Making money as a professional photographer is vastly different from being a talented hobbyist with good equipment and technical skills. To make the transition from enthusiastic amateur to professional means a lot more than simply charging for your photography.
Unfortunately, a lot of amateur photographers jump straight in at the deep end, under the mistaken impression that they can make a good living from their cameras. The sad truth is that a lot of real talent is lost from the industry every year when photographers like this go out of business after quickly discovering the harsh reality of running a business in a strongly competitive market.
It’s a shame because these photographers would have been a great asset to the professional photography industry if only they had learned how to run their businesses more effectively…
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Photography Business Ideas
marketing, photography business, professional photographer, selling
We’ve all heard it at some point, usually when someone is trying to encourage us to participate in an event, or asking us to give our work away free. It’s the old “it will get your name out there” ploy, but have you ever stopped to wonder what in the world that really means or how effective it might be?
Not All Marketing Is Created Equal
As business owners we have an obvious need to market ourselves, in order to attract new clients and generate new business. One of the most effective marketing methods is word-of-mouth marketing, which relies on happy clients who are in love with what we do spreading the word for us to their friends and family in a viral fashion.
Despite what people might try to tell you, “getting your name out there” is not word-of-mouth marketing. At its very best, it might be considered as a minor form of brand-building, but since it doesn’t come packaged with any kind of emotional component, it’s unlikely to generate new business by itself, and it certainly has no viral qualities about it.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t participate in charitable events or donate our time and talent to organizations we consider as worthy causes. Far from it – there are many times we can use our photography to benefit others. It just means that having someone tell us that it will get our name out there is not the main reason we should do so, nor should it even be a part of the consideration.
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Sales & Marketing
marketing
Do you view marketing as being stuck in a maze where you’re constantly backtracking, trying new avenues, and hitting dead ends?
Do you sometimes feel as though there’s no real solution to attracting more clients to your photography business or that you’re going around in circles?
Do You See Marketing As Positive Or Negative?
I came across a great video from the TEDx series the other day, and thought I would share it with you here. This is Rohit Bhargava speaking about the idea of reinventing marketing and he asked two interesting questions at the beginning that I think all serious marketers should ask themselves:
How many of you feel that marketing adds something positive to the world?
More than a few agreed with that sentiment… then came the second question:
How many of you are in the business of marketing?
More hands, but mostly the same people that agreed to the first one!
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Sales & Marketing
marketing, photography business, Rohit Bhargava, TED Talk
Imagine for a moment that someone comes to you with the exciting message, right out of the blue, that in five minutes time you could fill every seat of a theatre with people who are interested in every word you have to say about your professional photography business. What would that feel like?
Picture it in your mind – there are at least several hundred folks all eager for you to tell them how to hire a photographer for their portrait or wedding. Pretty exciting, right?
Do You Know What You Would Say To Them?
This scenario would be a dream come true for many small business owners, to be able to communicate their message to so many willing people at once, yet few of us actually know what we would say in any real detail.
It would certainly be a surprise if someone called you and said something like, “We’ve got an amazing opportunity! 500 people showed up for a presentation but the presenter got stuck and can’t make it. These people love photography, but there’s no one to talk to them. Get in there, it starts in 5 minutes!” How prepared would you be? What might you say?
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Sales & Marketing
marketing, photography business, photography marketing
I can see it going through your mind right now… What in the world does popcorn have to do with the photography business? Well, it’s difficult to stretch the analogy too far, but it does present an interesting way to consider how we think about the people we serve – our clients.
Popped Corn Is Unique
The next time you go to the movie theatre, or pop some corn for yourself at home, take a moment to examine those exploded pieces of corn shrapnel. One thing you’ll notice is that every piece of popcorn is unique – like snowflakes, no two are ever the same.
Yet, they all start out looking pretty similar in size and shape, and there is absolutely no way known to science that can predict the finished shape any given kernel of corn will adopt once it goes through that glorious pop!
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Sales & Marketing
facebook, instant personalization, marketing
A recently noticed a question that came up on one of the groups I belong to on LinkedIn [connect with me on LinkedIn], regarding how to source good quality holiday cards, either for our business marketing or for our clients to send to their family and friends.
There were some good responses, but one of the most popular seems to be White House Custom Color (WHCC), and their line of high-quality press-printed cards, here in the US.
