Best and Least Expensive way to Advertise?
Feb 12, 2021 09:24:09 #
As for doing free headshots for “exposure”. It just exposes you as someone that will work for free.
Feb 12, 2021 09:56:21 #
James, I'd suggest Instagram. However, the frequency and number of posts is a delicate balance you'll have to maintain.
--Bob
--Bob
toptrainer wrote:
I have always struggled with the advertising end of business. As my photography was improving, I was lacking at getting the word out. What have you used in the past to bring in business, and what works? I did some free Head Shots and trying to get out the word that way, a client of mine has thousands of Social Media followers and is helping me out in that aspect. Any advice would be helpful.
Feb 12, 2021 10:48:18 #
Feb 12, 2021 10:48:42 #
Advice from an old man with a grey beard after 56 years in the business of photography:
Professional photography IS hard work, but it ain't difficult if you enjoy hard work- it is not a job for lazy people!
Makig the transition from a hobby to a profession is an ongoing process of education. You mist perfect your product. Self-teaching, books and inline resources are OK but formal classes, seminars, and professional guidance is required.
The first step is to join the Professional Photographers of America. This is an enormous resource of education, seminars classes, competitions and critiques, and excellent reading material. They offer many benefits, insurance plans and more. There also feature courses in business management, promotion and marketing.
When you go to any business, you are your own employee. You need to manage your time and derive a profit so you can maintain a decent lifestyle- you gotta get paid! In other to do this you need a business plan. You have to figure out how much MONEY you need to make in order to support yourself and cover the costs of doing business. It starts with a simple list and a bit of mathematics. Firstly, list all your personal expenses rent or mortgage, food, transportation, utilities, a few luxuries, household expenses, insurance, and all your necessities! Next, list all your projected business expenses: Rent or a percentage of your home ret or a mortgage payment that you use for office or studio space, insurance, transportation (automotive), insurance, telephone, online services, association dues, office expenses, advertising, equipment maintenance, and YOUR PROJECTED SALARY. This does not include your equipment (that's your capital investment) or the money you spend on supplies, merchandise, lab services, printing materials, mounts and frames (etc) -stuff you mark up and sell to customers (THOSE ARE COSTS OF SALES).
Then, add up the total of the two basic lists and you have the revenues you will require just to keep you are your business afloat. You will determine the OVERHEAD EXPENSES that remain the same regardless of your volume of business. You will begin to get an idea of how many contracts, assignments, or jobs you are gonna need to be based on your PRICE LIST. Your price list or schedule of costs and fees will be determined by how much of a profit margin you will place on each job and how much you mark up your costs of sales. You have to add in a portion of your overhead expenses to the costs of doing each job.
Of course, these are all PROJECTIONS and estimates but you need to begin to understand your business is viable based on all these costs and how much work you can generate. You will better be able to set goals and monitor your progress.
You must start up a BOOKKEEPING system. Even if you are only doing a modes volume of business, you need to start up an accounting system. Nowadays there are many computer-driven systems and if you have difficulty with this you should consult a Certified Accountant to get you started. If you require operating lines of credit, bank financing, equipment purchasing, etc, you must have all your ducks in line or banks and lending institutions won't talk to you!
Establishing a portfolio ain't easy but DO NOT work for free or at particularly low-ball prices. If you do that, you will create a rut that is difficult to get out of! You can not succeed by undercutting your competition simply because your business plan is based on your requirements, not those of others. Your goal should be to charge as much or mort that others based on the superiority of your work and service.
I know that these parts of the job ain't artistic and glamorous but you gotta put down the foundation before you can bud the house!
They used to say- "put your nose to the grindstone"! I never owned a grindstone but I get the meaning!
Professional photography IS hard work, but it ain't difficult if you enjoy hard work- it is not a job for lazy people!
Makig the transition from a hobby to a profession is an ongoing process of education. You mist perfect your product. Self-teaching, books and inline resources are OK but formal classes, seminars, and professional guidance is required.
