Lessons

Lesson Info

Marketing is Strategic

marketing is about getting clients through your door so the first thing that you should do if you're starting up a business is solidified dot brandt dig deep who are you what is your art why are you doing this to find that and I know it's so hard to do that's why I spent two days on that twenty two page creativity and style road map to help you try to find these answers and it will evolve if it doesn't come right away it's okay it will come but you must be thinking about it constantly make it your obsession and your tunnel vision goal to get the answers to these questions who am I why am I doing this why should I get out of bed in the morning and why should anybody give a hoot if I do why is my work so important that somebody else should get out of bed for it okay I mean these are deep deep questions but answering them will define you and in the next segment we're going to talk about style and how to find your style okay and that's all part of branding as well so this whole afternoon I...

hope will be very inspirational to you to really just pull it out from your gut figure out what's in there and some of you cano and you're like oh no I make this all come together marry that ask yourself what you could bring into that style that brand that you and doesn't fit the next time you go to buy a proper blanket or a hat or hail or whatever doesn't fit your brand does it fit you and who you are or you just trying to be somebody else for a second really ask yourself when you see someone's work who inspires you when you look at that you're saying is that me would I be proud to create that on a deep deep level or is it just because you want to create it because it's a cool technique and you happen to kind of like it and it's wow it's so pretty and uh is it fleeting and fantasy or is it deep desire and sometimes you have to shelve things to really figure that out for a little bit you know so marketing is taking tactical steps to get clients in the door once you have your brand like I said I'm a cheapskate I'm all about doing this on a budget so I'm going to share with you some techniques for doing this on a budget marketing is like fishing okay some days you're going to have the winston fly rod the right conditions on the river and it's going to be just beautiful the fisher out there rising like crazy on and you're not gonna catch a darn one some days you're gonna have a rusty old hook no bait in a bamboo pole they're gonna come jumping out of the river at you like crazy in other words some days you're gonna have a brilliant marketing campaign and it won't work at all it'll flood you like I can just spend all this money on this and it's not working oh it's scary it's happened a lot of times to me and then other days he'll just do a silly little facebook campaign ad you and pull in like twenty clients and pencil you spent twenty bucks on it do you know I mean you have to enjoy the process of fishing and always know the fish know you're there no matter what they see you on the banks of that river every time you cast your line if you don't cash your line and don't stand there on the banks of the river they're not going to see you so you have to market they know you're there every campaign you do there may not be a lot of fish in the particular area you happen to be fishing but they're there and they know it and it builds over time marketing is like a snowball it starts real small and you gotta make a lot of effort to push it down the hill then eventually gets so heavy it starts rolling by itself in the clients just starts coming through the door okay so if you can think about it like that and just keep pushing that darn snowball down the hill it will eventually build to the point where you don't have to do a lot of effort to keep it rolling okay so initially when you start it's frustrating and trust me this process for me took five years to get the ball rolling to a point where clients would come through the door consistently and I don't have to baby sit too much okay but it is possible and it will happen but I want to be real with you guys and at least tell you my perspective and this isn't the case for every photographer obviously and there's anomalies on you know I all I'm telling you is my situation because I can't really compare with others because I don't know what their situation is but client acquisition strategy I guess I want what I'm doing is prefacing all these marketing techniques that I'm going to give you with the notion that you have to learn to like this okay and sometimes markings really disheartening because it doesn't always work and then sometimes it works brilliant your work you know that feeling well yes I am this you know I'm this isn't it I didn't actually say it so client acquisition strategies that we use our relationship building of course which is probably number one marketing partnerships promotions charitable events and social media connection okay vendor relationships are probably one of the most important things that we do what is a vendor it's another local business in your market who shames the same target gimmick demographic with whom you can partner with two share a common marketing goal in other words the baby store down the street who sells high end baby products to all the moms were pregnant they have the same clientele as you yes allie I'm I'm kind of in a unique situation because my mom and I own the local high end baby store oh but I don't know I I have the pictures up and I am will promote stuff on facebook but I don't really know what else to do we'll talk in a saturday can I own your baby store I'll take it use jumping on me no problem