Archive for Business – Page 7

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Personal Trainer Promotional Image

By Michael Shilling
Friday, December 9th, 2011

For portrait photographers gyms can be a good source of referrals but they are often overlooked. But if you think about it every yummy mummy wants to get back in shape after childbirth and gyms are often filled with young parents with a descent income.

Getting a gym to promote your services is fairly easy as they often need images of their staff and personal trainers for promotional purposes.

Approaching the gym

Offer a discounted or free photo-shoot which includes a set of images for each personal trainer and/or instructor. These can be in the form of digital files or even posters promoting their respective classes. In return the gym will promote your services to their clientele. This can be in the form of posters, flyers or even a special discount card for members.

As with the Gift Vouchers for Local Businesses the gym could use the vouchers as an incentive for membership sign up.

There is also the possibility of sharing databases or offering cross promotions. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Local Business Group Shot

By Michael Shilling
Friday, December 2nd, 2011

This marketing campaign is useful not only as a networking tool but also as a way to introduce your business to the local community.

You could try this at any time of year but I’ve found it works particularly well either when you first open your studio or in the run up to Christmas.

What you offer local businesses

  • A group photo of the staff either taken at your studio or in their place of work.
  • Put together a staff discount pack and including some of your Local Business Discount Cards we talked about in a previous article.
  • Offer a complimentary print or even the digital file which they can use either to put on their wall or in a company newsletter.

If the staff want to order extra prints then it’s worth making this an option. At the very least this should cover the costs of your promotion.

It’s not a bad idea to post the group photo on Facebook and link to the company’s page. This will begin a social media relationship and cement those made in person. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Local Business Discount Cards

By Michael Shilling
Friday, November 25th, 2011

Here in the UK there is a almost unspoken rule on the high street that businesses share their staff discounts. Unspoken as most big brands don’t allow this but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t had the odd half price coffee here and there!

That said, most high street stores have a high staff turnover and many bosses tend not like their staff giving out discounts left and right.

This marketing campaign aims to bring back the sense of being part of a local business community. I should stress that the aim of this campaign is not just to get half price coffee but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a little added bonus.

Creating your discount cards

Ideally you want to create something that isn’t just a badly printed card from your desktop printer. Plastic credit card style cards are cheap and easy enough to create and all you need to do is to decide on how much of a discount you want to give away. 10% is generally accepted as standard but it’s entirely up to you.

Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Teach Photography Basics

By Michael Shilling
Friday, November 18th, 2011

Let’s face it, everyone today is an aspiring photographer whether they are taking pictures of their kids with a camera phone or shooting over your shoulder at a wedding with an entry level DSLR.

Photography tuition and training is a busy marketplace, especially at the semi-pro level (these are the ones with the spare cash after all) but I think some photographers often overlook people that could potentially turn into photography clients as well as tuition clients. It’s all very well training other photographers who want to go pro but at the end of the day what is the likelihood of them asking you for a family portrait session?

Back in the days when I was working as a cruise ship photographer I hosted a series of photography basics classes aimed at people with very little knowledge of their camera other than knowing that the big button makes the picture (that’s not a typo it’s a direct quote).

The first class we offered (which was free) would always attract a full house of up to 200 people. That was about 10% of our rather uniquely captive audience.

Follow up classes, for which we charged a rather modest $20 for, would usually be compromised from about 10%-20% of the freebie crowd.

$400 might have been a drop in the ocean (excuse the pun) when it came to our $60,000 weekly target but it did help us build relationships with our clients in a different way than we had before. Most of the time we were hassling the passengers for pictures on gangways and in the restaurant so this sort of interaction was a welcome change.

We sold cameras and probably more photos than we did before so it did prove a success. Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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A Photograher’s Diary, Chocs Away!

By Ruth Bayley
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Welcome to a new style of column for me, moving away from the Starting a Photography business series and into a more general look at the life of a photographer. The articles will remain just as candid as you are used to though it will cover a wider range of topics. So, without further ado onto what’s been keeping me busy these last couple of weeks.

Tranquil Gardens

It’s finally here; Healing with Photography has made its maiden voyage into the arena of the general public. Last week saw the very first session of the course with a group of people who are all suffering from some kind of mental distress.

And strangely, I wasn’t even nervous when I had a group of people gathered in front of me all looking at me expectantly. There were no thoughts of I’m just a photographer passing on knowledge of things that helped me to get better, what am I doing here? I stepped fully into my inner power and talked from the heart. I loved being with this group, I loved slowly observing the participants that had been coerced into attending by the group leader, unconsciously start to unfold their arms, let the barriers down and start to participate fully. Read More→

Categories : Inspiration, Make Better Photographs
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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Sell a Non-Photography Product

By Michael Shilling
Friday, November 11th, 2011

Perhaps it’s my entrepreneurial spirit they made me think of this marketing campaign, or perhaps it’s just another good way to create some interest in your business.

The products or services you sell don’t have to cost tens of thousands of pounds (or dollars), they can be simple, affordable and convenient.

The nature of running a photography business is that at least in the beginning, you have to pretty much do everything yourself from bookkeeping to website design. After a while you might even consider yourself an expert in some of these areas. As I write this I am on my way to do a bit of website consulting work. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no expert but there’s certainly things I can show people that they don’t have time to teach themselves.

In terms of physical products you don’t even have to create the product yourself. As photographers we often have a steady client base which other businesses would be certainly interested in taking advantage of.

Ideas for services

If you are a wedding photographer then it makes sense to partner with other businesses that are dealing with the visual aspect of the wedding. I am of course referring to make-up artists and hair stylists.

Offering a complete package of photography, hair and makeup will not only make your life easier because you will undoubtably only work with hair and MUA’s that aren’t a pain in backside but it will also tick two more boxes on the bride and groom’s to do list.

Read More→

Categories : Grow Your Business, Marketing Campaigns
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