We have a winner of the $1200 print and product credit from the This is 50 competition:
congratulations to CHRISTINE C of Rose Bay!
Christine, I’m looking forward to our interview and photoshoot for the This is 50 project. Can’t wait to see what you choose to spend that $1200 print and product credit on!
Oh, and remember that’s in addition to the $250 you get as part of the project, so in total you have $1450 to spend! Yay!!
I’m turning 50 this year.
That makes my dad feel old.
I’m the last of four, so his wee little one is now well and truly all grown up. (I guess. Though sometimes I’m not so sure I’ll ever be a proper grown up!)
Anyway…. 50 I will be, and to celebrate I’m launching a new project: This is 50*
Have you noticed how once we reach a certain age, women begin to disappear from screens, magazines, commercials (unless they’re the face of retirement villages and incontinence pads, that is!) Why is that? Have you ever asked yourself that? I don’t see myself as being anywhere near that demographic. Maybe I’m in denial? Or maybe older women are just under-represented in the press.
I’m on a mission to change that.
Over the next 18 months I want to bring more 50 year olds in front of my camera — fifty of them in fact! — to photograph them and ask them what they think about getting older, what they’ve learned, what they think about the lack of older women in the press….. And because it’s my birthday there’s a gift involved too.
No…. you don’t have to buy me anything! (Although, if you feel strongly led to do so, you can search the ‘wish list’ category on this blog and find a few things that might be well-received…. particularly the one about the Little Black Jacket! 😉 )
No, the gift is from me to you:
The “This is 50” shoots are being sold for less than half my usual price… actually I’m only asking you to cover the cost of my makeup artist for the session ($200) AND I’m giving everyone who books one of these sessions $250 in print and product credit. All up, that would usually cost you $745, and you get that for just $200. Not bad, hey?
PLUS YOU COULD WIN $1200 ADDITIONAL PRINT AND PRODUCT CREDIT!
Anyone who pays that $200 booking fee for a This is 50 shoot by Monday 16th September 2019 will go into the draw to win an additional $1200 print and product credit towards the purchase of images from their shoot.
It’s my super-duper 50th birthday present to you.
Interested? Make sure you book in by 16th September 2019! Full T&Cs below.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS “THIS IS 50” COMPETITION:
___________________
*Well…. that’s the working title. It might change between now and when I’m all finished with it.
This.
Want this.
Wish I could shoot images like this.
Maybe one day?
Anyway… in case any of you are wondering what your local Sydney portrait photographer would love for Christmas, maybe pick up a copy of this incredible book. I’ve seen it in a few local book stores in St Ives, and in Chatswood….
Or you could look at all the other posts on this blog that are tagged ‘wish list’. There are plenty of gift ideas there.
Now all I have to do is find a way to get my husband to read my blog, and I’m set!
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!
Wouldn’t it be great to have your business included in your favourite magazine!
Earlier this year I attended an intimate workshop with Kelly Sheenan & Rebecca Jamieson Dwyer, two of the people behind Peppermint Magazine. (There were only about 10 of us! Talk about exclusive access!)
We covered a lot of topics, but here are the three most important tips for being successful when you pitch to magazines. [Click here to read more.]
1. Be consistent
Pitch, and pitch again. Deciding what is included in any given issue of a magazine is not an easy task, and sometimes the final decision comes down to nothing more than the colour scheme of your images and whether they suit the over all layout of the page. So just because you weren’t successful the first time, that doesn’t mean you won’t be considered for another issue later….. so send your pitch and then follow up.
And when you pitch, have everything ready and easily accessible. Don’t expect the editor to “check out your website and Instagram gallery”, but instead send them some sample images, or samples of your writing, so that they don’t have to do any extra work to see what you’d like them to publish.
2. Be established and ready
No magazine will publish anything about your business if you don’t have a great website up and running where people can see and buy your prucucts. It reflects badly on the magazine if they send their readers to your website only to be met with a 404 error or a ‘site under construction’ page.
3. Image is everything
Their words, not mine. Rebecca said, “Image is everything. Have good strong professional images ready for us to publish. Honestly, if I had limited budget and couldn’t afford everything I wanted in my business, I would prioritise professional photography.”
Where to from here?
Numbers 1 & 2 are up to you, but I can definitely help you out with number 3. Get in touch to find out more.
OK, so maybe I DID quite like the idea of free flowers for a year, but not enough to actually do anything about it.
Let me back up a bit to the beginning of the story and it will all make much more sense to you, I’m sure.
The shopping centre that houses my local supermarket also has a pretty little florist shop. I walk past it at least twice a week, but I’ve never been in and I’ve never bought anything from them. Recently — for about a month — the florist shop ran a competition where if you spent over $100 at any of the stores in the centre, you could enter the draw to win flowers delivered to your home once a month for 12 months.
Free flowers delivered to my home for a whole year? Yes please!!!
But did I enter?
I walk past that particular florist shop at least twice a week. All I had to do was complete a form with my contact details. And yet I didn’t enter. Why not? It wasn’t difficult. Nor was it time consuming. Every time I walked past the florist shop I thought to myself, “I must do that.” And yet I didn’t…not until the very last day of the competition.
So what had changed?
Why did I enter then? What changed? And no, it wasn’t that I had simply realised that I had nearly run out of time. That ‘sense of urgency’ that marketing people always say you need for special offers had nothing to do with it. In fact, the day that I did enter I had been standing in the queue at the check out of the supermarket, looking at a particularly beautiful sign advertising the competition. “Last chance!” it said. I stood there, thinking to myself, “I must do that.” Then it was my turn at the checkout. I paid for my groceries and started making my way back to the car, past the florist, as always. As I did so, a lovely young lady handed me a chocolate heart and smiled.
“Oh, thank you!” I said.
“Did you spend more than $100 at the supermarket today?”
I laughed. “When do I ever not?”
“It’s a bit like that,” she said. “Did you know you could win flowers for a year? It’s really easy. What’s your name?”
And she went on to fill out the form for me on the spot. Entry done. Had she not been there I would have gone to my car and gone home. The competition would have closed. I would not have entered, and the florist would not have had my details in their database.
So what has that story got to do with your business?
Have you ever run a competition to try to engage your target clients? To build your database? I have, and with very little success, I must say, even though the prizes up for grabs each time have been incredible, much like free flowers for a year delivered to your door. Maybe people had meant to enter my competitions. Maybe they even really wanted to win…. but perhaps they just hadn’t quite gotten around to it. Maybe I needed to find a way of making it easier them. Here’s what I took away from my experience:
Well… I didn’t win any free flowers, but I did learn a lot. Maybe next time I want people to enter a competition or sign up to my newsletter I’ll ask myself:
What about you? Do you run a small business? Tell me, what’s worked for you in the past as a way of building genuine customer engagement?
EDITED TO ADD: Well, that competition was way back in February… and I have not heard from the florist at all. Nope! Not at all. Not even a newsletter! What a waste! They had the perfect opportunity to contact me straight after the winner was drawn to say something like, “We’re so sad that not all of you could win that we’ve decided to give you all something anyway. Enjoy this gift certificate to our store.” You can bet that would have gotten me through their door the next time I did the groceries…. So here’s my final tip:
