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Self-promotion - the secrets
of success
Its one of the biggest clichés in the photographic industry; you may well be the best photographer in the galaxy but unless people know that you're out there, no-one will come and buy your services from you. The art of promotion has never before been so critical to the success or failure of a business as it is now, but as photographers we needn't panic just yet. Without the necessity for multi-million pound corporate planning strategy or global marketing plans, the basic techniques of self promotion for the individual are simple, common sense, business tools and form the bedrock of your business. Put simply, if you don't promote yourself no-one else will. Business stationery - letterhead, compliments slip & business card Your business stationery should be simple, stylish, and memorable. It should also be unified by a design or logo which is identical (though of different sizes) to the business card, comp slip and letter head. Its important not to skimp on expenditure here. With the mass-adoption of home computers as essential to the domestic environment as the fridge and the cooker, many people are fooled into believing that they can create a business identity with the use of clip art and cheap dtp software. More often than not, clip art in your design looks just like clip art to anyone else, and although you might feel that work comes your way as a direct result of your self-designed stationery, sooner or later you'll want to aim for bigger and better clients whose expectations are higher. There are bound to be exceptions from photographers who have got away with it but I would always recommend the services of a designer well-versed in business communications to create a stylish business identity to really leave an impression.
If you know of a friend who has the appropriate design skills necessary, why not offer to swap your services. I once had a terrific piece of design done (a flyer for an exhibition) in return for photographing the designers portfolio under copying lights for a slide presentation. No money changed hands but we were both delighted at the outcome - definitely a win-win situation. Sometimes it's worthwhile getting a one-off card or flyer printed and there are many well-known printing firms who produce postcards and business cards in runs of 500 or more at very reasonable prices. This kind of promotional activity is useful as a reminder that you met them 6 weeks ago, or that you have new work to show existing clients, and so on. Its also a good way to keep a valuable business relationship ticking over without being too invasive or over-familiar. Personal image By far the most over-looked aspect of self promotion is
the person you look at in the mirror. Your appearance, demeanour, clothes,
personal style, all give signals (for better or worse) to a client or
customer who will make judgements and assumptions about you based on how
you look.
Ultimately, your aim is to appear professional, so obviously neat and tidy is going to win hands-down over untidy and unkempt. Having said that, there are differences of style and approach between different sectors of the commercial photographic industry. If your particular field is weddings & studio portraits or predominantly press or business-orientated, most people will expect to see suit and tie, or jacket and tie. If you are a top fashion photographer or work in advertising where most of your work comes from advertising or design agencies, you have more freedom (for some, even an obligation) to be outrageous, elegantly stylish, or just plain wierd. Mercifully, there is now much more of a trend for neat informality and most photographers will aim for a balance between looking smart but not stuffy at the one extreme, or overly stylish at the other. Making an impression went completely over-the-top back in the eighties, where I recall the gossip from several top London agencies where pitching for work is so cut-throat and so well-paid that photographers had been known to dress-up in Superman capes with glass fish bowels over their heads simply in order to make an impression and never to be forgotten. I wouldn't recommend adopting this approach today when pitching for work at your local council offices unless you are particularly keen to be taken away by men in white coats.
Telephone manner Another banana skin area as far as self promotion goes, is the telephone. A good telephone manner imparts professionalism and unless you can signal to your potential customers that you have it in abundance, you won't get the job. The area of telephone technique most problematical for freelancers is the cold call. Here, it pays to plan. Plan on being positive. Plan on being professional. Don't dive straight into a muddled sales pitch - work out in a sensible, logical order beforehand what you need to say on answering, and how you will say this with charm, clarity and economy. In most cold-calling situations your response on answering would probably go something like this:-
"Hello Mr Smith, I'm Jeremy Webb and I'm a photographer specialising in xxxxx. I've just seen your magazine and was very impressed - I think I have some photographs which will interest you" This opener contains the following key ingredients:- Treat the situation like getting to know someone you find
attractive, an opportunity for chat-up or conversation but avoid asking
questions which set you up for a straight yes or no answer. The chances
are that a busy editor will jump at saying "No" even if you
have exactly what he wants. Instead practice your open-ended questions
where an opinion is sought or they are forced to enquire further. These
techniques are well-known to the sales technique seminar industry, but
you don't have to go down that route. Even a simple role play between
you and your spouse, friend, or relative will allow you to pinpoint areas
of your telephone technique which could be improved. Above all, just be yourself. The last thing you want to do is beat someone over the head with your own trumpet and annoy the hell out of them - that's not making a sale, that's ensuring that you will never, ever work for that client. If he or she uses that well-known manipulative statement "I'm just too busy" (lets face it, we all do at some time) respect their wishes and offer to send them something by mail or email, or if you're feeling brave and the signals aren't too hostile, suggest a date and time in which to meet/talk in the future. The essence of good cold-calling for the photographer is a tricky balance between being a dog with a bone, and an outright charmer.
