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Monthly Archives: January 2010
I got some questions about how to get displays to work for you. One photographer said she feels like ponying up $800 for a display and getting zero return is just not working. I know of a lovely local who ponied up over $10,000 for fancy marketing brochures. She keeps them in the basement of her storefront because they were too expensive to give out to just anyone…
How do you minimize your marketing investment while maximizing your impact?
Make good use of graphic design.
Grab a marketing brochure template from Design Aglow or Sarah Q, then customize it a touch to include your branding elements. Switching out a background and a font will go a long way toward helping your brand stand out without hurting your potential client’s eyes or insulting their design sensibilities.
Simplify your message.
If you’ve mastered Marketing School, use your brochure to outline your unique selling proposition and your company’s features and benefits. That’s it. No pricing menu — too overwhelming. No specials or time-sensitive promos — you’ll have to throw away brochures, for sure.
Find a vendor to produce reliable, cost-effective results.
Sure, 25 5×5″ metallic postcards from WHCC are stunning — but at over $1 each, they don’t provide enough information about the business for the cost. I recently got 1,000 8-page brochures printed on recycled paper stock from Got Print for less than $500. The same brochures from other vendors are twice as much, while old-school catalogs from BellaGraphica are about $4 each.
When it comes to displays, rely on collages to sell your work.
A single 20×30″ canvas featuring your favorite four to six images and logo will go a long way toward selling your work. Buying 6 20×30″ canvases for a space is going to put you back $600-$800, a costly solution when you plan to change the images out every four to six months.
If canvas isn’t your thing, feature a large(ish) framed print.
Not a custom-framed print. Just a 16×20″ print in a frame that costs less than $50. Hit up a thrift store for an antique frame or spray paint one from your basement. Troll the aisles of Target until the perfect frame pops into your cart. Get creative without breaking the bank.
Potential clients passing by your work won’t be looking at the frame, they’ll be looking at the image. Save the custom framed samples and corners for your studio or your in-home sales sessions.
Not The Secret, as in the book that sold millions of copies. The secret to marketing your photography business locally.
Get out there and meet business owners with access to your target market.
Last week, I asked a lovely business owner to meet with me about marketing and cross-promoting one another’s businesses. Turns out she had already picked a marketing meeting time and place with another local business owner, so she just invited me along. Two hours and $12 worth of lattes later, I walked away with not one, not two, but THREE new displays for my photography.
I suggested putting displays in the dressing rooms of the boutique Liz owns, but she says no one would pay attention to those — why not put an album in her lounge area where those waiting for their friends to change often sit?
Brilliant!
I mentioned my pet promotion to raise money for Haiti, and Amanda piped up that she also owns a BMW dealership, and would I like to photograph her dog in a BMW or two? How about a display in her other business, a gift boutique?
Brilliant x 2!
While we were talking, Liz recommended the salon across the street, and said the hairdresser is both amazing AND she’s a new Mom. Guess where I made my appointment for this Saturday? And guess where I’m aiming to get my next business display?
You guessed it. The salon.
Think outside of the traditional display locations — children’s boutiques, wedding gown shops, etc — and make contact with business owners who have access to your target market. Your next clients need to know about your business to buy anything from you – and it makes no difference if they find out about your work while buying pet food, pashminas, or posh cars.
Tips for finding the right businesses to partner with:
Brick and mortar store owners are more motivated than those with no overhead to cover.
The person who teaches yoga 2x a week at the YMCA to make an extra $50 is not as effective a business partner as the woman who has to cover $2,500 per month in rent and additional thousands to meet employee payroll.
Think locally. Target locally.
I’m targeting businesses on the same block as my portrait loft — and then I’ll spread to a few blocks, and finally the whole zip code. Legitimacy is established for your brand each time a consumer comes into contact with it — and if that’s three times while they’re walking the dog through the neighborhood, you’re going to be legitimate rather quickly in their brain.
Ask business owners what works best for their clients.
I had an idea for each business I was meeting with, but the business owners’ ideas for their respective stores were much better than my plans. Listen to the people who know the business best.
Be willing to tell the truth. Expect the same in return.
Finding people who are willing to tell you whether business is up or down, whether they’re having trouble finding new clients or whether they love the local business association will do you a lot of good. Honesty and good karma go a long way in business partnerships.
Walk away from those people who aren’t right for your business.
You have to be willing to throw up your hands and say it just isn’t going to work. Whether a business owner is disrespecting your time, talking down to you, lying, or generally acting shady, walk when your guts tell you to.
Most importantly, make sure you outline the benefits of working with your business.
Agree to buy gift certificates for each referral a business gives, straight up pay cash as a finder’s fee, or provide free/reduced-cost services to the business owner in exchange for display privileges. Make sure the business owner can see the clear benefits of promoting your business.
Do a bit of work in the public relations department for the other business, too! Hold an event that features the other business, blog about the business and its unique assets, or send an e-mail newsletter dedicated to touting the other business’ merchandise. Make it work!
Many of the questions you all submitted to me for marketing week here on the Brand Camp blog are answered in Naomi Dunford’s Marketing School, so I’ve moved this review up in the week’s schedule. Reading Marketing School (a PDF, weighing in at 82 pages) rocked my (Ittybiz) world. It made me make a plan. It made me reassess my marketing efforts, particularly my business copy and the way I present myself to potential clients.
Why buy Marketing School?
- You already know the goodness that is Naomi Dunford, who brought us SEO School. If you enjoy this blog and are down with the combination of funny + learning, you will enjoy reading Marketing School. (Can’t tell you how many business books I don’t read because I’m bored out of my mind in the first few chapters.)
