Tools for Success:Today and Tomorrow
[by Judy Herrmann]
As we all know all too well, the way photography is created, used, distributed and consumed has changed dramatically in recent years. More photography is being used than ever before but much of that expansion comes from dramatically reduced costs; distribution of images over the internet is practically free and inexpensive imagery abounds. Monetizing our work and ensuring fair compensation for value received continues to challenge both emerging and established photographers.
So, what’s a professional to do?
Working collectively through organizations like the ASMP, we can create opportunities to pursue new forms of licensing and income streams like pay per click models that take advantage of data companies like Google already track. If you’re not already a member, join. If ASMP isn’t the right organization for you, join a different one. Now is not the time to sit on the sidelines. This is a numbers game and the more voices we can bring to the table, the more influence we have with legislative, corporate and media power-brokers.
When it comes to your own business, the answer lies in using your creativity, problem solving skills and unfettered access to incredible research tools to identify new opportunities and minimize risk. Spend some time figuring out what drew you to photography in the first place, why it’s important to you and what you want to accomplish with this medium. From there, explore who values what you want to sell and figure out creative ways of exploiting both the new marketing tools like social media and traditional approaches, to attract their attention. Be as open-minded as you can about how you define yourself and the potential audiences for your expertise.
As you perform this evaluation, look closely for unmet client needs. W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne’s excellent book, Blue Ocean Strategy, describes businesses that have achieved exponential growth in saturated, commoditized industries by eliminating high cost, low demand services and creating new audiences who crave their higher margin offerings.
CreativeLIVE, MediaStorm, and PhotoSynesi are all examples from our industry that have (consciously or not) taken a Blue Ocean approach to creating and monetizing demand by packaging services previously considered impossible, unprofitable or unmonetizable respectively.
Bottom line: figure out who all the potential audiences for what you’re selling might be, find out what the bumps in their lives that they’re willing to pay to remove are and come up with innovative and creative ways to both market to and serve them. If there’s recipe for success in these turbulent times, this is it.
Photographer and Business Strategist, Judy Herrmann, helps people grow businesses by providing eye-catching images that enhance brands and through one-on-one strategy sessions, seminars and her blog, 2goodthings.com.
