Marketing your business

Lacey Anne · May 1, 2008

I'm curious, for those of you have your own photography business, how did/do you market it? What have you done to really grow your customer base and get your name out there?

ScottS · May 1, 2008

Best thing for me has been giving out business cards at the events I shoot. (mainly live music)

Antithesis · May 1, 2008

ScottS said:
Best thing for me has been giving out business cards at the events I shoot. (mainly live music)

I'm curious how to get into event photography. I have a business/marketing plan set up for weddings, but I'd like to be able to shoot some events as well. Did you advertise some where to start with?

maytay20 · May 1, 2008

1. Give out business cards lots of them. I also think it is well worth it to have a photo on them!

2. Give a 10% commission to anyone who refers clients. I get a LOT of my business this way.

3. Work as a server at a brewery 2-3 days a week and the building has 3 floors, 1- restaurant the other 2 are catering for weddings stuff like that. So people often come in to eat and will ask for info on the rooms and i will talk to them about the photography.

4. I have also been a vendor at food tastings / wedding shows. This costs money usually $250 - $300. With one time costs of sample prints / books for portfolio but unless you print new stuff (and I always do). And if you can book a $1,200. wedding or two it makes up for the cost!

5. My web site a lot of people go to my web site.

So far that is what I have done. I don't live off photography yet but I am working on it! So No paid advertising quite yet.

kellylindseyphotography · May 1, 2008

Have a website. I have freewebs. Its free, people complain about the ads, but at least it is there and exists. It will do while I work my way up.

I got free business cards printed of vistaprints.com. At playgroups, at the park, to friends... I give them my card and it has my website address on it and my phone number. If people are interested, they can contact me.

So far, a lot of people between my 2 moms groups have kept me pretty busy!

What kind of photography do you want to do?

Antithesis · May 1, 2008

maytay20 said:
2. Give a 10% commission to anyone who refers clients. I get a LOT of my business this way.

3. Work as a server at a brewery 2-3 days a week and the building has 3 floors, 1- restaurant the other 2 are catering for weddings stuff like that. So people often come in to eat and will ask for info on the rooms and i will talk to them about the photography.

Both are excellent ideas. I don't know if I'd offer 10%, but that would certainly be an incentive for someone to give referalls.

msf · May 1, 2008

maytay20 said:
2. Give a 10% commission to anyone who refers clients. I get a LOT of my business this way.

Is that 10% before expenses or after expenses? If it was a wedding, would it just be 10% of the initial package bought, or of everything, like reprints down the road?

Antithesis said:
Both are excellent ideas. I don't know if I'd offer 10%, but that would certainly be an incentive for someone to give referalls.

I think 10% is on the low end for an advertising budget, but I could be wrong. Its been a while since Id id some research in marketing.

ScottS · May 1, 2008

Antithesis said:
I'm curious how to get into event photography. I have a business/marketing plan set up for weddings, but I'd like to be able to shoot some events as well. Did you advertise some where to start with?

The only advertising that I did was just to go to shows and then send the pictures for free. Eventually they started paying me a little.

Weddings are a different thing to break into.

craig · May 2, 2008

I contact art directors and photo editors. I just moved here so things are a little slow. Hopefully start hitting the streets with my portfolio to visit said art directors and photo editors. I am not above spending money advertising. I think it is very important. Just do not have any money yet.

)'(

Bthornton · May 2, 2008

I did/do tradeshow. First as having a booth, then spoke to the tradeshow manager. Now I get my booths for free, shoot the show as well. Along with the clients I meet at the show I also take photos of every booth (part of the job I'm hired to do) and then contact the owners of the the booths I shot via email about a week later with a teaser pic for free. I end up with tons of product shoots as well. I am in the middle of shooting a huge tradeshow this weekend. A 4 day event. It's long 12 hour days. But after day 1 I have booked 2 wedding, a few senior session, and 4 product shoots! Not bad for one day. Plus on top of that it really gets the name out there. I will do 2-3 shows a year and I know what ones to pick.
Along with tradeshows I did a lot with word of mouth of past customers, website draws them in, always, always, have your biz cards on your.
As of right now have been in biz for less than a year, more jobs than we can do, and have already had to hire 2 helpers and that's with having 2 photographers.

