Archive for Business
H&H Color Lab: Tips to Grow Your Business Using Inbound Marketing
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During Digital Photography Café’s live WPPI 2012 coverage this past month, Joseph Cristina and I had the opportunity to chat with David Drum from H&H Color Lab about how they use Inbound Marketing to grown their business.
In the below video you’ll see a great presentation about Inbound Marketing from Social Media Sensi Georgia McCabe. She gives an overview of what exactly Inbound Marketing is and also demonstrates how H&H Color Lab uses it to build trust within the photography community.
We also stopped by H&H Color Lab’s booth to check out some of their latest products including their really cool custom printed iPhone cases.
Be sure to stop by their website at HHColorLab.com to check out all of their products and don’t forget to check out all of their great educational resources. You can also connect with them on Twitter and Facebook.
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Increase Your Event Photography Income with Storefront.com
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During Digital Photography Café’s live WPPI 2012 coverage this past month, Joseph Cristina and I had the opportunity to chat with Larry Adams, Sr. VP. at Storefront.com. If you’re an event photographer, Storefront can help you generate additional revenue by using their photo kiosk software and turnkey solutions.
There is no better time to sell your images than at the time of the event. Sure the people that hire you will most likely purchase prints and products from you, but what about the attendees? You want to bring them in while they are still excited about the event. If you wait until weeks later your chances of getting those print sales drops significantly. Read More→
A Photographer’s Diary, How is it Thursday already?
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This week and last week seems to have flown by, each weeks, it’s gotten to Thursday and I’ve wondered ‘How is it Thursday already? The scheduling my days in a diary is partly responsible I think; it helps me put so much more into a day and keep me pretty true to what I’ve scheduled. The days are more productive and they whizz by.
Last Thursday it was the monthly mastermind call with our regular business meeting. I so look forward to these calls, it’s good to catch up with people who are all busy doing different things and it’s good to just have a chat with other supportive women who have some wonderful philosophies in life.
This call was really pivotal for me. I have decided to give a presentation at a local hotel, to local businesses, councils, schools and press, all about Healing with Photography. This will be the first time I’ve done this kind of thing. I’ve done presentations before yet never for something that is so personal or directly related to me, and I am so looking forward to sharing my work and demonstrating how it can help the companies present and their staff. Read More→
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Fabulous Five
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Your blog is undoubtedly the most powerful online marketing tool you have at your disposal but if you think that you can rely on SEO and cleverly written post titles to drive traffic your way then think again.
Your blog coupled with the right amount of social media sharing is an effective marketing combination. The question I am often asked is what social networks are best to promote your business and ultimately get more work.
There’s no real answer to that other than there isn’t just one. There isn’t really a typical client for every type of business but there are a few generalisations which can help you.
This marketing campaign is titled The Fabulous Five because it is about identifying at least 5 different social networks where you can drive traffic and potential clients to your site.
Why 5?
Well if you have the time to share on 10 different platforms then don’t let me stop you! Using 5 different social media platforms should be manageable enough and it also gives you a varied enough spread.
A Photographer’s Diary, Accountability
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How would it be if not only did you get do away with your to do lists, you had someone there to make sure you completed all the tasks you set yourself each week? Step forward an accountability partner.
Since the year has begun I’ve been looking for a way to help me keep on track with my goals and just give myself some extra motivation. Something to help me complete tasks on those days when, you know how it is, you just feel a little sluggish and think everything can wait until tomorrow.
A winter lane
This new process I’ve put into my life is paying dividends. I now have an accountability partner. This is a friend and business woman who was also looking for a way to keep on track with her goals for the year.
At the beginning of every week we email each other a list of tasks that we want to complete for the week. Then on Friday we either have a phone call to check how we’ve done or we email with a list of what we’ve completed. Read More→
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Shoot Camera Phone Videos
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Firstly I have to put my hands up and admit one thing. I have been a Canon 5Dmk2 owner since its release and I still haven’t shot a frame of video with it. There are two reasons for this:
- I’m not a videographer and I wouldn’t pretend to be otherwise
- If I got interested in video then it would consume more hours in the day than already exist and I certainly don’t have time for that. Unfortunately my idea of creating an 8th day in the week is still under development.
