Marketing help

[Breezy85]

Hey folks! So I could really use some help and advice on marketing, bringing in clients. I don't get many, it's a struggle when I advertise in different areas and in different ways. I just handed a stack of my business cards to the coffee place that I regular and the manager, which I know and have worked with, to hand them out to folks that would be interested in photo sessions. I'm kind of out of ideas, so I would really love some business/marketing advice to gain clients. What sucks is I do get lots of inquiries, but when I tell them my prices (which are less than the average for the Seattle/Tacoma area) they're like, "oh too expensive, nevermind." Or they find someone who can do photos for free. I stopped trying to market outside of the music industry for a while because I just wasn't getting any clients who wanted to pay for photos. They just don't understand that this is not a free service. However, I'd really like to nail this down so I'm looking to you fine people for help! I'm open for advice, critiques on my strategies, suggestions for new strategies. Anything.

 

[tirediron]

Handing out a few business cards isn't really marketing. First and foremost, you must determine who your target market is. Hint: "everyone" is NOT a target market. Once you've decided who/what your target market is, than you need to develop a plan for effective use of social media, cold calls, advertising at appropriate events, etc. As for your prices being too high, that's a sad reality of today's world. There are so many out there willing to work for little or nothing that people have become conditioned to not having to pay much, if anything for our services. My approach has been to target older clients; those who still appreciate the value of a professionally crafted image. My typical client is probably >60, likely a Veteran, and comfortably well off. VERY rarely do I get asked how much something costs.

 

[Breezy85]

Handing out a few business cards isn't really marketing. First and foremost, you must determine who your target market is. Hint: "everyone" is NOT a target market. Once you've decided who/what your target market is, than you need to develop a plan for effective use of social media, cold calls, advertising at appropriate events, etc. As for your prices being too high, that's a sad reality of today's world. There are so many out there willing to work for little or nothing that people have become conditioned to not having to pay much, if anything for our services. My approach has been to target older clients; those who still appreciate the value of a professionally crafted image. My typical client is probably >60, likely a Veteran, and comfortably well off. VERY rarely do I get asked how much something costs.

Yeah I've also tried social media as well. I'm not entirely great at the sales/marketing aspect of this and in 4 years, most of my clients are musicians. Promotional photos/artwork for musicians, concerts, etc. I'd like to get other clients that aren't musicians, I've done different kinds of sessions but like you said, lots of people these days are conditioned to the idea of getting a service nearly close to nothing. Which is sad. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

 

[tirediron]

Sooooooo... what are you dong to attract those other types of clients?

 

[Breezy85]

Sooooooo... what are you dong to attract those other types of clients?

Have mostly been doing social media and contacting previous clients.
But again, I'm not good at this part...the business aspect, which is why I'm asking for help.

 

[smoke665]

What sucks is I do get lots of inquiries, but when I tell them my prices (which are less than the average for the Seattle/Tacoma area) they're like, "oh too expensive, nevermind." Or they find someone who can do photos for free.

Sadly it is difficult for a real photographer to make a living. We have several "mom with cameras" in our area that I've heard will charge anywhere from $25-$75 for 30-60 min shoot and furnish a CD with up to 36 images. I'm strictly an amateur, but if I wasn't I wouldn't pull my camera out of the bag for that.

 

[tirediron]

Sooooooo... what are you dong to attract those other types of clients?

Have mostly been doing social media and contacting previous clients.
But again, I'm not good at this part...the business aspect, which is why I'm asking for help.

Get in touch with your local Adult Ed facilities and start signing up for courses on marketing and entrepreneurship. The business of photography is very little about photography and very much about business!

 

[Breezy85]

What sucks is I do get lots of inquiries, but when I tell them my prices (which are less than the average for the Seattle/Tacoma area) they're like, "oh too expensive, nevermind." Or they find someone who can do photos for free.

Sadly it is difficult for a real photographer to make a living. We have several "mom with cameras" in our area that I've heard will charge anywhere from $25-$75 for 30-60 min shoot and furnish a CD with up to 36 images. I'm strictly an armature, but if I wasn't I wouldn't pull my camera out of the bag for that.

