Archive for photography business

Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Discount Book

By Michael Shilling
Friday, October 14th, 2011

There are dozens of different discount or voucher books available for all sorts of different industries. I’m sure at some point you’ve been offered the opportunity to appear in one, for a small fee of course.

Like many of the other marketing campaigns in this series this idea comes from something that already exists and can be successful. The difference being you create your own. Do a bit of the donkey work and save yourself a considerable amount of money.

Putting a discount book together is an easy enough task and just requires a bit of time on the phone and on the computer.

This campaign can work well for most industries but it is particularly good in the wedding and baby marketplace.

The voucher book

A set of discount vouchers which offer between 10% – 60% off retail prices. Thanks to daily deal websites people are used to receiving large discounts but really you want offers that are appealing whilst still allowing businesses to profit.

How many businesses you want to get involved is up to you but what you need is a good spectrum of services within the same industry.

You also need a good balance of specific businesses and not to have too much competition for each specialisation.

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Shooting Santa

By Michael Shilling
Friday, October 7th, 2011

When I talk about Shooting Santa in the run up to Christmas other portrait photographers often look at me baffled and ask ‘Why do you bother? You can’t make much money doing that.’

In a way that might be true but short term financial gain isn’t what I do it for. My real reason for shooting Santa……. Data collection and promotion.

Last year I had a Santa set-up at a Christmas market which cost me nothing as I agreed to take a handful of ‘promotional’ shots for the event organisers. I wasn’t by any means the official photographer for the event but as they had paid for the Santa they just wanted some images of him walking around a bit. For the sake of a few happy snaps I’d saved myself a nice bundle for the pitch rent and my model fees.

I had done similar shoots in the past and experimented with selling and printing onsite. This always proved to be a logistical nightmare and the weather always threw it’s spanner into the works.

Last year I changed tactics and rather than worrying about making a little extra pocket money I concentrated on getting the numbers in and capturing data.

The set-up was simple enough….. Santa sitting on a chair….. Put child on Santa and shoot.

Instead of putting images online or previewing the shots on a laptop I simply showed the the back of my camera and offered the parents the digital image for a small sum (about £5). I then got the parents details and emailed them the image the very next day. Read More→

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Pop-up Studio

By Michael Shilling
Friday, September 30th, 2011

Pop-up studios and shops have become increasingly popular in recent years and not just in the photography industry. This is by no way a new type of marketing for photographers, in fact the UK’s most successful photography franchise is built around leads from mall stands.

Not only are these cheaper than a permanent location (unless you’re going to have a popup 54 weeks a year) but it creates excitement around your business.

The Pop-up Studio Concept
Often know as ‘studio days’ the pop-up studio concept has become popular in many different children’s clothing stores and play centres. Basically you are offering studio taster sessions which is more of a bite sized version of what you already do in your studio.

It is important to play the numbers game and to not spend too long on each session. Set-ups in shops are best suited to baby photography as space can be limited whereas play centres offer a bit more space and possibility for a more elaborate set-up. It is also possible to rent space in shopping centres but be prepared to pay a fair amount or these.

Studio Days
Approach local businesses and ask about the possibility of renting a space in their premise for either a single day or more. If successful it is worth doing this on a regular basis, perhaps once a month. It’s always a good idea to do it at the start of the month when people have been paid and are more likely to make spontaneous purchases.

Once you have a business on board then you’ll be able to promote your days with posters and flyers. Visit the businesses during their peak times in the run up to your events to actively promote them. This will also give you the opportunity to make bookings.

Undoubtedly the venue will be happy to promote your events but remember that you are the best ambassador for your business.

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The School Fair Set-Up

By Michael Shilling
Friday, August 5th, 2011

Whilst working for a high street portrait studio franchise a few years ago this marketing campaign was suggested to us from our head office as a summer campaign. For the most part it worked quite well but there could have been some improvements so I’ve included those in this article.

The reason I like this campaign is that not only are you promoting yourself within your local community but it can be very good for data collection. To start off you need to do a bit of research.

Identify your local primary schools and find out who organizes the fundraising events. I would do this early in the year as you are going to want to approach your points of contact in early Spring.

The Offer
In return for a stand at the school’s summer (or even spring) fair you either pay the asked fee or offer a percentage of your profits taken on the day towards the school’s fundraising. These are charity events so it is important to be flexible and to fit in with what the event organisers have planned. Some organisers will simply ask if you can take some pictures of the event in return for your stand and if this is the case then make sure you have another photographer or someone to man the stand when you are doing this.

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – Online Directories

By Michael Shilling
Friday, July 29th, 2011

One of the easiest ways to build inbound links to to your website is to sign up to online directories.
It seems that every month I get an email from a new directory offering me ‘the opportunity’ to list my business on their site “For Only £xxx a month!” The effectiveness of such sites is of course debatable but online directories do come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and the right ones can help bring in some good referrals.

Different Types of Directories

Online ‘Books’
Theses are the traditional book directories, or rather their online equivalents. Sites like this normally offer a basic free listing but this doesn’t always include a web link. This is a technique which the companies use to get your information so that they can up sell a premium listing to you.

Traffic wise, these are going to be the most popular of the directories and they usually have smart phone and tablet applications as well. That popularity comes at a price and in all honesty I’m not convinced that their effectiveness is equal to the spend.

Being larger, more expensive and of course more established, these companies do offer a lot more information in terms of traffic insights and analytics. One service that has come from the print days are special phone numbers which allows you to track how many calls you actually receive from your listing. You can also expect a break down of how many impressions and click throughs your listing is receiving.

Generally speaking these directories are working harder than most to get your business listed and offering more and more features and apparent benefits but if the cost is going to consume a large amount of your marketing budget then I would perhaps suggest that you look elsewhere first. Read More→

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Marketing Campaigns for Photographers – The Gift List

By Michael Shilling
Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Today’s wedding photography client is very different from days gone by (or so I’m told). Some of them have children, some have been married before but for the most part many couples already live together either in their own or rented property.

What this offers is opportunity as the traditional wedding gift list has changed dramatically. Most couples (at least here in the UK) don’t really like to ask just for money from their guests but at the same time they don’t need a new toaster, crockery or monogrammed cutlery set.

The tourism industry was one of the first to jump into this lucrative gap in the market and offered a gift list option for honeymoons. This got me thinking, could the same principle work for wedding photography? The answers is an undeniable yes and as it turns out I am not alone in offering this service to my wedding clients.

Offering a gift list option for your wedding photography works well not only to top up what your clients have already spent but it also makes your products more affordable. Not only that, you’ll be sending out your business cards and information to every guest before you have even shot a single frame which in itself is a pretty good marketing strategy. Read More→

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