For Photographers

It’s not the pictures

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If one photographer quotes $150 for a business portrait and another photographer quotes $800, which of them will win the customer’s business? Despite the obvious price difference, it’s not obvious which photographer the customer will choose.

There are two types of customer: the price shopper and the value buyer. Although it’s common for some folks to alternate between the two, for example: be a price shopper when buying groceries and be a value buyer when shopping for clothes.

Some people will always choose the low-price option. These customers are price shoppers and they care only about cost. What they pay is more important than what they get.

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Nothing is better

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Some photographers don’t understand the value of nothing.

Customer: I want to buy this $1,400 refrigerator. After you deliver it to my house and install it, I’ll pay you $200. How does that sound?

Store clerk: Our cost on that refrigerator is $800. If I accept your $200 then we’ll be losing $600 plus the expense of delivery and installation, and we won’t make any profit.

Customer: But isn’t $200 better than nothing?

Store clerk: Of course not. Forget it.

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Message Tailoring

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When a commercial or corporate photographer markets their photography services, they must remember that a business client is quite different than a retail customer. Even then, business clients are not all the same.

For a retail customer, someone who buys family portraits or wedding photography, the pictures themselves are the final product. But for a commercial customer, the pictures are a business tool, a means towards an end.

With a small business, where the photographer deals directly with the business owner, the customer’s primary need when buying photography services is to increase their sales. But with a large business, the customer’s needs change. Sure, a large company still wants to increase its sales but that’s not the primary motivator when hiring a commercial or corporate photographer.

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Making Contact

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My web site offers three ways for prospective customers to contact me: telephone number, e-mail address and a contact form.

I thought that most people would use the e-mail link. My assumption was that people would prefer and trust their own e-mail software more than a plain web-page contact form.

Over the past three years, 5% of potential customers used the telephone number, 30% used the e-mail address and 65% used the contact form.

Forms can capture not only the person’s name and e-mail address but also any other information you might need. However, asking too many questions risks turning a simple contact form into an interrogation and frighten customers away.

Contact forms are easy to implement. Web hosts usually include CGI-based e-mail forms. Blog software either has contact forms built-in or there’s a free plugin available. There are a few third-party-hosted form services.

Contact forms do attract spammers and there are ways to minimize this nusiance. But any spam that does come through a contact form is far outweighed by the benefits of having such a form on your web site.

 

Don’t get comfortable

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If a photographer is comfortable with the prices they charge, then their pricing is too low.

A photographer should never set their prices based on what they would pay because the photographer is not the customer. Pricing should be determined by the value to the customer, not value to the photographer.

A customer’s willingness to pay hinges on their perception of value. Their perception is always different than the photographer’s.

The photographer sets the price and the customer sets the value.

If a customer decides that the value is equal or greater than the price, then they’ll invest in the photography services. For commercial and corporate photography, value is determined by the usage of the photography and the intended outcome of that usage.

Of course, to justify their prices, a photographer must always make sure their work creates value for the customer.

Once a professional photographer understands this concept, they’ll be comfortable with uncomfortable prices.

 

Changes to Canadian copyright law

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A few days ago, Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, received Royal Assent. This means that Canadian photographers will be treated the same as all other Canadian creators and they will finally have similar rights to photographers in most other countries.

The new Act is not yet officially in force [update: much of the new Act became law on November 7], but for photographers, here’s a quick look at some of the changes to the Copyright Act.

 

• Section 10 has been repealed. This section used to say that the person who owned the film or memory card was the Author of the pictures. Now, the photographer is the automatic Author. Only the Author has Moral Rights.
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Air Ball

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Last year, Ranaan Katz, a minority co-owner of the NBA’s current championship team the Miami Heat filed a lawsuit against a blogger who was critical of Katz’ commercial real estate business.

Two weeks ago, Katz filed a copyright infringement suit against the same blogger for publishing an unflattering picture of him. The photo was apparently taken while Katz was standing courtside at a Miami Heat game. He’s also suing Google for refusing to remove the photo from the Web.

Katz is claiming that he owns the copyright to the picture without any further proof.
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