I happened to mention that I use WHCC for all of my cards, in addition to my client prints etc., and for 2011 that I produced a calendar card using their 5 x 5 flat cards, printed on fine art stock. Several people asked that I post the cards so that they could see them, so here they are:
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calendar cards, marketing, photography business
Okay, I was up bright and early at 6am this morning, ready to crawl into the shower, throw on some clothes (after getting dry), and haul myself up the stairs to the computer, to start a day of writing on my forthcoming Facebook book.
Then something happened that temporarily derailed all those good intentions, and it wasn’t the fact that I’d run out of coffee (although I would definitely plead that as a mitigating factor).
What happened when I turned on my computer was that I came across a video shared by one of my Facebook friends. I watched the video and immediately caught the virus, so had to pass it on. However, I was so captivated by the idea presented that I felt compelled to also put together something for the blog.
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Sales & Marketing
marketing, photography business, professional photography, the fun theory
SEO For Photographers – The Value Of Inbound Links
Most of you reading this who have a photography web site understand the importance of inbound links when it comes to SEO, and having your own site rank higher in the search engines. The more links we have pointing to us, the better (generally speaking).
I’m sure you also realize that some links are better than others and we’re always looking for “quality links”; that is, links from well-ranked, trusted and respectable sites that are relevant to our own business.
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Photography Website SEO
facebook, marketing, photography, social media, twitter, web site
Do you send out a monthly email newsletter for your photography business? If so, kudos to you, this is another great way to “touch” your clients and prospects each month to keep your photography studio and your brand on their radar.
Perhaps the idea raises thoughts of, “I’d love to, but that’s all I need – more administrative work to keep me away from taking photographs!”
But then again, we need people in front of our cameras, right? In order to get those people where we want them to be, we need to market our services and get their attention. Not only that, we need to keep their attention once we’ve earned it.
If you aren’t sending out a newsletter, there are plenty of reasons why you should. Before I committed to sending one out myself, like many others, I was expecting Facebook, Twitter and my blog to do all the work that a newsletter should do. After all, it’s no big task to write a short blog entry to announce special portrait sessions. Adding a status update to Facebook is easier still and as for Twitter, well anyone can write 140 characters in their sleep, right? Plus, those things are a lot more fun than writing a newsletter – that sounds too much like being a journalist.
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Sales & Marketing
email newsletter, facebook, marketing, newsletter, photography business, social media, twitter
Personally, I have a hard time fully adopting the word “Likers”, preferring instead the original and more pedestrian term “Fans”. Facebook fans, that is.
Photographers are working hard to capture as many fans as they can, perhaps feeling that having more fans (no matter who or where they are) must be a good thing. The same thing plays out on Twitter, too, where the volume of followers is [mistakenly] perceived as more important than the quality.
Anyway, I digress already, the topic of acquiring fans can be the subject of a whole other post…
The question of the moment is “How do we keep the fans we have? Especially the ones we actually want… How do we keep them happy so they won’t leave?”
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Sales & Marketing
facebook, marketing, photographer, social media
I’m sure you’ve noticed that the photography profession is not in the best of shape right now; in fact, it’s been ailing and sick for quite some time. The end of the so-called Great Recession notwithstanding, business still appears to be slow or non-existent for many photographers, and recovery is taking a very long time to materialize. Many of you possibly doubt that a full recovery is even likely or possible.
Personally, I feel that recovery is certainly possible and that every professional photographer can enjoy success, if only they would treat their business with the seriousness and attention it deserves.
We have an industry with few, if any, barriers to entry, no real code of ethics, pricing is anything but simple or organized, quality standards are all over the place, fly-by-nights come and go, and seasoned veterans are left scratching their heads in puzzlement at the sad state of things.
Maybe there are parallels elsewhere, but right now I can’t think of another profession where such anarchy and chaos prevails…
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Photography Business Ideas
marketing, photography business, professional photography, selling
In my previous post, I mentioned a book I read recently that has really altered not only the way I see the world, but also how I operate within it. “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek is a must-read for everyone and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
The tenet of the book is simple – so simple, in fact, that it seems almost obvious. But, like many “obvious” things in life, it’s not obvious until someone smarter than us takes the time to point it out. Put in its most fundamental form, the idea is that successful individuals, leaders, brands and companies are successful because they have a common way of thinking, which is the opposite to most everyone else. Instead of communicating “what” they do, they articulate “why” they do it first.
Here, I believe, is a great example from the world of photography, someone we photographers are very familiar with…
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How To Be A Professional Photographer
Ansel Adams, attitude, inspiration, marketing, Simon Sinek, Start With Why
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