The first step is to join the Professional Photographers of America. This is an enormous resource of education, seminars classes, competitions and critiques, and excellent reading material. They offer many benefits, insurance plans and more. There also feature courses in business management, promotion and marketing.
When you go to any business, you are your own employee. You need to manage your time and derive a profit so you can maintain a decent lifestyle- you gotta get paid! In other to do this you need a business plan. You have to figure out how much MONEY you need to make in order to support yourself and cover the costs of doing business. It starts with a simple list and a bit of mathematics. Firstly, list all your personal expenses rent or mortgage, food, transportation, utilities, a few luxuries, household expenses, insurance, and all your necessities! Next, list all your projected business expenses: Rent or a percentage of your home ret or a mortgage payment that you use for office or studio space, insurance, transportation (automotive), insurance, telephone, online services, association dues, office expenses, advertising, equipment maintenance, and YOUR PROJECTED SALARY. This does not include your equipment (that's your capital investment) or the money you spend on supplies, merchandise, lab services, printing materials, mounts and frames (etc) -stuff you mark up and sell to customers (THOSE ARE COSTS OF SALES).
Then, add up the total of the two basic lists and you have the revenues you will require just to keep you are your business afloat. You will determine the OVERHEAD EXPENSES that remain the same regardless of your volume of business. You will begin to get an idea of how many contracts, assignments, or jobs you are gonna need to be based on your PRICE LIST. Your price list or schedule of costs and fees will be determined by how much of a profit margin you will place on each job and how much you mark up your costs of sales. You have to add in a portion of your overhead expenses to the costs of doing each job.
Of course, these are all PROJECTIONS and estimates but you need to begin to understand your business is viable based on all these costs and how much work you can generate. You will better be able to set goals and monitor your progress.
You must start up a BOOKKEEPING system. Even if you are only doing a modes volume of business, you need to start up an accounting system. Nowadays there are many computer-driven systems and if you have difficulty with this you should consult a Certified Accountant to get you started. If you require operating lines of credit, bank financing, equipment purchasing, etc, you must have all your ducks in line or banks and lending institutions won't talk to you!
Establishing a portfolio ain't easy but DO NOT work for free or at particularly low-ball prices. If you do that, you will create a rut that is difficult to get out of! You can not succeed by undercutting your competition simply because your business plan is based on your requirements, not those of others. Your goal should be to charge as much or mort that others based on the superiority of your work and service.
I know that these parts of the job ain't artistic and glamorous but you gotta put down the foundation before you can bud the house!
They used to say- "put your nose to the grindstone"! I never owned a grindstone but I get the meaning!
Feb 12, 2021 11:28:14 #
I was in the promotional product business for many years and we got most of ours business from referrals. A real kicker of that process is adding a free, useful product with your advertising on it so your potential customers will always have an easy way of remembering you. One of the most successful products we used was a zippy letter opener with a magnet on the back of it to attach to the refrigerator. I had one instance of getting a call from a customer for help with their advertising five years after my giving the zippy letter opener to her. The cost of our advertising always paid for itself and more with increased sales. Try it; customers are always thankful for the gift you have given them and your advertising stays with them for years!!!
Feb 12, 2021 12:34:58 #
kenArchi
Loc: Seal Beach, CA
Advertising is cruel $$.
How will you tell them to look your ad?
Example, one photographer tried all types of media. But the targeted high school seniors were not and did not know to look for his ad.
Solution: He got the list of all seniors and mailed each one a flier.
Result: 100% targeted.
And it was nonstop business.
How will you tell them to look your ad?
Example, one photographer tried all types of media. But the targeted high school seniors were not and did not know to look for his ad.
Solution: He got the list of all seniors and mailed each one a flier.
Result: 100% targeted.
And it was nonstop business.
Feb 12, 2021 17:26:58 #
Billy Bob 2
Loc: Marengo IN
YOU need a short and sweet domain like I use bb2p.com for billybob2photography.com A smugmug account it took 2 mounts to get me on the first page of google for a year. AND go on google get all the FREE domain listing you can on photography put your name on them. IT WORKS FAST.
