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Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty. So this was the second. This is one of the top three newsletters keeping in touch with your clients. Now, newsletters, we have created a million billion different types of newsletters. But I really want to focus on that one on my right. Uh, there's a little brown box there with a picture of my children. This is many years ago, out of everything in this newsletter. What it can tell you is keeping in touch with your clients. Very important. When I first started out moved to colorado. This is way before digital media and where you could print. I mean, back when I was making newsletter newsletter, it was a single white piece of paper that it did myself. And if you wanted to put pictures on it, you actually had to go to the copy place and tape them on and make photocopies. This is where I started. And you guys remember clip art. I was like, the queen of cliff are literally like you put ducks on anything. So so I would, uh, you know, I would make these awesome what I though...

t were awesome, horrific little newsletters, but, man, I stuck him everywhere, every same thing. Restaurants, anywhere I could stick those little newsletters I collected my clients names. I mailed them out over the years we obviously gained more money and started doing four color printing and everything, but I want you to focus on that one little brown box for a minute because it doesn't matter what goes in here. Yes, we have sales and charitable events and things like that, but that little box from the start of my company, it's called a note from sandy, and it is a personal note from me to my clients, just basically about life thanking them for being clients. It usually has something to do with my kids. It has always been, you know, we took a trip to new jersey, and this was the first time they've ever seen fireflies, and I'll tell that story, and and, you know, I mean, it's always something that happened that that is important to me, and I'll just share that, and then I always end with the thank you for allowing me to do what I love so that I could be with those who I love dates so it's always been there well, twelve years ago, when I opened that first studio I had had my thirty now thirteen year old had had him, and he was born with a very severe condition, we did not think he would survive it at six days, his heart stopped and they had to resuscitate him. And from there he went to children's hospital, and he spent about the first year and a half of his life in the hospital for the most part of his life. We were told that he would not survive, and so there was many times we're planning funerals, and meanwhile I had just opened this studio, and so of course, my whole life blew up. In fact, that's the first time I hired a professional photographer, I never wanted to have a big studio, just like most of you. I was the artist I didn't want to share, but I had a little boy in the hospital. I was about to lose everything, and so I had to do something. And so in this case, I hired a photographer think haven't she's a wonderful person, very similar personalities. So my clients accepted her really easily, and they knew what was going on. Well, this little section here, this note from sandy became my communication source during that year. I would tell them I'm sorry, I'm not there as much, and this is what's going on and he's doing better and he's now six months, and I was able to really help share that information now, interestingly enough, not even a year ago I had a client come in on dh my son of course is now thirteen and has a full beard by the way it's like a big man at a client come in the other day and we were just doing a session and she looked at me, she said. By the way, how's next do nick doing? And I stopped and I looked at her and I wanted to say I knew why she was asking because thirteen years later she remembered what he had gone through and so I almost wanted to say he's doing great do you remember anything that was on sale back then? Because, you know, obviously the newsletter had an effect, but it did not have the effect that you would think she remembered nick's story because she emotionally connected to me. She remembered my children growing up because she emotionally connected to me and it's one tiny percentage of what a newsletter is so my point with all that is when you're producing marketing, I've said a thousand times you're not selling paper, you're selling yourself, but you're really and truly connecting with these people you are becoming it's the weirdest thing, but you're their friends even though you see them once a year you are a part of their family and so by opening up a little bit and sharing a little bit you're becoming real to them you become a real entity and these are the things that make a difference I could teach you how to sell things and market things for the rest of your life but the truth is I'm on ly trying to teach you to connect with people because that's really all you get out of life are those connections all right springs back up now take it I felt that one drop really little it's all come back okay under the referral program how's that e all right, this is the third key. Yes, ma'am sorry. Just a quick question there from croatia was are those newsletters now email versus where they mail thank you. I got too emotional and I wanted to move on. Thank you. Uh originally ten years ago when I was teaching this we did four printed pieces per year of seasonally now we do too printed pieces and we do a weekly e blast. However weekly is probably far too much for most small cos