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Snapping their way to success
19 January 2021
We spoke to Mark Bailey from Olive Tree Photography in Warrington and were thrilled to hear about his success working with Larson-Juhl products.
Mark gave us a detailed background on Olive Tree’s beginnings in the industry. Originally starting off as just a photography studio, the business’s success has been impressive ever since and they are constantly continuing to grow. To start with, it was just Mark and his Emma, who is a trained framer, but as they became busier and busier they grew the business and eventually had three studios across the North of England.
Mark tells us: “We were servicing over 100 clients every single month and had a very big team to assist us with this, but we knew we needed to make some sort of change. We felt we were getting around 99% of clients’ requests spot on, but there was still that 1% that needed improvement.”
Due to this, the company decided to downsize back to one studio, in order to have everything back in one place and focus more on client needs. The downsize was a great success for Olive Tree, and resulted in the business seeing more sales from one studio compared to the previous three.
Mark states: “As we built the studio side of the business, we managed to sell a lot more wall art to those visiting, and this has helped to establish our studio focus and aid us in our plans for the future. My business partner Alisha Rogers has played a key role in all this – she is my absolute rock.
“We currently do all of our studio framing in-house, and the average piece we do is around a 30” sq frame with a multi-aperture mount, using Larson-Juhl mouldings for all of our work. We recently sought assistance from our Larson-Juhl rep Seb as we were looking to purchase a mount cutter, and Seb was a huge help in locating one.
“We knew there was a market for multi-aperture mounts as we found that it was not something many other studios offered, so this has been a brilliant addition to our services. We try to do as much as we can onsite, including all of the printing as well as supplying stretch canvases.”
The business currently carries out all of its sales through the studio, as clients come in to have their photoshoots and once the work is completed, they come back to the studio and are sold the wall art. When it comes to current marketing, Olive Tree use a variety of different channels: “When clients come in to collect their work we always give them a flyer with our website details, which we have found to be very helpful at spreading the word about our services and letting existing customers know about all of our other offerings.
“We also have a monthly WeTransfer subscription as this is how we send digital copies of our work to clients, and this allows us to advertise the company on the WeTransfer website whilst people are downloading their files. Digital marketing is a channel we are looking to expand, and have also found that Facebook advertising can be really helpful for getting our name out there and attracting new customers.”
When it comes to future plans, Olive Tree is currently working with a marketing company to help set up an online framing branch of the business, where customers can upload their images to the Olive Tree website and edit them ready to be framed by Mark and his team. Marks tells us: “This is something we have been working on since before the lockdown and have been conscious not to rush the process, so have worked with developers to iron out any hiccups in the customer experience before we go live with the new site.”
We were thrilled to hear that Olive Tree use Larson-Juhl products for all of their work, with Mark stating: “Our favourite range is Lincoln, which we have found to be incredibly popular amongst our clients, and I love how easy it is to put together and the vast range of colours it is available in. Our rep Seb has really looked after us and has played a significant part in our move to all Larson-Juhl products.”
To see more of the Olive Tree’s work, find them on Facebook @olivetreestudiosltd, or visit the website.
www.olivetreestudios.co.uk
