How commercial photographers market- The marketing mix

The marketing mix is essentially the different activities a business undertakes to promote their business and generate sales of their product. It could be advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, sponsorships or other PR activities. Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing my research. I’ve talked to professional photographers, marketing managers and those good folks from the publishing industry. I’ve found out the types of promotions photographers have done and what they thought was effective. I’ve also asked the ‘art buyers’ about the types of promotions they have received from photographers and what they found effective.

Photographers

1. A killer folio
Having a strong folio of your work that shows off your skills, style, the diversity of your work, unique abilities and personality is a great starting point for a commercial photographer. This folio can be printed or displayed online. A key tip from photographers is to get help in putting together your folio. Ask peers, mentors or even a professional photo editor to cast their eyes over your work for objectivity. While difficult to do, according to both photographers and buyers, it’s very effective to deliver your printed folio directly to the decision maker and make a meeting to go through it one on one. A personal touch can help make you and your work more memorable.

2. Advertisements
Traditional advertising is pretty expensive. Advice all round on this front was if you are going to advertise then target, target, target! Make sure you pick media that is going to end up in the hands of people you want to hire you. Commercial photographers can advertise in sourcebooks or on the web in a fairly targeted way.

3. Direct marketing

This is the big one. Direct marketing activities include emails, email newsletters, printed promotions and promotional gifts. This seems to be where most commercial photographers spend the largest amount of money. (It also seems to be the approach that is most appreciated by art buyers).
There are a couple of keys to direct marketing. The first is to ensure you have a really accurate and targeted mailing list. You want to make sure your direct mail piece ends up in the hands of the person who can decide to hire you.
Second is frequency. You want to send out promotional material at a frequency that keeps you top of mind, but not annoying! The mix is different around the industry. Some photographers send out an email every month and at least two printed promos in a year, others swear by a print mailer every 4 months and an email every 2 it really depends on your budget.
Speaking of budget, direct marketing can be very expensive. For reference, Capture Magazine (Jan/Feb 2010) quotes that Melbourne based commercial photographer Jean Marc La-Roque spent approximately $22,000 producing 500 A4 books that he then sent out to prospective clients. It could have cost a lot more, La-Roque did a contra deal with his designer Richard Henderson to reduce costs.
FOLLOW UP- one of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make after sending out a direct mail piece is neglecting to follow up. It takes time and can be frustrating and even disheartening but it’s well worth adding that extra personal touch according to both the photographers and art buyers I spoke to.

4. PR activity including blogs and social media

This is really becoming a necessary evil for photographers right across the board. The best advice I’ve seen comes from American Photographer Lincoln Barbour. Who on his blog post marketing 101 says that there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. “ if you do it right, you’ll be rewarded with web traffic, great feedback, and a sense of interconnection to clients and colleagues. As a business, your social media interactions should stay on message, stay positive, and be useful to your followers.” ...when blogging “Blog about what you’re shooting. Blog about what new clients you have. Blog about anything related to your business.” http://www.lincolnbarbour.com/blog/2010/03/05/marketing-101-for-commercial-photographers/

Art buyers (marketing managers, advertising and publishing industry)

1. Folio
A strong folio is important for art buyers when choosing which photographer to hire. Most say they prefer to first see work online via a photographers website (mostly because this saves them time). A good folio, according to Capture Magazine (Jan/Feb 2010) must have ‘professional presentation with good design, concepts and images’

2. Advertisements
Art buyers say that while they may look at photographers advertisements when generating a ‘long list’ for jobs, they are more strongly influenced by the photographers folio. Personality is also important said one marketing manager. ‘We’ll end up working really long hard days so we need to make sure they are going to be a good fit personality-wise’

3. Direct marketing
Art buyers at top advertising agencies can receive up to 20 pieces of promotional material from commercial photographers a week. From my research art buyers seem to prefer receiving emails with a link to a photographers website. Having said, email promotions do run the risk of ending up as spam. One marketing manager stated that mail promotion with a personalised letter and examples of a photographers work were likely to be the most effective. “I believe mail would be the most effective as it's more likely to get read than other forms of communication. It's easy to bin emails or ignore unknown phone calls.”

In summary, again according to capture magazine, “the message in allof this seems to be that clients want to see a range of marketing activities from the photographers who want to work with them. The promos should be beautifully designed and produced. The key to marketing success is consistency. And of course your images have to be jaw dropping as well” (Julian Watt, Expose yourself to the world-legally, Capture Magazine Jan/Feb 2010)