Photography Marketing Schedule

[mikenajera]

I'm just getting started with my photography business, and have started to take note of studios that advertise in advance for senior portraits, the wedding season, xmas, etc.

Although, I'm sure I can figure this out....I was wondering if anyone had a simple schedule that I could follow, to send out electronic advertising material to my potential and existing customers....

[HotHolly]

Part of this is gonna depend on when the locals book things as well as what you're selling and price points. Different demos behave differently and it'll mess with your marketing time line. My marketing schedule wont help you much since the locals tend to book stuff very last minute.

You expect surges (in general) during these months: Oct-Nov for Xmas/Holiday, Jan for weddings, summer for seniors for the following year, etc.

Last year I did a show as part of my marketing plan, for my boudoir division, in early Nov. That was were I booked sessions for Christmas. Told ya, we book late here. Then the stragglers spilled over into early Jan for Val Day.

Hope that helps a little bit. And marketing that allows for a personal point of contact is great (like fairs and shows).

[Tom]

Find your target market. The more specific you can get, the better. The more specific you can get, the better the return on your investment will be. The schedule for different targets may be different.

For instance, if your target is football players, you will want to be shooting during football season when they have their pads and jerseys but if you want to shoot baseball players, you will shoot in the spring, when they have their uniforms.

[mikenajera]

Sorry, I should have clarified who I'm marketing to....
I primarily do on-location portraits, engagement sessions, Bridals, Wedding Photography, Seniors, and Children.

I just didnt know if there was a better time to market to families for family portraits (like holidays) or to parents for childrens photos. Wedding and Senior sessions seem to be a little easier to figure out.

[HotHolly]

For families and kids - there is ALWAYS a reason/ good time to shoot a session. RIGHT NOW is a good time. Its summerish, but not too hot. And your kids wont be this age tomorrow! Right now K grad photos are going on. Or done already. Holidays are a no brainer, its the rest of the year that your marketing promos flux and you need to have a reason to have them come in THEN. Blue Bonnets just passed up here.

Have you looked at Marathon Press? They have prefab stuff you can use, and marketing tools that might help you.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by mikenajera

Sorry, I should have clarified who I'm marketing to....
I primarily do on-location portraits, engagement sessions, Bridals, Wedding Photography, Seniors, and Children.

That is everyone in the entire world. You might want to narrow your focus down so you can plan how to better and more accurately focus your marketing money.

[mikenajera]

LOL....I know it sounds like I'm all over the place, but I market myself as a Portrait & Wedding Photographer. The Engagement and Bridal Sessions fall under my Wedding Focus, and Families seem to include children, maternity, and Teens (seniors).

I don't do events, sports, landscapes, real estate, fashion shoots, or products. I guess I didn't want to just be a Baby Photographer, or only market myself as only a Wedding Photographer. Are you saying that it would be better to limit myself to one area....so early in the game. I kind of feel like I'm still discovering my area of expertise.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by mikenajera

LOL....I know it sounds like I'm all over the place, but I market myself as a Portrait & Wedding Photographer. The Engagement and Bridal Sessions fall under my Wedding Focus, and Families seem to include children, maternity, and Teens (seniors).

I don't do events, sports, landscapes, real estate, fashion shoots, or products. I guess I didn't want to just be a Baby Photographer, or only market myself as only a Wedding Photographer. Are you saying that it would be better to limit myself to one area....so early in the game. I kind of feel like I'm still discovering my area of expertise.

There are all kinds of varying opinions on how you should market yourself.

If you market yourself as a wedding/baby/senior/family/headshot/corporate photographer, then you can easily come off looking like a jack of all trades and a master of none, even if that is not warranted.

And that is exactly the problem I have. I do everything. But if you look at my wedding website, it has nothing but weddings. If I ever do seniors regularly, I will have a senior website that is nothing but seniors, and I will focus solely on 2-3 HS. But I also shoot all the professional sports, I do lots of corporate/marketing, etc. But a bride really doesn't care that I get to be on the field to shoot the Texans, and that doesn't help my wedding business, as brides are buyers.

But marketing yourself to such a wide audience kills your ability to be effective. How are you going to be effective on marketing every type of family photography to everyone in Houston. Pick your neighborhood. Pick your kids schools. Market directly to a small target. Putting a billboard up on I-10 won't get you any business, but it will get you lots of impressions. Impressions don't pay the mortgage.

You need to figure out what you are good at, and focus on that. Then you need to figure out what your target market is, and focus on that. If you are a baby photographer, your target market isn't mothers of children 0-1. It would be something like mothers that live near Katy Mills Mall or mothers that live in River Oaks.

Because if you try to market yourself to ALL mothers, you are just going to be using a shotgun approach, and you will get very little return on your investment, because each pellet will hit just a little, if anything at all. But if you pull out a sniper rifle and aim at one particular thing, you can hit it much more precisely.

