marketing

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Photofocus Podcast with Special Guest Skip Cohen

Posted by Richard Harrington on May 15, 2013
Posted in: Audio Podcast. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE: The Photofocus Podcast Feed HAS CHANGED!

Here is the new feed: feed://feeds.feedburner.com/photofocuspodcast
Get the show here  or get it on iTunes

PLEASE BE PATIENT – OUR SERVERS SEE LARGE LOADS ON PUBLISHING DAYS. THE DOWNLOADS MAY GO SLOWLY BUT THEY WILL FINISH.

Join RIch and Scott as they take a quick look at 3 new cameras.

  • Scott offers his insights o n the  Fujifilm X100S.
  • Rich then talks about first impressions of testing the Pentax WG-3 GPS rugged camera for shooting sports and underwater.
  • Last is a look at the Canon EOS Rebel SL1 — the world’s smallest DSLR.

The second half of the show will inspire you to develop your professional side. Rich sits down with Skip Cohen who shares practical advice for professionals and emerging pros. He talks about marketing strategies that work to drive photo business as well as lessons learned from several years spent on all sides of the industry.

Download  — http://photofocuspodcast.libsyn.com/webpage

Hosted by Rich Harrington & Scott Bourne

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Fall Marketing Tips For Emerging Photographers

Posted by scottbourne on October 2, 2012
Posted in: Tips. Tagged: , , .

Photo by Scott Bourne – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons

Guest post by Skip Cohen – Follow Skip on Twitter

It’s time to start putting together your proactive marketing ideas for the fall and it doesn’t matter what your specialty is.

For example, if you’re a commercial photographer, remember that most American companies are on a standard fiscal calendar, but Japanese companies wrap up the year on March 31st.  The bottom line is that now is the perfect time to be designing a post card mailer to your prospect list with a mailing right after Labor Day.  You want to get your name in there as they’re going through their budget process, which for most companies is in October.

If you’re a portrait photographer there are so many opportunities for great promotions in the fall.  It’s back to school with homecoming, Halloween, fall foliage time and then it’s into Thanksgiving and the holidays.  All along the way there are opportunities for you to remind your target audience they’re in need of an up to date family portrait.

This is also a great time to team up with a few partners.  Thinking about doing a Halloween promotion?   How about working with a local children’s store and creating a program for portraiture in full costume?  Cross promote each of your companies and share the cost of the mailing and if you want to add a great finishing touch, do a donation back to a local charity and get them involved in the process.

Wedding photographers need to start thinking about next year.  You should be looking at your advertising and publicity plans and definitely consider a direct mail effort joining forces with a few other vendors outside photo.  For example, how about doing a mailing together with a florist, wedding planner and limo service?  Or, how about a travel agent together with a tux shop and bridal salon?

No matter how difficult the economy is or your feelings about business this year, nothing changes the power you have to plant an idea with your target audience.  It’s not easy and it does take work, but if you do nothing through the next few months then you miss the opportunities to at least grow brand recognition for your company.

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The Photo Industry – Marketing to women – Part Two

Posted by scottbourne on April 12, 2010
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: , .

Copyright Bambi Cantrell - All Rights Reserved

Guest Post & Photo by Bambi Cantrell – Follow Bambi on Twitter

I read Scott Bourne’s post about marketing to women with a great deal of interest,  (being one of them – women that is.) Marketing truly is an art. Being able to communicate to us, and in the language we speak  (Which by the way is not necessarily English) isn’t easy.  Women are visual creatures, and are the “feelers” of our world.  How many times have you men said, “ Just tell us what you want!”?   We do tell you what we want, we just do it with style.

