articles/Children/ababysstory-page3
by Julie Hughes Published 01/01/2005
Finding prospective mums is very easy if you are also a wedding photographer. Have albums, and enlargements on display of pregnancy and birth in your studio so you are planting seeds early. When they book you for your wedding services, keep her on your mailing list, and mail portrait and baby special offers often.
Even if she does not get pregnant right away, we often have brides buying "Watch me Grow" gift certificates for pregnant sisters and relatives. We will always "gift" our clients with a pregnancy session (never say free) because if we can get her hooked on our studio experience while she is pregnant, we will often keep her for life. If you get her going crazy on the first baby (yahoo!) she will almost always do exactly the same for the second and third one.
We are into making all our clients our Abbey of London studio family, and strive to treat all of them the way I would want my own family treated.
No matter whether my client comes to my studio for a bridal portrait, or a pregnancy portrait, we will make her look good. Before the client leaves the studio we set a projection appointment. When they see the images for the first time it is a slide show on a 40x60 screen set to emotional music.
We strongly feel that you should never show your client an un-retouched image. When she sees them we want her to cry because she thinks they are so beautiful, not because she looks fat. Our goal with maternity photographs is to gain mom's trust, and respect so we become her family photographer for a lifetime. At the time of her portrait presentation, we hope to sign her up for our "watch me grow" album plan.
We also give her information about photographing the birth. We are now selling baby plans just like a wedding package, and find that the add on sales over the course of the year more than equal our best wedding sales. I'll leave you with a few more images for you to try on your clients.
Next issue we will talk in detail about the watch me grow album plan, and photographing births both at home, and in the hospital setting. I can't wait to meet many of you at the January Convention in Coventry where we will be speaking about the "Baby Business" through the first year
There are 21 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025