Why Define Your Ideal Client?

[by Carolyn Potts]

Once you define your ideal client, you will have better focus finding and working with them

The most essential step in creating an effective marketing plan is to first decide who you want to work with. If you don’t have a specific answer to that question, you won’t know where to begin to look for them.

Almost every photographer who calls me for photography marketing help has the same basic issue: “I want more work. How do I get it?” I wish there was a simple solution to offer them; but like any goal worth going after, it first takes some understanding of what the end goal actually looks like.

One of the first things I do is first ask them: “What kind of client do you want to work with? What kind of work brings out the best in you?” or the corollary “What kind of work does NOT inspire you on any level?

Many times I get “I don’t really care. I just want work!” While I totally sympathize with that generalized need (in this economy especially!), any viable photography marketing plan MUST begin with narrowing down what might be the best client/market niche for YOU to pursue.

The narrowing down process I go through with my clients is, of course, far more individualized and in-depth, but here are a few key questions that will go a long way in helping you choose strategies and tactics to reach YOUR ideal prospects. They’re simple questions, not easily answered, but ones which are critical to your success.

When you’ve found the answers to these questions you have the beginnings of a road map that can help you eliminate or avoid marketing activities that will not give you as high a return on your investment of time and money.

•What kind of clients could most benefit from what I bring to the table?
•What do I do that an advanced amateur photographer could not do as well–or at all?
•What market segments will NOT appreciate my level of professionalism?
•If it’s an uneducated market segment, am I willing to do “”whatever it takes” to help those potential clients understand the real value I add to their business?
•What kinds of assignments/projects do I always love doing?

You’ve probably heard the advice “it’s important to first know where you want to go before picking up a map.” Knowing that destination will determine which marketing map you actually use. Many marketing resources discuss this concept in depth, but I prefer the succinct wisdom of Lily Tomlin: “I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.”

Your Number One Asset

[by Carolyn Potts]

Do you know what is the most valuable asset you possess? You need a lot to run your photo business, but what is most deserving of protection?

Hint: Its not your camera gear. Nor your computer hardware and software– or even your image archive or your portfolio.

It’s your creativity. It’s what sets you apart from every other photographer; it’s the distinguishing value that is added to any great image you create. Without it, you could be replaced by a machine.

Ironically, this extremely valuable asset can’t be covered against loss by an insurance policy.It’s up to you–and only you–to take precautions that you don’t lose your creativity.

Are you spending even half the amount of time and effort that you take to protect your other business assets from loss? You probably back-up your images on multiple drives on a regular basis. Your gear is probably protected by good security systems when it’s not actually with you. Your office probably has fire, flood and theft  coverage. You want to protect your business, so you’re prudent. And you’re responsible.

Why is it so important it is to keep your creativity safe? Without it you probably don’t have much to offer any client since creativity is an essential for problem-solving. Clients hire you because they have a problem they need solved; usually ones they don’t have the creativity to execute as well as you.

So what are you doing to PROTECT your creativity? Do you know what keeps it vital and alive?

What was your mental state when you had your last great idea for a portfolio piece? Wasn’t it when you were relaxed, open, and receptive? I suspect you’ll also say it was when you “weren’t even trying”… it just “came to you.”

Do you know under what conditions your creativity is at risk? Are you aware of how negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, and worry significantly diminish the flow of intuition? Intuition is what most often guides you in what is necessary to take a shot from good to great.

In the current sea of negative emotions swirling in the photo business, are you pro-active enough to wear a “mental life-preserver”? That is, do you have an effective strategy to keep your intuition afloat? Can it be saved it from drowning in the swells of fear and anxiety?

Here are some time-honored, extremely well-researched, and very effective strategies to protect your most valuable business asset: Meditate. Spend time in nature. Pray. Jog. Swim. Politely refuse to spend time on the pity pot with those who continually spread evidence about how horrible things are. Be grateful for what you DO have. And finally, volunteer to help those who have less than you.

Web Design Essentials

[by Carolyn Potts]

What’s the business objective of my web site? As visual artists we’re primarily drawn to the play of
light, shadow, color and contrast as they often serve as the basis of our sheer delight. We’re also easily distracted by bright, shiny, and pretty things.