Yep, and I hear that all the time and I wouldn't either. I had a gal inquire to me about photographing her wedding, we sat down, went over everything she wanted. I gave her a price and she said, "Oh, I was hoping to stay around $500." =/ She ended up having her "mom who does pictures" and sadly her photos at the end were not very good.

 

[Breezy85]

Sooooooo... what are you dong to attract those other types of clients?

Have mostly been doing social media and contacting previous clients.
But again, I'm not good at this part...the business aspect, which is why I'm asking for help.

Get in touch with your local Adult Ed facilities and start signing up for courses on marketing and entrepreneurship. The business of photography is very little about photography and very much about business!

Thanks! I'll make note of that!

 

[smoke665]

I stopped trying to market outside of the music industry for a while because I just wasn't getting any clients who wanted to pay for photos

Any possibility of leveraging your experience here to a similar market, say acting or modeling? Or maybe contacting some magazines in the trade, or talent agencies in the business. With the trade magazines it would likely be contract or spot work. With the talent agencies, you might market a "packet" of professional head shots at $$$ for whenever they have a new client come in.

 

[Breezy85]

I stopped trying to market outside of the music industry for a while because I just wasn't getting any clients who wanted to pay for photos

Any possibility of leveraging your experience here to a similar market, say acting or modeling? Or maybe contacting some magazines in the trade, or talent agencies in the business. With the trade magazines it would likely be contract or spot work. With the talent agencies, you might market a "packet" of professional head shots at $$$ for whenever they have a new client come in.

Interesting, never thought of something like that. I'll make note of that too!

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'm not sure what you're going for... do you want to expand on doing event photography or get into doing portraits? If that, what? seniors, families, engagements?

You need a professional website that you can direct back to from your social media. You need a solid portfolio; I quit looking after awhile. And certainly for pro work, no cats, no cars, or what you ate for dinner! lol Keep that stuff for your personal social media, just for fun, but - keep in mind that if anyone looks at any of your photos there's probably going to be an expectation that even casual fun pictures will be good/pro quality.

I am not sure from your Instagram if you aren't always nailing the exposures and have done a lot of editing to try and fix it, or if what I'm seeing is from instagramming the heck out of them. Go thru and edit that waaaaaay down for a professional portfolio. Pick your best. There's some good stuff in there, particularly some of the close up or what I think of as in-game (or in this case, event) portraits. But I don't see any photos that show me you do portraits, and I see quite a few that aren't sharp or could have been framed better. Do some editing down from all those photos and use the best - if there's one you like or is a great memory but isn't the greatest image, keep it for your personal collection.

Doing events (or anything really) I learned to go for a 'clean' composition, meaning to minimize visual clutter; if something isn't adding to the photo, keep it out of the frame. Think about vantage point; work thru the crowd, lean, whatever it takes to get a better photo framed. Make sure the camera's straight. It probably wouldn't hurt to keep learning and practicing and keep working toward bringing up your skill level. I've been a photographer forever and still can get rusty and need practice.

You may eventually need a portfolio with separate sections for events/music and portraits. I don't know how you can expect to get wedding clients when I see nothing wedding. It seems like social media seems to attract people who just want cheap. Sounds like you wasted time waiting to discuss price so that's where it would help to learn marketing and how to present yourself. Probably prospective clients who want a good wedding photographer are going to go find one and be prepared to pay the going rate and I don't think you'll find them posting concert photos on social media.

I was wondering with the music photos if that could relate more to senior portraits, or maybe engagements? I dunno... If you aren't already, start learning about releases because even though a concert was attended by the public you can't use photos of the band for commercial purposes without signed releases. Get on American Society of Media Photographers - Homepage or PPA and start learning about releases, contracts, etc. etc. John's right about the business aspect of it, and ASMP does webinars (free, just sign up and they email you a link).

I would say I see potential there, and you've got your work cut out for you. I don't think anybody's making a lot of money at photography (or ever did, really), and anybody I know locally does it part time/seasonally (sports) so you gotta love it and probably figure out how it could work along with another job/other work and build from there.

 

[Breezy85]

I'm not sure what you're going for... do you want to expand on doing event photography or get into doing portraits? If that, what? seniors, families, engagements?

