Target Marketing

[by Todd Joyce]

2500 printed mailers might cost around $1 per contact, depending on postage, printing and your contact list.

What if you took that same amount and spent $500 on your very top five prospects?   I bet you’d get results!  The hard part is figuring out your top five.   Marketing isn’t easy and neither is target shooting… that’s why some use a shotgun.   Try spending some time figuring out who your best prospects are and romance them.  You don’t have to spend $500 per, but maybe spending more than a dollar on them will get you noticed.

Todd Joyce is a recent Past President of ASMP and specializes in conceptual people photography for advertising. See Todd’s work at www.joycephotography.com and contact him at todd at joycephotography.com

Find a Photographer

[by Todd Joyce]

Membership has it’s privileges and one of the benefits of being and ASMP General Member is being listed in findaphotographer.org. For what I do, I don’t get a lot of calls, but every so often I do get a call that is a result of FAP.

Over the years, I’ve gotten about ten jobs from FAP.  Some have been editorial and some industrial.  This past December, I got a call from an industrial client that needed about four shots in one of their client’s facilities for a limited use.  They wanted me to shoot about eight for choice, but were willing to ultimately choose four.  They were interested in an estimate, so as a regular practice, I first asked if they had a budget.  They assured me they didn’t so I worked up an cost and sent it to them. I always try to follow up with a call to get a client’s reaction to my estimates, so when I called they said the price was way too much and they only had $1500 in their budget. Ah, now they HAVE a budget…   I’ve heard it before. So we worked up a way that I would only shoot four shots, not eight, so that I could do it for closer to their “budget.”

Come the day of the shoot, everything was flowing well on site, so I shot more than the four I had promised.   I shot about ten set ups.  When I sent the jpegs for choice, they loved what they were seeing and wanted to use them all for a few other purposes. “Sure,” I replied. “Let me work up a cost for the additional use and get back to you.”  I’ve learned through talking with fellow members over the years that when a budget is smaller, I back out what I’m required to do so that the client sees that there is value in my time or what is used.  I also negotiated a maximum number of images so that the client understands that they don’t just “get” everything.  By the time the negotiation was finished, the total for the shoot and usage was $5600.  A far cry from the budgeted $1500 and the client was very happy to get what they did for the money.   Thanks FAP and to ASMP and fellow members for the experience in negotiating. It pays to be a member.

Todd Joyce is a recent Past President of ASMP and specializes in conceptual people photography for advertising. See Todd’s work at joycephotography.com and contact him at todd@joycephotography.com

I Like Facebook

[by Todd Joyce]

I like facebook. I admit it. I only have one identity too.Friends are people from college, family and clients. I try to keep it professional, but I don’t mind that my clients see the real me. I post some images just for fun or feedback and I don’t pester my clients with constant comments or posts on their walls.

I bring this up because I’ve seen a lot of hard sell photographers using facebook as a business tool. I realize facebook isn’t exactly a “private” place. The problem is that if you use it to push yourself in front of your clients too much, you may find yourself labeled a stalker and un-friended.

I have a less obvious way of using facebook. I find that reading client posts gives me a topic to talk about on that cold call. Obviously, I’m looking for work, but if I can start off with a fun comment about something they posted, it makes the conversation easy. It’s a way to stay lightly connected without seeming like a stalker.

Todd Joyce is a recent Past President of ASMP and specializes in conceptual people photography for advertising. See Todd’s work at joycephotography.com and contact him at todd@joycephotography.com