we're a big company. So most of you, if you could do one a month is the minimum we recommend because you want to keep in touch so we are monthly e blast for most of you and a printed piece is still very important there are people out there who are very tactile it means more to them to touch and feel and see and save and that's really important as well so don't not print okay referral program uh they're feral program is really just saying thank you to your clients now I'm going to quickly go through this because I have had a referral program from the beginning of time and what I'm really going to do here is give you the disclaimers the things that you have tohave on your referral program to make this work because this is twenty four years of owes that I fixed this one says thank you for referring blank to our studio please accept a free eight by ten portrait one hundred fifty dollars value now we give a complimentary eight by ten for every referral so when a new client calls this is important when they call and they say I want a book a session with first thing we say is how did you hear about us and if they say oh suzie smith just raves about you will say wonderful can you tell susie we're going to send her certificate of thank you certificate that's one hundred fifty dollars value notice I did not say we're going to send her a free eight by ten even though that's what it is we never say the product because you know in the consumer world an eight by ten is worth nothing you could go to a change dio right now and for three ninety nine literally get fifty sheets of paper so if we say you're getting an eight by ten there's no value, if I say she's going to get a hundred fifty dollars certificate, that new client is gonna go, oh my gosh, are you serious? I'll tell her, usually we'll follow it up with owen. By the way, if you like what we do. If you refer anybody to us, you will also get a hundred fifty dollars certificate. So we close that gap there and get them thinking about sending people to us before they've even come to us. Now these disclaimers are what's on the bottom, and this is honestly years of doing it the wrong way. So I'm going to go through them real quickly. The first one certificate, good for one free, eight by ten or one smaller portrait. You're gonna have a client that's going to come to and say, you know what, I don't need an eight by ten. Could I just have like two five by sevens or eight wallets? The mohr images you give, the less you sell? That's why it's good for one eight by ten or one smaller portrait of a client questions that I could turn them look them right in the eye and say you know what? Unfortunately this is a program I have with my lab and it really is good just for one complimentary portrait now that is not a thin because it is a program I shooted I edit it I prepare it I send it to the lab the lab prints that they sent it back that is technically a program is it not so I'm not lying totally works in here I get it so I'm not giving but it's me it's a strong answer and it ends the conversation if you buckle if your clients see you go well then your soul you've just lost your ground so one eight by ten one portrait uh the next one is news new sessions on lee new sessions only means that you're creating new energy I told you no homework I don't wanna do anything that gives you homework so of course if a client calls you and says I've got the certificate in the mail and five years ago you took a picture of little johnny and he was fishing on the rocket I loved and I couldn't afford it can I have that guess what if you go to your archives and you look for the little picture of little johnny fishing on the rock what's the on ly file you can't find in the universe honestly and that's why we don't want to create work that's negative energy you're going and doing work for your client if you say new sessions only then all is said and they've got a book a session they've gotta pay for that session and they've got to come in and you get a chance to wow them again. So we want to bring energy in no cash value is number three um, that would make sense you will get clients that will say, you know what? I don't really need an eight by ten can I just take one hundred fifty dollars off my order? It will happen. You have the answer now. The last one in our studio are says expires one year from postmark date because we do mail these out, they are a postcard there available postcards, so we just addressed them to the person that referred and we send them right out. We also track it, and we put it in the clients that new clients folder who sent them so that we have that tied in and we send it out so it expires one year from postmark date now, honestly, it doesn't really expire, we don't really hold anyone to that because I know that some clients only come every two years and if they're saving it in holding on to it, then that's okay? And the last one we put this on because this is a template on you can do we build these for other photographers? The last one says minimum purchase supplies I don't have a minimum purchase it's really on there for your protection if you want it, I'm not a big fan of minimum purchases. I believe my opinion is this. If you're forcing someone to spend money, then you didn't do your job right? So this is just my opinion and I know everybody has a different one, but I feel like if a client comes in and there's not satisfied, whether it's my fault in their fault we have one hundred percent satisfaction guarantee I want to reshoot it replace it refunded is our rule um, so I don't have a minimum purchase. However, if you're starting out, you feel like you