We went to Wedding MBA and learned lots last week and plan to share some of our findings with you over the next few weeks.
This week, we’re talking about being mobile friendly and are here to present a few statistics given to us by Sonny G of WeddingWire.
Did you know there are more mobile phones on the Earth than people?
Did you know there are more mobile phones on the Earth than tooth brushes? More than the number of toilets?
Did you know we sell more phones than babies are born?
Did you know that people pick their phone up every 6 minutes?
Did you know that Google has the choice to not display you in the results if your website isn’t mobile friendly?
Now that you know all of these facts, are you 100 percent positive your website is mobile friendly?
Click here to read some of what we learned at Wedding MBA last year and stay tuned for more to come.
Hey there, Friendors! One of our favorite things to do is network. Network, network, network. So, we thought we’d begin a Networking Tips Series for ya. Here’s Part 1: 6 Networking Tips.
2. Have a drink or two. But not too many. You should loosen up a little and a drink or two is a great way to do that – but you don’t want to be blabbering and then unable to drive yourself home. The company providing the alcohol is probably doing it as a Sponsor (for free) for promotional purposes and they’re there for you to enjoy. Do.
3. “What brings you out?” is the best first question to ask. It gets you straight to the point to see if your relationship is compatible and if it could become mutually beneficial for all parties involved.
4. Sure, ask what brings them out but go deeper once you know that answer (if you feel compelled to continue the conversation). What do they do when they’re not working? This is a great way to make a personal connection. Maybe they are (just like you!) trying to learn how to roll their own Sushi with Youtube Videos too – you never know.
5. Have business cards. Too many business cards. You never know if someone wants 100 business cards of yours instead of one.
6. Name tag. Pleeeeeeazzzzzzz. It makes it so much easier to remember you and it’s just a nice thing to do.
Every time we begin planning an Inspiration Collaboration, we talk about whether we are going to submit it for Print or to a Blog, and we are huge fans of print (oh you fancy huh?) but want to share a little bit of our thoughts on being published on blogs, because we hear it being knocked a lot and we’re not sure the whole industry has realized how dang cool the internet is yet. You might just switch up your gears after we share all it’s pros.
It’s 2016. Print, while not dead, is not the only media you need to be accredited in. Your brand needs to have an internet presence. Gotta look cool.
Since it’s online, it’s free for viewers. They don’t have to physically purchase a magazine which means more potential viewers due to easier access.
You can actually see the reach. All of the professionals involved are sharing it – you notice a bunch of new followers on Instagram, the blog (where the HUGE following is) shares it on their facebook, instagram, twitter. You can see the number of shares, the number of likes, and more, as it’s happening. The internet is where things go viral, my friends.
SEO. When people link to your site from their site, it gives Google a little flag that you’re a reputable website that people trust which means you move up in the search results pages.
Clickable link to your site. The blogs actually put clickable links in their features to your website, which not only helps SEO like we mentioned above, but also makes engaged leads click through to your site and possibly on over to your contact form. Can they click to you through a magazine? Didn’t think so.
More permanent. A new magazine issue comes out and everyone throws away the old one, but the internet won’t throw you away.
Brides are collecting inspiration and info from blogs. When you are on their favorite blog, they trust you. Six Hearts Photography once had a bride book them purely because she saw them on her two favorite blogs, Rock N Roll Bride and Offbeat Bride, within the same week. The power of the internet.
There are tons and tons more reasons we love blogs and believe they are beneficial – maybe we’ll share some more with you later. Want to share why you love getting published online? Email us at schellie@faroutgalaxy.com to share your thoughts and ideas with us.
We’re firm believers in collaborating with other industry professionals even if it’s not at paying gig – so we’ve got a few ways for ya to do it and some info on how these collaborating opportunities can be beneficial.
Inspiration Collaborations. Let’s face it, these things are basically art projects we do with our professional friends – how does that not sound fun? You get creative freedom and friendship. You want a boho bride but have never gotten one? You want to start booking more city weddings? You get what you show on your website and social sites. Reach out to us to do Boho or City Inspiration Collaboration – not only will you get content to begin to attract the types of clients you want, but you also get an amazing networking opportunity AND you get published. If that isn’t one of the coolest things on the planet, we don’t know what is. Click here to Register to be a Friendor for an opportunity at an Inspiration Collaboration with us.