what an opportunity they were great opportunity there's plenty of things to do give gift cards to every client who spends a certain amount of money in your store to the to the for a newborn session don't start pop him in right away every mom who registers with the baby store for her baby shower gets a gift card anything like that will help okay I mean if I just register here than we get free money sure I'll do that hold a charitable event in fact I partner with a baby store in my town and we do all kinds of fun stuff that I'm going to tell you about here in a minute okay so full that that vendor examples o b g y n cz lactation consultants dualism midwives retail stores birthing centers birthing classes maternity store's interior designers diaper services prenatal exercise providers fertility clinics and pediatricians great examples of people to partner with who share a common marketing goal with you okay there are unexpected places to find vendors you're looking at me like how on earth is a tv station gonna help me I don't want to spend a boatload of money on advertising right no column all photograph your anchors for commercial purposes if you give me free ad time okay why can you know I mean every television market in america needs those commercial headshots of their anchors the father clock news trust me I've been there done it okay seriously they need those and they need commercial license for them every time we do a live shot somewhere we're on the road running to the place that had a big storm julia's little head shot pops up live on the phone okay they need beautiful commercial headshots of anchors so why can't you contact the news director on the general manager of the station and say hey I'm a professional photographer here in town we're looking to a grow our business I need some ad time I'm wondering if you might do trade or partial trade for images of your anchors video technology these days what susan was talking to us about this morning make a quick thirty second commercial and bam you're on the air every morning at six thirty in front of thousands of millions of people now keep in mind the larger the market urine the harder this is in a place like bend oregon were market like one ninety something out of two hundred twelve television markets in the country it's a piece of cake in los angeles which is market number two this is really challenging to dio okay seattle would be a challenging market to do this in because the station is so large such a big demographic such a big household market gm we call it okay so check out your television stations see if that would be a good route to go pr firms if you do a charitable event why can't you trade pr in press release writing for headshots of all the people they need have shots through her getting pr for them I mean it's like a tit for tat that's it that's the way I did it first when I first moved to ben I was doing pet photography and I did a huge display at the humane society where we photographed all the major donors who had donated to the humane society in the last year their pets and put him up on the walls in vain society we sent out a press release and I used help from a local p r firm in exchange for doing headshots for their clients okay charity same thing webb former owner sarah bless her heart who standing around here somewhere sarah daley who is my social media man knitter she started and bend on a forum called ben moms for mom's so basically any mom could join this forum and talkto other moms about doctors in town and play dates and all that kind of stuff I mean those kind of things are great in your community lops groups fantastic caterers if you have a special event going on you need food for an event at your studio trade for it so many things where you can get opportunities for your marketing efforts by simply trading your talents graphic design photography you have lots of talent that you don't know you have okay no you're targeting women twenty five to forty pregnant or trying to conceive mid to high level income they appreciate fine art very important care about home decor in design they're well educated they enjoy a custom experience they take pride and family and community very important and they're sensitive to becoming a parent fertility clinics ho ho ho there gold mine those women have been trying to get pregnant and they spend a boatload of money doing it they want pictures okay partner with those fertility clinics fine businesses that share this school but how do you do that well first of all get off your fannies and start walking around do some groundwork okay other local publications there's usually like the bump magazine is in los angeles it's for pregnant moms there's parenting magazine everywhere little local parenting things in each community look for advertisers and they're in television thies too all the time they would listen to radio to get to steal the radio advertisers for television and vice versa the radio people would steal the television advertisers I mean it's common it happens all the time so go look for people who are advertising in other magazines and media and media publications and talk to them I asked him here to yourself are they do they share my market do they share my client join women's business groups you know or even the chamber of commerce that's high first started when I came and that's a great place for men to go to I join my chamber of commerce and that's how I mean that's the whole point of a chamber of commerce is for business system network within another now we'll all those businesses share your target market and no of course not you've got to find the ones that fit but you would be very surprised at