need to have that you can now the next question I'm going to get is how many certificates can these client use it? One time anybody want to take a guess? Um, I can they use one as many as they want, right? And so if you have, if you have a client that walks in and they have ten of these in their hands, what you gonna do you look ten sessions true, but we'll know they only need one session because they can use them. But what you're gonna do is you're going to give them the biggest hug you ever gave anyone in your life, and you're gonna hire them as your marketing director, right there on the spot is what you're going to dio because what is ten of those mean, really ten new clients? Exactly. So truth is, I'm not trying to scare you because I've never had. I wish somebody would walk in with ten. That would be a really good day for me, but I've seen five, maybe one time in twenty four years I've seen four couple times a year. Three everyone said about two all the time and won almost every day. It's not going to put you out of business is not going to hurt you. If you're consistent with you with it, it will make a difference. People love this now. I mentioned expiration date because I wanted to kind of talk about I had a client come in. It was really interesting. Um, I had a client come in a while ago and, uh she came in the door too soon as I saw her I have not seen her in years this is one of my original baby plan clients so when she walked in it was the lobby full of people and she was like I was so excited came and gave her a hug I said how's your son because it had been I mean a lifetime since I'd seen her and she was really excited and she she looked at me she said santa can I talk to you for a minute and you know when somebody says that he was like the worst feeling in the world I was like, oh yeah, what do you say? Can we talk in private? I was like, oh, I've done something or we'll now I literally walked away away from people go and I started sweating I was like, what did I do? What composite? This has been twenty you know, ten years since his sener so we get in a private space and she turns to me and she says she killed sandy. I'm so embarrassed to tell you this, she said, but you know, I haven't been to in a lot of years you photographed my son's first year and then you moved into your studio and frankly I just you kind of grew out of my price range and I couldn't come any more and she said about six years ago it was my birthday, she said was my birthday and my husband's driving me that's what you want what you want, what you want, what you want and I finally looked at him and she didn't happen to get one of your mailers and I finally looked at him and I said I'll tell you what when our son is a high school senior I want a family portrait by sandy I want a big wall portrait for my birthday bye sandy so she's telling me this and I'm listening to her and she says so six years ago I gave up a birthday tohave a wall portrait with you and she said my son is a senior and we are ready to do this and she said but I have to be honest with you you're still not in our budget so she said I'm trying to be really fear, frugal and everything and she said I want you to know something because even though I haven't been here I have followed you everywhere she said I have every newsletter you've ever sent, she said I have a filing cabinet full of everything she's I have one file that's called sandy pushing everything you've ever done is in there she said I have all of it and she said I was going through it trying to plan this and she said I found this and she held up this little purple piece of paper now soon as I saw it I knew it was mine because there was clip art all over, so I saw it and she said, I know this is probably expired, she said, but it doesn't have an expiration date on it you cannot use this and I took it from her and it said thank you referring so and so to at the time it was expressions photography please accept this for a complimentary eight by ten portrait a nineteen ninety nine dollar value literally she had to have gotten that within the first two years of moving to colorado so she had held that for probably sixteen, seventeen years she had had that in her possession and of course I looked at her and she said so I don't know if I can use it is even possible I looked and I said absolutely could use this I said they have one favour can I please have this because its the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life and I do not want anyone to see that this game from there so she gave it to me and you know what I did with it? I actually took it and I put it in a little frame and it's this on my desk because every time I see it sorry did it every time I see it I realized that somebody gave up a birthday tohave a portrait with me and I think that's I'm sorry, I'm taking you guys down so much but it's a big deal to me to know that somebody kept sixteen years held onto something and gave up a birthday to do it. It was a pretty cool thing. So so these air the intersections that actually bring you to realize how powerful what you do really is. We do make a difference, I can assure you so you have the disclaimers you have the emotional reason why you have to do it. Don't forget these because these will kick in the butt if you don't have them there another thing that we do in our studio real quickly every single order that leaves our studio will leave with what we call business card wallets it's, our logo are phone number. In our website, we select the images they do not it's a gift that we give them at the end they picked usually it's one that they've ordered. But we drop it