Senior Reps, pt 2

Wow, this has been a much anticipated post ... and long-awaited.
Missed part 1? See it here!


How do I do things? My program is benefit rich. As I've said before, I give a lot to my senior reps... but they give even more back to me.


Basics: They get free sessions. They get cool tools to use both online and offline and something for mom to show, too. They earn credit and bonuses. They don't have to order until spring of their senior year, but are offered an early order bonus. They have a group on Facebook, have very few requirements and I keep the lines of communication as open as possible. They do pay to take part in the program (but it is used as credit towards their order if they actively participate). 


Reps usually come from recommendations from former reps or clients. When building a new rep program, I get referrals from school counselors, youth pastors, current clients, the blog and Facebook. I like to use Facebook ads to promote during the recruiting time. 


Reps go through an interview process. I call each rep and ask them specific questions designed to tell me if they're a good fit for the program. If they are, I set up an in person, group style orientation. If not, I refer them to a website that has further questions. 


Once they're invited to the orientation, I send them a welcome packet with a quick overview of the program plus a handwritten note with confirmation of their time and date. Parents are encouraged to attend this, as orientation is when they actually enroll and forms/money will need to be signed and exchange hands. 


At orientation, I do a presentation of slides and talk about the program in depth. It is very interactive and fun, with snacks and samples and lots of great information for them. I also take plenty of time to answer any questions. 


If they choose to enroll (and over 90% do), they schedule their session and let me know which brand training they can attend, pay their rep fee, and get their Guidebook.


As a Senior Rep they get some awesome freebies, like a Rep In/Out Studio Session, Stylized On Location Session, Sibling Session, Family Session, Update Session (spring of sr year), Prom Session, Spirit Session, and Grad DVD. 


I know, it seems like a LOT of free sessions. Only one is required (the Rep In/Out) and the rest are optional. Not every rep takes advantage of every session, and only about half do more than 1. These aren't all at once, and they are spread out over the course of the time they are a Rep. There are black out times when their free sessions aren't able to be scheduled (busy season).

The more you can keep new images filtered in for the rep, the more excitement builds, and the more they have to show off and share (and eventually, the more they order from).

They get a lot of tools to get their images in front of other people. They get a portfolio book from their main session and mini portfolio books from any of the optional ones they do alone. They get 70 printed referral cards (to start, more available at any time) with an image of their choice. They get a digital kit that includes a digital referral card, a video short (Animoto style) and a video montage of recent seniors images. They get a photo from their session posted on FB monthly where they are tagged, and they are tagged to all promo images or notes online as well. They also take part in a Rep Sale.

I keep reps in the loop by using a Secret Facebook Group, monthly newsletters, and updates. Every week I send them an email of how many people have mentioned them as their referrer, and every two weeks I send an update of their credit. Credit is only earned once the referral is photographed. 

Rep images are featured on the FB page, the website, the blog, mailers, email advertising and as samples.

They can earn credit in over 20 ways. I try to make up new ways to earn credit every month, so there is a lot of variety and something that appeals to everyone. Credit is in the form of print credit or free products, and ways range from referrals to assisting at shoots. I offer bonus levels at increments for referrals. 

They are required to pay the Rep fee (I sponsor 1-2 per year for hardship cases), turn in an email list of kids from their senior class they think would be most interested in our work, to participate in the rep sale, abide by copyright laws, tag photos and share photos and posts, and allow images to be used unconditionally. They are required to also attend brand training. There are no minimum requirements for the number of referrals. 

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This is an overview of how I do things. If you need any clarification on any of this, comment below. 

If this sounds like a good fit for you, contact me about a Custom Rep Program just for your business. 

Senior Reps, pt.1

So, you may have noticed that I titled this post with a part number. I do anticipate this to be a series of posts regarding the program that I've found to be successful.  Here in part 1, I want to talk about Defining a Rep Program, Goals and Planning.

Disclaimer: This is what I would do, how I would run my program. Feel free to tweak it, or even disagree with me. This is what has worked for me. 