This poses quite a problem as I love the idea of using video to promote my business. Webcams are fine enough, but really what I want to communicate can’t be done with me sitting in front of my computer.
What I want is the ability to create and edit short videos whilst on location and be able to upload and them easily.
Then I came to the realisation that I can achieve all this with my iPhone (or any other smart phone to be fair).
What sort of content should you create?
Let’s face it you’re not going to be filming a remake of Ben-Hur on your phone. The quality isn’t going to be amazing so think about what sort of content is passably at that quality.
Behind the scenes videos – We have talked about these in the past (Creating a Viral Video) but you could also shoot very quick 30 second clips that are a bit more of a taster than a full video. Most of your clips will be behind the scenes style videos.
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Photo of the Week
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We have mentioned 365 photo projects in the past but a 52 project might be more suited to your work-flow.
What to share
Really your photo of the week needs to be more considered than a Instagram or iPhone snap as it has to showcase your talents as a photographer in the best way possible. In order for your photo of the week to be an effective marketing tool then they need to be one of two things:
- Showcasing your style
- Showcasing a new style, subject or direction you want your photography to take.
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Instagram
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As a professional photographer you might scoff at the idea of using an app like Instagram to market your business. Or perhaps the fact that you’ll be using a camera phone to take and share images might chill you to the bone. But the fact of the matter is that Instagram is popular, very popular indeed so why wouldn’t you be embracing a popular photography community?
To be honest becoming a heavily followed and liked photographer in the Instagram community isn’t the target of this campaign but if that happens then it’s certainly a bonus.
The fact of the matter is that this campaign can be done on any number of photo sharing applications or networks, it’s just that Instagram ticks lots of the boxes that I need.
Using Instagram as a tool to promote your business.
There are several recommendations when it comes to the frequency of sharing on sites like Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter but there is an overwhelming agreement that daily sharing is essential to keep fans and followers engaged. The problem is that creating good daily content isn’t the easiest thing to do and it can be quite time consuming. Read More→
Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Facebook Timeline Cover
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A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting a social media Masterclass at The Societies annual photographic convention here in London. I shared a few social media marketing ideas, many of which I have published here. One idea that I’ll be using in the very near future (and that I shared in my talk) fits in nicely with Facebook’s announcement on Tuesday that Timeline will be rolled out to everyone in the next few weeks.
If you have been using timeline already you’ll no doubt have played around with different cover photos.
You’ll also might have come to the same realisation as I did that it’s not easy to find an image which fits neatly into the 850 x315 space.
Now imagine what Joe Public is trying to fit into that awkward space.
As photographers we have the wonderful advantage that not only can we shoot an image for that particular size but we can easily crop an image ready to fit.
However your share your clients images on Facebook try and include one that is cropped for the Timeline cover.
What next?
Planning and Developing Your Marketing Campaigns
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As its convention and trade show season I’m sure that you’ll be overwhelmed with ideas and inspiration for marketing campaigns. The biggest problem is that you might have come across a golden nugget that at this point in time isn’t quite the right fit for your business. The last thing you’ll want to do is to leave those ideas in a notebook which you’ll slide into a draw and ever read again.
One of the seminars I attended over the last week at The Societies Convention here in London was hosted by the hardest working photographer in the portrait business; Sandy Puc. Sandy shared her ‘salsa box’ concept which is basically three sets of colour coded folders filled with notes and ideas.
You have a folder for ideas you need to get onto right now, another for some time in the near future and another for the not too distant but not near future…..or something like that but you get the idea.
As part of my own business plan for 2012 I have started my own marketing planner. Being a bit of a geek and always one for dipping in and out of ideas I needed something that was cloud based and I could get to at any point. Evernote has proved to be the perfect tool as not only I can access and edit it from my office computer but I can also work on ideas from my iPad and phone. Using an online resource means I can also reference suppliers, products, blog articles, pinterest boards and even online storage where I might keep artwork. Read More→
