Case Study: Your Reflection My Style
Marketing To Families Through Christmas Cards, Medical Offices and Blogging
The Company
Chanel Parrott started Your Reflection My Style Photography in 2002 with a 1,200 square foot studio in Bloomington, a city of 150,000 in central Illinois. Over the past six years Chanel has grown enough to expand her space to 3,500 square foot building. Part of her success came from the sophisticated style of photography with expectant women, newborns, babies, children, families and seniors. The other part is because of the relationships she has developed with her amazing client base. The white-collar family oriented community consists of many professionals due to the continued growth of the 16,000 employee State Farm Insurance headquarters, as well as many other professionals and small business owners. Chanel has one full time and four part-time employees.
The Challenge
There are many extremely talented photographers within an hour's radius, yet Chanel was able to hone in on her target market, and in doing so, she was able to concentrate on fewer sessions while becoming more of a boutique studio in the process. This has made her session count drop, but her bottom-line has increased. In 2004 she shot 500 portrait sessions along with doing almost everything else in the process (i.e. editing, retouching, designing) and almost collapsed from exhaustion. Since then she found that having employees to aid her in the process has helped to keep up the quality that she founded her studio on. Chanel realized she would rather give top quality services and products than book as many sessions as she could handle. She focuses on middle to upper end clients by creating a warm, attractive atmosphere that greatly appeals to clients.
Although weddings were a great starting point early in Chanel's career, she has cut back on the number of weddings she allows the studio to take on. A few years ago Chanel did 23, and now shoots a few hand picked weddings annually. High school seniors, by design, only account for around 30-40 portrait sessions a year so she can concentrate on creating something different for each senior that walks in the door. Setting out for the future, she'd like to grow the business beyond Bloomington and add more product selections that will continue to make clients continue to get excited about what's new at Your Reflection My Style Photography.
The Market Approach
In her first few years of business, Chanel says the majority of her clients "came from word-of-mouth" marketing generated by from people who often received the WHCC printed holiday cards of families she photographed. She figures that she does 120 custom Christmas cards a year that result in 15,000 cards being sent by her clients. "Those cards go out of our studio with our name on them. I think it's great our clients are paying us to market to their friends and family," she says.
Some of her clients send out hundreds of cards, all with the Your Reflection My Style logo and contact information, including one client who spent $1,700 on cards. Another client commented that, out of approximately 30 cards her family received at Christmas time, only six were not photographed and designed by Chanel. The WHCC Press Printed Products she uses – 5x7 flat cards, 5x5 trifolds and 4x5 accordions – are sent out to potential clients when they call for information. "These really sell our services well," she says.
Perhaps the most intriguing approach to expand the studio's reach involves putting images on display at three OBGYN practices and one sonogram facility in Bloomington. Chanel sets up a display of her images, often 20x30 to 30x40 photographs, as nicely framed prints, metallic standout boards or gallery wraps accompanied by WHCC Press Printed Products such as bookmarks and 5x7 cards, which patients can pick up and take home. Those cards have several photographs and the studio's contact information on them. "We're reaching women at the stage where they're thinking about having a photographer capture their pregnancies and the first years of life for their newborns," says Chanel.
She's done the same sort of display at a financial advisor's office operated by one of her clients. In return for wall space, she offers doctors and other business owners that have patients or clients in their office, 20 percent off all their own families images that are 16x20 or larger (wall sized images only).
Another small campaign Chanel recently unveiled involves giving 50 WHCC printed Rep Cards to women who have purchased photo purses done by her studio. Those clients have strangers asking, "Where did you get that?" The rep cards carry the studio's contact information.
Chanel has also introduced a program to help her top clients feel special and to keep them coming back year after year. The Lifetime Client program was started in 2006 and offers free sessions and various other offers to her loyal clients. These clients have already shown their interest in the studio by providing higher than average sales, so Chanel thanks them by alleviating some of the minor costs necessary for a session to take place.
A strategy many photographers employ to maintain contact with clients and to attract new clientele is a blog, and Chanel has one. "My clients love my blog," she says. "Our clients and friends love to read the blog and keep up with what's going on at the studio. They are like family to us. Just like family, we want to know what's going on with them, and they want to know what's going on with us! Clients like to know what's going on at the studio, what new products we have, and I throw in some personal things in there, too. Sometimes about what the girls on staff and I have been doing or my dating life seems to be very popular as well. I find the more I update it the more calls, emails and new clients we get!"
Finally, Chanel has a few annual events, which drum up business and raise money for community organizations. One is a fundraiser for Easter Seals featuring a "Li'l Angels" calendar containing photographs of little boys and girls under the age of six. Chanel credits Lori Nordstrom with the idea for a calendar of this nature, which has been a great success and has brought in many new clients to the studio. Diva Nite is another event, which many studios around the country are doing. This is where they invite about 15 local businesses, mainly owned by women, to display their products. We offer special gift bags and incentives to get the women to come out in the middle of the winter and shop and mingle at the studio. "These events keep me active in the community," she says. The studio also holds an annual open house in the late summer. At this time specials are given to clients who sign up early for the fall and Christmas sessions.
Results
The combined efforts of Chanel's marketing activities, blog and website have combined to create a very healthy business. She employs many WHCC products to meet the needs of clients in different ways.
She sells many mounted 5x10 and 4x10 prints placed in GW Moulding frames. "These products are almost a guaranteed sale with every sitting we do," says Chanel.
The studio moves 3/4" to 1 1/2" standout board on metallic paper in larger sizes. Collages printed on standout boards sell particularly well. Standout board images, 16x20 and above, satisfies many clients, who often will purchase three to five images of that size. WHCC Press Printed Cards as birth announcements and shower invitations are popular, especially with new moms.
The studios most popular size of canvas gallery wraps sell in sizes of 10x20 or 20x30, often in groups of three to five to cover a wall of a home. Part of the success of gallery wraps may come from a display in Chanel's studio. It has "nine 8x8s, all hung together in a square," on the wall, she says. "People go ‘Oh, wow! I want to do something like that." The display certainly helps them imagine how multiple photographs could be used on a wall for a richly creative presentation.
The WHCC Press Printed Books look like a great product she can sell in the future. "I love how they looked and felt," she says. Chanel is also very excited about the smaller 8x8 and 5x5 sized books.
The WHCC Difference
Chanel has used WHCC exclusively since going digital a year after she started her business. She met Mike Hanline, owner of WHCC, at a convention in 2003 and liked the lab's style. "WHCC is the first digital lab I tried," she says. "I like how easy they were to work with and how they helped me out in the beginning with sizing my files, color management and other issues that all new photographers seem to have."
Now she has little reason to try other labs. "I can't imagine using anyone else," she says. "Its customer service is superior, not many companies I work with can out do WHCC on its service. You have a problem, you call them, and they'll make it right and get it done very quickly. They're always very helpful with everything they do. Their staff is very friendly – they do an excellent job of training."
Business name: Your Reflection My Style Photography, INC
Website: http://www.yourreflectionmystyle.com/
Location: Bloomington, Illinois
Focus: Expectant mothers, newborns, children, families, seniors
Strategy: Use displays at OBGYNs, a blog and a healthy Christmas card trade to promote the studio and keep new competitors at bay.