Queen Anne Victorian Mansion Vintage Wedding model #3…I apologize for not posting this last week, one of those weeks…but its here now and I hope you enjoy it. Every time I look at these models in these amazing vintage wedding dresses, I get all amped up! The entire day of shooting these local designer wedding dresses was so much fun…I have something in store for local brides and local designers here real soon…so be on the look out. For the time being, I hope you enjoy the images.

Portland Wedding Photographer | Queen Anne Victorian Mansion | brandon@brandonperron.com

Another Queen Anne Victorian Mansion Wedding Vintage Dress Fashion shoot…This is the 2nd model in the series of images that I am posting of my favs from that shoot.  Another great model and another great dress! It is so much fun shooting bridal fashion! I look forward to doing much more in the future!

Portland Wedding Photographer | Queen Anne Victorian Mansion | brandon@brandonperron.com

Thinking out Loud - Wedding & Portrait Photography Business Tips :: Knowledge Creates Creativity

“Where does creativity come from? I was once invited to Geneva, Switzerland, by Nestle if I could tell the company where creativity comes from. I asked all my creative friends and contacts that same question. Each had the same answer. It comes from knowledge. I realized, then spoke about, and tell you now: Creativity comes from knowledge. You must have knowledge of your own product or service, your competition, your target audience, your marketing arena, the economy, current events, and the trends of the time. With this knowledge, you’ll have what it takes to develop a creative marketing program, and you’ll produce creative marketing materials. ”
by Jay Conrad Levinson

I am willing to bet that as soon as you saw creativity, you went right to how you take photos…but remember we are talking business and more specifically marketing…but you can also relate this to how you shoot…real quick example…what have you noticed from the time you first picked up your camera to now? You have gained more knowledge about it and what has that allowed you to do…be more creative…you have learned fstops and figured out DOF, so you can use a really shallow DOF to create a certain feel. You have learned exp. so you can create a high key image to create a feel. Knowledge allows creativity to mature. I am not saying simply knowing how to work a camera, gives you a creative sense, there is a creativity that comes from inside, but knowledge furthers that even more. Ok, now relating it to business: In order for you to be creative you need to know all the things listed above…You need to know your service and how it relates to your clients, so you can market to them…alot of people are on FB now, so photographers are not just tagging them on FB, but also giving them a disk with the blog images on it and calling it a FB CD, so they can put it up on FB and show everyone. Maybe your clients are very high end and love boutiques, so instead of advertising at the local bridal show, you work out a deal with a local clothing boutique…to allow you to place some information in their store…you must have knowledge to create an effective marketing plan…

Do you have knowledge in order to create an effective marketing plan? Or are you flying by the seat of your pants and throwing everything you can at the wall and hoping it sticks?

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson(Author)

Paperback: 384 pagesPublisher: Mariner Books; 4 Upd Exp edition (May 22, 2007)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618785914
ISBN-13: 978-0618785919

(again please read my disclaimer on this, that I AM NOT AN EXPERT and the reason for me doing this…if you have not already)

Portland Wedding Photographer brandon@brandonperron.com

Thinking Out Loud - Commitment to a Plan

…commitment. I hate admitting this in print but medicore marketing with commitment works better then brilliant marketing without commitment. What makes marketing work? If you were looking for a one-word answer to that question, that word is commitment.
by Jay Conrad Levinson(Author)

Oh snap! mediocre marketing with commitment is better then brilliant marketing with no commitment…that just sounds crazy. Maybe, there is something to it…I think to often we are so hell bent on finding that magic bullet, that we get an idea and implement it, but after a very short time, we abandon it, because we are not seeing huge results. We move on to the next so quickly, with out riding our current plan to see what happens. This is scary thought, because we must lay out a marketing plan and give it time to work…but what is the thing we have the least of when trying to stay afloat running a small business, TIME, right?

I do not see it that way…what I see is that if mediocre marketing with commitment works better then brilliant marketing with no commitment, that means that I have a much bigger shot coming up with some sort of marketing plan and having the room for it to not be as good as it could be, but still achieve good results. That’s awesome! This does not mean that we can not refine our marketing plan after some time, but we need to give it time for it to work….while it is working, we can totally be collecting data and see what is working and what is not, and then make an informed decision on what needs to change and what can stay. Commit to your marketing plan and let it run a course, before you make changes…even in hindsight if it was mediocre, committing to it is more effective, then constantly changing it up…

Are you giving time for your marketing plan to work (mediocre or stellar)?

