Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Appointment Card

Being a photographer and having my business listed several different places has it’s advantages….. it also has it’s downsides, the most irritating being cold calls. If it’s not someone guaranteeing a top spot on Google or similar, it’s someone asking me a advertise in a local wedding brochure.

I’ve experimented with several forms of advertising in the past and one form of print advertising I’ve been mildly happy with has been on wedding dress shop appointment cards.

The cost of this ‘opportunity’ varies but I’ve always been able to generate enough business from them to cover costs. Plus there’s the added bonus of building a bridge towards a relationship with the shops in question.

But after a while I started thinking….. why am I paying to appear as a small ad when I could produce these cards at the same cost?

This is where I got the idea for today’s marketing campaign.

The wedding dress shop appointment card.

For under £100 I can produce 1000 A5 double sided 350gr postcard style appointment cards which include my images and a special offer for wedding dress shop customers.

Prices, quantities and certainly quality varies but you have to decide on your budget and the needs of the business you will be approaching.

What you need to do….

Do a bit if research – visit local vendors and ask what they have in terms of appointment cards. Can you make better ones? Do they need more than they have already? Are they already tied into a long term deal?

Design and produce some samples

Now that you know what each business you have visited needs you can taylor each design towards their individual needs.

Approach each vendor with your offer.

You will produce xxx appointment cards for them at no cost and in return the cards will have your promotion/advertising on them.

To completely cover costs you might want to sell additional ad space on the cards but even if you’re not including other photographers be aware that every other type of vendor is still your competition. You don’t want to have a florist adversing next to you if they typically charge double what you do!

You might even want to charge the wedding dress shop for the printing but try and have some sort of offer….. first 100 cards free for example.

Initially this might involve some leg work and of course some investment but in the long run you could establish a worthwhile relationship with an important referral source.

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Michael Shilling

Michael has been working as a photographer for the last ten years. In that time he has shot over 100,000 peoples’ portraits and worked in four different continents. In 2001 Michael graduated with a degree in photography from Manchester Metropolitan University.

www.memorygate.co.uk