I remember telling a man friend once about a difficulty I was having with another person, and he immediately set upon finding a “solution”  to my obvious problem, when in fact, all I really wanted was someone to just let me vent my frustration.  There was no solution.. no fix.. just a need to express my thoughts and feelings.  I think that is where many photographers that happen to be men run into difficulty.  They are always trying to fix things, when we don’t want a fix  we just want to hear our thoughts out loud and then do what we are going to do anyway.  I know that doesn’t sound logical,  but there are times in our lives when logic flies out the window in the face of emotion.  Take sin for example.  Would we have “sin” if emotions didn’t get in the way.  Think of how powerful the emotions are.  They move people to do extraordinary things, to move mountains, and yes in spite of great obstacles, to fall in love. I think that is a part of the equasion that many men miss when it comes to photography.  They think in terms of the bottom line,  and of the sale of 8 x 10’s and the comparisons of this package with that one and overlook the fact that if a product has got us at “hello,” we will start trying to rationalize a purchase even though it might be higher in price.  In fact, sometimes it is a security plus when the product is higher priced.  We actually feel a bit more secure paying more,  feeling like if we pay more we will get a better product.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Plastic surgery-  A woman goes in for a consultation with two doctors  Dr. A is very affordable,  cuts his costs by working out of his home, infact he has a surgery center in his basement.   He employes his elderly, 73 year old mother as his nurse and assistant.  She comes to the front door with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her thin, shriveled lips, and ushers the potential client into the living room for the consultation.  As the client walks into the room she notices the pungent smell of cats,  and three of them are pushed off of a very dusty, fuzzy (from all of the cat fur) couch where she meets the Dr.   Dr. Cheap has a night job as a caretaker in a vet clinic, (which is why they have all of the cats) and does the plastic surgery on the side.  But hey,  he is very cheap will throw in a boob job with a face lift.  (Work with me here,  I live in California)  In the end,  he is willing to do the job (and two for the price of one) and can get you in this weekend.  Now on to Dr. B  Dr. B charged for his consultation, and the client had to wait for 3 weeks just to get in for that consultation.  When  the client goes into the office for the appointment, she is met by a lovely woman who hands her a beautifully appointed brochure,  filled with gorgeous photographs of woman  the “before’s and after’s”  and guess whose photo is among them?  Yes you guessed it,  the nurse.  She is actually 65 years old, but doesn’t look a day over 42.   The client is then introduced to the Dr.  Dr. Lovely  wearing his lovely Dr. garb,  cute cap and all.  Dr. Lovely can do the work but it is twice as much as Dr. Cheap, and he can’t do the job for at least 3 more weeks.  Which one of the Doctors in this scenario would you select?   You see there are times in our lives when we give ourselves permission to spend more money, when it is appropriate, and yes acceptable.  Christmas,  Birthdays, and yes weddings.  Remember the old line “Oh Honey,  it’s her wedding.”

So, my advice to men and women alike?  Pay attention to details, use gorgeous emotion envoking photographs that are different looking.  If you wish to sell a higher priced product, don’t think you can just show the same kinds of images they see anywhere.  Show something different, like you might see in a designer salon.  Once you have the different, emotion envoking images, make sure to put your pricing information on beautiful, tactile papers, that feel expensive.  It is all part of the validation process.   If you need ideas,  go to a large city and go into the Gucci store purchase the least expensive product you can, and then tell them to gift wrap it.  Believe me, It is worth it just to watch the way they wrap it.
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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store

Marketing Strategy for Photographers – Understand Your Potential Customers

Posted by scottbourne on November 17, 2009
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: .
PB040097T

All Rights Reserved

When most photographers turn pro, they spend more time worrying about photography than business. And that’s a mistake. You have to think business first or you may be locked out of your photography studio.

To get it right – it starts like most things – by understanding your audience. Who do you want to reach? What kind of person is your target? What are their hobbies, habits and expectations? Most importantly, what do they expect from you?

Once you have identified your audience, understand what you want to accomplish. Know your strengths and weaknesses as well as what excites you. Build upon your own desires, not those of others. Show what you want to sell – not what you think you can sell. The secret is in providing products you want to sell to the people who want to buy them. This requires faith and patience. Faith that you will find an audience who appreciates what you do and patience as you mine and refine that audience for the sales you need to survive.

This is where strategy plays an important part in your career. If you haven’t properly identified WHO you want to reach, there’s no need to worry about the HOW.

Step one is deciding who you want to sell to. Step two is deciding what you want to sell. Step three is figuring out what your prospects want and look for a match.

When you figure out what you do best, and who wants that product, you have to develop a message that pushes your prospects to the products you want to create and sell. Messaging is part of the education process. The better you are at messaging, the less you’ll have to worry about your competition.

Study marketing and sales every day. This should be one of the first things you do regardless of your schedule.

Re-evaluate each and every step of your business. Ask yourself why you do what you do and whether or not that’s the best way to work. Decide if there’s anything at all you can do to improve. Be willing to do away with convention. And be absolutely sure to remove any challenge that stands between you and meeting your clients’ needs.

Focus on the client’s needs and NOT your own. If you can’t do this, you will fail. It’s just a matter of time.

Another hard core reality of the photo business is that you need to always be selling. Always. Even if it’s something as simple as including additional order forms or fliers with every order you deliver. Putting your message out there each time you deal with a customer increases the chance your pictures or services will sell to that client again someday.

Track your marketing efforts. Find out where your prospects are coming from. Find out how they found out about you. Make sure your message and branding are properly aligned and constantly re-evaluate who and where your audience is. This is such a critical step that it can be the difference between wild success and abject failure.

Remind your current customers of your unique selling points. Offer them discounts and specials to thank them for being a client.

