Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Crafting a Marketing Strategy

By Ira M. Gostin, MBA, © 2008 www.gostin.com

Photographers traditionally search for ways to let the world know they are creative folks, and then market themselves using the same old methods. It’s time to change the way you think. Now is the time to develop a new, creative and effective marketing strategy for your photography business.

Your marketing has to be innovative, informative, creative and above all, interesting. It’s about presenting yourself in an honest, simple to understand, positive manner that the client can relate to and be comfortable with. And most importantly, it means presenting spectacular images. After all, that’s what your prospective clients are seeking - amazing photography.

Who are you?

Understand who you are as a business first. Then determine who buys what you want to do. Your marketing strategy will follow. Once you identify who you are, make it your marketing message, slogan or tagline. This should be a brief description about what you do: We Photograph People; Digital Food for Menus; Auto Racing the World Over. Whatever you decide upon, it should be a straightforward reflection of you. Your tagline should be concise and consistent with what you are selling.

Who do you sell to?

Now that you have identified who you are, you need to determine who you are selling to. This is best done on paper — a successful marketing strategy should only be a single page. This list of potential clients, whether self-generated or purchased, is your target market. Do some research; find out all you can about the prospective clients and formulate a database. Don’t overwhelm yourself; keep the lists small and manageable. A list of about 25 prospects per list is a good number to begin with.

The USP

Establish your Unique Selling Proposition. Simply put, what is unique about your business? Use this uniqueness to position your business in the market. It is the foundation of your brand. The USP is a time-tested and effective strategy that all businesses use. Look at other industries; what do their tag lines suggest? Look at ads in magazines; see how businesses present themselves. Use these ideas as the building blocks upon which you will sell your own unique qualities and talents.

Your portfolio

When you are choosing images, find unique images that will separate you from the rest of the crowd. It is difficult look at your own work objectively, so ask for help from friends, a portfolio coach or anyone that might be able to assist you. And be sure to show your prospective clients images that talk about you, not what you think they want to see. Accept your uniqueness, embrace it and be as creative as you can be.

Contact materials

Look at your contact materials. They should be professionally designed and reflect the quality product you are delivering. You are marketing to designers and art directors, which means your contact materials need to be professional and creative.

Your marketing calendar

After you have pieced this all together, develop a calendar for the implementation of your marketing strategy. Will you market every quarter? Every month? Who knows what time is best? That is up to you to decide. One photographer did a mailing to 50 art directors every Friday for two months — she was the talk of the town. Decide what you are trying to say, and say it as effectively as possible.

Be committed to the image/brand you are presenting. Be committed to your marketing message. And be committed to your strategy.

Here’s a brief check list:

  1. Who am I? (Marketing message)
  2. How am I unique?
  3. Who do I want to do work for?
  4. How will I show them my work?
  5. Can my contact materials be better?
  6. Are these the most creative images I can show?
  7. Who can I get some unbiased help from?
  8. How often am I going to send out?
  9. How can I integrate multiple components for a common message?
  10. Develop your marketing calendar.
  11. Think positively and be relaxed.
  12. Double check everything.
  13. Look up the word serendipity in the dictionary.
  14. Stop planning already and do it!

You can’t stop marketing. It must be a part of your weekly routine. All of this work can be accomplished in just a few days per month. It isn’t overly complicated; it just requires your commitment to change. “That’s the way we have always done it,” is a dangerous strategy. Don’t be afraid to change.

Ira Gostin is a marketing strategist with Rand & Associates in Reno, Nevada. A photojournalist turned commercial photographer (and former ASMP member), Ira went through an extensive career change with graduate school, management training at Starbucks and an internship at an advertising agency. Ira now works with small to medium companies connecting their marketing to increased profits. Find Ira on LinkedIn or at www.gostin.com.

Marketing Your Stock Directly to Buyers

Jon Hornstein

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make a reasonable amount of money from stock sales. There are still some success stories but the explosion of inventory and new sources for stock imagery, and the resulting downward price pressure all present significant challenges for photographers.

Some photographers decide to market their stock images themselves. This can have many benefits. It removes the “gatekeeper” aspect of stock agencies that may not want your work because they already have similar inventory. It’s also a chance for you to make your stock stand out from the crowd. And it opens up the possibility of much greater revenue. But marketing your own stock requires a substantial commitment in both time and resources.

There are many things to consider when deciding to market your own stock. The focus of this article is on marketing, so it assumes that if you want to market your stock directly you’ve already considered the following:

– Whether to use a hosted, turnkey service (such as IPN Stock, PhotoShelter, Digital Railroad, PhotoStockPlus) or build your own stock photo site.

– That you need distinctive, high-quality images that are significantly different from what buyers can find at the dozens of other common sources for stock.

– You are committed to spending a specific amount of your time and money in preparing and marketing your stock images.

The most difficult and expensive part of any stock business is getting your work in front of interested and qualified buyers. To give yourself the greatest chance of success, you should:

Focus on a Specific Market
It’s very difficult to compete head on with the big stock agencies. It’s expensive to address all possible photo buyers as they do, and your relative lack of inventory means that a lot of your marketing effort will be wasted. Your best chance of success is to focus on a specific set of buyers. Oftentimes, the work you do will dictate what that market is. If you shoot outdoors adventure images then your market is outdoor equipment companies and outdoor magazines. Do you have a lot of images from a specific geographic region? Focus on travel magazines and travel companies. The more tightly you can define your market, the easier and more cost-effectively you can address them.


Create a Distinctive Service
Many photographers offer stock for licensing on a “what the hell” basis. Somewhere on their portfolio site it says “Stock” where visitors can see some of the photographer’s most popular images. This is very different than making a proactive effort to market stock. Having a few dozen images on your site that you call stock is not something that will get the attention of buyers. Give your stock offering a sub-brand or its own brand. Make it clear that stock is a serious business to you. Clients can tell the difference.

Articulate Your Difference
Why should someone license an image from you? What is special about your images or your service? There is a lot of “noise” in the stock photo market. What is your brand for stock and what distinguishes it from the competition?

Market Consistently and Use a Variety of Channels
How will you get the attention of art buyers? Most hosted stock photo services attempt to attract photo buyers to their sites. But if you’re serious about getting stock sales you’ll need to drive traffic to your site yourself. Email blasts, postcards and booklets are just some of the ways you need to promote your stock offering. If your work is around a very specific subject (i.e. gambling, horses, rock climbing, jazz musicians) then Google AdWords might be a good way to attract traffic. The key is to be consistent. It often takes repeated exposure to a brand before a buyer will investigate. And photo buyers have different needs over time. The only way to ensure that you hit them at the time they are looking for work like yours is to always be out there.

Remember, buyers aren’t looking for images. They are looking for a service that provides the images they need. They want to deal with an organization that looks to be efficient and professional.

Marketing you own stock can be rewarding both creatively and financially. But it requires creating a brand that photo buyers recognize as targeted and professional. It also means making a commitment to put in the time, and resources to market your stock consistently and effectively.


Jon Hornstein is the owner of Creative Touchpoint, a marketing services firm for photographers. You can read more articles by Jon at
http://photo-marketing-tips.com.