[HotHolly]

Thats interesting Thomas. I woulda told him the opposite and Im a niche photographer. I guess the grass looks greener when you arent the one standing on it. :D

I met a photog last year who was a stages of life photographer. She did family sessions from birth, toddlers, K grads, all the middle school stuff, seniors, bridals, wedding, preggers, and then birth of that baby and the whole cycle repeats. I found that very interesting. Shes one of the only successful photographers I know who doesnt have a niche. She also thought niches were bad.

I personally have a niche b/c my attention span is limited. Im better at shooting what I like...I like shooting women and making them look like a bombshell. Its exciting and I can add a lot of stuff that is typically seen in the art world, rather than photography.

And I agree with Thomas, marketing a niche is way the butt easier. I suppose the photog Im thinking of had a niche - it was the life cycle of the American family. It was a niche in premise though, rather than subject matter. If that makes any sense.

[mikenajera]

Thomas,
Thank you so much for the detailed explaination. This really helps alot! I HAVE been using the shotgun approach to getting my business started... since I was simply "hungry" for any job I could get. I like the idea of having dedicated websites for weddings and one for kids, etc. I agree that if a bride is interested in hiring me....she really doesnt care about my senior photos....and vice versa. Are you saying that it's fine to market to multiple markets, but to just do so directly...or are you recommending that I specialize and find a niche?

Up to this point, I have shot one senior portrait, one engagement session, and one bridal. I will be shooting my first wedding in June. I have a few jobs lined up that include: a family session, a childrens session, and a couples session. I guess after those shoots, I'll have a better idea of what I may gravitate to, but at the moment everything is ending up on my website: Gallery - Mike Najera Photography. Be sure to click the Full Screen button on the top right....

[Tom]

Originally Posted by HotHolly

Thats interesting Thomas. I woulda told him the opposite and Im a niche photographer. I guess the grass looks greener when you arent the one standing on it. :D

I met a photog last year who was a stages of life photographer. She did family sessions from birth, toddlers, K grads, all the middle school stuff, seniors, bridals, wedding, preggers, and then birth of that baby and the whole cycle repeats. I found that very interesting. Shes one of the only successful photographers I know who doesnt have a niche. She also thought niches were bad.

I personally have a niche b/c my attention span is limited. Im better at shooting what I like...I like shooting women and making them look like a bombshell. Its exciting and I can add a lot of stuff that is typically seen in the art world, rather than photography.

And I agree with Thomas, marketing a niche is way the butt easier. I suppose the photog Im thinking of had a niche - it was the life cycle of the American family. It was a niche in premise though, rather than subject matter. If that makes any sense.

It really depends on the market, I think. A bride - especially an upper end bride - is going to want a WEDDING photographer. Someone who specializes in WEDDING photography.

For instance, lets look at a few of the better wedding photographers in Houston - a very saturated wedding market.
J Cogliandro Photography - Houston Wedding Photography, Miami Wedding Photography, Destination Wedding Photography - Joe Cogliandro - Only weddings on his website.
D Jones Photography – Houston, Texas Wedding and Portrait Photographers – (713) 521-1550 David Jones and Laura Burlton - David Jones - Rarely anything but weddings.
Adam Nyholt, Photographer - Adam Nyholt - Rarely anything but weddings or his family on his blog.

These three are three of the best photographers in Houston and all are serving the clients looking for a luxury wedding experience.

I'm not saying that you can't take a shotgun approach, but the more surgical approach makes more sense, especially if you are shooting weddings. If your main gig is kids portraits, I don't think the clients care as much that you also shoot weddings. But from talking to brides, I have found that most want a photographer that specializes in weddings.

I HAVE been using the shotgun approach to getting my business started... since I was simply "hungry" for any job I could get.

I think clients can also sense when someone is hungry for work. Not necessarily a good thing.

Are you saying that it's fine to market to multiple markets, but to just do so directly...or are you recommending that I specialize and find a niche?

I think that it is especially important when you are a new photographer for you to find a niche in photography. It is easy to expand from that niche, but if you are very new and inexperienced, it is very hard to get good at any part of photography when you are doing a little bit of everything. If you can become brilliant in one single part of photography, you can book clients on anything. But if you do work that is passable in multiple areas, it will be much harder to book clients in any area.

Figure out what you ENJOY doing, and become great at that.

If you believe Malcolm Gladwell in his great book Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of doing something to become an expert. If you are splitting your time between babies, kids, seniors, families, adults, brides and weddings, it is nearly impossible to get that expert level.

Find a unique marketing position. What is special about you or your work that none of your competition can bring to the table? Photographers are a dime a dozen and anyone can afford to buy a DSLR that will take decent pics right out of the box. Why should they pay you $500 to take pics? Why should they pay you $500 when the guy down the street is $400.

Are you saying that it's fine to market to multiple markets, but to just do so directly...or are you recommending that I specialize and find a niche?