into these little temple is this is our old logo were now just sandy pushed photography. But, um, we'll talk about branding and marketing even more later, but just so you know, everybody gets eight of these. This gives everybody ate opportunities to talk about us when they're at the standing in the shopping malls and there raving about, you know, their photographer they've got that card they can hand off so for a couple bucks it's one of the best investments we have but remember we control it it's a gift we've done it for so many years we do have very rarely forget, but if for some reason we forget they'll come ask us that like we could get a free wallets but these air a great tool as well. Um now I want to talk about the baby referral because this one is sort of that earlier on you actually had an audience question they talked about how do you get people how to get those names? And we're talking about buying lists and things like that. This is our number one marketing source for the baby program, so we're kind of going back to that. This is our baby referral program. I started to think about the olden days where I could just go get names and buy lists and things like that and I realize none of those things were working anymore and so I started looking around one day a client came in my studio and we were chatting about it and it was her baby's first birthday and I looked at her and I realized something really in port do you realize that every single client that comes in your door that has a baby in there hand probably knows three to five people that have babies period? So as I was looking and I realized, you know, there's my biggest marketing resource right there in front of me and so I decided, wow, my clients are really the best resource I have, so we decided to create this referral program. Now any program we create as you know, we go to the nines, we completely build it because we know other photographers use it. This is actually a part of the baby kit, which we're going to give away and you guys you didn't give that away yet did you that's going to be coming up really soon? So we're gonna be giving away the entire baby program, but we completely branded and make it our own and you guys all got your mini baby kids so you could do any version of this you choose. But the idea was everything from giftcertificates teo to the newsletters, the studio posters everything has unique branded look, we put a studio poster up in addition to putting in their newsletter and sending out a postcard in the studio poster says, ask us about our new baby referral program, give a wonderful gift to your friend and receive a fifty dollar gift certificate for you now what the program is, people come in all the time and they say what's the programme we tell them we have these little gifts here and if you'd like to select one they are actual little frames and in the frames is a gift certificate and the gift certificate is for the first year baby program now even though you know we sell that for ninety nine dollars the value of that the actual session value plus the product eyes around a thousand dollars so our eight hundred ninety nine dollars so it's the gift certificate actually says please accept this gift certificate for a first year baby program value eight hundred and ninety nine dollars now our clients are able to take that and we tell them you can give it to a friend that's having a baby if you got a baby shower it makes a nice additional gift we give them these gifts to give away they take them now understand that you've got a powerhouse marketing tool there you've got somebody who uses you who loves you and you just gave them an eight hundred dollar gift to give to their friend their very excited now there are two things that questions that always get asked one of them is don't they get mad if they paid for it and they get so you were thinking the same thing? We're yeah everybody thinks the same thing um no, they don't care at all but here's because they really don't they're excited they're still giving a great gift but here's the key if their friend takes that gift gift and calls us they get a fifty dollars certificate towards their next order so basically we tell him if you send to friends you've paid for your baby program and that's an instigator they're like well then I'll take two of those and I'm going to go make my money back and they do now when I first did this I was kind of a dummy and I said limit to per month and then one of our clients came in and asked for some more and my reception's came over and like she wants more and I was like, I went, uh of course you can have or if she's driving over here and wants to take them with her, of course he gets so we now have no limits they could take his many as they want, but we want to qualify this because understand we're on lee doing this with our clients. This is not absolutely let me tell you all of you out there do not just go stand on a street corner handing these out you're dealing with an unqualified market so you would put yourself out of business with people who would just take the freebie and go we're handing this to people who first of all, spend well, second of all, no people who are having babies. And third, almost every group social group out there tends to hang out in social groups that are financially in the same position. If you have a client that spends well, her friends will probably spend well on the other side of that. If you have a client that's neurotic and drives you crazy, probably most of her friends are going to do that too. So no, that too. So just keep that in mind, it's on ly it this little gift and it only goes tio