Archive for Business – Page 6

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Facebook Timeline Cover

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?

Read More→

Planning and Developing Your Marketing Campaigns

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→

A Photographer’s Diary, A Rollercoaster Ride

After the Majesty

So then, after writing last week about having lots of new things planned for 2012 how is January going for me so far? Well these last seven days have seen a rollercoaster of emotions. At the end of last week I discovered a new centre where I can run the Healing with Photography courses through.

The exciting part is that instead of trekking the miles each week, if I convince them to undertake a 3 day course, I can stay at local hotel that is doing a stay one night get another one for the price of breakfast. Fee wise it would be cheaper than putting the petrol on for a 6 week course and it spreads my reach quite dramatically across the region.

Then what goes up must come down, there was a real low in my personal life, and instead of pushing ahead with all my plans, I’ve just taken some time this week to start the healing process and find an easier way to move forward. I resisted the temptation to bury myself in work and rush ahead making probably lots of dodgy decisions based on the need to be busy and stop feeling. So a massage to move sad energies out of my chakras started the week and that has been combined with a lot of work with different healers that I work with and have mentioned in my previous incarnation, ‘Starting a Photography Business.’ I’ve taken some of my own medicine and I feel so much better and stronger for it. Read More→

A Photographer’s Diary, In with a Flurry

Mirror Image

This last week saw the end of the holidays and now it’s time to start in earnest with my business plans for this coming year. So I’m having a look over the ideas I had for the business going forward at the AGM in December in extending the main healing with Photography course to three hours for each session. So that needs writing.

And I’m also looking at how best to set these courses out, whether to do them in three and half days or to keep to the format that worked well with the MIND centre of half a day every week. When the idea of HWP first came to me, I realised that what I was developing will work particularly well in a professional area of which I have personal knowledge of from previous jobs. People in this industry can be unable to work through injury and illness for long periods of time from many months to a year or more. Depression and anxiety during their treatment and recovery kicks in pretty quickly, particularly if time is the only healer of bones or tissue.

It’s because I have knowledge and I the contacts here, I’m seriously thinking of going back to this area and offering my expertise in a field that is slowly opening up to the advantages of more holistic approaches. From experiencing them to understanding them to gradually accepting that there are other ways forward other than purely medical treatment when looking after a person’s well-being. This field could lead on to a much wider area of similar jobs and similar problems and hopefully through word of mouth, I will be able to help more people. Read More→

Favorite Rants, Ideas and Thoughts on the Business of Photography

The 1st of January 2012 will be the last of my posts at my personal photography blog project PhotoCreative365. Since December 31st 2009 I have posted daily thoughts, ideas and inspiration for photographers. Tomorrow I’ll be publishing a list of the most popular posts from the past 2 years but with over 1000 articles that still leaves out quite a few of my favourite rants, ideas and thoughts on the business of photography. There’s lots to read so get stuck in!

Enjoy……

Client Capacity
Client capacity is exactly what the name suggests it is. It’s the most amount of clients your business can handle whilst allowing for those extraneous variables and hiccups like re-shoots, extra travelling and larger orders/assignments.

Just so we’re clear – I’m not afraid to undercut you
I keep coming across articles and blog posts from photographers where they warn of dangers and pitfalls of hiring an amateur photographer. Indeed I’m sure I’ve written articles or dispensed similar advice myself at some point. And it’s true, if you want a professional job done then hire a professional. That’s just good advice.

The Digital File Anticlimax
I run a high volume baby portrait business and for the most part many of our clients aren’t the worlds most affluent. This means we made a decision to sell products that are affordable but have a high profit margin. I mean of course: prints and digital files.

Give yourself a boost
I don’t know about you but I’m sick of the term ‘hard times’. Unfortunately that is the reality of the world we live in and it’s pretty rare to find a business that hasn’t been effected by the downturn, current financial climate or whatever other label you want to put on it.

Beware of public opinion – Misinformed or otherwise
This week my friend’s half a million pound a year business closed its doors less than a month after a completely inaccurate (and later retracted) story in The Sun newspaper. My friend didn’t run a photography business but it’s still a worrying thing to think that public opinion can be so dramatically swayed. Read More→

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Fish

On my way to a meeting the other day I passed through Vauxhall station in London and saw a sight which first made me think of a great idea for a marketing campaign but also of an old customer service video I watched years ago while working as a boil in a bag chef (I’m no Gordon Ramsey put it that way).

Firstly I should share the source of my inspiration. Towards the exit of Vauxhall station are a number of different convenience stands from coffee shops to news stands but there is also a stand selling fresh fruit. Nothing unusual about that as we’re all told to eat our five a day, unless you’re Japanese then it’s 17 a day!

What was unusual was the back wall display, it is covered with about 50 4×6 photos of the stand owner showcasing his fishing catches.

Yep, 50 pictures of the same man holding different size fish at a fruit a veg stall.

At first glance I thought it was quite bizarre, but then I thought it was quite brilliant. The owner of the stand obviously has a passion for fishing and a shop on a place where although there is a tremendous amount of footfall many people are passing through at the typical Londoner ‘head down’ fast pace.

But people stop when they see his display and conversations begin. As someone somewhere I’m sure once said, starting a conversation is the beginnings of a sale. (If I have just made that up then feel free to quote me). Read More→