How To Create the Perfect Money-Making Ad or Promo for Your Photography Studio

Proven Secrets From the Trenches

By Robert Provencher

Creating an ad or promotion always needs a few factors built in before you move foward.

They are:

1- A target market- A market DEFINED, small enough to put your arms around, and large enough to be profitable. Some call this "the list" and often say that the list is everything. Granted, there is validity in that, but it's only half-true. The list is key, but it paints half the picture. The other factors paint the rest- all work together in harmony. Keep reading.

2- An offer- so irresistible and honed to that market, that the reader finds it very hard to put down and not respond. Very hard.

After you've done your homework and resisted the urge to jump to media or image ads, which by the way, most of you will do anyhow, because taking the path of least resistance is a hard, personally fought battle that we hardly ever win at. I guess you could say that in reality, the first step ought to be winning this battle with yourself.

Okay, let's for the sake of argument say you're following this in proper order. How do you deliver that irresistible offer to that market? My argument has always been, if you follow these steps, it DOESN'T matter. You could write it out in crayon on the back of a pizza box and they will respond. Follow?

When getting that offer delivered, I don't really recommend using pizza boxes. I was trying to make a point. There are three levels of delivery available:

2-Medium, less expensive media- Admail, general mail, some affiliations, coupons, yellow pages etc

3-Lean and mean, inexpensive, often the most effective - personal mail delivered with a spit-glued stamp (preferrably handwritten), email from a legit email list, website traffic, past clients (database) and I dare say, newsprint ads, if you can, like I've done so many times, got thousands of dollars worth of newsprint at no charge, via contra deals.

Now here's the tricky part and where most photographers, and anyone in business for that matter falter. They fall victim to the designers, ad agencies, media reps, and worst of all, their own big fat egos.

The BEST, and most proven "look", is the one where you state as much as you can, in the most conversational way you can. In other words, you must say a LOT. This is where they, and your ego, will lie to you, with such BS statements as: "People won't read that! It's too busy! Too distracting."

Let me PROVE it to you in the best way I can, with as few words and examples as I can. I will use examples from experts, from my own experiences and from others such as Sandy Puc and John Hartman, to name two well known, well respected photographers that many of you have either read articles from ,or seen at some workshop or convention.

First. One of the biggest advertising gurus is Victor Schwab. Victor spent a lifetime creating ads and testing them. In his book: "How to write a good advertisment- A short course in copywriting."

On page 178, in the section called: "Do busy layouts attract-or repel- attention?" he states the findings:

"Test No.1: Ad with busy layout did 39% better thann layout that was more symmetrically balanced and artistically unified.

Conclusion: Mail-order men do not worry about layouts being too busy. They don't shy away from running ads that are spotty, with plenty of units strewn around all over the place- as long as the units are interesting and relevantly substantiated and advance the copy argument."

Listen, mail order is one of the toughest strategies to make work, but when it works, it works like gangbusters. I, along with other photographers, have built our photography business using mail order tactics. Or, strategies borrowed from the world of mail order. If it works in mail order, it will work everywhere. Remember, the key words:..."as long as the units are interesting and relevantly substantiated and advance the copy argument..."

Mailing a slick, printed on metallic paper, cool logo, sublime or witty messages, is NOT a good use of mail order (have you seen stuff like that come into your mail box? yuch!...)

But wait, there's more. Let me show you some real examples that support this entire argument.

Here's two ads that I have personally used in my studio and each ad produced huge returns:

Each ad is as jammed with as much as I could jam to tell the story, offer a very specific offer and a deadline. These ads worked.That's the proof, the market vote with their hearts and wallets.

Yes, I am well-known. And that certainly helps boost response, because when folks see the offer, they TRUST who it's coming form. If you haven't got that, then go get some. Whatdayawant? Your cake and eat it too? We all need to go through the building phases of our photography business. It's a noble goal and vision to build deep reach in your community, and it takes time.

Here's a promo from Sandy Puc. It reveals the 'busy layout' idea better than anything I have ever seen.

Does Sandy pack the room, or not? What about John Hartman, the senior marketing guru. John promotes the use of long form sales letters mailed on a tight and routine schedule to fill his and his users studio appointment books with senior sessions. If the fact that hundreds of photographers who use his system successfully isn't enough to convince anyone, I don't know what is. By the way, I highly recommend anyone who is serious about senior marketing for their studios to have a look at John's system. Without a doubt, its the best for the senior niche.

Local example: One of the busiest and most successful restaurants in our area takes this idea to the max. The owner has created a membership program gets peoples to sign up, therefor acquiring their addresses (email and home). He routinely mails me (yes, I signed up) coupons and offers (long form sales letters), and recently emailed me one of the longest and busiest, most cluttered lookind ads I have ever seen. You might say: "Well, I'd never read all that!" The fact is, many would. Just try and get a table at his restaurant.

How about my simple, one page, two sided sales letter that I built my baby business on. Check those out right here:

This letter was photocopied and mailed every week to parents with new babies. I used this letter for about 7 years. It is resposnsible for more phone calls and sessions than any other promotion or sales letter.
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Conclusion: Any ad or promotion must follow these simple guidelines. It is far less important to have a 'pretty' ad than it is to have the right offer, targeted to the right people. My theory as to why slick looking ads don't do as well and busy, cluttered looking ones often do do well may be because slick looking ads look too sterile, corporate and cold (often with little or no offer that resonates with people), while cluttered looks more real, human, and has more 'love', therefore instills more trust and credibility. Who knows. As long as it works.

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How To Create the Perfect Money-Making Ad or Promo for Your Photography Studio

Proven Secrets From the Trenches