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Reality Check #1: I will be the first to tell you, a successful Rep program can be extremely time consuming. At the very minimum, you will need to spend an hour a day on it during busy season, and more in slow season.  Recruiting, securing, training and photographing your Reps is a full-time job. If you cannot commit the time to do this, please find an intern or hire someone to help you. It will pay for itself.

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What you believe about Reps is the very first thing you need to address when you're planning your Rep program. So many photographers see these teens as their means to an end. They think of Reps as their key clients and that you want to make sure you don't give them too much stuff or they won't spend anything. 

WRONG. Want to truly define a Rep program that will pay off? You have to realize that the point of a Rep program is create controlled word-of-mouth experiential marketing placed strategically within your market reach IN ORDER TO BRING IN REFERRALS.  These are those awesome branding interns that are out there in real time (think of them as living, breathing social media) ... they are a means to an end.

Referrals are your key clients. You just have to trust that you can build a program to recruit the right kind of Reps, so they bring in the clients that can support your business. This lets you spoil your reps - they're out there working hard, shouldn't they be rewarded?

Let me tell you why I believe this. With the hundreds of Reps I've worked with, the biggest thing they need to know and feel is that they matter. That this is exclusive. That they've been chosen for this program because you believe in them. They need you to keep them interested and energized. 

So what's in it for them? They need to know that if they're going to put in effort (even intangible effort), they're going to be recognized for it. They need to know that you're not just going to photograph them, hand them a stack of referral cards, and send them out the door saying "bring in 5 people to me who spend x amount, or you don't get anything else from us"... and then not hear from you again until you want them to place an order. 

BRAND OUCH. Yet, so many photographers do exactly that. 

Your Reps are your brand. You would spoil, invest in, pamper and spend a lot of time on your brand. Right? (I am imagining you saying yes here. I would really hope no one would actually say no)

Define your Rep program as a part of your brand and not a part of your income. Define your Reps as Brand Ambassadors and not as dollar signs. Besides, you're gonna build such an awesome Rep program, all the people they refer will be enough to support your business. The Rep orders will just be icing on the cake :)

Now that you've defined your program, its time to set Goals. When you start to think about your program, think about how many schools are in your market, the amount of time it will take to complete your parts of the program, and how many referrals you can take on the highest end of the spectrum and still have a real life. With your family and friends ... sans camera. Think about the students you will want to have involved. 

For the schools you want to target, plan on having no more than 1 rep for every 50 students enrolled. Many programs can do well with 1 per every 100. The goal here is to balance saturation. Try to recruit students that have varied friend groups within the school and their outside activities. A school with 400 enrollment should have 4-5 reps. 

You'll need to plan time for phone call interviews, in person interviews (and program enrollment), brand training, photographing their rep session, showing them their images and giving them their tools, sending out newsletters and idea emails, keeping in touch and answering questions, keeping track of and informing them of credit earned, follow up throughout the program for self-checks and assistance, and eventually orders. That's the bare minimum involvement I would recommend. 

How many referrals would mean how many kids can you realistically photograph during your season. Don't over-recruit and end up being unable to book referrals from excited reps. Know your limits. How many referrals will you expect from each Rep in your program? How will you monitor that and enforce it? (I don't recommend requiring a certain number of referrals. I find the less pressure, the higher percentage of reps that refer. Seriously -- this one change took a rep program from 22% participation to 95% in ONE season). 

Figure out your target Rep. Are they involved at school? What about outside of school? What traits should they have? What kind of personality and interaction level? Are they influential? Are they involved online? Also define what kind of Rep you don't want. What doesn't represent your brand at it's best? Don't just take anyone who's interested and has a heartbeat. Someone who lives your brand authentically will do your brand a better service than someone who just came to you for the "free" session. 

Now that you have all that in mind, you can start Planning your program. We will go into this part in a lot more detail further in this series, but I did want to touch on it now. Having a good plan in place is essential. 

It is almost impossible to say "Hey, I want to run a Rep program" and then launch it a few weeks later and have it be crazy successful. Take your time. Plan for everything you can think of. 

Try to discover the loopholes, the questions, what feels right for you, what you love. Start planning now, and launch it next year. You'll be glad you waited and made sure you had everything in place.

Who's ready to see how I do things?

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... more to come soon, watch for pt. 2 ...

