- Take Photos & Video For Promo
- Going Above & Beyond
- Make More Money (Upsell)
- Get More Bookings
- Get More Reviews
I recommend getting a full-frame camera, whether its mirrorless or a DSLR, because you can shoot both photos and video with it.
Take Photos & Video For Promotional Use
Every DJ needs to market themselves. Why not take your own photos and video of your events and use it for promotional purposes? You’re already there making the magic happen. It just makes sense to document what you’re doing along the way.
I take photos of my events and share them on my Instagram page, which also gets shared on Facebook with just one extra click of a button. I’ll even upload some video clips to Youtube and other social media channels. The photos help make good images for your cover photos and website. And potential clients love seeing you on video because they get to see what you’re like beforehand.
One of the things I just recently started doing is shooting videos for a gig log, which is like a video blog for events I DJ. I’ve seen other DJs doing it on Youtube and they say they started getting booked by other DJs who subcontract events to them. I believe it! I can see why people will be more likely to book you when they see exactly how you do things.
Going Above & Beyond
I believe in going above and beyond for each client. It’s a good business practice. I learned it in Napolean Hills great book Think And Grow Rich. It’s one of his principles for success.
An easy way to go above and beyond for a client is to take free photos for them, especially if you already have a camera there to take photos to promote yourself.
Some times I’ll shoot Jpegs instead of a RAW file so that I don’t have to take the photos home and edit them. I can just upload them then. The downside is that sometimes I’ve caught great shots and wished I would have been shooting RAW. I can shoot both RAW and Jpeg at the same time, but then it’s getting slightly more complicated which isn’t a good thing when you’re adding free work to do for yourself. It’s nice having it being a simple process. Your less likely to postpone sharing it because you won’t have to wait until you import the photos, edit them, and then export them.
Make More Money
I’ve been charging people a minimal fee to record their event and make a video for them. Because I’m already there making money as the DJ, I don’t need to capitalize on the service charge for video. I offer them a great deal and a lot of them take me up on the offer. I make the deal so irresistable that it becomes a no-brainer for many people. After all, it’s really not that much work for me to put a camera on a tripod and record their wedding day.
Of course, the low budget video won’t be like the cinematic films people are paying thousands of dollar for. But for a few hundred bucks it’s affordable to many people. And it puts more money in your pocket.
Get More Bookings
I have closed deals just by simply telling them that I’ll take photos for them while I DJ. Again, most of the time I want to take photos to share online anyway. So why not use it as a selling point?
I’ve had a lot of people tell me that my price is too high, even higher than all the other quotes they got. But before I let them off of the phone I told them that I can take photos for them and their tune changed after that.
This tactic works well for low budget gigs where they would like a photographer but didn’t fit one into the budget. A good photographer will probably charge more than you’re charging to DJ so shooting some free professional photos really adds a lot of value to your service.
However, that’s not the only other way a camera can help you get more bookings. It may start getting you photography gigs too. You may start to love shooting photography and video.
Get More Reviews
If you do a great job you’ll get great reviews. Plain and simple. If you take free photos for someone, not only are they going to give you a better review, they’re going to be more likely to give you a review. Your great service will make your clients want to review you, but there’s even more to it than that.
After the gig you’ll have to get back in touch with your clients to give them the photos. I like to share them online and then send the clients the link. Then they can share it if they want to, which gives you free exposure to their friends and family.
When you email your clients after a gig you’re not just asking for a review. You’re giving them free photos. What better time to ask for a review? You can easily add links in the email to where they can review you. And since it’s easy to attach their photos to the email, I usually do that too.
One of the principles Robert Cialdini lays out in his book Influence is that when people are given something for free they’re more likely to reciprocate and do you a favor too, such as write you a review.