West Hartford, Conn. - Fewer cities were hit harder by the early
'90's economic recession than Hartford,
the insurance capital of the Northeast.
Oddly, one result of such economic misfortune
was a marked increase in the number of mobile
DJs, according to Sylvester Samuels, owner
of Atmosphere Productions in West Hartford.
"We
found that with the recession, the quality
DJs were still getting a lot of work, but
we also found that many of the laid-off
people started DJing to make ends meet,"
says Samuels, who has been operating in
the Hartford area since 1981. "We were getting
a lot of bottom feeders. I would bid a job
and get undercut $200 by someone who had
very poor equipment."
In response, a frustrated
Samuels allied himself with the upper echelon
of Connecticut's mobile DJ operators, hoping
the clientele would discover that a hierarchy
of professionalism existed in the region.
"In effect, the recession prompted me to
become a member of the Connecticut Professional
Disc Jockey Association," says Samuels,
who joined the organization in 1994 and
currently edits its newsletter [and is on
the Board of Directors]. "Now that the economy
is starting to pick up, we're finding a
lot of those "bottom-feeder" DJs are gone.
I've tracked Yellow Pages advertising for
years, and it has gone down about 50 percent
from what it was in the early 90's."
Samuels is unsure whether
that is a sign of improved economic times
or an indication that the disc jockey association
helped squeeze out some nonprofessionals.
Whatever the case, by joining an association
Samuels polished the quality of his marketing
efforts and his performances.
"When I first started Atmosphere
Productions, I would run a few little advertisements
in local papers, I would hand out lots of
business cards to friends, and I would leave
cards in shopping centers and stores," says
Samuels, who started his company on a part-time
basis in 1981 and went full-time in 1986.
"Like most DJs" he says,
"I had always felt what I was doing was
the right thing, but later I joined the
DJ association and started going to the
International DJ Expo, I realized that there
was a lot of stuff that DJs were doing in
other markets that I could fine tune for
my market."
For his bridal clients -
more than 80 percent of Atmosphere Productions
gigs are wedding affairs - Samuels gets
a mailing list from various bridal shows
he attends, and direct mails every bride
on the list. "It's a twofold strategy,"
explains Samuels. "I send every name on
that list a "pre-mailer", which comes with
a perforated card that the potential client
can mail back, requesting further information
about my company. From those cards, I'll
mail a second package that has a full color
brochure, a fact sheet explaining my service,
and a couple of reference letters and a
business card."
Samuels says he gets more
than five percent response from the initial
mailing - quite a lot of new non referral
business, considering Samuels sends out
more than 3,000 pieces in a year. But most
of Samuels' business has come via word-of-mouth."
"Word of mouth is so very
important," he says. "When I'm at an event,
I make sure I talk to people. After the
event, I send out a survey form to the client.
I usually get about 75 percent of those
back, and I make it easy for the client:
With the survey I include a pen and a return
envelope. On the survey for, among other
things I ask the client if they can be used
as a referral contact - more than 50 percent
of my clients love to be contacted and say
a few good words about what I've done. When
I get these [surveys] back I put them into
a binder and I use that binder to sell myself
to the next client."
Seems to work, too. Samuels,
along with his partner George Gray, performed
at 300 parties [and other events] in 1995.
"I don't cold call anyone," says Samuels.
"I only use a small Yellow Pages listing
- a very small percentage of my bookings
are generated through the Yellow Pages.
In the old days, it's where people went
to find a DJ; now, there are marketing books
specifically for brides, such as The Wedding
Guide, and The I Do Book, and that's where
I find the quality clients."
Samuels, like many savvy
DJ companies, also finds quality leads at
the various bridal shows he attends throughout
the year. But Samuels goes one step further.
He organizes a small bridal fair networking
group. "I hook up two fellow vendors - a
still photographer and a videographer. We
each have our own booths, but we have them
placed right next to each other so we can
cross-pollinate referrals. We each have
a raffle giving away a certain aspect of
our services. The brides fill out a registration
ticket at the fair, and I'll go home, compile
those names and send them out to the other
two vendors. They, in turn, do the same.
Basically, we're all after the same clients,
and since 90 percent of the brides will
hire a photographer first, I can take advantage
of that contact."
The minute a bride books
a wedding with Atmosphere Productions, Samuels
goes to work. "Once they book with us,"
he begins, "they get what we call the Atmosphere
Productions Bridal Package. With that they
get a contract, an introductory form so
that they can fill in who's in the bridal
party for introductions, when the cake cutting
takes place, what the first dance song is,
a song list - one page has love songs, and
fun dance songs on the flip side. I ask
the couple to circle the songs they like,
and cross out what they don't want. And
they are free to attach a list of additional
songs. They also indicate how much involvement
they want at the party, and I give them
two choices: If you want it to be a fun
wedding, make sure you get involved with
the event and dance and have fun; if you
don't want to get involved that much, then
allow me to do it for you, and I will gauge
the audience. For that, they have to be
convinced of my professionalism and experience."
Samuels says that a basic
wedding package costs $625 (1996 price - current prices are higher) for five hours.
He also advises to build two amps into your
road case". If something happens to one
amp, I just hit a switch and the other goes
on. In this business, the fewer equipment
problems there are, the better you can concentrate
on the performance and the customer."
