It’s almost Valentine’s Day and that mean’s it also Engagement Season! For us wedding photographers, we know that this time of the year holds the biggest influx of newly engaged couples. While I think it’s great to think of ways to reign in those potential clients, it’s also important to not ignore the fish we’ve already caught. Engagement sessions are always a good idea in my opinion because it lets us connect with our couples before the wedding, putting them at ease in front of the camera before the big day. But let’s not forget the bread and butter that engagement sales can also be. Here are five quick ways to generate more income by working with the clients that already love you.
- Shoot for The Sale
You’ve probably heard this one before, but it’s such solid advice that it needs to be said again. If you want to sell canvases but only took a ton of close-up pictures of your couple that just won’t look good being blown up larger than life, you can’t expect the orders to come rolling in. You know that you want to sell certain items (more on that later) from the engagement session, so make sure you’re providing your couple with images that will work for those products.
- Tell a Story
It’s easy to just take some pretty pictures of your couples and display them in a SmugMug gallery (like mine at www.vanessajoy.smugmug.com) and hope they click “buy”. What’s more successful is a bit of hand-holding here. In-person sales where you can show an Animoto slideshow of your favorite images (like this one here) help to tell a story and your clients to create an emotional connection with their images. If you can’t be there in person, video chats are the next best thing.
- Show Samples
One of the concepts I continually talk about when it comes to sales is that if you don’t offer it, they definitely won’t bite. To top it off, our culture is becoming increasingly more visual these days and without product samples being shown, again preferably in person, it’s much harder to convince your clients that they’ll love it. Have samples of your products in your studio and do your best to get them in your clients’ hands so they can see and feel the quality of what you’re offering. I make sure to have beautiful Miller’s Lab canvases and acrylics on display for my clients as well as smaller but profitable items like save-the-dates press printed cards.
- Decorations and Gifts
When it comes to wedding photos, most couples have the idea to gift them to family members. With engagement photos, it’s not always so obvious that they can do the same thing. I love reminding my clients that now is the only time when photos of themselves make great gifts with for the holidays or just because. In addition, I love to plant the idea in their heads that they can personalize their reception venue by adding framed engagement session prints to the décor. Combo that with many of the cute ideas for guest signing books, puzzles and other fun that Pinterest has to offer and you’ve given your clients 101 ways to use their engagement pictures.
- Package it Right
We offer wedding packages to our clients that help them get the best bang for their buck and hopefully entice them to save more by spending more, so why not do this for engagement sessions as well? Make sure to include things that they’ll want and use like extra pages in their engagement album or a beautiful piece of wall art. I also like including a few value-adds like prints and coffee table decorations printed on unique materials like acrylic, wood or metal. You can view my Engagement Collections at www.vanessajoy.com/engagement-collections if you’d like some inspiration for creating packages.
I hope these are useful for wedding photographers looking to make the most of the time and creativity put forth in their engagement photo sessions. Best of luck this engagement season!
About the Author:
Vanessa Joy is a professional New Jersey luxury wedding photographer capturing NJ, NY and destination weddings. With an emphasis on photojournalism wedding photos with a vintage and rustic flair, Vanessa Joy focuses on creating a unique boutique experience with each of her couple’s wedding photography.
