Zenologue

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 web site, 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.

Marketing branding, business, Marketing, professional photography

Today and tomorrow (28th & 29th September 2009) sees an unprecedented and unique opportunity for professional photographers everywhere. Never have I seen such an incredible assemblage of photographic rock stars come together and offer this much business education for FREE!! Yes, I did say FREE. Well, almost at least. If you have 16 hours to spare at your telephone, of course. Personally, I preferred to take the option of buying the MP3 audio files afterwards so that I can listen to them at my leisure and not worry about my phone battery dying or using up all my precious cell phone minutes.

To find out more about this incredible series of presentations, head over to the Joy of Marketing website where you can still register and/or buy the audio downloads. Here is a list of the speakers on this amazing event:

• Edward Zemba
• David Ziser
• Kevin Kubota
• Jen Hillenga
• Kia Bondurant
• Kent & Sarah Smith
• John Hartman
• Sarah Petty
• Tim & Beverly Walden
• Lori Nordstrom
• Rod Evans
• Vicki Taufer
• Dane Sanders
• Allison & Jeff Rodgers
• Marilyn Sholin
• Julie Klaasmeyer

I’m really looking forward to listening in once the MP3s are ready. Check it out today, this is the best photographic business education you can get anywhere.

education branding, business, education, Marketing, professional photography, selling

Your web site is, quite obviously, a marketing tool for our photography businesses but, if we’re to have the best chance of engaging our market in this Web 2.0 world, then we need to converse with them and not simply present a highly sanitized, techno-laden, emotionless blurb full of keywords that would send even a search engine to sleep.

The immediacy and spontaneity of blogs make them great for this purpose, as are Facebook and Twitter, if used properly. But, even the content on our main web site should be written more conversationally if we’re to catch and keep our readers’ attention.

Look, No Words!

Photographers are blessed with the ability to communicate in both written and visual media. So why is it that we rely so heavily on our photographs to do the marketing for us? After all, slideshows and flashy presentations might look pretty (to us creative people at least), but how effective are they at engaging the prospective client?

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and maybe some indeed are. However, photographs by themselves are generally not a conversation – conversation starters perhaps, but not conversations in themselves. They may appeal to the viewer on an emotional level, which is a really great start, but we all too often leave it there, with no further attempt to really talk with them. Think of it like this: would you show a client a photograph in person without saying a single word about it? Do you show your friends your vacation photographs without the anecdotal stories that go along with them? Of course not! Just take a look on Facebook at all the comments that can be spawned from the posting of a single image – this is a conversation that anyone can join, and it’s all free.

Striking and powerful images can be wonderful at starting a conversation, but we had better continue that conversation, or our market will simply leave thinking we hung up on them. This can be as simple as acknowledging a user’s comment, thanking someone for a retweet on Twitter, or answering questions.

What Do You Want To Talk About?

It should be clear by now that there’s a need for us to join in with the spirit of this conversation that’s going on all around us – but what should we talk about? Well, one thing’s certain – it’s really no use talking about ourselves. People who talk about themselves too much at parties are usually the ones left standing about on their own guarding the coat pile.

The ideal subject for this conversation is simple: Our Market. Specifically, how they can benefit from our unique selling points, as long as those points are presented in a way free from business-speak. This must be one of the hardest things to do – the traditional concepts of marketing are so ingrained in us that it’s difficult to break the habit.

There is a conflict between our desire to communicate our message and “advertise” what we do, and the need to engage people on a more human level. We need to find ways to “speak” in plain terms, in a truly conversational style that is honest and from the heart, as it were.

For example, say that one of your unique selling points is that you’re an expert at photographing green cats (not much call for that I know but, hey, this is a hypothetical example).

The copy on your web site should appeal to the emotions that owners of green cats generally experience, and how portraits of their precious green pets can have so much sentimental value to them that the investment in a portrait is well worth it for all the benefits they will enjoy from the photographs. You can work into your conversational talk things like how much more adorable green cats can be, how they make strong bonds with their owners and how great they are to have. How sad would it be to not have a portrait of your beloved green cat after it’s gone from this world? This is much more effective than simply saying, “book your green cat portrait session now!” 

You’re The Voice

You could, of course, blast Facebook with status messages such as “Green cats look cool in black & white” or “When it comes to photographing green cats, we’re not green”. But that looks too much like traditional interruptive advertising or spam.

Instead, you could “listen” to the conversation and find people who are saying things like, “I love my green cat”, “my green cat is my best friend” etc. Then you can reply in a nice way that, yes their green cat is indeed cute and might look beautiful in one of your portraits. You don’t even need to mention that you photograph green cats – if you participate enough and allow people to get to know you, they will learn this information by themselves.

Another way to think of it is to imagine having a face-to-face conversation with a prospective client, perhaps someone you just met who asked about your business. The voice they would hear is distinctly you, and obviously human, with feelings, passion and a sincere concern for their needs and desires.

We can transcribe that conversation and apply it to the web site without making the mistake of over-sanitizing it or using fancy words. Okay, I know the web site is essentially an artificial conversation, but the voice you use can still be real and no less you than the spoken word. Keywords are still important for the search engines, but we should never make them a priority over the quality of our content.

The only job of the web site is lead-generation – to encourage the reader to engage you in person by calling, emailing, asking for more information and to involve you in a real conversation with them that can then lead to a booking and potential sales. In order to accomplish this we need to appeal to their emotions, something we should be able to accomplish considering that photography is inherently an emotional business. 

Conclusion

The introduction of the Web 2.0 has not only made the web more interactive and flashy with dynamic content; it has further enabled the online conversation that’s been there since the web was first invented; the difference now is that the conversation is immediate and becoming the dominant force. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Blogs, YouTube, Wikipedia and a host of other social networking sites are bringing the conversation to a rolling boil that is making traditional web marketing almost obsolete. We need to join in or we risk being left behind as relics of a more primitive time …

This post was based on my personal reaction to chapter 4 of The “Cluetrain Manifesto”, which can be found here:

http://www.cluetrain.com/book/markets.html

This was written in the early 1990’s but reads now like a prediction of much that we now take for granted. A very interesting and thought provoking read indeed. 

Marketing branding, business, facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Photography, social media networking, twitter