweeper, and yet, once a month, I had to attend Guest Services Classes. These were classes that were designed to try to teach scatter-brained teenagers how to create an experience.

So why did this huge corporation spend time and energy trying to get an employee who did nothing but pick up trash to understand that they were part of the bigger picture… part of the package, as it were. They did this because it was important.

In this class, we had it drilled into our heads that the people who paid money to get into the park were guests. Not customers. Not tickets. They were guests and you were corrected if you said any different.

We were given lessons on how to properly give directions that would not confuse the guest.

We were encouraged to develop tricks with our broom and pan so that we might turn a candy wrapper into a small juggling act.

We were shown how to dress neatly and the amusement park even took care of washing the uniforms, to ensure that the uniforms were clean and presentable at all times.

They did this because they knew that their guests did not just buy a ticket so they could ride a bunch of roller coasters. Their guest had bought a ticket for an experience. In the magical world of an amusement park, nothing bad happens and even the trash collectors can do entertaining tricks. It was what the guest expected when they laid down $40 per person (not including the outrageous food prices they would face inside), and the people who ran the amusement park had better make sure that this is exactly what they got.

As a professional photographer, you are facing that same mentality. Whether you are a wedding photographer, a senior photographer, a portrait photographer or a combination of these and others, when your client comes to you, they are not looking for just a photograph. They are looking for an experience.

You are essentially becoming their own personal paparazzi. You will create images that will make them look wonderful and happy. You are a magician who knows just what their best sides are and what light looks right. They are paying you to make them the center of attention. You are turning them into stars.

When you turn someone into a star, you best be treating them like they are a star, from beginning to end. While photo packaging can’t offer you much to help start the process of treating them like stars, it sure plays a vital role in ending the process. Stars don’t leave photo shoots with nothing more to show than a baggie of flimsy pictures. Stars get more than they paid for (or so they think). Stars get photographs that are presented as finished presentations, photo images mounted, matted in folders, folios, frames or albums and are as special looking as your client feels they, themselves are.

What are you doing, either through photo packaging or studio presentation, to help your client feel that they got the experience they paid for?

Looking for a Few Good Photo Packaging Stories

Posted on March 16, 2007
Filed Under Events and Information | 21 Comments

I can go on all day about how photo packaging can help your photography business but I have found that sometimes the best stories about how people use photo packaging come from the people who actually use photo packaging. That would be you!

I would love to hear from you about how you use photo packaging. Send your stories to info@photopackaging.com and maybe I will share a few of your stories here.

What Do You Know About Your Photography Client?

Posted on March 13, 2007
Filed Under Packaging = $$$$ | 12 Comments

What very few people realize is that marketing and packaging (since packaging is really just an extension of marketing) is actually little more than catering to what you know about your intended audience. Believe it or not, chances are you know quite a bit about your intended audience, even if they have just walked through the door of your studio and you just met them 30 seconds ago.

The first thing you know is a universal truth about professionals and their clients. You know that the chances are good that your client knows, comparatively speaking, little to nothing about photography.

You also know that your client is most likely someone who is more interested in quality, as opposed to cost. Let’s face it, if your client was more interested in the cost of getting a picture taken, than how good that picture would look, they would have headed out to their local Wal-Mart and gotten the $9.95 sitting done there. This client chose to step into your studio because they are looking for something more than cheap. They are looking for quality.

You know if they are a man or a woman (hopefully). And I would be willing to bet that it is most likely a woman. Woman are frequently in charge of luxury purchases within a household. Women tend to be more concerned with luxury and the perceived quality of an item.

So, chances are, what we know is the client you will most likely talk to is a woman who is looking for perceived quality and she does not know what makes a photograph a quality photograph.

This is where packaging comes in. Most consumers depend on their senses to help them decipher whether a product is quality. There are certain things that most consumers would agree are signals of quality.

Some of these things are:

Does the product have heft or how substantial does it feels when you pick it up?
The feel of the exterior… is it soft, silky, slippery, rough or what?
The smell of the product. Does it smell pleasant or does it reek?
Is it pleasing to eye? Are the colors and lines what you would expect?

As photographers, we have the “pleasing to the eye” part nailed. The rest… well, that is how your photo packaging can help. Mats, mounts, print boxes, albums and frames help to add that weight and feel the client may unconsciously equate to quality and value. Making sure these items are made of high quality materials that feel nice will give them the textures that their fingers crave.

In the next article, I will talk about some easy yet novel ways you can add a little extra to make your photo packaging have even more impact.

How to find a good photo packaging distributor

Posted on March 9, 2007
Filed Under The Basics | 21 Comments

Obviously, if you are reading this website, you have some understanding that photo packaging is important. You probably understand that quality photo packaging products are important to your business and your image. What you may not know is where to buy those high quality photo packaging materials from a reputable and reliable distributor. I would love to recommend the companies on our Sponsor list (in the right nav bar), but to tell the truth, I would rather teach you how to judge for yourself the quality of the company you choose.

Finding a new photo packaging company that you can rely on can be a “crap shoot” in terms of finding a good one.

Certainly, finding a company can be as easy as typing a few photo packaging related words into a search engine and seeing what the search engine comes back with or attending a photography conference and finding one who set up a booth there.

The problem is what do you know about that company? Are they reliable? Will they deliver promptly? If there is a problem with your order, will they work with you to get it resolved? Do they know the products they are selling? Are they just a random result that the search engine threw back at you or a company that had the wits to set up a booth and support your industry? However you found them, you know nothing about them.

