How do I market myself?

ShannonHeat

Can someone share how they have generated business? I've just dekcided to go out on my own, and need to know how to promote my business.

Thank you,


Shannon

www.heatonphotography.net

dragon300zx

Hey Shannon,

Sorry I did a little playing here but this post really doesn't go in the business card thread. I also changed your title because I think your question is one alot of us have. How should we market ourselves to get more business.

So everyone lets hear it. How do you market yourselves in ways that you find work?

P.S. Do a search on marketing in this forum and you will find alot of varied ideas and posts on this subject. But I think we could all benefit from a thread that just focused on new and different ways we could market ourselves.

:dragon

Ann McRae

Start with the info here

ShannonHeat wrote:

Can someone share how they have generated business? I've just dekcided to go out on my own, and need to know how to promote my business.

Thank you,


Shannon

www.heatonphotography.net

GraphyFotoz

So far word of mouth and showing my photo portfolio around.
I do plan to go the biz card route this year.

Also might know a person who has a local gallery.
Have a person interested in starting a home decor biz down state that wants to showcase my work as well.

ShannonHeat

Haha...I guess I should learn to pay more attention to where I'm posting things
I appreciate your help though.

dragon300zx wrote:

Hey Shannon,

Sorry I did a little playing here but this post really doesn't go in the business card thread. I also changed your title because I think your question is one alot of us have. How should we market ourselves to get more business.

So everyone lets hear it. How do you market yourselves in ways that you find work?

P.S. Do a search on marketing in this forum and you will find alot of varied ideas and posts on this subject. But I think we could all benefit from a thread that just focused on new and different ways we could market ourselves.

:dragon

dragon300zx

I'm notoriously Lazy when it comes to promoting myself. Actually I almost make it so my clients have to work to find me. Now I know this is very bad, and it has been something I have begun working to change (although lets face it, I'm not putting in as much effort as I could).

"Geez, Why is this guy telling us he's a lazy bum?"

Easy, to point out that:

A) Don't be like me, owning a business, starting a business, thriving at business is work. Hard work, and you can't expect clients to come to you. You have to put in tons of effort to get to them. Plus at first you going to put in way, way, way more effort than it will seem worth with what your getting in return.

And also to point out:

No effort is wasted effort. Over the last couple years I have occasionally taken 5 minutes here, or 5 minutes there, to promote my tired and sagging (soon to be redone hopefully) website. And I have done it all without spending any money other than my monthly hosting fees. Now most of this was done early last year and then I got busy with other things and stopped working on it. It took awhile but I am finally benefiting from the few minutes I spent last year. So far since the beginning of the year I have already had several bookings off the internet (that have shown up and paid in full), today I even got 2 calls (within 15 minutes of each other) off of those internet listings. One I am meeting with this weekend, one I am shooting (and getting paid on) tonight.

The secret to success is hard work. Considering the rewards I have reaped of very little effort, just think what I could be doing if I was putting in the kind of effort I should be.


So when you are getting down because your marketing doesn't seem to be paying, remember it takes years to build a business. Someone may see your work, pick up your card, and not need to call you for a year. But when they do, the effort you put out long ago will have been worth it.

ShannonHeat

Business has actually been picking up since I posted this thread! I can't believe it! Word of mouth goes a long, long way. Also, I printed up a t-shirt with my company name, and a collage of all different types of work I do. I wear it to my son's baseball games, my daughter's dance class, and anywhere else I know it will start conversation....and guess what......it WORKS! I also use Myspace as a handy little tool (my sister has a zillion friends there). Oh, and my dad's been working for Fox television for 30 years, and has lots of contacts who have suddenly taken an interest. I'm not the best, yet, but my talent is growing day by day. I love doing what I do, and what I do is create little works of art through my photography.
Whew! How that for responding to an old rekindled thread?
Thank you so much for your insight!

dragon300zx wrote:

I'm notoriously Lazy when it comes to promoting myself. Actually I almost make it so my clients have to work to find me. Now I know this is very bad, and it has been something I have begun working to change (although lets face it, I'm not putting in as much effort as I could).

"Geez, Why is this guy telling us he's a lazy bum?"

Easy, to point out that:

A) Don't be like me, owning a business, starting a business, thriving at business is work. Hard work, and you can't expect clients to come to you. You have to put in tons of effort to get to them. Plus at first you going to put in way, way, way more effort than it will seem worth with what your getting in return.

And also to point out:

No effort is wasted effort. Over the last couple years I have occasionally taken 5 minutes here, or 5 minutes there, to promote my tired and sagging (soon to be redone hopefully) website. And I have done it all without spending any money other than my monthly hosting fees. Now most of this was done early last year and then I got busy with other things and stopped working on it. It took awhile but I am finally benefiting from the few minutes I spent last year. So far since the beginning of the year I have already had several bookings off the internet (that have shown up and paid in full), today I even got 2 calls (within 15 minutes of each other) off of those internet listings. One I am meeting with this weekend, one I am shooting (and getting paid on) tonight.

The secret to success is hard work. Considering the rewards I have reaped of very little effort, just think what I could be doing if I was putting in the kind of effort I should be.


So when you are getting down because your marketing doesn't seem to be paying, remember it takes years to build a business. Someone may see your work, pick up your card, and not need to call you for a year. But when they do, the effort you put out long ago will have been worth it.

rdlugosz

First of all, start a blog! I've gotten a few contacts through mine already (see link in sig (and subscribe!)) - if you're out there speaking and writing on photography topics your name will begin to appear here and there on Google & elsewhere.

Shoot everything & post about it! I'm trying to make a point of attending local events & shooting. There's typically no sales, but you get to talk to a few ppl and may get a new client or two. Heck - I just got a wedding booking based on my shooting a friend's going away party! The bride-to-be looked at some of my wedding work after she strayed from the party gallery & inquired about having me shoot her wedding.

I just started an AdWords ad targeting "cincinnati photography"-type keywords; we'll see how many clients it generates but I'm fairly optimistic about it so far.

good luck!