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Newsie bits
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It's been a busy month. Flew to Las Vegas and checked out WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) a few weeks ago. Put on our own little workshop and met all the main players that run WPPI. The owner, the president, the managers. These guys were great! In an industry that is often fraught with stuffiness and mis-aligned elitism it was great to see such down to earth leaders. It's no wonder they are experiencing such phenomenal growth year after year. This year the numbers were a record breaking 10,000 in attendance. Their attitude and openness is likely the main driving force that keeps them progressive and tops in the game.

The reason we met with them ("we" being James Hodgins and myself, the other No Bs Photo Success guy...) was to inquire about getting a booth in next years trade show and possibly speaking. They were very receptive and tossed out some very cool ideas for doing some cross-promoting with the No Bs Photo Success Inner Circle Members photography forum. These guys were truly no nonsense and enthusiastic. A good fit for the No Bs way, I believe.

One of the best things about WPPI is the trade show. Bar none, the best anywhere. Two huge ballrooms filled with goodies and candies. Innovations and new products, not to mention great deals on equipment and educational materials. Did I mention educational stuff? I personally bought a bagful of educational DVD's. About $500.00 worth. My success is worth it, as the investment pays back many times.

Also went to the Dominican Republic about a week after returning from Las Vegas.

I do have to say though that a resort is a tough place to go and learn. I mean with the food, the sun, the beaches and all, but in spite of all that allure, every single attendee eagerly attended every minute, including the optional in-studio time that was available after-hours. And still many went around practising more of their photography techniques.

Winners, all of them. I love being around people like that. You know they are destined for success. As a teacher and coach it's make my job infinitely easier when I am surrounded with people who have a very high possibility for success. Their passion and desire shows in everything they do.

While I am on the topic of promoting workshops I may as well plug my own next August 20th-24th at Niagara School of Imaging. This event is the best bang for your buck.

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Where else do you get to hear great content such as Wealth Building Tactics for photographers? Here's a free download for you. It's the MP3 audio recording of my Wealth Attraction Strategies for photographers that I gave in Las Vegas. Enjoy. A little over an hour long. (offer expired)

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The Profitable Studio Wedding Success System is being overhauled. New videos, information, sales strategies, marketing techniques and a whole lot more designed to help you create amazing wedding photography products that brides love. This will be available first as a downloadable, which by the way will be automatically included when you sign up for the MasterMind Coaching program that I recently launched. Stay tuned.

If you are interested in building a successful baby and child portrait business check out the downloadable baby and child portrait success system.

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Photography Marketing Strategies
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In a nutshell. Criteria for successful promotions. What are they? If I had to make a list of criteria here's close to what it would look like:

• Dynamic portrait offer
• Targeted group of prospects that are hungry for photographic services that you have (babies, weddings, families, commercial...)
• Deadline with emphasis (free gift, bonus....)
• Dirt cheap delivery method (mail, website, affiliations...)
• Measurable. You can measure with reasonable accuracy the results, or lack thereof.

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I went to the hardware store the other day. Local store, small town, family owned. You know the scenario. Everybody knows everyody, the staff is very friendly and funny. I told the guy that served me, I think he was the owner, that I was new to the area. Told him I had a photography studio, and like 99% of everyone out there he got that glazed look and started telling me about his brother-in-law who likes to take pictures and about his own point and shoot digital camera.Yeeesshhhhhhhh........

Inside I started aching and hurting while he went on and on. As if what he was saying was of so high on my need-to-know list. I struggled to recall the main points that I recently read in an article on listening skills and the benefits thereof, all the while thinking "gee, this is fun, I'd rather have needles poked into my eyes than listen to this..."

Ok, sorry about the sarcasm, but there is a POINT. It's this, and it reinforces a mainstay marketing principle that has been around since the beginning.