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson(Author)

Paperback: 384 pagesPublisher: Mariner Books; 4 Upd Exp edition (May 22, 2007)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618785914
ISBN-13: 978-0618785919

(again please read my disclaimer on this, that I AM NOT AN EXPERT and the reason for me doing this…if you have not already)

Portland Portrait Photographer brandon@brandonperron.com

This is the first set of images from the Queen Anne Victorian Mansion Wedding shoot that I took part in. Like I said in the post that was a photo tease for this, I would post up more images each week of each different model. Being a wedding photographer I eat this stuff up and was thrilled to be a part of it. It was super vintage and super cool, the models were amazing and great to work with through out the entire day. I think this place would be a great Portland wedding venue to get married at. I guess there is not to much more to write, but a big thank you to the models, make up artists, hair stylist, 58 up productions, and the Queen Anne Victorian Mansion.

Portland Wedding Photographer | Queen Anne Victorian Mansion | brandon@brandonperron.com

Thinking Out Loud - Marketing Plan

Your business may not need to advertise, but it will need a marketing plan. Word of mouth may be so favorable and spread so rapidly that you venture can reap a fortune simply from it. If this is the case, the word of mouth was most likely motivated by an effective marketing stratgey. In fact, a strong word-of-mouth campaign is part of marketing. And so are business cards, stationary, hours of operation and the clothes you wear. Location is also important in marketing, though it is becoming more and more apparent the best location is online. (Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson)

I wanted to focus specifically on this part…because it really shows that everything you do is part of a marketing plan. I think so many people, think of a marketing plan as big budget ads that are placed everywhere…and while that is one way of a marketing plan, there are so many more. A lot of the big hitters in our industry talk about, its all about word-of-mouth and I think most brush that off as; people just talk and that is it…I think thats a huge misconception at least it was for me. I always thought word-of-mouth just happened, people just talked, but what I have learned is that WOM usually needs encouragement and that comes from us…it needs to be suttle, but it really helps if we kind of push it along. I am not saying all word of mouth needs a small nudge, but it is extremely helpful. I also wanted to point out that its everything you do, not matter how small it is…Like I have mentioned before, I suttley tell everyone that inquires that I am photographer and what kind I am, I have booked clients in a car repair waiting area…just because they gave me permission to tell them what I do, by asking…and to dig really deep into it and my plan of attack…was to let them ask all the questions. They asked what I do and I told them and kind of left it alone and asked them what they did and it came back to me and then went deeper and deeper until they asked for my card. My marketing plan at that point was to let them know as much as they wanted…If my plan was as soon as they asked, I pulled out a business card and handed it to them, I do not think it would have been nearly as effective…its all in the little things you and how you plan them out…like what Jay says…your biz card, your stationary, your clothes…its everything, not just dollars spent on ads… Think about everything you do from small to big and see how it fits into your overall marketing plan and how you can make you micro-marketing plan for that specific detail.

Are you making sure even the smallest things are thought and calculated as your marketing plan?

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson President (Author)

Paperback: 384 pagesPublisher: Mariner Books; 4 Upd Exp edition (May 22, 2007)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618785914
ISBN-13: 978-0618785919

(again please read my disclaimer on this, that I AM NOT AN EXPERT and the reason for me doing this…if you have not already)

Portland wedding Photographer brandon@brandonperron.com

Thinking Out Loud - Wedding Photography Tips and Portrait Photography Tips for Businesses

A bookstore owner had the misfortune of being located between two enormous book selling competitors. One day, this bookstore owner came to work to see that the competitor on his right had unfurled a huge banner: “Moster Anniversary Sale! Prices salshed %50!” The banner was larger then his entire storefront. Worse yet the competitor on the left of his store had unveiled an even larger banner: “Gigantic Clearance Sale! Prices reduced by 60%! Again, the banner dwarfed his storefront. What was the owner of the little bookstore in the middle to do?

(Take a moment and think, really hard, if you were this small bookstore owner what would you do? Please really take a moment before you read on and try to come up with a plan to keep people coming into your store…then I will finish what the author wrote.)

Being a guerrilla marketer, he created his own banner and hung it out front, simply saying “Main Entrance.”

DAMN! If that was your answer, I do not think you need to read anything I write I think you are on your way!

Now I am guessing that most of you did not come up with that plan…but its an amazing strategy. He could not compete with his competitors on the size of banner or on their sale…so he had to get creative to get customers in his door working with what he had. You may not be able to compete with your competition, but what can you do to beat them and get people in the door. How creative can you be with what you have? Instead of thinking you can not compete with them unless you just “yell” louder then they do, try thinking how you can talk with your potential clients and lead them into your doors instead of someone elses.

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your SmallBusiness (Paperback)

by Jay Conrad Levinson President (Author)

Paperback: 384 pagesPublisher: Mariner Books; 4 Upd Exp edition (May 22, 2007)

Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618785914
ISBN-13: 978-0618785919

(again please read my disclaimer on this, that I AM NOT AN EXPERT and the reason for me doing this…if you have not already)

Portland and Seattle Wedding and portrait photography brandon@brandonperron.com