Archive for Business – Page 5

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Fabulous Five

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.

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A Photographer’s Diary, Accountability

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

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:

  1. I’m not a videographer and I wouldn’t pretend to be otherwise
  2. 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.

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Photo of the Week

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:

  1. Showcasing your style
  2. Showcasing a new style, subject or direction you want your photography to take.


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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Instagram

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→

A Photographer’s Diary, The Circles of Life

This week has all been about becoming more aware of things going on around me and how I’m the one responsible for drawing them in. When you really start to become aware of synchronicity in your life, and you see things lining up this is all good. Synchronicity is what some people call coincidences. When maybe a film we have thought about suddenly appears in the television schedules or someone mentions in passing something that we have been thinking about finding out more about; these are all examples of synchronicity.

Millpool of life

Also it’s been a case of people being in the right place to deliver a message, that I was ready to hear, that I knew all about yet I had never bothered to take action on and implement into my life.

I’ve been studying the book ‘The Success Principles’ by business coach Jack Canfield’ and I’ve had it with me as I’ve been away for a few days this week. Another book I had with me is one that a self-help coach had recommended, in one of her newsletters, by Florence Scovel Shinn. It’s very much about the law of attraction; she was perhaps one of the first people in America in the early 1900’s to start writing about how life works. For me she is quite an obscure author, not at all mainstream. Read More→