People only care about what's in it for them. There is an old saying by Confucious that illustrates this point. It goes something like "Man is more concerned about the boil on his neck than the drowing of a thousand on the Yangtze river". (The Yangtze is a huge river in China that has been notorious for flooding)

Too bad he wasn't more concerned about me. Instead of blabbing away he might have cemented a firm relationship and telling me ways his store could benefit me if I kept coming back. Or whatever. Maybe people loose their minds when they get a new digital camera.

Take care of your clients. What really matters to them? Get in that zone and you will have clients for life. The most valuable asset you have in business is the relationship with your clients.

On a large global scale it's called branding.

Some people confuse branding with logos, as if the two are inextricably linked. Fact is branding on a local community level is simply the relationship you create and maintain. On a smaller community level it's what we need to kick start and maintain very successful photography studios. That's why I am a huge believer in sending out newsletters. They really dig into the minds and hearts and bond you with your clients on a deeper level that nothing else can.

Publicity is another form of branding, because it creates an effect on people that generic ads do not (or logos and other empty image ads). People don't remember ads or logos, or at least they do not make deeper emotional connections with them, but newsy items and other media produced publicity are impressed upon them and stick with them. Credibility. Believability.

Publicity, by the way, is the same stuff that is generated (on a much smaller, yet still important level) when someone leaves your studio after a session or picking up their order. It's the stuff they say to everyone they come into contact with, usually within the first few days, and what they say to those people. That stuff is publicity. Call it word-of-mouth if you want, I call it publicity. It works equally well. Logos don't. People don't run to their friends and say "I bought a family wall portrait because they had this really great logo...".

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Here's a great article for you from Entrepreneur.com. It's all about cool ways to promote your business. Think about all the ways you could use to promote your portraits samples combined with these unique strategies. Door hangers would hold photographs? Flyers under wipers. Why not? At wedding shows? Purchased word of mouth? Where you say? Again, wedding shows, baby shows, places where familes with young children frequent. Nightime silhouettes. Why not a portrait slide show? One idea I had years ago, but never implemented, (but came close, very close), was to hire a mime to go around the mall and hand out rolled up flyers with offers form my studio. Would have been cool, doncha think?

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Success Corner
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You may have noticed all those scuba pics above. This year I ventured out and got my scuba certification. This is something I've always had a fascination for. When I was a boy I read all about scuba diving. I thought that I would grow up and become a scuba diver. Or an astronaut. Or a rock star. Well, one out of three ain't bad. It's cool to re-visit your childhood passions, maybe breath new life into them. Could even make you a better marketer and photographer. Everytime you push yourself you grow.

My first ocean dive was last January. The plan was to go down to 60 feet, in a current (drift dive they call it). I had a few problems staying buoyant (my vest leaked), and after struggling on the bottom, in a current, I freaked. Had an all out panic attack. I aborted the dive. I thought my scuba days were over, but on the second dive later that day I decided that I needed to go back down. I did and it was like night and day. After fixing the leak I had no problems. Swimming along the bottom I knew what the scuba deal was all about. Amazing. Been on eight dives since then and I am hooked. Good thing I didn't let my fears dictate.

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Watched Chicken Little with my daughter the other day. Good movie. There is a scene towards the end where Little and his dad are out to save the world. They have a plan and they implement it. Quickly they realize the plan won't work, SO, they go off to plan B, and it doesn't work either, so plan C, and on and on....This is what is called resiliency. In business, any business, this is a crucial quality. It is also a common factor with creating wealth. I talk about it in the Wealth Attraction audio (the free download above).

The best layed plans almost never pan out. Far, far more important is your ability to roll with events and circumstances and develop and plan b, c, d and on.....When Ray Kroc started Mc Donalds he originally only wanted to start a franchise so he could sell the franchisees his line of kitchen tools that he sold at the time. He remained resilient and look what he started.

Movement and action towards any goal is far more valuable and powerful than trying to achieve perfection. You can figure out the solutions and best directions as you venture forth. And there never are failures. Every single failure or bump in the road is a valuable lesson and more often contains the seeds of opportunity.