Sandra J. Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

For decades, mail order catalogs have sold goods from pictures.  Web and auction sites do the same thing.  But print photos can also play a major role in marketing your goods in the brick and mortar world.

Think about bringing a photo album of wedding jewelry to your first meeting with a bride.  List the price range of the pieces on the page with the collection.  You could sort the pictures by looks (e.g. crystals together, then pearls) or by price range.  The bride can flip through the photos and choose a look in a specific price range from your photos.  These photo albums can also be left at agreeable florists or bridal stores to solicit orders or phone calls.

You could contact a baker, florist and gown shop.  Each of you could put pictures in an album.  Voila you have each become a one stop source for the bride.  As you all proudly display your album in your places of business (meeting in the bride's living room constitutes a place of business), you are quadrupling your lists of potential customers.  Be sure to exchange business cards so the prospective bride can take your 'photo partners' cards with her.  If she expresses interest in a floral arrangement, ask if you can have that florist contact her.  Pass on the lead. 

Bridal consultants are not the only designers who can use photo albums to their advantage.  If you take custom orders, bring pictures of past designs to your shows.   Lend your next home party hostess a photo album to show to her friends.  You may get orders from those who can't attend the party.  It's a whole lot easier and  cheaper to put together a portable album than to print a catalog.  In fact, you can make yourself a portable brag book and carry it all the time.  That way, you can whip out pictures of your work at a moment's notice.

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