I Built It, Where Are They?

Post Highlights: 

• It’s not enough just to be in business as a photographer
• Marketing is essential to being noticed and building your brand
• Local-based marketing efforts need not be expensive (many of them are FREE!)

I was glancing through the stream of tweets from various photographers yesterday and one in particular caught my eye, and subsequently became the inspiration for this post. The tweet simply said something like, “Sitting here by the phone waiting for a client to call. Perhaps my phone is broken.” This got me thinking about one of the biggest mistakes professional photographers make when trying to build their business…

Kevin Costner was a lucky man, or at least his character Ray Kinsella was in the movie “Field of Dreams”, armed as he was with the now famous mantra, “Build it, and they will come.”

Sadly, the fictional world and the real world are very different things and the concept of building something that will inherently attract its target market like iron filings to a magnet really only applies in one of those worlds. I think we know which one that is.

It’s not the one we live in.

I Built It…

So many photographers (and other businesses) fall into the trap of believing that clients might be drawn to them like moths to a flame simply because they are there. If you’re lucky enough to have a storefront or other publicly visible studio, you might be forgiven for thinking that passing traffic and simply being there ought to be enough to get people in the door. Unfortunately, I’ve observed that passing traffic does mostly what its name suggests. Yet we still hold on to the notion that they will come; if our marketing skills are weak, then this might be the only notion we do have to hold on to

So Where Did Everyone Go?

When I first started out as a professional photographer I made so many mistakes that it’s a wonder I’m still here. I look back and cringe at the memory of proudly starting a new business and waiting patiently by the phone for what would obviously be the first of many clients desperately wanting to hire me. Of course, the phone did ring – quite often in fact. But I was left wondering how all these people who wanted to sell me something managed to find me when the clients I really needed were seemingly unable to locate my number.

It should be pretty obvious to anyone that the real problem was that my marketing wasn’t working the way it should – not too much of a surprise really since I wasn’t doing any at the time. I had unwittingly become a faithful subscriber to the “Field Of Dreams” mentality.

I didn’t even really know what marketing was at that time, even though I saw countless examples of it every day.

Fast-forward to 2009, and I’ve learned a little about marketing along the way. I say “a little” seriously – I consider business education to be an endless pursuit, and I truly doubt that I’ll ever be able to honestly say, “I’m finished learning.”

If the situation I’ve described so far sounds at all familiar, or you aren’t seeing the volume of calls you would like, then what can you do to improve your marketing? Before we go any further I can hear you say, “yes, but that costs money which I can’t afford right now!” But, bear with me for a moment, believe me, I know how that goes.

Tell Them It’s Here – They Simply Won’t Notice On Their Own!

There are ways we can market ourselves without it costing the Earth in the process. It just requires a little effort on our part and some time, which we probably have in abundance, if we have fewer clients than we’d like.

First of all, professional photographers are essentially local businesses. We don’t need a massive advertising budget to reach a national audience, only those people in our local city, town or community.

Secondly, people invest in photography for emotional reasons (credit to Charles Lewis for that little gem, thank you). This means that our marketing efforts must be geared towards reaching people on a personal and emotional level (sentimentality for example), rather than a logical one (such as price).

So what types of marketing can we do that would satisfy both of those conditions? There are actually quite a few possibilities:

• Exhibit your work in other locally-owned businesses
• Become involved with a local charity
• Join the local chamber of commerce
• Network with other local creative people
• Hold open houses
• Sponsor and judge a local photography competition
• Pro bono photography
• Teach classes on basic photography
• Speak at local service clubs
• Cover local events (races, celebration days, seasonal fairs etc.)

These are just a few ideas, but I’m sure there are a lot more options than what I’ve listed here. But, if all of this sounds like a lot of work then you’re right, it most certainly is – if it was easy, everyone out there with a camera would be a successful photographer. It’s a little sad, but true, that the best marketer wins in the photography industry. I’ve seen many talented and gifted photographers go under because they were unable to successfully market themselves. Likewise, there are some technically average photographers out there making a great living because they are experts at marketing their photography business

Conclusion

If we are to be successful in the photography industry we need to understand one very simple truth: We are marketers and sellers first, and photographers second. There is no substitute for aggressively marketing our business; having a business card, a website, a Facebook page, Twitter account and a phone are simply not enough, even in this wired web 2.0 world. Too many photographers are hiding behind their computers all day and not getting out there where the people are to actively market themselves in a face-to-face way that appeals to their target’s emotions.

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Sales & Marketing branding, marketing, professional photography