Feb 12, 2021 23:00:39 #
Feb 13, 2021 11:44:45 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
I spent 21 years in the advertising industry.
Word of mouth is the very best form of advertising. Figure out a way to "reward" people for each referral they send to you. Give them an incentive. It can be a discount on their next session or a free add-on like an extra print or something like that.
You have to be very careful about giving "free" services, though. If you charge $0, it's pretty hard to offer a discount! Your referrals are likely to tell their friends you're the "free" photographer, too... so you will be getting new "customers" expecting to get your services for free, too. That's a great way to go bankrupt and out of business in a short time!
You should NEVER discount below your cost. That's assuming you actually know your cost of doing business, which in turn implies you have an actual business plan.
90% of a professional photography business is the business side of it... maybe 10% is the creativity and quality of the photos taken. There are lots of successful but mediocre photographers who are smart business people. At the same time, there are many great photographers who failed as businesses, because they were lousy at and neglected the business side of it.
You're wise to ask about advertising, but that should be part of a larger marketing plan, which in turn is part of a business plan, which also includes a lot of other things such as an analysis of the competition, your cost of doing business, legal considerations and licensing, insurance, accounting and budgeting, taxes, etc. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Plans aren't set in stone. They can be changed as needed, as you learn and grow your business. But planning gives you a clearer roadmap and goals to work toward. Sometimes you'll succeed. Sometimes you won't and will need to adjust the plan. And, things change. New competitors enter the market or what clients want changes or myriad other things happen that you have to respond to with changes to your business plan. But by then you will know what you're doing and have a pretty clear picture of what's needed.
Someone else noted... and they're right... "inexpensive" and "best" shouldn't be used in the same sentence. You basically get what you pay for. About the cheapest form of advertising is a post on Craigslist. But it's also the absolute worst place to advertise because it's full of "photos for free" ads and the "customers" you get through it are what I call "bottom feeders"... people looking for free or extremely low cost services who are only a drain on any business... the most likely to argue with you over price, the most likely to bounce a check, the most likely to complain about your services and give you a bad reputation, the most likely to sue you for fail.
Direct mail and email marketing can be the most cost efficient, so long as you target your market and potential clients with a good offer. (Again, beware that "free" is a good way to go broke and rarely generates profitable future clientele... risks doing just the opposite).
More broadcast advertising is not what another response suggests. By "broadcast" I mean "less targeted" efforts to reach a wider audience. You don't "tell them to look at your ad". You have to create an ad that's displayed somewhere you're most particular clients are likely to see it and the ad must be designed to catch their attention so they'll follow though by watching or reading it. Today I wouldn't put an ad to appeal to teenagers in a newspaper or even on Facebook. Those are media for "old fuddy duddies", as far as teenagers are concerned. If trying to reach teenagers, figure out what they're looking at and that's where you need to advertise. If trying to reach folks who are retirement age, you'll need to take an entirely different approach. Don't advertise adult diapers, canes and arthritis medications on Saturday morning cartoons... And don't advertise kid's cereal and toys on late night talk shows aimed at adults (well, it depends on the toys... some might do well... or be adult oriented!).
You're best bet will probably be a mix of advertising types. Word of mouth/referrals, online "eyeballs", direct mail, print or other traditional media, etc. It should work together and the different types of ads should complement each other. Don't think in terms of "an ad"... think in terms of an "advertising campaign".
In 21 years working in the advertising industry, I've only seen a few instances when a single ad produced fantastic results. And often those were inexplicable. Years ago I was working with a fresh seafood market that had just opened for business. This was in Colorado where fresh seafood wasn't typically available, so that was part of the reason for some of our immediate success. Simply creating awareness of the store's existence immediately generated some level of traffic and purchasing. This specialty store was a franchise with the business model of using air freight to rapidly get seafood into markets that didn't usually enjoy it. The local super markets weren't offering fresh seafood at that time.