- You will understand basic marketing concepts once and for all. Like features and benefits. Unique selling propositions. Sales cycles. SWOT analysis guidelines. In fact, when making my latest promotion, Pets for Haiti, I actually made a list of features and benefits, then whittled them down to what’s easiest to understand for the most people. That’s a pretty powerful change in behavior as a result of reading this book.
- You will be able to put good marketing practices into effect for your business. By knowing exactly who you’re aiming to hit with your marketing materials and web copy, you’ll find a remarkable boost in the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. More effective marketing = less time spent marketing.
- You will be forced to take a good look at your business and to assess what’s working and what isn’t. January is pretty much the ideal month for analysis, planning, and growth. This book fits right in.
- It’s only $49. Which is way cheaper than that marketing workshop, DVD, or seminar you’ve had your eye on.
Go forth.
And tune in tomorrow for my secrets to marketing locally.
So, you have a blog, you’ve read the tips for blogging, and you’re good to go.
Except…except you have blog envy. You keep seeing the ProPhoto theme around, and you keep wishing you could giant images AND a sidebar AND custom flash galleries AND be able to pop all the images you’ve just processed into a post by hitting a single button. Look no further, peeps.
ProPhoto 3, the latest evolution of the ProPhoto WordPress template, is packed with fabulous features I didn’t even know I wanted and soon couldn’t live without. The templates look fabulous right out of the box, and it’s easier than ever to link your Twitter, Facebook, RSS feed, and bio page together in merry harmony. (Click the ‘about’ link at the top of the blog to see how quickly and seamlessly your bio information loads.)
It’s also easier than ever to populate a blogsite with the option of featured galleries for those too lazy to click off your blog to view your work. (See my own blog, here, and click on galleries for an example.)
Likewise, those sweet little tabs that live on the left of this blog, even when you scroll down? They’re called drawers, and they’re my favorite new feature. On this blog, they pimp Facebook and sell the Projection & Sales Merit Badge. On your blog, they could book a wedding or send you an e-mail or link to your favorite local businesses.
For those who are scared of customizing a WordPress theme (and yes, I’ve gotten e-mails admitting to the fear), I say: it’s easy. Really. Jared provides video tutorials for every major step in the process. When I had a question, I e-mailed tech support and got an answer within a few hours. If you’re really scared, you can purchase ‘Handheld Installation’ for $80 and have the icky technical portion of your blog-making taken care of lickety-split.
I’m not here to brag, though. I’m here to share the WordPress-themed goodness with all of you lovely people. So, use code
BNDCMP717
to score $10 off the latest ProPhoto theme ($199 new, $89 to upgrade from a prior ProPhoto theme). This theme’s ease of use, vast tutorial knowledge base, quick support responses and innovative features make purchasing a no-brainer.
(If you’re ready to buy, click here, as the ‘buy now’ page is rather hard to find.)
I have hereby declared it marketing week on the Brand Camp blog, and we will have DAILY posts this Monday through Friday. How’s that for getting you off your tush and into a marketing push for your business?
First, reader questions. These bad boys seem like blogging questions, but they’re really marketing questions that get to the heart of how you’d like to be perceived as a business blogger.
Jon noticed that one of the top mistakes famous photographers make was ‘no blog.’ Jon realized he didn’t have a blog. He has corrected the situation. But he has questions. His queries are shown in italics, and my answers are below each one.
1. How many pictures from a particular shoot should I display?
This is totally up to you. Totally. I like to leave some element of surprise for a portrait ordering appointment, so I don’t show 20 images at a time. If, however, your client has already ordered, show off! Some wedding bloggers show off 45 images at a time, while others blow me away with 2 or 3 carefully curated selections. (See Kuperberg, Anna.)
The number of images to show is simply a reflection of whether you’re teasing clients with previews or showing off for the wider world of the internets.
2. Are the pictures too big?
Honey, that’s like asking if your penis is too big : “Of course not!” Images can almost never be too big for blog display. (Unless they suck. But yours don’t.)
3. I of course do not have a lot of traffic to the site, since I am still creating it, but regarding comments, should I have them set to ‘not display’ if there aren’t any comments?
I err on the side of displaying comments, if only so that first comment leads to an additional 3 or 4. Also, thank commenters with an e-mail, a Facebook message, or a tweet — some little something to let them know you appreciate the effort – and you’ll get more comments in no time.
Oh, and be sure to comment BACK if there’s a further question asked in the comments section.
Part of marketing your business is paying careful attention to your readers, making friends, and being accessible when they need you!
4. How many posts should I have on the page?
My only comment here is to avoid any blog design that involves having to click on a post to ‘read more.’ People are lazy and won’t click. When they don’t click, they don’t read. When they don’t read, they don’t comment, and you don’t get to make friends.
And then you’ll have flashbacks to being the lonely kid at the Kindergarten table singing to yourself while everyone else has snack time and chatters together. Make yourself accessible.
5. Should I add a watermark to my images?
Um, hell yes. Personally, I don’t care if you steal my cheesy Brand Camp graphics, so they’re not watermarked, but any images I put up on my blog are watermarked with my website address.
Why the website address? Because if and when that image is stolen, those viewing it can still visit my website — or the thief will have to go through the extra trouble of cropping it out before posting.
Also, on a purely photographic note, be sure to make sure your images are their very best by sharpening for web before posting anything to your blog. (See Totally Rad Actions‘ A Better Web Sharpen. It’ll change your life.)
6. Should I only post pictures related to the business?
Please don’t post snaps of you doing keg stands on the weekend, but be personal. Show me your latest home improvement project, your obsession with Photojojo, your latest artsy work, or your new pet.
The more personal you are in your blog, the more connected your readers will feel with you.
Thanks for reading, peeps! Please feel free to leave any of your photo biz/marketing related questions in the comments, and I’ll pick my favorites to answer later in the week!
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