joelconner Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I guess I did not realize that Sal was one of the ones who did this. I have heard a number of people talk about it before over the past handful of years, but since it is one of those long-term type things, I had never heard any feedback on it from anyone who tried it.
Tony Hoffer wrote:
That would have to involve A LOT of money. I might consider 5 years if we still did families, but never a lifelong. What if you're shooting Nike ads in 6 years or you decide to do another career in 3 years?
It would definitely need to have a disclaimer in relation to the limits of the session and if the business closed. As for the money aspect of it, the only thing it would cost would be the time spent on the session, dealing with the proofs, and meeting with the family to see what they want to buy. They are not receiving anything for "free" other than our nominal session fee. The main concern for me on that end that because they do not have anything invested on the front end, they will not feel the need to actually buy anything...or they might think "Let's just wait until next year" once they see the images.
RichardLavigne wrote:
here's a novel idea... some may call it crazy. Why not work hard to impress your clients with your work and talent, so they HIRE you every year. To me, this sounds gimmicky.... it's really no different than giving away product in order to get a job... it doesn't foster an appreciation of the work, in fact, I think it de-value's you in the eye of your client... it makes you look like the guy who needs work so bad, he's giving it away.
The second wedding we ever shot is a client for life.... they've hired us every year for 5 family sessions each year (we just booked the dates for 2014's sessions), we shot both of their children's baptisms, and earlier this year, we booked the bride's brother's wedding in Ireland.
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I definitely do not feel like it would have the air of needing work so badly that we're giving it away. In my mind, it would be something attached to our to package (I guess like what Sal does, apparently), but that would be the only way someone could get it. It would not be sold outright. In all honesty, we do an extremely small amount of family photos because I do not generally enjoy them. I would, however, enjoy working with more of the people we book over and over again...because we tend to get on really well with our couples. So, most of our couples do not even tend to think of us for family photos because we never show them. Also, considering these would be the very small percentage of people who book our top package (2 out of 35 booked what is our current highest package this past year), and considering the type of money that these families spent with us on their weddings and engagements, those are exactly the kind of clients that I want to build even stronger relationships with...and the ones that I WANT coming back year after year.
If our current trend continues of having 2-3 people couples book our top package per year (none for 2014 yet, though), that is a max of an additional 2-3 1-hour sessions per year that we would be doing. I think we charge $200 or $250 for a family session fee (again, with nothing attached to that), that is all that we are giving away. Plus, I would not expect all or most to actually want to do it every year until they have kids. And because they have money, they would likely want to buy the cute pictures of their babies, etc...which would generate more income than I am losing by not charging on the session fee
Anyway...just thinking out loud and was wondering if anyone who had done it had any experiential feedback
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