We put their first ad in the local newspaper's Wednesday edition (which was "grocery day" and "coupon day" in that market). It was designed as a coupon that offered a free "de-veiner" kitchen tool with the purchase of a pound of shrimp at the regular price around $10 at the time, if I recall correctly. That de-veiner was a cheap plastic utensil that was used to prepare the shrimp. I bet they didn't cost more than 5 or 10 cents apiece. Even so, the store owner told me he redeemed over 1000 of those coupons and gave away more than 1000 of those plastic de-veiners in a week! In fact, he ran out of them, but was a very happy camper! The ad probably cost him $400 or so, while the plastic utensils might have cost another $100. (Of course, he also had the costs of opening the store, hiring people to work in it and all the other things.) I doubt we ever had an equally successful ad after that, but he certainly got jump start building a business and establishing a repeat customer base. Eventually the large grocery store chains figured out how to do the same thing and put this specialty store out of business. But he had a good, profitable run for a number of years, running regular print ads that more than paid for themselves.
Obviously, a coupon in the Wednesday newspaper isn't what I'd recommend you spend your minimal ad budget upon. But hopefully that gives you some ideas about tailoring your own effort to get the most bang for you buck. It will need to be the most efficient way to reach your most likely customer in your particular market. If you want to shoot model head shots, you need to reach local people who aspire to be models and are prepared to pay a reasonable price for the service. Experienced, well-established models are less likely to need you and more likely to already have one or more photographers they like to work with.
Parallel with any advertising, you should work a wider marketing plan. For example, you should be developing an email/mailing list. This can serve for direct mail/email advertising, but also can simply be a means of regular communicating with potential client. You also should do some networking with other people who regularly work with models, such as make-up artists and modelling agents. If you were a wedding photographer, you'd want to contact wedding planners, caterers, tux rental shops, churches and other venues that regularly conduct weddings, etc. Whenever appropriate and with their permission, they might end up on your mail/emailing list, too.
Word of mouth is the very best form of advertising. Figure out a way to "reward" people for each referral they send to you. Give them an incentive. It can be a discount on their next session or a free add-on like an extra print or something like that.
You have to be very careful about giving "free" services, though. If you charge $0, it's pretty hard to offer a discount! Your referrals are likely to tell their friends you're the "free" photographer, too... so you will be getting new "customers" expecting to get your services for free, too. That's a great way to go bankrupt and out of business in a short time!
You should NEVER discount below your cost. That's assuming you actually know your cost of doing business, which in turn implies you have an actual business plan.
90% of a professional photography business is the business side of it... maybe 10% is the creativity and quality of the photos taken. There are lots of successful but mediocre photographers who are smart business people. At the same time, there are many great photographers who failed as businesses, because they were lousy at and neglected the business side of it.
You're wise to ask about advertising, but that should be part of a larger marketing plan, which in turn is part of a business plan, which also includes a lot of other things such as an analysis of the competition, your cost of doing business, legal considerations and licensing, insurance, accounting and budgeting, taxes, etc. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Plans aren't set in stone. They can be changed as needed, as you learn and grow your business. But planning gives you a clearer roadmap and goals to work toward. Sometimes you'll succeed. Sometimes you won't and will need to adjust the plan. And, things change. New competitors enter the market or what clients want changes or myriad other things happen that you have to respond to with changes to your business plan. But by then you will know what you're doing and have a pretty clear picture of what's needed.
Someone else noted... and they're right... "inexpensive" and "best" shouldn't be used in the same sentence. You basically get what you pay for. About the cheapest form of advertising is a post on Craigslist. But it's also the absolute worst place to advertise because it's full of "photos for free" ads and the "customers" you get through it are what I call "bottom feeders"... people looking for free or extremely low cost services who are only a drain on any business... the most likely to argue with you over price, the most likely to bounce a check, the most likely to complain about your services and give you a bad reputation, the most likely to sue you for fail.
