Casey Templeton Photography

I am always on the lookout for new clients, however, I put just as much effort into keeping my existing clients happy. In the commercial/advertising industry, a photographer out of site is most certainly a photographer out of mind.  So here are a few things I do to foster my existing client relationships and keep my name at the top of the list for upcoming projects.

• Under promise, over deliver.
• Be quick to deliver the work and make the process of your clients obtaining your files quick and easy (see “Utilizing your FTP“).
• Handwritten thank you notes for all jobs, small or large.
• Be responsive and accessible - answer emails and phone calls quickly.
• If you haven’t heard from a client in a while, send a note, email or quick call.  Don’t say “What gives!? Why aren’t we working together?” Just check in.
• Before submitting an estimate, be considerate of their budget if they have one. You don’t want to lose a client because you assumed the job was much bigger than it is and you submit an estimate that is twice the size of their budget.  This could send a client walking.  It never hurts to ask what their budget is.
• Never drag your feet on providing an estimate and with a returning client, try to be more flexible with your prices than a first time client.
• Be consistent with your estimates and do your best to consistently complete a project under budget.
• Keep good record of receipts to provide an all encompassing invoice.
• Always remember you are representing your client when on a job.  Show up more dressed up than you think you need to be.  Stay calm, cool and collected.
• Don’t friend a client on Facebook, let them friend you.
• Find your client’s personal comfort level of talking about business and personal issues and don’t cross it.

Your goal is to have your clients come to you and single bid the jobs.  But know the moment you get a new client is the moment you start losing them (Mad Men, I think).

p.s. It may be a bad idea to submit your clients emails to http://clientsfromhell.net/

A year in the making, I was excited to ship my official introduction to nearly 300 of the top creative folks in the photo industry last month. After a successful 2008 and beginning of 2009, I realized my commercial work came mostly through word of mouth and that I had made no marketing efforts. I knew in order to take my business to the next level, I needed to start marketing myself on a national level and more importantly, I had only one chance to make an awesome first impression.

“As an art buyer, I get a lot of little promotional pieces. I am spoiled. BUT, yours was so well put together and well done that I stopped everything I was doing and went to your website. NOT to my surprise your work is just as thoughtful, innovative and touching as your promotional piece. I officially have a work crush on you. Please come and see us so we can put you to work ASAP.:)”

This promo would be the first time the agencies and art buyers would hear about me so I wanted to fill it with items that told something about who I was. The challenge was how to fill a box with multiple items and not make it feel like a junk box. I worked closely with Suzanne Sease and Rob Jefferson to find items that were relevant to the audience of art buyers and creative directors and compiled my mailing list with Suzanne using Agency Access.  I needed every piece of this promo to have a wow-factor so I worked exclusively with the most talented Robb Major to design everything from the screen printing of the shipping box to the design on the matchboxes.  To tie it all together, I included my “to-do list” which is below.

“Cool promotional box! So much so in fact that I feel compelled to use you for our next photo shoot. I have a client in ————.  Are you available and interested? Wow, this just goes to prove the power of good advertising.”

“This is the most amazing promo I’ve ever received in my 12 years of art buying! I truly hope to work with you soon and I hope this gets you a ton of work! Its genius!”

“I just received your magic lunchbox and I gotta say it’s quite the spread. The San Cristobal just made my drive to NY tomorrow night that much better. If you’re ever in ——– for a job let me know and I’ll set you up with a portfolio review with my art producer colleagues so they can get to know you. Thank you and stay in touch.”

It took two snowy days and a dozen awesome friends to put all of these boxes together and shipped in early February. The response has been outstanding and I have received an amazing amount of free T-shirt cards back full of comments request for portfolios as well as phone calls. The big task now is follow through….. and thinking about a 2011 promo!

Want a retro (empty, sorry) lunch tin of your own? Leave a convincing comment below and I may just feel compelled to mail you one.

I am excited to present my brand-spanking-new lifestyle book. With the help of Suzanne Sease I was able to condense and organize my library of lifestyle images into one portfolio book.  This was made possible by using Apple’s Aperture to easily comb through 100,000+ images and organize and pair them with other images in the book layout program.  Printed by Pushdot Studio and presented in a Lost-Luggage binding and cover, I wanted to keep the printed book consistent with my brand; clean, image-focused and organic. I chose a hardboard and extra thick matte paper to soak in the colors of the images.

Additional portfolios are available so please contact me if your agency would like to have one shipped to their office or if you would like to request a meeting.

Lost-Luggage book printed by Pushdot Studio

Drumroll please…. the winners of the Aperture 3.0 giveaway:

- Lauren Gniazdowski (Facebook entry)
- @jonkgoering (Twitter entry)
- @schmbrln (Twitter entry)
- Paul ‘Spike’ Reddington (Blog entry)
- Jon Friedman  (blog entry)

***CLOSED***** Win 1 of 5 copies of Aperture 3.0! You can enter any of the following ways:

• RT the following on Twitter:
  RT & follow @caseytempleton by March 15 for a chance to win copy of Aperture 3.0 | details: http://bit.ly/b5xleY | #ApertureRocks
• Post a comment anywhere on my blog and finish your comment with “+APERTURE ROCKS!”
• Post a comment on the Casey Templeton Photography Facebook Fan Page and include “APERTURE ROCKS!”

I was excited to hear that Apple released Aperture 3 this morning! I am equally excited to see that a number of my images were used on the website, instructional videos, etc! Since I started using Aperture in 2007, my image library has been revolutionized and the ease of organizing, editing, and delivering images to clients has taken my production process to the next level. Press release below as well as link to a free trial. Please never hesitate to hit me up with questions on getting started!

Aperture 3 Released by Apple

Press Release from Apple:

Apple Releases Aperture 3

New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes

CUPERTINO, California—February 9, 2010—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® ’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.
“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.” (more…)