to our clients. This is my number one marketing resource right now. This is the powerhouse everybody that walks in my staff has been trained if they've got a baby in their arms get a gift in their hands because it's free, they love it and it's driving people in our door. So this is outdoing every single other marketing resource I have for the baby program. So referral programs your current. The point is your current clients are your best marketing resource, so keep that in mind. Um, I'm gonna give away a baby kid. I don't know if you guys can queue up to give yours away, yet I'm gonna give one to my audience now if they're not ready for it that's cool this is the entire baby program we've been talking about today every single piece of literature everything you need to dio is up here one of you guys gets to keep this it's also the entire referral program and all that stuff it's a one ninety nine value it is available on you can do dot com um and that that the carol you now have your own baby e good so enjoy I don't know at some point we're going to be giving kit to the internet audience as well so whenever you guys are ready for that we'll do that but I'm gonna keep moving forward so I know they're gonna kick me out of here soon all right we're gonna talk about network marketing um this is working with communities in groups and trying to get your another version of sort of display marketing now one of the things I do and I'm going to breeze through this really quickly because this is you actually gave this kid away already this is the mommy marketing kit I teach photography to moms with cameras now I typically work through groups enough here in our country we have a group called mops mothers of preschoolers there in every community in every church my kids went to mops when I was young usar when they were young usually is moms with young babies who want to have a social interaction so they usually get together once a week and for a couple hours they have a speaker or a guest or do a craft and somebody watches all the kids and they get to be social, which is very big deal I go into these groups and I teach a one hour class one and a half hour class on basic photography now for all those who are panicking out there going, why would you want to teach more moms with cameras photography? You have to understand these are not my competition these air moms with cameron fact, I ask every audience I say, how many of you in this room want to be professional photographers? Last class I taught that I'm gonna show you how one hundred fifty people in the room we had about three that raised their head and said they wanted to be professionals and frankly I'm not even worried about that I'd rather teach them how to do it right then have them out there doing it wrong to be very honest with you so it's not about teaching a competition these air truly just bombs that want to take great pictures of their kids they just it's a it's a that's everybody loves photography I sit there just like I've done with you and for an hour and about fifteen minutes I teach them really photography but its basic we're talking most of these people have pointed shoots if they haven't, I s so we talk it about it talk about times of day talks about talk about shadows, catch lights in the eyes just real basic stuff how to bribe your kids, how to get them to react because they're your own kids we kind of go through that process with them. So it's a it's a really fun, powerful class and I will tell you this out of any class I teach in the entire world they write more notes faster than anybody. They literally white right word for word what I'm saying so I know it's very exciting to them in addition to the class at about fifteen minutes, twenty minutes before I end a couple things happen. Number one I change this the the tone of the class and I asked them I turned all these women and I say okay, now I have a question how many of you guys are actually in pictures at home and just like professional photographers? It's ah huh? None. And so they laugh and I tell them I said, you know that's so sad because you know what would be, what with the value of a portrait with your mom as a baby when you were a baby, her holding you how much would that be worth you ah madonna portrait of your mother as a twenty five year old holding you as a baby and of course the room kind of gets quiet and I talked to them about this that I say you know, it's really sad I know why you're not in pictures because you're waiting for a new hair cut and wanna lose twenty pounds or you don't feel good about yourself I said but you know you can't wait because you just never know what tomorrow's going to bring and then I tell them a very personal story which I will not tell you today but I think I've taking you enough I'm normally I would but I'm not going there but it's I can give you the ten second version I had a client friend who we wanted to schedule a session we literally every time we scheduled that something happened it rained one day it was a little you know, mom and baby outside rain one day her car broke down one day the third time I said I'll come get you she said no because she said forget it, we'll do it later and later never came we unfortunately that little girl will never have a portrait with her mother and so I tell the story and I explained to them how important it is to not wait because truly we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow and you never know when your day and your number is up and honestly, to this day, I have regrets about that because I always say to myself, this is twenty years ago, and I always say if I just would've made