Direct mail and email marketing can be the most cost efficient, so long as you target your market and potential clients with a good offer. (Again, beware that "free" is a good way to go broke and rarely generates profitable future clientele... risks doing just the opposite).
More broadcast advertising is not what another response suggests. By "broadcast" I mean "less targeted" efforts to reach a wider audience. You don't "tell them to look at your ad". You have to create an ad that's displayed somewhere you're most particular clients are likely to see it and the ad must be designed to catch their attention so they'll follow though by watching or reading it. Today I wouldn't put an ad to appeal to teenagers in a newspaper or even on Facebook. Those are media for "old fuddy duddies", as far as teenagers are concerned. If trying to reach teenagers, figure out what they're looking at and that's where you need to advertise. If trying to reach folks who are retirement age, you'll need to take an entirely different approach. Don't advertise adult diapers, canes and arthritis medications on Saturday morning cartoons... And don't advertise kid's cereal and toys on late night talk shows aimed at adults (well, it depends on the toys... some might do well... or be adult oriented!).
You're best bet will probably be a mix of advertising types. Word of mouth/referrals, online "eyeballs", direct mail, print or other traditional media, etc. It should work together and the different types of ads should complement each other. Don't think in terms of "an ad"... think in terms of an "advertising campaign".
In 21 years working in the advertising industry, I've only seen a few instances when a single ad produced fantastic results. And often those were inexplicable. Years ago I was working with a fresh seafood market that had just opened for business. This was in Colorado where fresh seafood wasn't typically available, so that was part of the reason for some of our immediate success. Simply creating awareness of the store's existence immediately generated some level of traffic and purchasing. This specialty store was a franchise with the business model of using air freight to rapidly get seafood into markets that didn't usually enjoy it. The local super markets weren't offering fresh seafood at that time.
We put their first ad in the local newspaper's Wednesday edition (which was "grocery day" and "coupon day" in that market). It was designed as a coupon that offered a free "de-veiner" kitchen tool with the purchase of a pound of shrimp at the regular price around $10 at the time, if I recall correctly. That de-veiner was a cheap plastic utensil that was used to prepare the shrimp. I bet they didn't cost more than 5 or 10 cents apiece. Even so, the store owner told me he redeemed over 1000 of those coupons and gave away more than 1000 of those plastic de-veiners in a week! In fact, he ran out of them, but was a very happy camper! The ad probably cost him $400 or so, while the plastic utensils might have cost another $100. (Of course, he also had the costs of opening the store, hiring people to work in it and all the other things.) I doubt we ever had an equally successful ad after that, but he certainly got jump start building a business and establishing a repeat customer base. Eventually the large grocery store chains figured out how to do the same thing and put this specialty store out of business. But he had a good, profitable run for a number of years, running regular print ads that more than paid for themselves.
Obviously, a coupon in the Wednesday newspaper isn't what I'd recommend you spend your minimal ad budget upon. But hopefully that gives you some ideas about tailoring your own effort to get the most bang for you buck. It will need to be the most efficient way to reach your most likely customer in your particular market. If you want to shoot model head shots, you need to reach local people who aspire to be models and are prepared to pay a reasonable price for the service. Experienced, well-established models are less likely to need you and more likely to already have one or more photographers they like to work with.
Parallel with any advertising, you should work a wider marketing plan. For example, you should be developing an email/mailing list. This can serve for direct mail/email advertising, but also can simply be a means of regular communicating with potential client. You also should do some networking with other people who regularly work with models, such as make-up artists and modelling agents. If you were a wedding photographer, you'd want to contact wedding planners, caterers, tux rental shops, churches and other venues that regularly conduct weddings, etc. Whenever appropriate and with their permission, they might end up on your mail/emailing list, too.
Feb 13, 2021 17:43:56 #
amfoto1 wrote:
I spent 21 years in the advertising industry. br ... (show quote)
I agree with much of this comprehensive post. I was not in the advertising business, per se, but I service the advertising industry and have seen lots of advertising strategies prove to be successful and others fail to reach potential in proportion to the money invested. I have tried many different media and have done well with most and have abandoned others due to lack of results.