Most of all, enjoy it. To make a career out of photography will NOT be a QUICK or EASY thing. Slow and steady wins the race. The last thing you want to do is book a bunch of stuff real quick and then realize that you don't have the time to edit it all. Easy to do, especially when dealing with weddings, because to edit them correctly takes a lot of time. And just burning them on disc SOOC will not get you referrals.

Plus, it takes time and experience to develop your vision as a photographer. Your vision is what you are selling. Consistency is very key to selling your product. And when you do a real portfolio website, it is also important for the client not to just see the same kid over and over. They want to know you have done this more than a few times.

I only looked briefly at your gallery, but one really helpful thing is to seek honest and open feedback. Detach yourself from the critique and the critiquer. Your picture may very well suck (and if you are brand new, it probably does) but that isn't an indictment on you as a person or you as a photographer. When you are new, you lack the vision and the experience. A hard critique is the best way to gain those things. Read other critiques, and go through the pics and try to see what the critiquer was seeing. But it is definitely hard to hear your pic sucks and here is ABC reasons why. So the more detached you can make yourself the better, and the quicker you will improve your photography.

[mikenajera]

I hear what you're saying, and I think marketing myself as a Wedding & Portrait Photographer should be the way to go then....especially after seeing how some of the best photographers you used as examples describe themselves:

***Thank you for taking the time to visit J. Cogliandro Photography. We are International Award Winning Photographers based in Houston and Miami who specialize in Artistic Storytelling. Whether it is a wedding or a family lifestyle shoot our goal is to capture the essence of the people involved in a creative and fresh way

***Welcome to D Jones Photography
We are a Houston, Texas based photography studio covering some of the finest weddings, social and corporate events as well as contemporary portraits

***Hey. My name is Adam. I'm a wedding and portrait photographer in Houston, TX.

...as for getting honest feedback on my images, I'm always open to it. I do agree that having a single person or child on my site discredits my portfolio...which is why I've been wanting to add more people to it quickly. I will most likely refine the overall site to only show my best images.

btw....just an fyi..I visited your site and the weddings portfolio link failed on my IE8. Just thought you would like to know in case it actually works on your browser.

[Tom]

btw....just an fyi..I visited your site and the weddings portfolio link failed on my IE8. Just thought you would like to know in case it actually works on your browser.

Creative Motion Design absolutely sucks with their uptime. It seems like it is ALWAYS down. Terribly frustrating.

I hear what you're saying, and I think marketing myself as a Wedding & Portrait Photographer should be the way to go then....especially after seeing how some of the best photographers you used as examples describe themselves:

But look at their portraiture. To be a really successful wedding photographer, you MUST be a good portrait photographer. No other way about it. So you include that. These guys may shoot babies or seniors, but you won't see that on their website (much.) Because their portraits are pretty much limited to engagements and bridals. That is their portrait photography, and they are experts at that.

But calling yourself a 'wedding and portrait photographer' and marketing yourself as a wedding/portraits/kids/babies/seniors photographer are two entirely different things.

[bondarnes]

Originally Posted by HotHolly

Thats interesting Thomas. I woulda told him the opposite and Im a niche photographer. I guess the grass looks greener when you arent the one standing on it. :D

I met a photog last year who was a stages of life photographer. She did family sessions from birth, toddlers, K grads, all the middle school stuff, seniors, bridals, wedding, preggers, and then birth of that baby and the whole cycle repeats. I found that very interesting. Shes one of the only successful photographers I know who doesnt have a niche. She also thought niches were bad.........

I ended up being a jack of all trades type photographer, but I started out with just Wedding Day coverage until I felt I had that mastered. Then I left my newspaper job and opened a studio and added Engagement and Bridal Portraits. As my wedding couples began starting families, I added Children's Portraits. I then took a leap forward and added High School Seniors.

So in a way I was a niche photographer, but I kept adding other niches. Somewhere along the way I added sports teams, other events, dance studios, day cares, private schools, church directories, and a little bit of commercial work. I thrive on variety and get bored doing only one type of work.

[mikenajera]

I knew I wanted to do Weddings, but I felt like I needed to get more shoots under my belt before I would attempt such a task. My plan was to start off photographing friends & family (which is exactly what I did), then I would move up to paid portraits....then one day....maybe..someday.....weddings!.

Wow! Was I wrong. Life has a funny way of messing with your plans. Right out of the shoot I was booked for a Wedding, and the bride wanted engagement photos and a bridal shoot. I figured I should just go for it if I was going to be serious about this WHOLE photography thing.

I explained that I had no wedding experience and no wedding images to show her...(except friend and family photos). I offered to do it for her very, very, very cheap...just to gain the experience. She booked me on the spot!

I feel a lot more comfortable about the wedding now, since I have now established a relationship with the couple (after the engagement session and bridal session which are now complete). I've even quoted two other weddings, simply from the bridal and engagement photos I took. I guess I'll have to rethink my whole marketing plan....and simply keep shooting whatever pays the bills.....LOL