Marketing Advice | Just getting started...

[MichaelHenson]

Hello all!

I'm finally starting to move toward starting a bit of a sideline photography gig doing mostly portraits and am interested in hearing from you guys about the best way to market. I have a website and social media pages and know that word of mouth plays a big role in getting going with this.

My main question is, what steps/processed/marketing have you found to be successful in starting to build your client base?

 

[Austin Greene]

This has been addressed quite a bit before in this forum, try searching for marketing under the aspiring professionals sub-forum. You'll see a ton of responses ranging from newspaper, to how to improve your social media presence.

 

[MichaelHenson]

Thanks for the response, I have searched and the bulk of the responses follow the same theme...know your business, don't forget about marketing, know your business, make a business plan, know your rights, don't forget about the business side of the job...That's not what I'm looking for.

I'm more looking for experiences from guys that have just started out regarding, specifically, what marketing approaches have worked for them and which haven't. For instance, is direct mail worth the upfront investment? What has worked for you in building a social media audience that ACTUALLY SPENDS MONEY rather than liking your posts or page and nothing more, etc.?

Most online resources require a purchase and seem to be a lot of fluff or promotion for each particular site, system, or personality...

 

[KmH]

The most effective and consistent marketing I did was direct mail.
You don't spend money marketing to people that can't afford to have you make photographs for them.
The trick with direct mail is developing a mailing list that gets your direct mail piece(s) to the demographic, socio-economic segment of your market area you want as customers.

It is not at all unusual for a photography business owner to spend 75% of their time doing business tasks, like continually developing a marketing and advertising plan, and then implementing it.

I would have mailed out my Easter marketing materials about 3 weeks ago.
Today, I would be working on finalizing my marketing/advertising/promotional direct mail materials for the Memorial Day weekend.
I would be starting to plan my Labor day marketing/advertising/promotional stuff.

I knew that what worked for me in Arizona, would not work for me here in rural Central Iowa.
So I studied the market culture here in Iowa for a couple of months before I started my first marketing plan.

What might work for Austin in California, or me here in Iowa, likely won't work for you in St. Louis.

 

[MichaelHenson]

The most effective and consistent marketing I did was direct mail.
You don't spend money marketing to people that can't afford to have you make photographs for them.
The trick with direct mail is developing a mailing list that gets your direct mail piece(s) to the demographic, socio-economic segment of your market area you want as customers.

It is not at all unusual for a photography business owner to spend 75% of their time doing business tasks, like continually developing a marketing and advertising plan, and then implementing it.

I would have mailed out my Easter marketing materials about 3 weeks ago.
Today, I would be working on finalizing my marketing/advertising/promotional direct mail materials for the Memorial Day weekend.
I would be starting to plan my Labor day marketing/advertising/promotional stuff.

I knew that what worked for me in Arizona, would not work for me here in rural Central Iowa.
So I studied the market culture here in Iowa for a couple of months before I started my first marketing plan.

What might work for Austin in California, or me here in Iowa, likely won't work for you in St. Louis.

Thanks, Keith!

I completely understand that there will be a ton of business related tasks and I'm totally okay with that!

From what little I have been able to glean from others, it looks like doing some direct mail experimentation might be worth it. It makes sense that taking that approach should allow me to really hone in on the demographics and socioeconomic level of client that I would like to have rather than the shotgun (read: crap-shoot) approach of social media.

 

[Designer]

Speaking as a customer, we began a relationship with a local photographer way back in the telephone book days. Over the years, we have maintained that relationship as our family grew and our photographic needs evolved.

From a customer's point of view; I am attracted to the displays in the mall. I see everything from a portfolio display to a kiosk. These are commonly set up at certain times of the year and are only up for a month or two, depending on the season.

I have no idea how much that costs, but you can find out.

When I owned and operated a business, most new customers came to us after having exhausted all other options, and were very pleased that we offered a better service than our end-of-the-alphabetical listings in the phone book would indicate.

I would occasionally go out and grab new clients as well, which sounds harder than it really was. Meeting people face-to-face is a huge advantage in any kind of service business.

 

[Snapzapp]

Bridal shows can be a great way to get your company face to face with customers. Of course social media is big. Twitter and Facebook are great sources and are free. There are a lot of ways to increase your visibility on those sites through boost ads, etc. I would also suggest free sites like Wedding Wire. But whatever you do, DO NOT sign up on Yelp.

 

[KmH]

It is a truism that it costs about 10x more to make a new customer than it costs to get a previous customer to return.

Meeting people face-to-face and doing proofing and sales face-to-face is definitely advantageous.
So is B2B connections and otherwise being involved in your community. Being active with your Chamber of Commerce and a local arts association may be beneficial.

Don't forget to have a list of the business section editor contact information for every newspaper within at least a 50 mile radius of where you do business.
Those newspapers should be getting a steady stream of press releases from you.

But, bottom line, you have to plan and you have to set specific marketing and advertising goals.
You also have to track what does and doesn't work relative to those goals.