STEP ONE: Market to certain people – everyone
So now that we know why we market, we can finally start figuring out how to market. The truth is marketing yourself is a non-stop process. With the way you act, the way you walk, and the way you talk, your friends, family, your neighbours, everyone and anyone can and are people who you market to. I don’t mean you should try to push your product on all these people, but step one is knowing who you’re marketing to.
STEP TWO: Be a good person, karma’s a bitch
It’s a good approach to realize that business can follow really odd paths to get to you. And making sure you leave as many of those paths clear of debris as possible is important. All the people in your life, especially when you’re starting your business, are like unknowing marketing agents. If they know you, and what you do, and they like you, then when they come across someone who needs your services, they might pass on a business card or get you two connected.
STEP THREE: Invest. If you don’t believe in yourself, why should I?
Investing. Uggg, no one likes this part. Investing in yourself is 100% necessary, and it SUCKS. There’s no way around it, folks. At some point, on some scale, you’re going to have to invest in yourself. This is really important for a few reasons but we’ll talk about just some. One thing that’s always important to me when I’m being sold something is whether the sales person would buy the product themselves. When you invest in yourself, it’s kind of like backing yourself up, and showing everyone that you’re serious. There are of course countless ways of “investing” but some or more important than others.
To be taken seriously, you’re going to need to invest in the following – of this there can be no compromise.
A.) Business Cards: Hand someone a business card and they’ve got your info. Tell someone your number and they’ve got your info too, except that the info you’re giving them is that you’re too silly to have business cards.
B.) Website (massively important, please do not underestimate): Give people a way to figure you out by having them visit your website and also create a place for people you’ve never met to find you too. Fail at the website part and enjoy passing out flyers with your portfolio and maybe phone number on them.
C.) A Camera, a Lens, a Spare Battery and Passion: Obviously you’ll need a camera, what kind is up to you, but it’s part of the investment, you’ll need a lens and a spare battery too. Passion is something you have to invest in as well. If you can’t drive yourself to want to photograph things, you’re in the wrong business, friend.
These are the ABC’s of investment. You really can’t get away without having these. There are some other things that you should invest in too, but we’ll get into that in the next section. To finish up our talks on investment we have to discuss where this investment is coming from.
If you’re lucky, you’re earning some income from photography and can afford to get these things. Or if you’re not, try and become saavy. I didn’t really have the money for a website, so my first one I created on my own, for free. I had to teach myself how to do it. Not the last time I’ve taught myself something to save cash either by the way. You can always work a second job, or first depending on how you look at it. You can find investors, or borrow money. You can use your savings or sell blood. You could create another business to support your photography like selling leather jackets imported from China or something, I don’t know, this is your job to figure out.
STEP FOUR: Be known, but like, to strangers
Advertising is ultimately going to be done. It has to. Unless you do this at some point, your network will eventually dwindle down to zero and you’ll have done all the jobs you can for the people you know and the universe as you know it will end. Where do I advertise you ask? I’m glad you asked that!!!
If you’re up for more investing, you can advertise by getting flyers printed and handing them out at events you shoot. You could buy space on a website for advertising, you could put up signs on billboards. You can have a radio commercial (I looked into this last year, too expensive for my blood), you could get pens with your website link on them, you could blog or create popular YouTube videos, there are countless ways of advertising really. But it’s important to know that you need to get your brand out there. Get yourself heard of. Being creative is always the best way and if you can get yourself heard of while keep in fresh and interesting, you’re going to succeed.
STEP FIVE: Hunt your prey; shoot to kill
Working hard for your money. Aha! This is the easiest way to get gigs. Work hard for them. That doesn’t make sense does it? Easy = hard work. Well too bad. WORK. Please just work. Work sooo hard. Do it for yourself. Do it for your starving children. Don’t have any? Well do it so one day you will. And then do it harder so that they won’t starve!
At the end of the day working hard pays off like nothing else. There’s no super simple way of getting clients but you can find them if you really want. It’s almost a beautiful thing. They’re there, waiting for you, they just don’t know it yet. Depending on what kind of photography you shoot, there are swarms of people waiting to hire you. They’re not going to find your website because it’s just not coming up in the google ranks yet. And they’re not going to call you because you simply don’t have enough business cards (oh god, please have business cards) floating around. But they are waiting for you. Your job is to find them.
The “how” is easier than you think. If you’re looking at being a product photographer than start looking up companies that have products. Go into stores that have crummy websites and introduce yourself. Hand out a card, talk to them etc.. If you do this 1000 times, you’ll likely get a few gigs out of it. At the very least you’re expanding your network. You can find websites that have products that change regularly (repeat clients! Woot!). Do your research.
If you’re a wedding photographer go to all the bridal shows, pass out flyers, advertise on a dating website, just do your part to find these people.
If you’re a kid’s portrait photographer go to schools, nurseries or hospital maternity wards.
Whatever kind of photographer you are, don’t be lazy, get out, get on foot and start slapping people in the face with who you are. It’s actually kind of fun (when it works). Just stop for a second and think about what you can do. These are just ideas I came up with while writing this post. You can do better!
STEP SIX: Don’t market rubbish
Lastly it’s time to for the most critical piece of the puzzle. Be a good photographer. If everything else fails. You might get lucky and fall back on this. Just kidding, well sort of. Being a good photographer is actually the first step, but it’s also the last. It kind of makes this whole system a circle. Unless you’re actually capable of taking and selling photographs, it’s going to be hard to get jobs. Marketing yourself is a lot easier with a great portfolio. I would have included having a portfolio in this process but it’s kind of to do with selling, and we’re just talking about marketing. Although it’s something to keep in mind. Anyway, being a good photographer is ultimately the best way to market yourself. If all you do is take great images with a passion, people will figure you out. It most likely won’t be enough to land you loads of jobs, but it will make every other step you take more significant.
Well that was a long post. I hope it was a bit helpful. Next week’s post will focus on something that’s so, so important, your website.
Until then, thank you for reading and here’s a summary of the steps.
STEP ONE: Market to certain people – everyone
STEP TWO: Be a good person, karma’s a bitch
STEP THREE: Invest. If you don’t believe in yourself, why should I?
STEP FOUR: Be known, but like, to strangers
STEP FIVE: Hunt your prey; shoot to kill
STEP SIX: Don’t market rubbish
David Dvir
