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08/15/2008 08:56:07 AM · #1 |
Hello,
I need some advice on advertising. I have shot a weeding and done few portraits and now I need some paying work. I have a limited budget and I need advice from members as to what is the best way to advertise for my services. Thanks in advance.
Sunny |
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08/15/2008 09:14:12 AM · #2 |
| Set up a website. Showcase your work. |
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08/15/2008 09:57:03 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by Sam94720:
Set up a website. Showcase your work. |
ditto. check past threads, there are many about companies that can host your own domain name. Many are extremly cheap and charge on a by year basis. I think I only pay like $40 a year. I do all my own site...don't go look now, it's old and out dated and not setup for a customer base.
Also check for business cards, there are sites (can't remember them right now) in the threads about free or really cheap business cards. Get them and get them out there.
Good luck! |
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08/15/2008 10:08:52 AM · #4 |
Advertising doesn't come cheap is most cases, but I couple of things to think about:
1) you will get out of advertising onl what you put into it, the more you spend, the more business will come to you in general.
2) the quality of your advertizing is just as important as the advertizing itself... put crap out there and crap will come back to you
3) do your research: who is your target audiance? where are they? what are their likes/dislikes/values? etc. once you figure that stuff out then you can start thinking about what methodes you're going to use to reach them
Lots of thought and effort needs to go into marketing and advertising your services, you will find that there are hundreds of ways to get your name out there (from websites, mentioned above to billboards, etc) some are pretty cheap (business cards for example) but are fairly effecive, and some are much more expensive.
also check out what your competition is doing.
Just a few thoughts anyway |
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08/15/2008 10:15:15 AM · #5 |
Business cards are very helpful, and you can get some unique ones over at Moo. I got the Mini cards (100 for $20, and you can put a different image on each one. People love to look through my cards and pick out their favorite image. It's a lot more memorable than the standard white card with text).
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to advertise too. Do good work (even if it's free stuff for a friend) and they will talk about, and other people will talk about it, and then they come to you. That's how I got all my first paying jobs, is from word of mouth. Work hard, and it shows.
If you looking to get a website (another great option) check out Squarespace. It's very affordable, and it looks great. They make it very easy to set up a professional site, and the lightbox presentation albums are great. I'll plug my site as an example, Nathanael Gassett Photography
Recap:
1) Have cards that you can hand people when you introduce yourself as a photographer, it makes you seem less like a stalker with a big camera and more like a businessman.
2) Talk to people. LOTS of people. People are the greatest advertisers.
3) Build a website and put it on your card. People can go and see, "oh, hey, this guy is ligit, and I like his style too."
4) Once you've got a website, link it EVERYWHERE. Post on people's blogs and leave it as your URL, myspace it, facebook it. The more people that click your link, the better. This will up your site's PageRank on Google, so that when they google your name it will be one of the first results, instead of your twitter account. But don't spam! This is an obvious rule, but I'll say it anyway. No one likes spam. In the blog linking mentioned above, only post if you have something to say ABOUT THE BLOG YOUR READING, then you leave your name and URL. Other readers think, "oh hey, this guy had something cool to say, let me click the name and see his/her website". Again, people are your biggest advertisers.
I believe it was Martin Prihada who said, "The best way to get ahead is to help others get ahead." It's a great ethic to have.
Hope this gave you some ideas!
_Nathanael Gassett
Message edited by author 2008-08-15 10:28:37. |
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08/15/2008 12:31:16 PM · #6 |
Some very good advice here. General rule in the photo industry is you need to spend about 15% of what you want to make in a year on advertising. So you want $40,000 in sales you need to spend about $6000. A lot depends on how you spend it. Direct mail (you can buy mailing lists) isn't cheap because of postage and you usually have to hit your prospects 3 to 5 times to get good results (timing is everything as they say). Not being known will mean you have to work that much harder at this, so perhaps 7 mailings.
You can do email mailings as well and they are very cheap to free - but again, you'll need a list of prospects.
There are wedding specific websites, some are free and some charge a little, some charge a lot (the knot can run $175/month in this market).
I had real good luck with getting seniors using a poster i put up in about 10 places that the seniors go. Cost me a whole $30.
Figure that 1/2 your advertising money is wasted. If you knew which half that would be before you spent it, well, you'd be the only one LOL.
Things to consider - you should use images in your advertising - do you have permission/releases to use the images? And even if you do, is it OK with the person (based on a local photog that has releases but the bride has decided she doesn't want her image used in his advertsing. Tough noogies you say? Fine till she gets on bridal forums and trashes your name) Are you a legit business - have a license and pay taxes, sales tax, etc? Start advertising and you may get the authorities to come a-knockin. You don't want to invest in starting a business only to have to shut it down or pay fines.
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08/15/2008 01:17:19 PM · #7 |
Thank you for great advice guys. Nathanael G, thanks for the moo website, i will be ordering business cards from them.
Thanks |
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08/15/2008 11:23:44 PM · #8 |
No problem, I'm sure you will be very happy with their products. I know I am!
_Nathanael |
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08/16/2008 04:53:58 PM · #9 |
In my opinion, advertising is like flushing your money down the toilet! :0)
Check out these books:
The Anatomy of Buzz
Marketing without Advertising
good luck out there! :0D |
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