ricardovaste Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Mitch W wrote:
What is the average age of your client and their guests?
Are you 'friending' everyone - bride, groom, wedding party, etc - on Facebook?
A good question. Most have been in their 20's-30's, but one a little older. Majority of these have came to me and said they'll recommend w/o me prompting anything like a testimonial or similar.
I have a facebook page, so cannot 'friend' anyone, they have to 'like' the page. I have a personal facebook account, but that is what it is. Some have liked it, but I don't really update it much (last time was July...)... so perhaps I can work on that...
TRReichman wrote:
There is quite a science behind what motivates a client to offer a referral. So it is hard to know whether "working" for referrals is accomplishing exactly what is necessary. Nevertheless any kind of networking or referrals take time to materialize so I'd recommend having more patience. The work you do in your first year may yield next to nothing in your overall career, so I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point.
- trr
Reassuring and demoralising . I understand your point, thanks for the advise. I guess so far I feel I've been steadily improving, and so have perhaps delivered better than what people expected when they booked me, and at the same time try to work in small touches that people didn't expect - I've had direct feedback that people appreciate that. But as time goes on, I guess improvements will be much smaller, not noticeable. So that element will be lost.
TTLKurtis wrote:
I get practically zero referrals from my actual clients, my referrals are coming from venues/planners/photographers for the most part. It surprises me this is the case since all my clients are happy, but then again most of them are from out of town. I never thought I'd be the 'destination' guy, but apparently that's what I am, too bad it's local for me.
Another very good point. I've kind of lost touch with a couple of venues for numerous reasons, so will try to be more proactive on that front. I've got a couple I want to focus on for next year and make some samples albums for, but just finding the time to do so and actually set up a meeting (to have them tell me to go away!) is the problem.
Tony Hoffer wrote:
In my experience, referrals from professionals take time and effort, while referrals from clients take motivated happiness.
Usually if a person can't get venue recommendations then they need to improve their professionalism and their ability to convey it to the people they need to.
Usually when a person can't get client referrals they need to improve their client experience. Everyone thinks they're making their clients happy. No photographer has ever thought that their clients weren't happy. It's in our nature. But client experience creates client referrals and a lot of photographers (myself included) have plenty of room for improvement here.
More great advise, I will keep this in mind for moving forward
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