Excited to share my most recent round of photography business cards. They were designed by Robb Major, printed/pressed by Jason Taylor at Thousand Pound Press. The back has a QR code that directs you to my mobile site designed by Brad Frost. If you are saying, “By Golly, that won’t fit in my roledex.” Well, it doesn’t belong in a roledex and here is an entertaining video to explain why:

Give it a shot using a QR code reader:

The most valuable service I can offer my clients is my personal vision.  I have a certain way of seeing the world so I focus on that, not on giving the client what I think the hot style is in the industry. I would always be a step behind if I was only chasing the transient industry fads.  Find your vision, trust your eye. When I am approached by a possible client, I like to show images I feel would fit within their brand to see if our ideas for the brand are somewhat consistent.  If we work together, rather than providing them with only the one or two images they asked for, I like to provide a photo library of images where each image can work with the others to show an overall consistency, a fluid vision.  Beyond filling their immediate image needs, this hopefully gets their minds racing with greater ideas of how they can incorporate the images in various other campaigns.

Long term working relationships are formed when your vision is adopted by the client and it becomes their vision too.

One of my clients that I have this relationship with is here in Virginia, Bon Secours Health System and their agency, Free Agents Marketing.  We began working together in 2009 and although the work is nothing too exotic or uber-exciting, they believe in my vision for their photography and have given me the freedom to place it directly into their branding.  Brand-Vision Utopia!  Long term working relationships are formed when your vision is adopted by the client and it becomes their vision too.  This makes it harder to use multiple photographers because consistency is lost, and keeps you in business. “The first time we met Casey, he talked about creating a library of images for us, which was something we, too, were hoping to achieve.  You can see how this image library he’s created helps us maintain consistency across the Bon Secours brand,” Suzanne Doran, Art Director at Free Agents Marketing. You can see some of the images from the Bon Secours photo library below.

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.