While I was building Shinn Photo, I had a question. It was a question that I never answered in the original business plan, and it was an important one: “Why should anyone use your service? What makes you different than other photographers?” I had to fill in the blank, so I said something useless about artistic, high-quality photos. But in my heart, the question remained unanswered. Whenever I try to write marketing copy, this question rears its head again. I hate writing things like, “Shinn Photo is the best!” They ring hollow and sound like echo-y bragging.
7 years later, the answer has finally emerged. Like many meaningful answers, it came as the result of a journey, not as a sudden flash of obvious epiphany. Here’s what I learned:
Two things are important. Both of them have to do with our clients, not our company.
- We tell authentic stories. All of our clients are real people, and it’s totally possible to tell profound visual stories about real people. Real doesn’t mean ordinary; it means that you have to see the world with eyes of wonder to appreciate the beauty in front of you. Someone recently told us, “I like the first session [the consultation] where I felt like they got to know who I was, and what I was interested in. It was more personable than I ever expected.” Another person told us, “We liked the personal feel of each picture.” That’s the best validation I can imagine.
- We make product that fit into our clients’ lives. We’ve done a lot of thinking about how people actually use pictures. We don’t want to make great images and have them end up in a shoebox under someone’s bed. That’s why we sit down with our clients and start to think with them about how to use their portraits before they’re even taken. Our goal isn’t to add value to the photos; it’s to add utility. It’s better to buy one product that will fit into your life than three useless ones!
You can frame these two priorities in many ways. One of my favorites is the art | craft dichotomy. Our art flows from the time we take to care about people: personal art. Our craftsmanship is evident in the products we make, and the places they end up.
I know this is a lot of text, and if you’ve made it this far, leave a comment below to let me know. Thanks for reading!
