Why Marketing Photography At f/2.8 Is Bad

Do you enjoy macro photography and creating images of small things close up? If so, then you will immediately know that photographing the intricate details of a bug or a flower at f/2.8 is a poor idea, unless you deliberately want most of the photograph to be out of focus.

Depth Of Field

As photographers, we’re all familiar with the concept of depth of field and how it relates to the chosen lens aperture. If we shoot with our lens wide open then we’re going to capture more light, but we lose focus in parts of the image because our depth of field is shallow. This is fine for portraits etc. but not so good if the details are important and we want more of our scene to be in focus.

Focused Marketing

If we open up our marketing f-stop, as it were, and cast our nets so wide as to encompass a very large group, almost indiscriminately, then our resulting response is going to be fuzzy and unfocused for the most part. We might receive calls from a very small percentage of recipients, but the likelihood is that most of them will be unqualified prospects. Our marketing depth of field, if you will, is too shallow and unfocused, because we’re targeting too large a group.

On the other hand, if we narrow our reach by stopping down our “marketing aperture” to target a smaller group of more relevant people, the campaign becomes more tightly focused, and we might see a significant improvement in results. In other words, our marketing lens allows in less “light” in the form of prospects, but this is compensated by our ability to focus those prospects more clearly. Obviously, the analogy will break down if we push it too much further, but I think you get the idea.

Marketing At f/22

One of the answers to our marketing problems, then, seems to be to focus on smaller, better-defined groups. When designing a marketing campaign, we should think in terms of how to concentrate our efforts with consideration of our target market. Obviously, we don’t want to narrow it down so tightly that only 2 people in the world are left for us to market to, but we should try to contain it to small sub-groups where possible.

Identify Your Subject

Before we can do any of this, we first need to identify whom it is that we’re going to target with our campaign. That means sitting down and thinking about our intended demographic in order to formulate the best strategy to approach them. For example, if we’re designing a campaign to generate leads for high-school seniors, we might want to consider the following attributes:

• Geographical coverage area
• Types of schools we want to cover
• Age range of the students
• Gender
• Student’s interests

This might give us something like, “Female junior students from church schools within 25 miles of the studio, who have an interest in supporting the local community.” This quite obviously requires a different approach to “Male students from prep schools within 50 miles, who are interested in sports.”

It should be apparent that if we applied f/2.8 marketing to encompass both of these groups at once, we would see a diminished return on investment because our marketing depth of field is too shallow, and we end up with a message that’s not focused for either group.

Instead, we can very specifically target each group with a laser-like intensity with marketing messages specifically tailored to appeal to them directly. Done correctly, a higher response rate should result, especially given that we can also exploit peer pressure in such small and tightly knit groups through referral programs, social media etc.

Multiple Exposures

In photography, we can amplify the available light in a photograph through the layering of multiple exposures. In marketing, we can also strengthen our message by repeatedly exposing our target audience to it through multiple impressions. We can do this in the same medium (direct mail, for example), or through a variety of media that hit the prospects from different directions (Facebook, email, direct mail etc.)

This is where we see one of the great benefits of taking on a smaller target market. Each impression of our message costs less because there are fewer people to reach, so we can multiply our message by exposing them to it on multiple occasions, at timed intervals.

For example, rather than indiscriminately send 6000 direct mail postcards to 6000 individual homes in one big blast, it’s preferable to make 3 sequenced mailings of 2000 targeted postcards to the same addresses, thereby reinforcing and amplifying the marketing message. The overall cost is the same, but the message is more focused and better targeted.

Things You Can Do Now

None of this information is of practical use unless we take action and do something with it. So, here are some ideas you can use now to get started with:

Step 1

Break down the services you offer into smaller, more focused niches. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, you might want to focus on younger couples that are recent college graduates. Family portrait photographers may choose to focus on families where one of the children is preparing to head for college.

Step 2

Figure out where your niche market is. Where do they live, work and play? Do they spend much time online? If so, where are they? If they can be found on Facebook then that’s a great place to market to them through the medium of Facebook ads, fan pages, their friends etc. Perhaps they are heavy Twitter users, in which case the obvious place to start would be by posting engaging Twitter messages aimed at gaining their interest.

Step 3

Design an offer with a compelling reason to act, a definite deadline, and a clear call to action. This is the payload of your marketing arsenal that can be delivered through a variety of channels. Use creative and persuasive copy to get your message across.

Step 4

Identify the delivery methods you feel would most effectively reach your intended audience and start your campaign. Remember to build in multiple exposures and keep it tightly focused at all times on the group you’re aiming at.

It isn’t usual to get a big response from the first attempt, so don’t get discouraged. Keep at it and I’m sure you will start to see results.

Further Reading

As always, I’m a big fan of continuing education and I love to read. Here’s a new edition of a great book by Edward Lilley, which I’ve personally found very useful to my own photography business:

The Business of Studio Photography Third Edition

I hope you found this useful and please help spread the word. Join our Facebook page and follow me on Twitter too for more updates in between blog posts. As always, please feel free to comment and give suggestions.

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Sales & Marketing marketing photography, marketing strategy