Why would you hire me?

Here I am wielding not one, but two flashes. #ExpertLevelAchieved

Trigger warning: bad writing. 

Sometimes I start off with a really solid idea and then I branch out into ramblings. I apologize ahead of time because I believe I slightly did that here. 

     Why should we hire you... MIKE. While I don't get asked this exact question, it still hangs in the air throughout the meeting. I've done enough meetings with potential brides and grooms to read their expressions like a packet of Cliff Notes guide to meeting with wedding photographer.  

     So first there is the nodding expression where they are thinking "This is going to be expensive" . In truth it is going to be expensive. You're hiring me to document a day that can't be repeated, it's high stakes. I'm also showing up with enough equipment to put a downpayment on a house with. 

     There's the other hinting of body language and facial expression that spell out we don't want anything extra, book, flash drive, online gallery; we just want the digital photos. That's great that you know what you want and yes, just say that right off the bat.

     Sometime's I meet with just the bride and sometimes with the bridal couple. Meeting with one person is always easier because you have their complete focus. I'll also be completely honest in saying that the bride to be usually makes the calls when it comes to the details of the wedding. When I have a potential bride and groom in front of me throughout my pitch they will sometimes show their cards. When we get into price and start talking about what they're looking for. I'll start running through the different options and when I run across something they don't want they instinctively look at each other. They say it with their eyes "we talked about this before, I don't want this" and with a look back i'm able to course correct and steer them with options they do want. 

     The meetings are really just to see if we vibe, I already know I can shoot your wedding blindfolded and you know I can too. It can come down to a few things for a bride, i'll name the top three. First, do you like me? I'm going to spend all day with you and hopefully we get along right off the bat because I will spend more time with the bride on her wedding day than the groom. Secondly, do you like my photography? I have lots of different lenses and I'm with you for the whole day so I tend to have lots of different looks to my photos. Third, does my price work for you? I'm flexible on price to a point. I really want to shoot weddings and make people happy but it costs money to be a well rounded photographer. 

     Okay so I wanted to convey a little bit about the meetings above. But here's the truth of why you would to hire me as your wedding photographer. I'm committed to getting you awesome photos on your wedding day. My goal is to keep you on schedule, be your cheerleader, help out where I can. I've been known to bustle a dress, fit a corsage, straighten ties, deliver flowers, escort grandmothers and dance with kids. This is my full-time job, that means you message me at ten at night, i'm most likely going to be responding by ten ten. I've even taken the time to write out every single question that I've been asked in the past few years, sometimes a bride won't actually voice these questions so I've found it helpful to write it all out. I have enough gear, equipment and batteries to shoot three weddings in a row without recharging. I've been shooting weddings for over ten years. I actually like photography and do that in my spare time.. for fun. When I do a good job with weddings it leads to more weddings which means better equipment, sharper photos, more unique aspects. I'm constantly rolling my money back into my photography, so developing myself more. Every year I add a few more tricks to my wheelhouse. I also travel a lot, eighteen countries and twenty four states; that means I don't mind flying to your wedding to shoot. I would be happy to give you any bride and groom's contact info and have them tell you how much fun they had with me. Friend me on Facebook, Follow me on Instagram to see exactly who you would be getting as a wedding photographer; I won't disappoint. 

     So i'll use an analogue to describe wedding photography. When you go to Best Buy and stand there and look at all the TVs you can see the difference between each one pretty easily. They're all next to each other, same dimensions, same brightness, maybe color is different on this other one or another is a bit smoother with the resolution. When you eventually pick out a set you're getting it because the price worked for you. When you get that TV home you're going to fall in love with it and brag to your friends about your big tv. I will say that I certainly don't think back to that Samsung with the high gloss black finish when i'm sitting watching my tv. 

     It's partially the same with wedding photography. We're going to all do essentially the same thing, capture photos of you on your wedding day, the best we can or know how. If you stack me up next to other photographers you'll see i'm better than some but not than others. All I can offer is my uniqueness, perspective and skill. But when you have your photos, your memories you won't be second guessing who you went with. I imagine you're going to be pretty happy. I can't really trash other wedding photographers because most are not terrible, most just do it a bit differently then I do, different equipment, different focus or limited or unlimited experience that they may have. Most of my friends are actually photographers so I have that unique viewpoint of knowing how lots of other photographers operate.  So do you research before you commit, drill your wedding photographer, ask me a million questions. 

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Any of the above will make me happy.

Marketing

     Okay, I probably don’t know that much about this… or do I. I may be a marketing genius or maybe just incredibly lucky when it comes to getting business. I really favor the later in this but i’ll tell you some of what I do to market myself anyways. This is a blog post for photographers or other people in similar businesses.

