A Photographer’s Best Kept Secret to Keep Customers Coming Back

A ton of factors will make your photography business successful, but there’s one secret to ensuring that your customers will keep coming back – for headshots, candid photos, children’s photos, family celebrations, and more – and it’s the custom USB.

That’s because as a great photographer you have to do more than just take great pics. You must also know how to market your business and make your customers glad they chose you. Repeat customers not only mean more revenue, but satisfied, loyal customers are your best marketing tool. They play a valuable role in helping to spread the word about your business.

Outdated Marketing Tactics

Offering print-only services or DVDs is a thing of the past! While some clients may choose to purchase printed pictures, the digital landscape has led to an explosion of picture-printing services. Some of them are very affordable and don’t skimp on quality, either. Some of your customers may splurge on printed pictures, but many are just looking for digital copies and perhaps a few prints for an album.

As the younger generations become part of your clientele, expect many of them to request all-digital albums. With effective, clever marketing techniques like delivering images on a personalized flash drive, you’ll be giving customers what they want – digital copies of their pictures – on a useful device that they’ll keep around for a long time. With the USB in hand, they will remember your valuable photography services, every time they use it.

Why USBs?

Promotional products are a savvy way to market your photography business, or any business for that matter. Consumers that receive a promotional product – like a custom USB that holds photos – pass it along, sharing it with others at a rate of 36 percent.^[i]

This valued advertising medium really works, and is sure to help your photography business keep customers coming back. Research shows that 80 percent of consumers own a promotional product – some own even more than one – keeping these items for longer than a year. But, only if they’re useful.

It goes without saying that a customized flash drive can be very practical. They’re an easy way to share digital content and back up highly valuable content, like wedding pictures, baby photographs, and vacation memories. Today’s consumers stream so much video and music content that data is becoming a precious commodity. A custom USB allows your customers to conserve the already limited space on their cloud-based services.

But, Wait… There’s More!

Custom flash drives are not expensive. You can work with a custom USB company to design the device. With the artwork and concept on file, all you need to do is simply place an order one time, and then simply reorder your USBs when you start running out.

The investment you make in a USB translates directly to increased brand awareness. Get your logo emblazoned on a USB and ensure that your website, print materials, and business card branding all align.

For a truly one-of-a-kind item, unleash your creativity on the design of your flash drive; consider a custom USB that replicates a film canister, camera, or some other clever reminder of your brand. These types of custom USBs are highly memorable and impactful.

It’s possible to add packaging options to your custom USB order as well. Go with packaging that enhances your branding, and drive the value of your business even further. Imagine the impression your specially boxed, personalized USB will make on your customer.

Other Options

Before you select a custom USB, you’ll have to make a few key decisions. The size of the USB is one of the more important selections. Choose a size that’s too small, and you won’t be able to fit all of the pics onto the device, minimizing its impact on your business. Choose a size that’s too big, and you’ll be paying for storage space that you don’t need.

One way to determine the size of a device that would suit your needs is to review your past digital files. Consider the types of events that you do the most. Are they weddings? Family portraits? Action shots? Choose the largest events that you do, for instance weddings, and then review those files to assess the average memory capacity you’ll need.

The size and quality of the photos you take plays a big part in choosing memory. But, in most cases a 4GB memory size should suffice; however, you may want to go with an 8GB device to be on the safe side. DVDs and printed photos are quickly becoming a thing of the past. A single DVD can hold no more than 4.7 GB of photos, and takes a much longer time to burn, than to drag files onto a flash drive. Don’t rely on outdated technology to power your business, or your marketing.

Entice the younger generations who consider swiping through digital photographs to be as much fun as the older generations do looking through prints. Your marketing methods should speak to the widest possible audience and your branding needs to come through, loud and clear, on every marketing touch point. From business card to website, to custom USB, branding will entice customers to use your photography services for every memorable moment of life.

With the right tools powering your business, your customers will become loyal advocates for your brand and spread the good word about your services far and wide. What more could a dedicated photographer ask for? One tool, the custom USB – pulling double duty; acting as a digital photograph delivery device and a marketing message, all at the same time. These handy devices will keep your customers coming back. What are you waiting for? Toss the blank DVDs and get with the times. Custom USBs are where it’s at!

Click here to browse more USB Flash Drives for Photographers.