Spend time talking to photography vendors each week to take the pulse of the industry. Find out from your printer which studios are doing well and ask what they are selling. Check with the local wedding coordinator to see who’s getting the most wedding bookings. Then analyze what that photographer is doing. Spending time every week at this will increase sales.

If you want to make a living as a professional photographer, understanding your potential customers and designing your business around their needs, wants and desires is 10 times more important than being a good photographer and 20 times more important than having the best camera.
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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store

This vs. This

Posted by scottbourne on August 18, 2009
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials. Tagged: .

this

Image and Post by Rick Sammon – Follow Rick Sammon on Twitter

Recently, I got a call from a well-known photographer who said, “I don’t feel like a photographer any more. I spend all my time tweeting, blogging, on Facebook, etc. I’m just a marketer.”

I almost said, “Join the club,” because I spend a lot of time doing the same thing. However, I still feel very much like a photographer.

I explained that the times they are a changing. Photographers today MUST be involved in social media marketing to keep up with the competition. Without it, you lose ground (if you have made it like my friend), and can’t make a name for yourself if you are just starting out.

Sure, taking pictures is way more fun than posting stuff on twitter and Facebook, etc. But here is my philosophy – a philosophy that relates to being a photographer and to life in general:

You have to do the things you don’t want to do to do the things you want to do.

P.S. Since I got into social media marketing (just a few months ago), every aspect of my photography business is up. What does that mean? I can look forward to taking more pictures on workshops around the world – and continue to feel like a photographer.

Tweet away!

400x80TWIP

Don’t Let a Good Crisis go to Waste

Posted by scottbourne on May 3, 2009
Posted in: Technique & Tutorials, Tips. Tagged: , .
Copyright Scott Bourne 2009 - All Rights Reserved

Copyright Scott Bourne 2009 - All Rights Reserved

Seven Steps to Selling or Publishing Your Photography in a Down Market

In a down economy, opportunity still lives. In fact, it can flourish. As Seth Godin says, when times are tough, all you have to do is show up to have a chance. Many have already given up clearing the path for you and your new ideas.

Photographers who want to break through will never have a better chance! Yes that’s a counterintuitive statement. But based on my experience it’s true.

It’s time to seek out the opportunities created by the new economic realities. The hardest part is figuring out what to do NEXT and how to move from the idea to execution.

Since every journey really does start with the first step, here are some very basic steps to get you started.

1. Brand or RE-Brand yourself. You need to establish an identity. While consulting with my friend and protegee Gary Hamburgh, I advised him to pick a niche with his photography and to build a brand accordingly. Gary spent most of his life in eastern Washington state close to an area called the Palouse. He’s made some great images there so I told him to consider branding himself as The Palouse Guy. He did and it’s working. (www.thepalouseguy.com)

2. Build or update your website. Now’s NOT the time to let cobwebs develop on your website. Freshen it up with some new images. Use the branding concepts I talked about to re-focus. If you don’t have a website, consider starting a free blog.

3. Build or refresh your portfolio. Pick your VERY best 10 or 20 shots. Put them online AND get them printed into a book. Spare no expense here. Your portfolio is everything. Showing it is everything else. Now is the time to spruce it up. It’s a step you can take to grasping the opportunities that await you in a down economy.

4. Build your referral network. Dig through every business card, e-mail, letter and fax you’ve received in the last year and create a list. How many of these people have referred or COULD refer work to you? Organization and tracking of these referral resources is crucial. In a down market, this might be the one single thing you simply can’t afford to ignore.

5. Shed each and every activity that doesn’t relate to showing or selling your work. When the economy is down, you need to take advantage of the void created by those who’ve abandoned the market. Time spent doing bookkeeping, taxes, printing, framing, fulfilling orders takes away from sales and marketing time. Hire someone else to do the stuff that comes AFTER you make the sale and the photo. Spend that time repeating the crucial steps of showing and selling – showing and selling your work.

6. Have a plan and work the plan. In this market, you need a road map and you need to stick to it. Without building business and marketing plans, you’ll have no way to hold yourself accountable or to gauge your own success. This is the time to hunker down and figure out how you’re going to get from point “A” to “B”. Sure I can drive to Anchorage from Miami without a map. But I guarantee you I’ll waste lots of time, energy, opportunity and money if I don’t have one.

7. Believe in yourself. This is the hardest part for many creatives, but in this economy it’s more important than ever. If you’re to compete for the new opportunities, how do you expect to get others to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself? Some people mistake confidence for arrogance. That’s their problem not yours. If you know what you’re doing, can create consistent, repeatable results, and you are willing to show those results to prospects, you have everything you need to succeed. Stop thinking about what you need to go further and simply start the journey. Using excuses like “I don’t have enough gear” won’t cut it. Get out there.

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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store