Before you spend a single shiny dime on the products that this company is selling, take the time to get to know them.

First thing you should do is call their customer service department. Ask the customer service rep a question about a photo packaging product that you already know the answer to, something really easy. Then take note of a few things. How long were you on hold before you spoke with the rep? Was the rep friendly? Did the rep know the answer to your really easy question? If you were too long on hold or if the rep was less than stellar, move on to another company.

If the company passed this step, the next step is to place a small order with the company. No more than $30 or so. How long does it take for your order to get to you? Did it come packaged well? Did they get your order right? If they passed this step, move onto the next step. If not, move onto the next company.

The next step is to call the customer service back. Claim that an item in your order arrived damaged. Don’t demand money or that they fix it, just tell them you had a problem and see what they offer to you as a way to fix it. At the very least they should offer to replace the item or refund your money. If this doesn’t happen, move onto the next company.

Once you get past all of these steps, you can be pretty sure that you are working with a good company. Place an order with them to have a die of your logo made and you are good to go.

I know this may seem like a lot of work, but it is well worth it in the long run. Taking the time to make sure that a photo packaging company is reliable and responsive ahead of time is much easier than finding this out when your business’ reputation is on the line.

How to Tie a Simple (& Straight) Bow

Posted on March 6, 2007
Filed Under Tools of the Trade | 36 Comments

Tying a bow is one of the those things that we learn how to do as small children. “The bunny runs around the tree” and all that jazz. The problem is that the bow we learn to tie our shoes does not really translate well to a bow used to tie on gifts and… well photo packaging. If you are tying bows on your packaging like you do your shoes, the bow comes out crooked.

So today, we are going to go over a tutorial on how to tie a bow that is simple and will be straight.

Step 1
Place the ribbon under the package, making sure that the ribbon is flat and that there is an equal amount of ribbon on each side of the package.

Step 2
Next, cross the ribbons. The ribbon in your LEFT hand goes over the ribbon in your RIGHT hand. This is important. When the ribbons are crossed, the top ribbon will be in your right hand and the bottom ribbon will be in your left hand.

Step 3
Bring the top ribbon over and then under the bottom ribbon.

Step 4
Pull the ribbons tight.

Step 5
Take each ribbon end and make a loop of them, one for each hand.

Step 6
Cross the RIGHT loop over the LEFT loop. Again, this is important.

Step 7
Pull the right loop over and then under the left loop.

Step 8
Pull both loops to tighten the bow.

Step 9
Straighten the loops and ribbon ends.

Step 10
You are DONE! You now have a straight and client presentation worthy bow.

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DVD Holders - The Next Generation Wedding Album

Posted on March 2, 2007
Filed Under Tools of the Trade | 36 Comments

There is no question that the digital era has affected the world of professional wedding photography.

Where once a bride’s only option to get professional quality images to share with her family was to work through her wedding photographer, these days it is simply a matter of running to the nearest computer scanner to end up with an image whose quality is nearly the same as the original.

Because of this, many photographers are opting to skip the entire process of helping the client get their prints. These days it is not uncommon for a professional photographer to charge only for their time when creating the image and then handing the client a CD or DVD of the images taken during that time.

Even if the client still does want prints or an album, chances are that they will also want a digital copy of all of their images.

The question becomes, “How are you packaging your CDs or DVDs?”

The least expensive way would be to run down to your nearest computer store and buy a 10 pack of the cheap, flimsy plastic CD jewel cases that they sell there. This is effective but it lacks a certain panache. Actually, it lacks any kind of panache what so ever. It is cheap, so it looks cheap and it does nothing for your image as a photographer.

There are other options and these options are much more in line with what a bride expects from anything that has to do with her wedding.

One of my favorite options is a padded and embossed DVD album. Many of the manufactures of wedding albums now make this option. These cases tend to be reminiscent of wedding albums and are a product that can be displayed in the client’s home much like a print wedding album. The option is the most expensive, but I like it best because it is an option that any bride, after spending several hundred dollars, would expect to receive.

Another option is a CD or DVD folio. A DVD folio will allow you to put both a disc and an image into the case. The folios tend not to be as fancy as the DVD albums, but they are nice in that an image from the package can also be displayed.

There is also plastic DVD cases. DVD cases are really just one step up from a plastic jewel case. The main difference is that a DVD case is the standard size of the cases that movie and game DVDs come in, so chances are your client already has a space where something this size can be stored. Beyond this, DVD cases normally have a clear plastic pocket where you can slip a personalized cover onto the case making it a better option than the jewel case.

If you find a that you have a DVD or CD that needs to be included with another product, like a wedding album, a self-adhesive plastic DVD holder or a paper DVD sleeve can be affixed to the inside of the album and the DVD or CD can be slipped into it, keeping both the album and the disc together.

On the very lowest end, there is just a plain paper DVD or CD envelope, but if you must take this option (which is almost as bad as the plastic jewel case), make sure that you follow the “everything leaves with your name” rule and have your name, phone number and your web address imprinted on good quality paper envelopes.

You have many options with digital discs. Take a good look at what you are presenting to your client. Remember that several hundred dollars worth of your work are sitting on a disc that costs less than a dollar. In light of this, don’t you think that the packaging for that disc should reflect the quality of what is contained on the disc, rather than what it cost to manufacture the disc itself?