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Marketing on a Budget

how many think we are in a bad economy? Anybody? No, it's getting better. It? Absolutely. At one time it was really, really, really the pits. Here's the point. How many 17 year olds are going? Well, you know, I'm not gonna get that IPhone five, you know, because the economy and all you No, no, no, no, That happened. It's not happen seniors or not making economic decisions based on the economy. So someone of these questions was was, was parents versus seniors. Okay, Well, parents versus seniors is a very delicate balance. I forget which one you asked that might have been on the Internet. But the delicate balance is this. The parents have the money, but the senior decides where they're gonna go in most cases. Now, if you are expensive enough and if you have enough hoops and rules for them to jump through, the parent has to get involved early in the game. And to me, that's good. That's part of the minimum orders and things like that. We're gonna talk about that in the next segment. The re...

ason it's so important that you get parents involved early is because you do not want to shock them at the end, and suddenly they have figured this could cost a couple 100 bucks. And I am. It's $ that camp. You gotta You gotta build up that brain to the point, drop enough seeds and such that they say open. Yet it's gonna cost me some money. So it's very important that parents get involved early, but still the senior decides where they're gonna go. Tons of photographers tell me, post a picture Facebook pro form somewhere I'll post a picture and they'll say, you know, they wouldn't buy this But I don't necessarily do images to make people buy. I do some images because people will look at it and go, Whoa, that's cool. I want to. Do you have him do my senior pictures? So think about that. That's what I mean when I say juggling between the parents and the senior. So you have to you have to have this nice, delicate balance. The senior makes the decision where they're gonna go, but the parent rights to check. So, yeah, I mean, does that help is forced? I think somebody on Internet world answered that. So that's the That's the balance when it comes to marketing between the pair and the senior. So did it. Did I answer that? You'll feel like answered that I loved the red pen loving the red pen. Okay, E feel like I should play the trumpet or something every time you cross something on the way. So the question when it comes to marketing on a limited budget Yes, I asked the question, Are you making a prophet? Okay. And I ask that question because of the fact that so often when it comes to what we do is high school senior photographers, it's fun. You get to photograph beautiful girls who come to you and it's so fun and get some cool looking dudes and they all muscular and they got their cool toys in their footballs. And it's, Oh, man, it's so much fun. But we make the mistake of going, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna spend I'm just gonna go one more hour. Sometimes that is a mistake. Delicately balance your time and make sure that you are making a profit to make a profit, you have to be totally aware of all of the costs of doing business. So oh, do you know this? And if you don't, I'm not gonna put you on the spot. But if you know this sadness, I'm not talking about the cost of a but 10 0 yeah, A button costs me this much. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about everything. How much are you paying in Pablo's example? He does his studio at home. Great. How much electricity? Extra a month. Does that cost you? Okay. How much water? How much All this type of stuff. Do you have to carry more insurance? How much did it cost you to come here? You had to pay something to get here. You have to pay for hotels and airfare. All the different things that you have to pay for education. How about new cool camera stuff? How about backgrounds? How about I'm talking about all this stuff, everything that it takes to be in business? You have to know all these things and all that up. And what I want you to come up with is you need to come up with a number a number. This is how much it cost me every hour to exist in my business. Okay? and that's that takes a little effort in time. And only you can answer it once you come up with that number. Now you can start to realize that you got the cute senior girl her mom's done told you. All we buying is to eight but tens. And she's got 10 outfits. Dumb, right? I mean, that's happened to me before. I mean, I had a blast. I mean, we had 10 outfits. I'm not lying. 10 outfits. She was cute. Everything pointed in the right direction. She was from the right school. She had a fancy watch. Fancy car. It seemed like everything was gonna be awesome. Big sale. She bought one A, but 10. The person right after her was a boy. One strike. He was from the wrong school. Another strike. I think his name was Russell. Not just kidding. Everything was against him. Everything. He only had one outfit, the one that was on his body. That was it. Everything pointed to the fact that he was gonna be a horrible sale. He's been $3000. I mean, how do you know these things? That's what I'm getting. That if you could somehow have a way of knowing these things. And when we start talking about price and help you figure that out, OK, um, market, your limited budget also involved. Oh, I'm sorry. Before we do that careful about your needs and wants Careful about just spending all these things or what's gonna help you survive a downed economy. OK, Do you really need it? Do you really, really need that new lens or what you have? Will it do? Do you really, really need that new background? You know, if you do, then don't want to go get it. But if you don't really need it, they don't do it because that limited limit your spending debt is ardent is our number one enemy. When it comes to living on a on a limited budget and advertising and marketing on