her let me come get her, at least her daughter would have that, but she doesn't. So of course, as you know, the audience goes with me on this journey of this story, and I can see them emotionally connect. Now I know what I'm doing when I do that don't get me wrong. I tell you these stories because I can sell you stuff all day long, but I can't help you feel unless you want to feel so when I see them feeling this, I know they get the message. Everything they wrote, fifty pages of notes goes out the window, but the reason they should be in pictures, the reason their family's heir important is the thing, the message that they take home. And so when I see all those teary eyes and I turn to them and I make you make a promise, I say, all right, now, you just have to swear to me that you're going to go out and find a friend, and the two of you're going to go to park. Toe apart with your kids and you're going to take pictures of her with her kids and she's going to take pictures of you with your kids and you're gonna have just a fun day out and you are going to give your children I don't care if they're pictures just go do something with your kids and I make everybody hold their hand up and promised that they'll do that and of course everybody doesn't I truly believe that at least seventy percent of those women go out and follow through because emotionally they know why and of course that's a very powerful piece now the end of this segment is in addition to the class into the emotional journey that we take them on we also have a contest they're all invited to bring up to an eight by ten of their child or children and I select three prices three prizewinners I'm gonna break will actually pick my actually my staff edit it down to ten and I picked the top three and at the end of the show I invite those three winners up and we give wall ah sixteen by twenty twenty five, twenty four to thirty by forty as the prizes and I hold up the images and explain the emotional reason why I selected them so it's a moment of pride for those ladies they get to show off their image and their children and it's and it's exciting adventure because, you know, they put a lot of work into this and after I sort of give them all the love, I turned to the audience and I say, you know, I want to get to know that I actually want you to know that I have a gift for all of you. It takes a lot of courage to enter an image into a print competition, so you know, you all thank you all for doing this, but I'll tell you what I would like to give all of you a complimentary sesh it's one hundred fifty dollars value there's no obligation, however we would love to give you that experience is that, you know, to experience a portrait session now, keep in mind the entire time they've been watching me, they'd been watching a show just like you've seen. They have watched my work image after image, they've connected with what they love, they've connected emotionally with me, and I tell them if you would like a complimentary session, the only request that I have is that you need to go to the back of the room. My staff is back there. We need you to book the session today because we only have so many of these we can do. The last class I taught was about one hundred fifty women, and we booked forty baby sessions that day now forties a lot for some of you you're going I don't want forty sessions you can control it you could give out ten you could change it anyway you want but the point is it's an incredibly powerful opportunity do you know these women are so emotionally connected to me that when they come in to use their session they it's just like we've been friends forever they talk about it they're like oh you taught a class and loved it and and they're already connected so it's again people look at and go why would you want to teach why would you not want to teach this is a great and powerful tools so the biggest fear people have is actually getting on stage and presenting that's where we lose people everyone's like I can't do that but you let me tell you when you teach something you love every student that has ever done this program has told me that they went into it terrified that they weren't gonna have enough material and they went way over on their time so that's what happens when you love something you're passionate about it you're not gonna have a problem here's a little video clip just kind of showing you what it looks like it just a few seconds but this is exactly what it looks like one of us but this is what you need to know the brighter of the situation small your number is going to be on your s o super easy. This is how I teach all my students all over the world simply this if you're out on a beach and there's a bright sun and there's sand and the sun is shining, you're probably going to be it s so one hundred, so keep that in mind. Eso is basically the control of how much light is in your camera. So now when you're out at the beach and it's really, really sonny, you know you want a bump that s o down, but if you're out, you're in them the house and the sun setting and, you know, the light year, maybe even by candlelight, you're gonna bump that I s o up now, I recommend you play with that a little bit, I would say your safety zone is s o four hundred maybe eight hundred on a point and shoot camera so it's, not anything that that that is honestly, that scary it's very much like I'm doing right here only can't move, but I'm a pacer. The fact that my bottom hasn't moved is incredible. I'm like really fascinated so so it's not as hard as you think when you overcome the fear and you start pouring out your heart, you will love teaching this