     First of all I really suggest being yourself. You’ll never have to put on an act or be someone who you’re not. I am myself when I go through my day, my week. If there’s a chance to do good I do it, sometimes people are watching. First off, everyone is going to want to throw a nice guy some work. I also don’t mind doing charity either, it makes me feel good and helps other people as well as karma brownie points. People pay attention when you’re consistently doing the right thing, the honorable thing and helping out where you can. 

     Another strange thing is following your passion. PEOPLE NOTICE! If you’re into candles and constantly posting about new candle making techniques or a new fragrance you made and how excited you are people may think you’re strange but they know you’re genuine. If you dig something, if you’re over the top in it for the passion then the money will come. I’ve never made my focus about the money, it’s really just a nice symptom of having a passion for photography. I’ve also turned down money as well which I suggest once and awhile, pay it back. You never know when that person who you hooked up is going to have an even better way to hook you up. Quick story, this year I had a call from a waitress who said I took her photo seven years ago. I was at place on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester (basically forty restaurants within a mile stretch), I was hanging with my friend and I was taking photos of my food and then I asked to take a photo of this waitress. I asked for her e-mail and sent her the photo. She called me up this past December and booked me for a wedding in January. Another story just for an example. I was shooting a wedding a few years back and took the time to chat with one of the guests about cameras and then handed off my very expensive camera and let them try it out for a few minutes… he booked me for a wedding last year. So by being friendly and sharing my passion I’ve landed work. 

     So now the more practical things you can do for marketing. Post about what you’re up to on social media and act excited about it, hey maybe you are? Maybe post on Instagram or Google+ because there are sects of people that still use these platforms.  If you post on Google+ then you might get featured as a news article when people search for certain keywords which essentially draws people back to you. Instagram I use to post my best of the best photos. I don’t post any chum there, it’s all my processed work or things that I’m proud to share. Instagram isn’t for my photos of Starbuck Mochas or cell phone photos. Everyone treats Instagram a little bit different and some people even go as far as to color grade against everything they already have up there. A big thing is following a theme, at least thats what I hear. Myself I post what I’m really into, travel, weddings, food, abandoned buildings, building facades. There’s a lot of people who will have the best ways to gain followers and how to make the best Instagram, but I believe you can do it just for you.

     Okay i’ve started a new paragraph so this must be a pretty good topic. USE FACEBOOK! Use Facebook for the free advertising of you and your brand. Your friends may know someone who’s looking for someone just like you. You can also maintain a business page as well as your personal page. I’m sure we’re all over posting about what we do on a minute to minute basis but why not include a little bit of business in with that pleasure, right? I also use Facebook as a tool get to know my clients. I can figure out their personality a bit and hopefully fit in better with them at the wedding after we share a few dozen memes. I also encourage my friends to share the posts that I really need them to, such as information about my business or deals I might be having. 

     One more thing on Facebook which i’ll give away to you. I only share all this information in the hopes that some of you will get really good and force me to up my game even more. So Facebook has that awesome algorithm that fits all you most important friends in and if a new person comes into your life you might start noticing them more on Facebook as well. Facebook judges how long you look at someone’s posts or how quick you scroll over someones post, if you’ve clicked on their page or their post. Facebook will now think that they should include more information in your newsfeed about this particular person, get it. So if I’m out there posting photos of abandoned buildings or amazing photos of cupcakes then I bet some of you may slow down or even click on my posts. This means you’re more likely to see my future posts, my future posts about my wedding photography business. 

     Another one of my tricks is simply posting all the photos that I really like, Europe, traveling, food, abandoned buildings, hiking, cityscapes, landscapes and then peppering in wedding photography. This works wonderfully with Instagram and Facebook. So start doing it. People notice when you have a passion. I know this because I continually get told this by brides.

    You can market yourself like a bad ass but the question is if you can keep it up for years. I do this non stop. Day and night, vacation or laying in bed I think about how to get my business even bigger and better. There's a lot of times when I make a purchase and i'm thinking if it will benefit my photography. Even when I buy food i'm thinking if I could take an awesome photo of it.

      I don’t always look at what everyone else is doing, I look at what they're not doing and then I see if I can fill that gap. One of the biggest things i’ve had to deal with and figure out was not listening to other people. I’ve listed to too many people who had ideas about my business who in all actuality knew nothing about my business.  Other photographers have told me how they do things and what has really helped is to be different from them. I’ve gone in the wrong directions way too many times from people telling me that “it won’t work”, “you can’t do it like that”, “the way you’re suppose to do it is…” and a million other negative or non helpful comments. When you’re starting out you have the freedom to throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. I still change the way I do things regularly, be adaptive, don’t have a set policy on anything. If your customers are all asking for something or expecting something a certain way then go with the flow. 

     So I don’t want to give away anymore of my secrets but I hope this helps you. I help a lot of people out with other businesses because some of this marketing advice really can translate to other fields. Feel free to leave me a comment.