a limited budget. Facebook Social media, that type of stuff is your best friend because it allows you to do stuff that's free, man. If I could go back in time In the days of film member film four letter word starts with film. Yeah, film. If we could go back in time to the days of film and I had social media at my disposal. Yeah, I just could not everything. Everything was pay pay, pay, pay pay. Now I could put up a picture for free on Facebook. That's just unbelievable. To me. It's just unbelievable. You can get yourself out there for free so, man, do it. That's what I mean about limited budget and this model program. Something I want to kind of give you an idea. Another model program that you can do is for advertising on a limited budget. Is this? Let's say you put it out there, by the way. I just want to mention one of the most powerful things I've done here lately. Besides, that Facebook thing is, I started it last year, and every one of my employees is starting to hate it. I made a banner that is, man, it's gotta be as big as this rug. I don't know if it's huge. It's got to be six foot wide and I don't know, 45 foot tall. Just this big monster banner. It's got a picture of a girl edge of the water, her eyes awesome shot. It's really cool and all it has on it. No logo, nothing just a big picture and models wanted, and I got that stuck on the front of my studio. It is unbelievable. The number of people who call and come into my studio. Um, I was driving by and I saw the sign that you want models and I'm a model and it's just unbelievable. Now, is she that particular person, the ideal person that I want. But I am able to say to her, Oh, fabulous, do you have? Do you have a professional headshots or are you in need of professional headshots? Well, have a few. Well, it's time update, you know, because if they at least a couple of months old, it's time update. You constantly changing. We have a sale on that right now. Okay, if let's see what what's the other one? They'll call up and say, Oh, well, let me just tell you are your high school senior. Oh, you're not a high school senior? Well, great. Do you know someone who's a high school senior? Yeah, well, that is what the model program currently is all about. It's all about high school seniors, So if you know someone who's a high school senior, let me tell you about my model program for high school seniors and you could tell them about for me, OK. Oh, OK. And it just is a way of being able to expiate your spiel or sell yourself, communicate what you do to someone who potentially can get you more business. And so that is what I mean by the model program. You can also another thing that you can do with that this model program is this. You can take it to another level, and what I mean by that is you could tell every, like, Like, let's say I wanted to take those 20 something seniors that are on the books right now. I could call up every one of them, and I could say, Hey, we are gonna be doing this really cool photography display. Um, after the month of October and I'm gonna need anybody, I'm a neat around 20 something images for the display. And here's how the display works. It's either 11 by 14 has to. It has to be either an by 14 or 16 by 20 and this is what is gonna be in the display now. If you would like your baby to be in the display. What we're gonna do is it it's blubber block off. It could be 50% off. It could be 10% off. It could be 25% of whatever you plug in a price. It's, let's say, 25%. It's 25% off the price now. The reason we're gonna give you the discount is because you're not going to get the picture instantly. It's gonna be on display for bottom month and then you'll get the picture. So that's why we're giving you a discount. So if you want your baby and the display, you need to buy Lisa Lemba 14 or 16. 20. Do you think that would be something you would be interested in and just sit back and listen? So now someone is going to pay you to make your display. You follow so far, where do you think the display is gonna be? Come on. No, in your studio, that's what it's going to first. So you gather up the 20 something images now, when they all on display in your studio, just might sort of help you as far as the core like the core question. All on display in your living room somewhere you call all of them up Just won't let you know the display is up. Would you like to come see it? We're having a showing at plug in dating time, cheese and crackers if you want. You know, whatever. Or you could make it more elaborate wine. And, you know, having a whole unveiled and we could make This is elaborate as you want. OK, so now let's say three people show up and you show off the display. Now, who are some businesses that would be interested in marketing the high school seniors? Can you think of any Great Bring Hello, ABC Tuck, See those? Yes. Listen, here's the thing. We just had a display. Ah, Photography displayed. It was unbelievable how awesome it worked. And I was thinking that this we would like to make this a traveling display. So the displays coming down in about a week. If you would like to have this display in your business and your bill, you're building an ABC studio, ABC Taxi. Those we haven't opening for November. Would you like to put down? Put down for the display if you don't. It's no big deal, cause I'm gonna call BCS tuxedos if you're not interested. But I really like you guys. I want to give you first choice. You think they're gonna say, OK, they may not know. Problem. You call the next one on the list. Okay. Now, if it goes up at ABC Tuxedos, then how about a bright about Ah, prom dress shop? Okay, how about in the list of, I mean, any kind of clothing store and the list goes on and on? Getting into the corporate one's gonna be difficult. How about ah, local shoe store and so on and so on, so forth. Anywhere you can get your stuff out there. And this would be a way off peak of showing people your stuff and they paid for it. Now, when you call Mama, but