who you meet I have um acquaintance aaron in my town whom I met at the christmas dinner for the ben chamber of commerce christmas dinner and when I met her she's in a state planning attorney so she works with old people tohave their wills drawn up okay yeah you're my market uh maybe for grandkids but that's about it right but as I got to know where she told me that she was vice president of a group called women for wine sense drink wine oh okay we meet every other month and drink wine a different businesses around town fantastic haven't event in my studio please let's do facebook face lifts get all these women through my door and they're all thirty two fifty baby making age they all have kids I got a couple high school seniors out of that I got a couple families out of it was fantastic okay come to find out having lunch with her six months later she's the vice president of the board foundation for st charles hospital the foundation is in charge of all donations to the hospital art or otherwise changing changing jing okay I met her at a christmas party she was in a state planning attorney I dug a little deeper got to know a little bit more built a relationship with her and discovered an inlet to something I had been wanting for years ah hospital display okay we're gonna talk about that more in a minute I know you're all treat visit europe e t went office women you have a great opportunity I mean he'd say go get your annual exam talked europa's you ryan and I'm in the process of trying to negotiate a display with one of my o b wins in town the art on their walls is like from the nineties it says copyright nineteen ninety one I'm like going to change this art it's terrible you know so we're in the process of negotiating that drive around talk to people network google places you might want in your town that'll help you what if you were pregnant miss emily number seven what if you're pregnant where'd you go where do you shop how do you find resource is in your town those are your clients right you are your client you know what I mean think think pound the pavement how do you approach a business owner local businesses events classes chamber dinners after our get togethers there's tons of businesses who engage in this networking there's all kinds of groups patronize their business go shop at their business for pete's sake get to know them talk to them yes this is going to force you to gets outside of your social system comfort zone you have to do it okay if it's scary take some classes on how to do it learn how to be social one of the best ways I can tell you how to do it is get people talking about themselves who what where when why questions if I come up to say hey how're you doing I'll find where you from I was such and such oh what's it like there get them talking friendly warm personality I've always wanted visit what's it like there I mean even if you're fibbing a little bit nobody knows right away what does not work emails cold calls and of course letters do you know how many of this thes people get on a daily basis you know what yourself when you email somebody they e mail you do listen delete delete delete delete delete emails I delete out of my inbox every day I probably get nowadays I probably get one to two hundred emails a day coming through my inbox ninety nine percent of them I just look at the subject line little trash unless that you know because it's all people trying to sell me stuff you know how it isthe occasionally somebody gets deleted that's not supposed to what that girl but you know how it is it has to be personal okay partnering with the business what does that mean it means giving more than you get gift gift gift gift gift gift gift how do you guys all know by now that I'm all about giving what you have to people who need it because the giver always gets more than the getter I mean to put it bluntly the only reason I give is so I can get which sounds terrible but it's really true when you volunteer for anything you volunteer because you get more out of it than the person you're volunteering for is right feels good feels amazing to give it's like the most rewarding thing you can do for yourself is to give your knowledge to give your information obviously have to run a business and make your money but still giving means it means giving more than you get being interested in them courtship same thing is the relationship with a client what do you say you build a report with them who what where when why how resist the urge to talk about you even though it's the easiest thing to do because that's what you know so that makes it easy to do however it's the worst thing you could do okay resist the urge to talk about your business always be thinking in your head how can I help this business get more clients how can I help this business with their graphic design how can I help this business do they need photography what do they need how could I help them improve their business if you're constantly thinking about that that it's all about them then you will get more out of it in the long run does that make sense and once you get them follow through follow through follow through this's where ninety percent of photographers drop the ball have you done it they're all sugar going and I've done it dropped the ball bouncy bouncy bouncy eyeball hoops okay we've all done it we've all been there george let him off and just go okay try again hey I know it's really tempting to beat yourself up a little bit and kind of hide in your hole but don't so what you screwed up learn move on ok I've dropped the ball on so many displays that I should have gotten but you know what it prepared me for my biggest display ever they