getting into the Senior pictures market

Hey all,

I'm wanting to get into the Senior/graduation photography market but around

here the schools are tied in with international companies who are contracted

by the schools to shoot yearbook photos. Any thoughts on marketing or getting

started?

Thank you.

Yes. Find a more affluent group of customers than seniors and recent graduates. Corporate execs for instance.

Lora,

 

Where are you located? Where I am, not far from Bruce as I understand, there is NO senior market. Kids get their shots done by contracted local studios or large national studios, such as Lifetouch. They don't go for indepent, high-priced sessions as is done quite commonly in Ohio or Indiana, for instance. I'm not quite sure of the correlation, but it seems to me that people in more agrarian regions favor spending on senior sessions, while others make due with the regular school pictures.

There are two levels of senior portraits. The first, and lowest, is the mass production photos done by large companies with contracts with the schools as you describe. Anywhere except the very smallest schools, these are locked up by big national companies (I don't think international) and are very difficult to crack. The second, and higher market, is senior photos done totally independently of the school. You promote your studio's services to seniors via mail or other marketing and they come to you for pictures they can't get at school -- ones shot on location, ones with a variety of poses and props, ones where you spend an hour with each kid instead of two minutes. You don't do the same volume, but you don't have to because you're (hopefully) making several hundred dollars off each shoot. You can buy mailing lists of high school seniors. You can advertise in local papers, maybe even the school paper. Another technique is the "ambassador" approach where you shoot a few for some popular kids at the school for free, then give them a small proof book that they take around and show to their friends in return for the free photos. There are books on all of this, so check out amazon.com.

Thank you all for your advice! I believe I will check out the Ambassador approach. correction: National companies. I'm located

In South Carolina.

Thanks all!

<p>Does anyone you know have a teenager? Get it from the horse's mouth (what the kids like).</p>