Wedding Photography Attracting Clients With Promotions

[selo]

We will soon open our new studio and are planning to work with a few companies which are all related to weddings. We do Photography and Videography and our promo plan is to give 10% discount for customers which will book a wedding on that specific day.

That specific day would be the grand opening of our new studio. This will announced on our website and social media pages.

Since most of our clients are following us on social media, they will see the promotion as well. And might ask if they can get the discount as well. If they do, should we give them the discount or say something like... We have all sort of new products (like albums) and if you visit us on the opening day we will give you 20% off on any upgrades you make that day.

OR

Should we not publish the discount on social media so we won't have existing customers asking about the discount. But this will also reduce the visitors for that day. I like to idea of giving them a reason to visit us that day.

What are you thoughts?

 

[Designer]

What are you thoughts?

I think 10% is very meager. 10% is more like a standard discount you give everyone who either upgrades or gives you a paying referral.

For an opening-day discount to draw in new clients, I would think 25% is what will get them in the door.

So what if existing customers want the discount? The discount would apply to a new shoot only, not a past shoot. So they hired you for the wedding, and now with a 25% discount, they bring in the family for portraits.

 

[tirediron]

Okay... this is not really making a lot of sense to me. First and foremost, if you're a wedding studio, you don't much care about the clients you already have, it's future clients. Are you saying that you have future or client's-to-be already following you on social media? If so, well done; you're in a position that most wedding shooters would be envious of! Second, WHY would you want a wedding booked on your grand opening day? That means you and your staff are going to be tied up working when you should be available to meet with prospective clients who have been caught in the media & social-media blitz about your new opening. Lastly... 10%. People won't cross the street for 10%. Remember, you're only one component, and the component with the most options for replacement in a wedding. I agree with Designer, if you want people to replan an entire wedding around YOUR date, you need to increase that discount. A LOT!

I would suggest revamping this along the following lines: On the week of your grand-opening day, you book no work at all. You make sure ALL of your staff & associates are available and will be in situ, all day, every day. You have LOTS of promotional material to give away (custom day-planners might be good for prospective wedding clients), and have LOTS and LOTS of your work available for people to see. BIG prints, canvases, gallery & float wraps and albums. Videos playing on multiple displays, etc. Then you offer them a 15% discount if they book during that week for any time in the next 18 months (with at least 20% down due within 30 days).

 

[selo]

Ok good points.. but.

Our margin for weddings arent that high so a 25% discount is way too high. We have a lot of competitors around most of them are welk established hobbyist most of them do it illegally (not payiny tax). The trick is just to get customers to our studio and when they see all the albums and canvasses they should have no doubts to book us for there wedding date... instead of the hobbyist. I dont like high discounts since it is not fair for customers who already booked. they would want that discount as well. I believe in the power of refferals so i dont. The community where we operate in, are very close to each other. So i want to offer them upgrades with discounts. Which is still good for us. Since our margins on canvasses and albums are good.

@tirediron i am not sure what you mean... we won't book a wedding on our opening day... we will sit in studio and wait for visitors and try to get bookings for futures.

 

[tirediron]

Okay, I think I may have misunderstood you; I thought you meant that you wanted a couple to book their wedding on your opening day. I understand now, so that's off the table, but... It sounds to me like your pricing structure needs work. A lot of work Yes, you need to get people in the door, but as I said earlier, 10% generally isn't enough to do that. As well, a single day is way too short a span.

There are a couple of words you need to be familiar with: "Loss Leader", that is, a produce and/or service on which you lose money, with the intent of making it up in the long wrong. If you can't sustain a 25% discount on the weddings that you're going to book over this day or days, you need another hook. A free album, bonus prints, something. Your work should speak for itself once you get the customers in the door, but you need to get them in the door.

In reality, the 25% discount should only be at most a 15% discount as your pricing structure should be such that you can meet your business plan goals by offering a 10% discount to every single customer. There's nothing people like better than thinking they're getting a deal. As for customers that have already booked, how many is that likely to be? Five? Ten? Sure, you might have to extend the discount or special offer to them, but that's part of the cost of doing business. You can approach it one of two ways: (1) Call them all up and offer them the discount which will get you bonus points and good references; or (2) offer it to any who ask for it, but in such as way as to make them think they're special ("Well... the special really only applies to events booked between <date> and <date>, but I'll make an exception for you...").

 

[selo]

Yes a higher discount would be attract more potential clients. We can do a discount up to 25% so biggest package will have 25% discount in theory it would indeed be lower because of albums etc. We can also increase pricing a little and have the discount look higher.

Our pricing structure is good for now. We are fairly new in the wedding business. We will increase prices omce we have more bookings. Our entry level packages are priced low without albums. people tend to compare our album packages with other competitors non album packages. or very cheap albums. our goal is to only give quality products so we cant compete $30 books. We do offer these books as part of marketing to show them the quality difference but it is not in any package so far.

The opening is planned around january or february of 2018. For 2018 and 2019 we so far have 4 bookings. So by january we might have 15 or 20. After august people will return from their vacations so we except more bookings after.

The thing i am not sure about the most.. is when you promote it on your social media (the opening) should you directly say
1.up to 25% on bookings if you visit our opening. so visible for everyone. or
2. be more discreet and say like we have special discount for people who visit us that day contact us for more info. then you tell them about the discount by mail/phone.

Discounts for booked clients who contact us would be up to 25% on upgrades. yes we can say something like it is for new customers but we can make an exception for you and offer them something as an upgrade.