Photo Marketing Done Right Hits The Target Dead Center!
I often say that photography marketing is the “engine” of your photography business, because it absolutely is. If you mess up the marketing, your photo business goes nowhere. If you are smart about your photo marketing, you will grow and prosper – regardless of the economy, the competition or where you are located!
Here’s 4 little known photography marketing secrets that will help you build your business success. They certainly have mine:
Photo Marketing Secret #1: Never depend on word of mouth – it’s not enough. It certainly is true that one of the best forms of advertising is to have someone tell a friend about you and how “great” you are. But here’s the problem: There isn’t enough of this going on to make you any serious money. So do NOT depend on this to sustain your business. It can HELP your photo marketing, yes, of course, but do NOT depend on it to build a successful photography business all by itself!
Photo Marketing Secret #2: Don’t market too big – pick a target market and go after that with a passion. Most photographers really screw this up – by not doing it at all. When it comes to photography marketing, professional photographers are famous for thinking that “everyone” is their target market. “If they have a pulse, they are a prospect” they think. This is a huge marketing mistake.
You see, most of us professional photographers don’t have a huge marketing budget. So it’s very important to pick and choose carefully who it is you want to work with, and then concentrate on getting to them, and them only.
For example: My target market is: “Warm Fuzzy Females Who Value What I do.” By “Warm Fuzzy” I mean those type of people who are right brain dominant, who are extremely emotional, romantic, sensitive, and excited about emotionally sensitive photography and what it can say for them.
Photo Marketing Secret #3: Set a specific budget – almost no photographer does this and it’s a big mistake. You MUST determine how much money you are willing to invest to “buy” clients this year. That’s what you’re doing – you’re “buying” them. So how much should you pay? It’s different for each photography business, depending on what your capital situation is. But a good starting point is to take between 5% and 7% of your PROJECTED GROSS SALES for the upcoming 12 months. This at least gets you started with budgeting.
Photo Marketing Secret #4: Exhibit your photography around your community – and exhibit the types of photography you want to do. And you do NOT need to pay money for these exhibits. I have written other articles and will write more on this – but for here, just let me say that you can get free exhibits of your photography all over your town – in malls, movie theaters, restaurants, hair salons, office buildings, and many other locations. It works – and works GREAT. I’m living proof of it!
How do you get them? By showing the location how THEY WILL BENEFIT by displaying your photography in their establishment. And how will they benefit? Because you will go back to the studio and call those people whose photos you just put up in their establishment, and those people will tell all their friends (because it’s a big, exciting thing to them!) So people all over town will be talking about that establishment – and it didn’t cost a cent for them! (It’s a MARKETING PLAN for the place where you exhibit your photographs! It will bring people into their establishment for FREE for them!)
These four little known secrets are the backbone to my photography marketing, and they will work well for you, too.
No go out there and TAKE ACTION on what I just shared with you! Taking action is the key to your photography marketing. You’ve got to do it, and do it now!
For more on Smart Photography Marketing That Works, click here: ==> Smart Photo Marketing
All the best!
Charles Lewis