Mommies Make the Best Marketers!

For me, the SpokesMom program is pretty simple.

As with any referral program, always remember not to give away the farm (in other words, not too much credit given for any one activity). Remember, when giving referral credit, it should be less than the lowest priced gift print, so they need to refer more than one person to get something "free" from the credit they've earned.


The perks I run are:

• Free modeling session for advertising use (this is the super creative one, photographer vision lead, not catered to the client themselves)
• Free Sessions (2 kids sessions and 1 family session)
• 20% off every order, or 10% of the value of previous order in credit towards your next order (whichever is greater)
• Free 4x5 magnet from every session
• Facebook album from each session, which they can share, but not edit or distribute in any other way
• $25 for every referral that books
• $15 for every networking lead above their 3 required
• A mommy themed item of their choice (tote, water bottle, necklace or t-shirt)

They get a preview book from the modeling session (proof level, so minimal retouch, watermarked images, and bound. 5x7 size
They get referral cards to hand out with their favorite image from the session. It gets the recipient a free facebook image, and 8 free wallets, plus 50% off their first session (new clients only).

They have to:

• Allow use of the images for advertising
• Write a review about the studio/photographer
• Secure at least 3 network leads in the area 
• Provide the email addresses of 30 mommys they know in the local area that would be likely to come to you
• Post once a month about the studio, with their digital referral card as their profile pic

Yes, its a lot of freebies, but like I've said before, a referral program is an intentional loss leader. It's the best way to get word of mouth you can count on.


I add a lot of things here and there, but this is the basic overview. Keep an eye out, I'll be posting some of the materials soon!

It's a Rep Sale!

Ok, so here goes. The "Rep 10-hour Sale". (I avoid using One Day Sale in any marketing/advertising. A big name retailer uses it and it now draws only those looking for brand name at garage sale prices - not the kind of clients we want, right?).

First, contact all your reps and find out when most of their friends are online or see FB. You only need a day, not the hours. Choose the most popular day. Give yourself at least a week to prep so you can email blast, prep your reps and they can hype it up to their friends.

How it works – Each rep chooses an image from the ones you've provided them (even better if it's a digital version of their rep card). It has to stay as their profile pic during the entire day. It has to have your logo on it (no cropping it out). They also change their status to your marketing message for the day.

Then they post the marketing picture (you provide this – a nice jpg with pictures and info about the special), and they share it/tag friends with all their friends on their page that are seniors within your target market. They also post a note with the marketing message you've sent them and share it with their friends as well (with a link to your Facebook page)

Note: Everything is about Urgent Call to Action. But don't sound sales-y.

The special I run is usually 50% off the session fee (more than the studio's current discount for regular clients, so they feel special), and 1 free Facebook image plus 16 wallets (this is what they get from the rep card anyways) if they call today, mention the 10 hour sale and book their session (pay their session fee). Depending on how much response I want, sometimes I do 3 Facebook images instead of 1.

Reps then earn a free sibling session for taking part in the promo (you can do credit or points, its up to you. The free session averages $500 sales when I use it). They also earn double credit for each referral that day only (huge call to action for them, and it pays off) … plus they can earn another Facebook image. Keep in mind, they don't get credit until the person is photographed.

A Facebook Status Messages for Reps: “Class of 2012 friends – I got my senior portraits done! Have you? I had the best experience ever, because I went to ________. Just for knowing me, they'll give you 50% off your session and a bunch of free stuff, but you have to call by 5pm today! Don't forget to tell them _______ told you to call!”

They can re-word it a little, but you need to approve it before they do. They should have their status message to you by the day before if they want to change it up so you can say yes or no.

Your image should include all of the sale info – details about session fees, when they have to call by, your facebook and webpage, etc.

Also let your reps know, if their friends leave a comment on your page during the week before, both that friend and the rep will be entered in a drawing for some great prizes (think free wallets, $10 iTunes gift card, etc). Hold the drawing every hour on the day of the sale and post winners – they have to be a fan to win.

The reps can compete against eachother as well, the rep that gets the most referrals booked that day wins a prize, too!

Then, be prepared for phone calls from an hour before the sale to a couple of hours after. :)