Guest Blog Posts. Regular old websites aren’t cutting it anymore – we’ve all got to be blogging and if we’ve gotta do it, why not do it together? If you’re a Catering company, do a guest post on all your favorite Fine China companies. If you’re any company, ask a Wedding Planner to share her ideal schedule on your blog. Not only will it be helpful to your clients and potential clients, the Friendor you feature will share it, which grows your brand – and the information might be so helpful that it just goes viral. Wouldn’t that be nuts? They may even ask to do a guest blog on you in return – a super fun way to build your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – something we ALLLLL need to do ALLLL the time. Email us at Schellie@FarOutGalaxy.com to get some guest blogging opportunities.
Networking Events. Events just for industry professionals are one of the greatest ways to meet new people. Go alone to your first one and meet everyone you can. Ask them what brings them out, talk about things other than work, and you may find someone you genuinely bond with that you could create a beautiful referral network with. Ask them to go to a future networking event with you and then actually go to the next together – but don’t get too clique-y with it; you want to make sure you stay open to new opportunities as well. Stay caught up on our blog cause we announce networking events occasionally.
Instagram Giveaways. Instagram Giveaways are good because they grow your social base – which makes you look more successful to your peers and may even drive more traffic to your website. You can get around 10 professional accounts involved, get a giveaway from a company for free, and promote the hell out of each other with it. You may find your company account growing by the hundreds overnight – all the people trying to get that Kylie Cosmetics lip gloss (or whatever the heck she’s got going on) or Starbucks giftcards, or whatever ya like. Tip: Don’t give away any of your services for free. Ever. Click here to Register for a chance to be in on our future Instagram Giveaways.
That’s all we’ve got for now – see ya on a future Monday.
Sometimes you go to a meeting with a potential client, a lead, and things just click. You’re flowing off each others vibes, you laugh on the same ques, and share the same vision for the big day. And their outfit is great.
Sometimes, although we may not like to admit it, we go to a meeting with a lead that is the opposite – conversation lacks, you think their burlap idea is so 2011, they ask if you can do ‘this’ and then proceed to show you someone else’s work (that’s totally not your style!) but, for some reason, they still book you. Why? Because you let them. Because they invested time with you and you didn’t refer them to someone else like maybe you should have.
We’re here to share with you 4 Reasons why, in an industry that gives us the freedom to do so, you should follow your gut when it comes to choosing your own clients, and how to let go of the idea that all incoming leads are potential clients.
If you do contemporary creative photography but your lead is only showing you traditional work as inspiration, you may not be the best match. Sure, you can do traditional work (no problem) but is that the type of work you want to advertise? Is it something you’re not bored doing? Won’t you feel like a sell out? Will your client be happy? Isn’t it best to send Suzy and Bobby down to the local traditional studio? (you know, since you can recognize the photos they’re showing you from that studio anyways?) Who knows, that studio just may send over their modern clients to you that they realize aren’t a fit for them.
2. Don’t tarnish your brand. You get what you show.
If you photograph in a style that’s a little too edgy for someone (while perfect for others), but you give in to a sale (hey, you needed the money!) and tone it down and shoot a full wedding traditionally, sure, you got their money – along with a bunch of photos you can’t use for anything and a really boring experience. Your brand means something and has it’s own style and there are clients out there who will love you for what you do; don’t tarnish your style.
If you book someone who may not be the best fit, you’re bound to be miserable the entire process, doing both you and the client a disservice. If you get anxiety when their name pops up in your email, sign a little and roll your eyes as you say “what now?” (we’ve all experienced this with a client before), you can usually look back and realize all the warning signs of the bad match. Listen to those signs in the future.
You’ve booked someone who you had a gut feeling you shouldn’t have and now not only are you stuck with them for a years time (depending on how far in advance they book you) but you’re most likely stuck with them unhappy. For like, ever. That client isn’t unhappy with you just for the time you work with them; they’re unhappy with you for the rest of their lives because their wedding is a once in a life time experience and they didn’t like you. You may have done a perfect job, a job someone else would have given you a five star review for, but that doesn’t matter. A bad match is a bad match. Bad matches lead to unhappy parties. What do you get from unhappy clients? Unhappy reviews.