The fact is that advertise in mass-media is expensive and for it to be cost-effective, it MUST be carefully and precisely targeted. Markets must be identified and appealed to. In many cases, we, as photographers. are no selling necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and pharmaceutical items. In most cases, in the retail sector, we are offering luxury items and services. In the commercial and industrial sectors, images are necessary but sales will fluctuate with the economy and targeting is even more specialized.
You must select your media. Print and TV and radio broadcast media are extremely expensive unless it is very localized. Even in the case of a local TV, radio, or local newspaper, targeting is important. For example, if you advertise in a newspaper for wedding and event coverage, select the social; pages where these events are announced. Some newspapers issue an annual wedding addition where vendors are featured. If you are advertising for business and executive portrait services or industrial or commercial photography, select the business section.
Another strategy, I found effective is not putting all your monetary eggs in one basket. Don't spend your advertising print advertising budget on a full-page ad but rather place smaller ads on a regular and continuous basis in the appropriate sections. If you have the budget for a fill page ad- select a specialized publication in a specific publically or trade journal and produce a knockout ad.
I realize that print-publication are becoming archaic, but in certain circles, folks still read and do not gather all the news and view it online.
Direct mail is only good if it is surgically directed. Up here in Canada, the Canada Post Corporation offers "AD-mail. We can produce a mailing piece and send t to certain mail routes. we can select a neighbourhood, even a few city blocks and target an area where the socioeconomic conditions are favourable to our services and prices.
We also have a mailing list of our established clients and send them notification of seasonal offers and remind them that we are still in business to serve them.
Radio and TV. We used to do "institutional" kind of TV spots on a local station. Not direct offers or sale process. etc. bit 30 second or one-minute spots in the sentimental value of family portraits. We produced a tear-jerker that was aimed at making sure to have beautiful images of senior family members that generated an enormous volume of business. Our prints are also more institutional in content as well- the work if they are inserted continuously in the right places. I'll post a couple of tearsheets!
REWARDS for referrals 110%. When we receive a referral for a known source we send off a thank you note with a coupon for a complimentary print from their last session or a discount on the next session.
"Junk mail and robocalls". It a nightmare and has negated the effectiveness of mass mailings and telephone soliciting. Junk Email is also an offender! I still find, however, that the telephone is still a powerful followed up
tool for other promotions. At my studio, we do an annual bridal show and 2 or 3 specialized business shows. We collect leads and tell folks that we will contact interested parties by telephone. We tell them to expect a call and we get their telephone number.
Pandemic time? I needn't remaining y'all- This is not good! Many luxury businesses will not survive. I had to reinvent and retool. Our food service clients all went to online, delivery, and curbside service. So we called and many as we could reach and offer shoot food and other products for online sales and menus. We usually do b35wee 35 to 50 weddings during the season. This year we did 3 small outdoor ceremonies with 10 folks in attendance. We are using the downtime to plan for the other side of this epidemic. Our commercial clients are planning accordingly so there is still some merchandise coming to the shop for product shots.
Networking with other vendors and service persons in related trades and industries is extremely effective. Keep in touch via Email is a good ongoing strategy. All of these communications efforts can be a full-time job so I am fortunate that my lovely wife and full-time business partner runs the office- this is not a one-person responsibility. If you don't fashion yourself as a savvy business manager, find someone to look after that aspect of the business. By the same token, in today's marketplace, I don't think that mediocre work will cut it, even with good promotion. You need to be a cut above the unwashed masses to demand a decent price!
Attached are a few old tearsheets from a previous ad campaign-it was extremely effective. Last year, we resumed a similar concept with updated images in colour. We purchased ads in several family-oriented magazines and did a targeted direct mail programme. Again, the response was excellent. We went kinda "old school" and stayed clear of all the current images of kids with butterfly wings and other nice fantasies and the cut-rate deals from shopping mall studios and the client's found it refreshing.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.