guess what? The displays coming down. I know what a week and I promised you to pick up your picture. However, however, guess what? ABC tuxedos, I but I mean, we don't have to put yours up. If you want the print, you can take it and go or are. You can leave it up for another month. I'll leave it up right again. Do you see how you gotta be a little hungry to pull off some of this stuff? You think you were? Absolutely. It's gonna work. How much did it cost you? Yeah, I think I get doubles. Do I get a double? Don't I get a double line on this right here for that. I should get to live. Okay. All right. So that is that model program. Okay, so here today you see, I think what's next is yes. You got questions. Go. The one that you said you call your mom, and then you you based talk about the display and everything. So this was when you booked their successors who already had the person. I know that it's coming or already did this session, and then you call to What I was saying is in my situation, I have 20 something seniors on the books octo. I could call them now to kind of get them excited about the fact that not only are you gonna be a model with one of your image, potentially could be on the split and that the way I got 20 something people was because of the Facebook model thing. What I'm getting at. So what I'm getting at is used your whatever marketing you gonna do? Whatever. Even if it just gets one senior in the door. Use that to springboard to another thing. Indented advertising from the Facebook was basically you just exchange they your service for your service? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, So your first models that you got are those, like, so to speak your ambassadors. So they're coming in and out the ones on everyone's on October October. So those like you're gonna talk about what do I actually give me? Okay, because I am doing all that for free Hope, you know. Okay. No, no, no, no. Next segment. We're gonna talk about minimum orders, and that comes stuff, and I'm gonna tell you exactly what Good monk. Okay, so the, um, I'm trying to get my words together again. Sigh the Facebook there the the prince that you made and then put on display. At this point, you haven't put any money out of your own. Know you've done this promotions trying, basically with my paying me to advertise their stuff. Okay. How radical is that? So that's aggressive. Definitely shoestring budget. Absolutely no average. What if you had? What have you had on top of all of that gang? On top of all of that, I have a $10,000 budget and boom, You hit him with billboards? You hit him with newspaper, you hear a couple of radio spots. Do you think it's gonna work even better? Absolutely. So that's what I'm getting at. I'm starting all the way on the bottom with zero money here. And then after that, you got more to spend. By all means, do it. I mean, you know, some of this advertising stuff is extremely basic. You know, you call up the newspapers, I want to run that, you know, designer Boom. It shows up. We all live happily faster, you know? So there you go. Internet world. Got me some questions. Yeah, we dio. So from avoid the Lloyd. Does Kirk care what his competitors air doing as faras pricing and marketing? Do I care? Yeah, I care. But I'm not calling them up and saying hi. I'm thinking about having my senior pictures take on. And how much do you charge? No, I'm not doing that because let me tell you why I'm not doing that. I'm a member of the PP A. I'm a member of the local association, the State Association. So you know what? All these people, the good ones, I know them. We're buddies. We hang out after the classes and we have drinks together. And you know what? We did one time to answer that question thoroughly, just to show you how far I'm willing to go and to do it. Me and two other photographers Several years ago I said, Listen, im bett. Last week you sent off a postcard campaign to seniors and he's like, Yeah, how did you know? I said, because my phone rang off the hook. He goes, Oh, my God, your phone number on my car, Did I? I said no. But people tend to go where they want to go. Your postcard simply reminded them that it was time to take senior pictures. And so they called me up. Did you get people who called you up? He goes, Well, yeah, I did, I said. And the other guy was sitting there where he goes, my phone running through off the hook. I said, Guys, why are we all paying the price? All three of us buying lists. All three of us paying for postcards. All three of us paying for the mailing. Let's all get together. Get one nice postcard that says Now is the time to have your senior pictures done. We know you want to go to one of Homer's top three photographers. They are. Boom, boom, boom. You choose Name, website, phone number, name, website, phone. Avendra. It worked great and we split the cost three ways. So there you go. How's that for, like embracing your community photographer. Amazing Killed me about that. The Chamber of Commerce peeps called me up and said, Are you crazy? By the way, I need to make my daughter senior pictures. Why don't you call in the other two? Well, she wants to come in. You arrest? In my case, this one is from an clicker and actually quite a few other people. When you were throwing these out us that spread a lot of conversation on the Internet there wondering that it just didn't get through wondering it. Does each card have a different photo and name on it when they hand out and then if you could again let us know where they can get these in which H and H color color Lab H and H Comma lab. You want the website or, I mean, they could probably Google search. Just Google it. And what is the product called? Just cards, gift cards, gift cards. Okay, that was That was easy. Simple. And how many do you give your senior state handout? 18 18? Because that's the minimum number that I can order. You can order more gift cards, but the least you can get is 18. It was very inexpensive, by the way.