You need a professional website that you can direct back to from your social media. You need a solid portfolio; I quit looking after awhile. And certainly for pro work, no cats, no cars, or what you ate for dinner! lol Keep that stuff for your personal social media, just for fun, but - keep in mind that if anyone looks at any of your photos there's probably going to be an expectation that even casual fun pictures will be good/pro quality.

I am not sure from your Instagram if you aren't always nailing the exposures and have done a lot of editing to try and fix it, or if what I'm seeing is from instagramming the heck out of them. Go thru and edit that waaaaaay down for a professional portfolio. Pick your best. There's some good stuff in there, particularly some of the close up or what I think of as in-game (or in this case, event) portraits. But I don't see any photos that show me you do portraits, and I see quite a few that aren't sharp or could have been framed better. Do some editing down from all those photos and use the best - if there's one you like or is a great memory but isn't the greatest image, keep it for your personal collection.

Doing events (or anything really) I learned to go for a 'clean' composition, meaning to minimize visual clutter; if something isn't adding to the photo, keep it out of the frame. Think about vantage point; work thru the crowd, lean, whatever it takes to get a better photo framed. Make sure the camera's straight. It probably wouldn't hurt to keep learning and practicing and keep working toward bringing up your skill level. I've been a photographer forever and still can get rusty and need practice.

You may eventually need a portfolio with separate sections for events/music and portraits. I don't know how you can expect to get wedding clients when I see nothing wedding. It seems like social media seems to attract people who just want cheap. Sounds like you wasted time waiting to discuss price so that's where it would help to learn marketing and how to present yourself. Probably prospective clients who want a good wedding photographer are going to go find one and be prepared to pay the going rate and I don't think you'll find them posting concert photos on social media.

I was wondering with the music photos if that could relate more to senior portraits, or maybe engagements? I dunno... If you aren't already, start learning about releases because even though a concert was attended by the public you can't use photos of the band for commercial purposes without signed releases. Get on American Society of Media Photographers - Homepage or PPA and start learning about releases, contracts, etc. etc. John's right about the business aspect of it, and ASMP does webinars (free, just sign up and they email you a link).

I would say I see potential there, and you've got your work cut out for you. I don't think anybody's making a lot of money at photography (or ever did, really), and anybody I know locally does it part time/seasonally (sports) so you gotta love it and probably figure out how it could work along with another job/other work and build from there.

So my current Instagram is in the concert/music industry that I'm currently in. I post serious stuff and not so serious stuff related to musicians. I would create separate social media accounts for non music related photos, maybe even different branding. Yes, I plan on updating my web site to have different sections - I'm in the process of that. My Instagram account is not for portfolio purpose. It's a social media account, it's for social purposes It's so far worked well for me and I get my music clients based on my Instagram. I don't use any Instagram editing or filters. I appreciate the input on my Instagram, but my current account I'm keeping the way it is since it's not meant to be a portfolio.

"if something isn't adding to the photo, keep it out of the frame." Believe me I try my best to do that, and if somehow something still makes it in, I do my best to retouch stuff out. I do that a lot actually. Concert shots, I'm so OCD about mic stands...if I can retouch it out, I will

Also, I'm not looking to get into weddings. So that's why you don't see anything wedding, haha! If I do engagements, I'd have to market into weddings. So that area is not my goal. My experience in doing weddings it was just too overwhelming. I'd prefer to more lean into the area of seniors, portraits, headshots, families. Maybe even birth photography since I've done a couple of those and loved it. I also have a full time job that currently pays the bills So it's definitely not something I'm solely relying on, even though I'd love to be doing photography full time and I know people who have been able to do that.

Actually I have been keeping an eye on ASMP, my dad had actually recommended that to me a while ago.

 

[KmH]

I built my portrait business by marketing to the 15% of the population that have 85% of the money.
But a big key to that is being able to socialize, in person, with that 15%.
Of course free & low cost marketing venues tend to be the least effective. You have to spend money to make money.

How To Maximize Your Digital Marketing Spend

 

[Vtec44]

In short, only show what you want to sell and your perceived value is everything.