A potential client sent out the door to a different professional may seem like a failure, a sale lost, but referring a bad match to someone who may be a good match for them is the only ethical way to run your business. Every client that you get should be the perfect client for you and you the perfect professional for them – exactly what they need. How do you know if a client is a bad match? Your gut, we say.
Top of the morning to ya, friendors! We’ve been thinking a lot about saving time and money as an Entrepreneur and wanted to share just a few productivity tips that we do with you.
One of the best tips we ever heard uttered was from a speaker at WPPI, and forgive us because we can’t remember who it was, but they said the first thing for you to do to save time and money was to automate your life and outsource tasks that you don’t enjoy or that don’t directly make you money. There were two specific examples given.
We were doing both of these things before we heard this speaker, feeling a little guilty over it and mainly blaming it on our laziness and desire to make life easy, but after hearing it said by someone on stage, realized that these things are actually really beneficial to our company and wanted to preach you our ways.
Example: Instead of buying your toilet paper and paper towels at the grocery store, set up Amazon’s Subscription Service to automatically deliver these items to you on a schedule – you won’t have to waste your valuable time shopping for this anymore and it’s the same price. It just arrives in a big ol’ box on your front doorstep. Put everything you can on this Subscribe and Save program. We get our Brushing Rinse, TP, feminine products, and more delivered straight to our home. This will save you 10 – 20 minutes in the store, the gas money, and many last minute trips when you run out of toilet paper. Time is money.
Example: Instead of cleaning your own home, find a service or individual to come in once a week and get it spick and span. While they are cleaning, you can be doing something beneficial for your company, that you actually enjoy, that makes you many times more than you’re paying for the cleaning. We felt really guilty about doing this for a long time (stereotypes that you’re a spoiled diva if you don’t clean your own home), but the truth is that not cleaning your own home (of course still pick up after yourself) will transform your life in magical ways and no guilt should be felt, especially when it frees you up to benefit your business and well being.
Since we see the benefit of these things, we searched the internet and found some articles about personal productivity and saving money and are sharing them with you below.
Hope you can incorporate some of these productivity and money saving tips into your life and business!
Hiya, Friendors! We hope you’re having a lovely Monday morning. It’s February and we’re feelin’ the love coming on something serious this time of year. Speaking of love, you know what we love?
Finding incredible views! We’re here with a Friendor Feature on the venue we’re officially dubbing as THE best skyline view in Atlanta, Ventanas.
We got to go out to Ventanas to photograph the space and also hosted an Inspiration Collaboration that was PUBLISHED on Offbeat Bride, a wedding blog with over 1.3 MILLION hits per month.
Click here to view the photos from Six Hearts Photography and the feature on Offbeat Bride.
It’s no surprise the shoot was published right away; we had some amazing professionals involved and Ventanas is just STUNNING.
Ventanas is in the best possible location you could imagine, above the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Atlanta, just next to Centennial Olympic Park, The World of Coke, and the Georgia Aquarium. It has a helipad with a full 360 view of the city. Just. Amazing.
We were greeted by Hannah, the Catering Sales Manager, and got to chat with her for a little bit before she gave tours of the space and tastings to newly engaged couples.
While talking, she cultured us – did you know Ventanas means Windows in English? Yep, sure does. And let us tell you something about the windows in this space – they are FLOOR TO CEILING.
But it doesn’t stop there (man, I swear).
They also have a deck with a bar and a fire pit and so much more. Enjoy the photos of this beautiful venue below and read about all of its amenities (like an open floor plan, a spiral stair case, and epic make out views, eeeek!!)!
Just as we dubbed it the best Skyline View in Atlanta, we’re gonna go ahead and say it’s got some of the most killer amenities as well. Here are some amenities as taken from their website.
Click here to view the Inspiration Collaboration photos from Six Hearts Photography and the feature on Offbeat Bride.
Do you want to make friends in the industry? Do you want to be successful? Register to be a Friendor now.