Lacey Anne · May 2, 2008

kellylindseyphotography said:
Have a website. I have freewebs. Its free, people complain about the ads, but at least it is there and exists. It will do while I work my way up.

I got free business cards printed of vistaprints.com. At playgroups, at the park, to friends... I give them my card and it has my website address on it and my phone number. If people are interested, they can contact me.

So far, a lot of people between my 2 moms groups have kept me pretty busy!

What kind of photography do you want to do?

Portraits and weddings. I've been looking for a wedding photographer to shadow but no luck in any of them even returning my calls or emails. :grumpy:

I have a friend who shoots weddings in WI and I'm about ready to just fly out there and shadow her for a week! lol!
But I want to really start out with portraits. I've done some for friends and family, and of course, my own kids. I'm just looking at growing and branching out from there. I've been advertising on craig's list with no luck, but I sometimes think the only people who visit there are the ones trying sell something... I'm taking out an ad in the local homeschool newsletter this month and I'm having flyers printed to put on local community bulletins. I do have business cards with a photo on them and carry them everywhere I go. I've handed out several but I think I might need to be even more proactive about the business cards.

Rhys · May 2, 2008

Lacey, I agree.

I've had several enquiries about photography from people interested and that's just through people who've seen my shirt (advertising) or been told about me.

As far as vehicle and website advertising are concerned, just wierdoes and timewasters. Usually the timewasters are trying to sell something. I always say "I'm not buying anything from you" and then they witter on and on and in the end after being polite and telling them politely that I'm not interested I have to get rude and tell them never to call me again and to stop wasting my time. I would never ever buy anything as the result of telephone solicitation!

I'm thinking hard about holding up a sandwich board beside a busy road junction as advertising. I'm going to have to think hard about what to put on the board as I really only want events at the moment.

Double H · May 2, 2008

I printed up several hundred postcards with photos and info and a few package deals - stuffed them into every mailbox I could find. Got some calls from them.

Always have business cards on hand - you can get a thousand very nice cards for less than $30 online. I use citycolors.com, gotprint.com, and overnightprints.com

I have my own hosting - so I can completely control my website and monitor the traffic/hits. Plus my hosting service offers coupons for free web advertising like Google Ad words among other search engines.

good luck

Rhys · May 2, 2008

A 24x18 board to hold up beside the road with 4 lines of text - one in red and 3 in black that says
Special Offer
Photography
803-744-5145
sagephotoworld.com
Cost me just $25 - a nice plastic lightweight sign. I'll hotglue some plastic tubing on the back to make it easier to hold but that there's my walkabout sign!

*Mike* · May 2, 2008

I think it all comes down to intentionality. What type of shooting do you want to do? Who do you want as clients? Then, everything gets structured around that...

For example, if you want to shot high dollar weddings, but you do all your consults at McDonald's - it ain't gonna work.

So, I'd suggest deciding what you want your business to look like, and then start building around that idea. What impression does your website make? What impression do your prices make? How do you make initial contact? What do you wear? Where do you meet?

How are you coming into contact with your existing clients? If you pull people off a bulletin board at WalMart, you're not going to be drawing affluent clients. If you draw business entirely from friends and family, you're going to be marketing entirely to your demographic - if that's your goal, great! If not, you need to change things...

If you're launching a business, not a hobby, you need to plan... and budget. Check out your local Small Business Development office. Research business plans. Read about marketing. Read about sales techniques. Photography is the element that you can take for granted - it's probably the least likely to be the element that determines success or failure.

Network with vendors that serve the demographic you aim for. Wedding venues, florists, bakeries, wedding coordinators, bridal shops, etc. Network with portrait photogs that don't take weddings - if they have your desired clientele, they;ll be the photog that first hears about weddings in those circles.

Personally, I've got a wedding photography studio and a bridal boutique. I know that 10% of my gross is dedicated to advertising each year. But, how it's spent makes a huge difference. And, the most expensive avenues aren't always the best return.

)