KEEPING THEM AS LONG-TERM, VALUED CLIENTS Maintenance. It's like a marriage. You need to stay sharp and on your toes, always reminding your significant other about the love and passion you feel for them. Anything less and you risk the main ingredient to infidelity: apathy.

That's why in our studio we send thank you cards, do cool PR things within the community, send out weekly or bi-weekly email-based (opted in emails only!), mail newsletters and postcards, and letters to their homes always reminding them why we love and appreciate them.

AFFILIATIONS One of my favorite strategies. Teaming up with other groups, associations, and businesses and cross-marketing. You could do the obvious such as displays.

Never get cheap here and never give up in your pursuit. Just because they said no now doesn't mean they won't reconsider. Don't assume vendors will jump at the opportunity to let you display your work. If they seem resistant, assume it's something you're doing wrong. Your presentation, your product, the frame it's in, whatever. Look deeper.

Try to find something that they will find very hard to say no to. This would start with very nice, high impact samples and top quality frames, or in my case my favorite display prints: gallery wraps from simply canvas. (www.simplycanvas.com)

Look for and dig out those marketing gold nuggets that will help you create long term and lucrative displays. I have had many successes in this area and have found that using certain bonus strategies help, i.e.- baby store: use the owners kids!

Give them a sweet discount on any portraits they need. Offer cost only commercial photography, exclusive to them for letting you display in their place of business. Do make a full value invoice on it and mark it down, so they know the true value. You could also mail to their in-house mailing list, if they have one.

This is one of the best and most ignored strategies. If you affiliate with a store or business that sells to the same demograhic as your clients, then you could mail an offer, gift or pitch, and mail it from the store owner for instant credibility.

Fundraisers are another great tool with affiliations. I have done and still do these. The local YMCA, professional theatre company, the symphony, to name a few where their events are teeming with prospects and clients. BIZ CARD Don't be boring and mundane here.

Also, don't cram so many samples the viewer would need a magnifying glass. I've created 4 sample cards, each with a high impact photo of a different theme. For example, I have a baby, a family outdoors, one in studio, and a wedding image, and will give the card I feel most appropriate to whomever I meet.

Each card has black text and a photo of me on the back, with my promise and bullets. Too many photographers and business people fail to use their own bio portrait, with a smile, not some ultra slick, holding a huge lens photo. Know what I mean?

Listen, people buy from people not from some cold, sterile logo-fied corporation. Give your card, and all your marketing pieces some personality. Don't make the lame excuse you hear from some clients: 'I hate having my picture taken'. Get over it.

YELLOW PAGE ADS When someone goes to the yellow pages to find a service, they are looking for someone to fill a specific need. Even with Google and search engines becoming almost the norm for so many, there are still those who go directly to yellow pages.

The problem is most who place ads use boring, lifeless sales tactics. The most common look we see in yellow page ads is nothing more than an overblown business card with name, address and phone number. Boorrrriinggg!!!

Many photographers will use photographs in their ads. Although this is a smart idea, it can be very expensive because of the space required. Instead, why not go 'against the grain' and use a copy intensive smaller ad with a compelling headline; something that will peak their interest and drive them to call or visit your website. You should stand out in a sea of sameness and mediocrity.

SALES LETTERS I've done more with sales letters than anything else. Of course, everyone says they don't work. Let them think that. I get to use them as my secret strategy. A good sales letter is loaded with conversational chatter that percolates along keeping the receiver's interest until they decide to hang onto that baby and call your studio. If your sales letters don't achieve this, then something is missing.

Don't throw a blame blanket over sales letters. Is it hard to get them to work? Yes! Sometimes very tough to figure out. But when you do, they deliver big time. For over 5 years we used the same two-sided, one page photocopied sales letter and it alone built our successful baby and children business. This letter is in the 'Marketing Tools Kit' as a download for all No Bs Inner Circle members.

I hope you don't look at it and say something lame like:"yuck, ugly!" You'd miss the point. I admit, it ain't the prettiest thing and will never win any awards, but who cares! I mailed these to a very targeted group every week, and the phone rang over and over, every week.

Get this: A great offer delivered to a hungry audience will get a reaction....no matter HOW you deliver it. So, why not deliver it in the most efficient way- mail it! Why is it so many 'templated' ads and canned promos fail? Because they are drones, copies.

Why do we use them? We look for easy-to-find solutions, easy-to-use solutions. Plug and play. We like templates and "1-2-3 steps to take and it's done for you" type of thing. We're human. It's our nature. When you create a message that you believe in, that belief shines through. When you use a template, it may work.

But the odds are way less that it will, simply because the focus and passion is lacking. When you have someone else create your ad, you might get some response. But why not give it a kick into the stratosphere and load it with your own passion, belief, and personality. Give it your own voice.

Sound like work? Yes. Who said this was going to be a walk in the park. If all your selling was so easy, then everyone would be doing it. It's not for the fainthearted, but for the strong of mind and conviction. You need that when you sell. Try to sell without it. See how long you'll last.

WHY IS SELLING SO IMPORTANT TO YOUR BIG PICTURE VISION? Selling is, and always will be, about doing whatever you can to move your business in the direction that meets the goals you have for your life. In a sense, it is a key tool to freedom. Your freedom. It is an essential part of the entire marketing question.

What is marketing then? Selling. Selling is the fuel that makes every strategy, every, action, plan, proposal, etc., etc. come to life. Marketing also is everything that you do to reach your big vision. That five year plan, one year goals, next months', next weeks' goals.

Without the vision, you don't really know if you're doing the right things. You need to ask yourself, "Is what I am doing with my marketing and selling leading me to that goal?" That's the big vision, big picture stuff. It applies when you are selling toe-to-toe with clients.

Ask this key question of yourself everyday: "Is what I am saying/doing moving me towards this sale? (booking a wedding, family wall portrait, etc., etc., etc.)

Anyone can learn to sell. Think about it. Was there not a time in your life when you were motivated to convince someone to part with their money, or time, or heart (think marriage proposal).

Selling is not a gift or talent that you are born with. It is a skill, a necessary skill that is essential to the growth and profit of your studio. It is a skill that you learn to get better at and master. You have a business. Just because you happen to be in photography does not make you immune to the laws or prosperity and business. Zig Ziglar said : "Shy salespeople have skinny kids."

You sell to make money. Get used to that idea and accept it. Besides, money is an idea. In business, like in any game, there is a scoreboard. And in business the scoreboard is money. Back to the newsletter

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