Run-ons and printed samples Every time you are informed that you are about to have some photographs published in a book or magazine, get in touch with the appropriate editor or publisher and ask if you could have some run-ons for your own marketing. Once the printing plates for a book or magazine page are set and ready to print, it's possible sometimes to order the further printing of a few hundred more pages to be whisked-away from the print run and sent directly to you. This is more usual if your work is used unpaid (by accident or design) in which case the publisher will have derived benefit from your skills at zero cost to him/herself and a favour returned (or reproduction fee!) is well within your moral rights. I once had my work featured in a prestigious book which I knew would be sent to or bought by all the right people -where the opportunity for further work was possible once it was published. In return for a few specific images, I was eventually sent 40 copies of the book by courier when quite honestly I would rather have received just my pages alone. Run-ons would be far more useful as ready-made marketing materials rather than having to send out the entire book to a client or neatly cutting-out the pages to send. These days we wrongly assume that the computer can do everything. Email and CDs are great ways of distributing and showing photographers work and better still, they bypass the kind of hassle and expense of recorded delivery postage, and bubble wrap that goes along with sending-out submissions to potential customers. What these new forms of digital communication lack however, is the Tangibility Factor. Images on paper are lightweight, immediate, and touchable. They can be pinned to a board, passed easily to a colleague, and seen instantly. Granted, they can also be ripped-up, lost, or buried, but many editors and publishers would rather receive an attractively-packaged sample portfolio as computer print-outs or laser copies as opposed to CDs (which once out of their box can look much like any other) or emails which clog-up their inbox or get filtered-out as an unsolicited Junk email.
Presentation folders, neatness, slide wallets, recycled/ jiffy bags and so on Rather than staple your A4 print-outs in the corner, most good stationers will supply document wallets or folders which will protect your samples AND deliver them to your intended recipient in an attractive folder. Likewise prints despatched in dog-eared and tatty jiffy bags may well be good for the environment (having been recycled) but will give your client the idea that the sloppiness of your presentation or delivery is an indication of the sloppiness of your photography. Mail shots Well-targeted and relevant mailshots will give you the best returns. General purpose, poorly targeted mailshots (the Scatter-gun approach) will on average give you a conversion rate of less than 1 per cent and with the printing and postage costs involved in a mailshot, you'll end up losing far more than you gain. With creativity, relevance, and purpose, this method of self promotion can work well for you, especially if you can personalise the communication. Also, is there any way you can encourage a greater incentive to respond, such as providing for the recipient a tick-box reply postcard or some other feature which lifts your mailshot above the mundane. Mailshots can work well with a specific time-sensitive offer, such as 2-for-1 enlargements for the month of November only, or some other sales promotion.
Press releases Any professional successes you have should be shouted from the rooftops. Awards, exhibition openings, major new clients and so on all deserve to find space within local and national press, and don't discount broadcast media either. TV and radio, especially where a regional angle can be found, or where a topical issue is raised could be interested in your latest triumph. Seize the moment. Todays news is always tomorrows fish'n chip paper so aim to capitalise on your achievements instantly for maximum effect. Good press releases should always be short and snappy, with the entire point of your press release contained within an opening sentence, followed by further unfolding paragraphs revealing further details. A glance at many newspaper columns will show you how a typical article will contain the essence of the piece in its first short paragraph and will then go on to reveal further details/insights or speculations over the following unfolding paragraphs. If in doubt, keep a couple of useful acronyms pinned to
your office wall. I always have a love-hate relationship with these things
- nauseatingly trendy and simplistic on one hand, they do nevertheless
contain a distilled truth with which we sometimes need to bludgeon over
the head with. I'd rather be bludgeoned with these than go all airy-fairy
and off the point! PASS - In your written communications, remember; AIDA - This one is relevant to all promotional activity Finally, a checklist known as I.E. POSH FIBS:- Be Interesting Other forms of self-promotion Seasonal gifts & seasonal promotions Forget biros with your name on, or personalised diaries. the kind of promotional gifts which tend to work for photographers are calendars, posters, cards and generally, any paper-based product which features prominently both your name and your work. Exhibitions Advertising Email (solicited & unsolicited), CD portfolios, websites No feature on self-promotion could ignore the promotional power of the computer in todays high speed, information-gobbling age. Email, DVD, Quicktime, CD burners, and websites are all highly effective self-promotional tools and techniques at our disposal. The whole subject requires far more depth and detail than there is space for here, but as many have found to their cost, merely setting-up a website and waiting for the inevitable traffic of customers to come hammering at your door is not the way it works. Websites need your marketing skills to make them more visable, and you need an understanding of the way the information highway operates so that your site is featured high up (within the first 5 search results ideally) when punters use their search engines to locate new photographers. ...and finally Above all, self-promotion requires setting-aside time since it is a vital aspect of your weekly activity and should be approached with a positive attitude. It's one thing to be working flat-out and far too busy to think about, but when sickness or sackings at your favourite clients HQ mean the phone suddenly stops ringing, do you have well-informed, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic clients ready to step into the breach?
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