A marketing trap that one can fall into is to simply emulate the web design of a photographer whose photos and web site we admire. Award-winning web sites with lots of stunning visuals suck us right in and lead us to ‘be inspired” (i.e., copy them) when creating our own site; often there’s  little if no attention paid to asking if the design is resonant with our own branding and the needs of the people we want to attract.

An ironic liability of a too-over-the-top web design, is that it risks alienating a market segment who you could have served; they can end up thinking “they can no longer afford you.” (Yes, that’s actually happened).

Your best site design strategy is one that reflects both YOUR brand and what YOUR target audience needs. The photographer you admire may be serving a completely different market.

You must define who your “ideal client” is before you can build a site that will appeal to them.
Here are some questions to help you define your “ideal client.”

What do I know about my target customer’s needs when they first arrive on my site?
E.g. If you’re targeting ad agencies, your site must have features that serve the needs of the time-pressed and collaborative work environment. Some way of displaying thumbnails are a must.

The timeline in wedding photography is usually a lot less deadline-driven (shotgun weddings not withstanding..;-) and therefore the wedding market visitor arrives at a more leisurely pace often looking for an experience (usually romantic) from your imagery E.g. they might respond favorably to interactive and experiential features (e.g. music)–ironically the same ones which usually alienate business clients.

The corporate market customer may require more copy to about your services to gain purchasing approval from colleagues outside of the creative department. Some features (e.g. light-boxes) also might require more instructional copy in one market than another.

But what if either by geography or economic necessity you’re trying to reach several markets with one site?
You can. Just don’t try to be all things to all people all the time.
Develop a targeted web strategy to drive different market segments to specific areas of your site or to sub-domains.

You are essentially a service business. So are your insurance company and your bank; they have different marketing plans–and related web pages– to reach both the sports car driver and the soccer mom. Their marketing strategies are different based on the different needs of each market. You can do that too. Unless your target market is other photographers, design your web strategy accordingly.

Gaining the admiration of your fellow photographers–while it sure feels nice–might not be the best business goal for your bottom line.

Email Marketing

[by Carolyn Potts]

To get high email promo delivery rates, you have to consider many variables.

You’re probably already aware that without doing your email marketing homework, you’re more susceptible
falling back on the all-too-common, mass-blast strategy, nick-named “spray and pray”   Do that, and you’re inadvertently adding to the delivery problem.

If enough people persist in doing un-researched mailings, soon entire ad agencies will disappear off the
roster names available on valid list providers such as Agency Access and ADBASE.

Emails that don’t include a super-easy-to-use “opt-out” link, also add to the delivery problem as they’ll mark a promo as spam in an attempt to get off a list. They may not hate you, it’s that many prospects are just desperately trying to control their volume of email.

Spend some time reviewing email marketing research reports and/or using a reputable email-delivery service. A reputable service’s emails always get delivered. The major ISPs know who the good players are;
they won’t do business with anyone who behaves in a spam-y way. Those delivery services with higher barriers to entry, end up filtering out all but the most serious email marketers.

Because email spammers are highly-motivated individuals (or companies!) who work 24/7 to get past the filters, ISPs and email delivery services must CONSTANTLY adjust their filtering and formatting rules to combat a spammer’s strategy du jour.

If too-restrictive filters are employed, then too many legitimate messages get quarantined; if too lax,
customer’s in-boxes can become spam smorgasbords.  In either case, clients can become disgruntled and
move to another service provider that does a better job of filtering/delivering.

The formatting of a spam message sent last year (copy as well as image content), probably isn’t the same format as this year’s spam. Creating an CAN-SPAM compliant email promo is not a one-time event that is never reviewed or revised again.

The bottom line? The all-time best guarantee of message delivery still remains: employ a strategy to
make sure your recipient adds you to their address book.

Email Troubles You May Not Be Aware Of …

[by Carolyn Potts]

This week, on three separate occasions, emails from photographers that I know and love, ended up in my spam bucket. Each person was already in my address book; we’d had many successful email exchanges-there had been no previous spam quarantines. Want to know what happened?

In each of those cases the photographer had failed to notice that their business email addresses had more than one email account User name or Reply-to name. If all your User names are consistent, the email you send from your desktop, laptop or iPhone will all safely go through; any inconsistency in your Sender address increases the risk of your message being quarantined.