prepared me because had I got the hospital when I was in experience to doing displays would have dropped the ball so think of it as a learning experience okay so don't drop that ball follow through sent an email called to say thank you I met so many vendors at chamber of commerce dinners when I first started like erin like lin from the humane society when I first came to bed and I started doing I specialized in pet photography pets and families and so I found her that I found her at a chamber of commerce event and decided to throw a charity event that would that would help fund that would give money to those humane society and bless her heart lin came with a dog and a cat to the uh to my studio cause we're holding like a story time with mrs claus type of thing and not one child showed up toe listen to stories I advertised everywhere it was one those things where I had all the right tools and no fish came okay I was so embarrassed because lin was standing on the banks of the river with me I mean talk about embarrassing so I took pictures of this dog in this cat printed off real quickly on my printer a little storyboard brought him over to the humane society that day even though she was at my studio that day they were doing a huge open house at the humane society yet she was at my studio talk about feeling even worse so I took him over there and she saw the images and my whole goal was like well maybe these two animals can get adopted at least something good will come out of this that was my total mindset I need a silver lining I was pulling at straws for a silver lining so I walked over there gave her these two storyboards and she loved them and show them to the humane society director and they were squealing you know how cute is this we turned the corner walk down the hall and holy cow this huge hallway all it up with gorgeous halogen lighting and not one piece of artwork on the wall she island turn I said lynn can I put art on your walls can I put images of dogs and cats in your walls and she just looked at me like how much is this gonna cost me and I said don't worry it's not gonna cost you a thing and she's kind of like I want to photograph every major donor who donated money to the main society in the last year them with their pets she looked at me and she goes you're f blank like like like like brilliant that's what she said I mean it was funny coming out of her sweet little lin I mean she doesn't do that but why did she say that why I was so excited because it gave her an opportunity to go contact every single one of those people who had given lots of money to the humane society and give them a gift they got a complimentary sessions and a complimentary eight by ten for all this for for letting me photograph them and they got the honor being put up on the wall as someone who gave an enormous amount of the community and humane society to help animals and these people love animals they are take great pride the fact that they help animals okay so we did this huge display they didn't see the images we had three weeks to photograph I think I did thirty six dogs five cats two lizards a guinea pig and a and I'm I'm some other animal a ferret we had certain I know it is funny actually we had three weeks to two produce all this and then we had this huge open house with my chamber of commerce ribbon cutting there were two hundred people in my little fifteen hundred preference studio and the media came because we sent out press releases I'm in a small town and each donor we brought down each image that was gonna hang in human society walls covered in a black sheet they got to come up we told the story of what they did for the main society then they got to yank off the sheet they were not one dry eye for the whole night in that entire place talk about being shot bam kickoff I had two hundred dollars in my bank account and I couldn't pay my february rent I was freaking out okay by this huge event I take this huge risk I'd blown four thousand dollars on this display of my own money and I couldn't pay my rent okay in the next months we had I think it was somewhere in the twenty's sale sessions and made almost forty thousand dollars in one month off the sale sessions from these donors okay don't do that it's really risky but like jenny and I said before on the risk taker I jump off the cliff I know there's water below okay I'm going to swim no matter what okay but that's thes air the kind of events that help you launch yourself and launch a brand in your community and get the buzz going about who you are and what you d'oh so once you meet these vendors at these events and you kind of get to know him like with erin little bit just hey I just I just wanted a nice one of her friends she was a really nice nice I liked her I wanted to get to know her more if it's a vendor that I truly like the owner of a retail store I would be I would meet them talk to them kind of get to know them see if there's a little communication figure out how they take kiss some businesses get this cross promotion thing and some don't and you'll know right away if they're not into it but if they're into it say hey I'd really like to know would you like to go to lunch or coffee sometime have you funders to hang out oh yeah here's my card follow through thank them it was so nice to meet them this is where you can send an email okay are you khun nice phone call a hand written notes even better do a little handwritten note say it was so nice meeting you I'm so excited for our lunch you know I I was looking at my calendar and I have space and in three weeks on such as his date do you want to go to lunch if you get a response that says yes it is now time to rocket