July 6th, 2009 in 
Four years in, and Suzanne Black could teach a lot of people a lot of things…especially about marketing and surviving when times get tough.
I had a chat with her about what she thinks are the keys to success, how she turns 90% of her enquiries into bookings and why albums are so important to her business.
Positivity is contagious.
Suzanne is feeling positive right now. I haven’t heard that response to a question about the state of the economy in a long time, but after chatting I’ve decided describing her as “positive” is an understatement…
She says, “In the current climate I think it’s more and more important to sell yourself to the client in a positive way. If your clients do a side-by-side comparison of packages and photographers, you’re never going to win. You’re just a number.”
Instead Suzanne believes in creating an individual identity. Focusing on building your business so people remember something about it, rather than just your price.
“It’s really important to keep a positive attitude because clients can really sense it,” Suzanne says.
“Personally I keep a really positive attitude, especially when speaking to clients and building on the relationships I already have with vendors, venues and previous clients. People can sense your attitude straight away and the last thing you want are potential clients sensing a negativity about you.”
Suzanne told me how clients tell her of other photographers they’ve seen, who never stopped talking about what everyone else was doing, or how bad the economy is right now.
“Avoid listening to all the doom and gloom out there and refuse to let negativity creep into your business.”
Good advice.
Picking and Choosing
Suzanne started off low in terms of pricing, with the intention of building a good solid foundation to grow her business from. Four years later, grown it has. She says she’s now at the middle to high end of the market in her area in terms of pricing, but it took hard work, planning and and a specific strategy to get there.
“When I first started out I sat down and worked out which part of the wedding industry I wanted to operate in. I didn’t think I could be, nor did I want to be, all things to all people. I identified who I wanted as my target brides, and marketed specifically to them.”
With the help of CPT, Suzanne has developed some great marketing skills and defined her business brand so much that she now books nearly every client who comes to see her. Her explanation? “Really knowing who my clients are and engaging with them before I meet them.”
The album’s role
Suzanne offers Queensberry albums in all of her packages. In fact, they’re key to what she offers, and she says the majority of her clients select additional images for their wedding album.
“While obviously the photography is important, I believe the final presentation of the images is equally important. Albums play a huge part in my business. A beautiful custom designed album is all part of the service that I provide.”
Not only does she exclusively use and love Queensberry’s albums, she’s a huge fan of our accessory range. In fact she says it’s very rare for her not to sell at least two digital copy albums from every wedding.
Suzanne also makes use of Queensberry’s print and assembly service as she works on her own. “It leaves me with more time to be out shooting or marketing my business,” she says.
Innovation
Digital Copies aren’t the only accessory album that Suzanne uses though. With a bit of creative thinking, Suzanne uses another product from our accessory range to get her photos in front of guests at weddings.
“I wanted a product that would show off my images at the actual wedding to all the guests. I decided that Queensberry’s Demi albums would be perfect to showcase a selected number of images the couple chose from their engagement shoot. I get those images made up into a Demi album that guests can sign at the wedding – and my images get exposure.”
Suzanne was the first client to come up with the idea and unsurprisingly, it’s caught on with plenty more clients since.
Last Words?
Tell us what you consider your top three keys to success?
“Know your clients. Recognise that an exisiting client is far easier to market to than a new one. And have a positive attitude – don’t listen to all the doom and gloom out there!”
Her final thoughts summed up her approach to business, and life, really well I thought…
“We’ve come through some recent years where work has been easy to find. I think it will have made quite a few people complacent. As I’ve said before attitude is key, and I look forward to the challenges the next few years bring.”
Cheers, Nigel
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