Free Vs Paid Marketing

Free marketing Vs Paid Marketing


Ok so there are many forms of both Free marketing and paid marketing that is available for us to market our businesses, this blog "im hoping" will open up a discussion on what you as readers think about the free marketing you can use such as:

- Facebook
-Twitter
-Blogs
-etc

and the marketing you can get when you pay:

-billboards
-tv and radio adverts
-car banners
-work shirts
-business cards
-proper websites
-etc

At what point is paying for you marketing worth it? if at all?

what forms of marketing are you gona use? what forms are you using at the moment if any?
i dont want to see just links to web sites im talking opinions backed up by websites...

A TON of info on marketing and starting your Photography Business

http://www.marketing-for-photographers-and-photography.com/

http://photography-marketing.org/

http://www.photography.com.au/content_main.cfm?ContentType=Content&ContentID=22

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol56/photography.htm

http://www.marketing-for-photographers-and-photography.com/

Photography & Social Media

"Social Media for Photographers: Let’s Get Real for a Moment"

This is such a great blog post on social media for Photographers; worth a read. Here is a little taste of what Grover Sanschagrin posted.

"Is social media helping your business, or is it simply wasting your time? The truth is, most people don’t have any idea. Bringing your business into social media is easy, but getting something out of it requires more than just keeping in touch with family and friends."

http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/07/social-media-for-photographers-lets-get-real-for-a/

F*ck You; Pay Me! A Guide To Contracts For The Creative Professional

This is a 30minute talk that based around a designers point of view. But same shit for us as photographers.
Entertaining & educational
Check it out.
 http://fstoppers.com/fck-you-pay-me-a-guide-to-contracts-for-the-creative-professional

Plans

http://www.betterphotography.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=4&Treeid=4&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

This is Peter Eastway's Website for his magazine Better Photography, and he has a section on Photo Business including documents you could also buy.

Be social...

As photographers we need to possess the ability to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds in all fields of photography.

The year is 2012 and most people have access to the internet, whether it be via a computer,laptop, smart phone or an ipad; whatever it may be people are hooked on keeping up-to-date and social media.

These days most people go straight to the Internet to find something they require, no more of that flicking through the yellows page circling businesses (which you then have to call to find out who and what they are about). It is so easy to type into google “Brisbane Wedding Photographer” that the yellow pages brick of a book has been pushed aside *(first person to find out who holds the #1 ranking on the google search engine gets a hugs).

Living in the technology driven world means social networking is our best friend and we should learn to live & work with it in our day-to-day business.

Sure it's not for everyone but don't be so quick to pass by this amazing marketing tool. It allows us as photographers to sell who we are and what we are all about. People think that they are buying an image, but at the end of the day they are hiring you & everything that makes you, you....

You see that decisive moment differently to someone else and you press the shutter... Then comes the images...

Marketing and Branding yourself are such vital ingredients in making a successful business.

Know who you are & your niche markets

Know what type of client you want...

When you know your client/audience you can build & retain relationships with them by the click of a button.

Christine Pokbe for example is very smart with her online presence. She is letting the world see who she is, she knows her target market and she uses social media/networking to let her clients get to know who she is. You have to watch this video she is just the cutest, loveliest person.. I know that if I had children I’d hire Christine.  

 

Check out her Website, blog & facebook

http://www.pobkephotography.com/

http://www.pobkephotography.com/for-photographers.html

http://www.pobkephotography.com/blog/

http://www.facebook.com/PobkePhotography

I recently attended the Brisbane AIPP Hair of the Dog event where many great photographers and people in the photographic industry gave time to share their knowledge. A key piece of information

that I recall hearing over and over again is that Social Media is a power tool that needs to be an active part of a photographers business. Photographers from all different fields utilise social media sites in different ways and it's working for them....

Below are a few of the most used social networking sites.

Facebook: www.facebook.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com

LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/

Google+:https://plus.google.com/up/?continue=https://plus.google.com/&type=st

If you know any other great site please leave a comment..

Sharing is caring

Peace

Jazzy x

It took many years for digital photography to catch on due to a lack of software available such as that of Photoshop (only marketed in 1989). However, come 2003 digital camera sales surpassed that of the film cameras according to the Photo Marketing Association. With this new digital world some companies thrived such as that of Epson and Hewlett-Packard whereas others such as Kodak, who in 2005 decided to cease production of its black and white printing paper thus assisting to seal the fate of darkroom photography.

Advertising as text without any pictures accompanying the text is found to be considerable boring to a mass audience and is not an effective way of advertising a product, with peoples love of pictures, photographs soon became a staple of the daily paper and in the last quarter of the 20th century most newspapers made the transition to colour printing for photographs on their news papers to appeal to as many consumers as possible.

Amateur photography for the masses can be seen as a positive and a democratic social phenomenon, being that it is easy to buy and learn to use a digital camera this is making everyone a visual recorder of his own life, but likewise it is a successful, capitalist business phenomenon. Without the lure of fortunes to be made from millions of customers, it is unlikely that the businesses that have made such an impact would have entered the field.

Marketing From Experience!

As Business marketing is a massive area to cover, let’s break it down into areas.

And please feel free to say if u disagree or want to add something!

Also check out this site for some interesting statistics on businesses.

http://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/small-business-statistics/

Free Marketing!

First of all the key to marketing a new or existing business is to understand that whenever you are in business hours whether you are with current or soon to be customers you are Marketing yourself and your business.

Your presentation (as in the way you dress) the way you talk, the way you present clients or soon to be clients with information whether it be documents in paper or via email.

If you are poorly presented then you are marketing your business as a poorly presented or poorly prepared business.

This can be very easily fixed by doing some of the following (as obvious as it may seem):

1- Dress yourself as you want to be seen, like a professional...so no thongs, no gum, no shirts with discriminatory remarks that you might find funny... (Basic code is if you a male stick with a colored shirt, nice pants or jeans and covered shoes, ladies...well that can get tricky as you have a clothing arsenal that far out reaches my imagination....and no amount of research is going to change that...just dress smart!)

2- Create Templates for any information you put together for a client, so that you are able to go back and reuse the templates and also add and refine as you use it more. Also all Facebook, Flicker and so forth accounts are perfect for free advertising however they must be maintained and used correctly for you individual business.

3- Before meeting clients for a job, prepare everything and go over it so that you are ready for any questions they might throw at you, I know it’s impossible to be ready for everything but be prepared for most questions they might ask.

4- The way you walk is simple, walk as if you are doing it as a part time job and you would rather be at the pub and you will have no money for the pub...but walk as if you are successful and you will be successful!

First impressions are important!

Paid Marketing

There are many forms of marketing that you can pay for such as advertising on TV, Bus, Radio, Online, Billboard and so forth. There are more ways of advertising today than there ever has been, but bad advertising can be worse than no advertising, So make sure when you are investing your money into a area of advertising you research that are and what you are trying to get out of that area, no point in advertising your sports photography business to an area where the people that live there have a average age of 70..

Check out the following sites for some further information.

http://www.hirepulse.com.au/Business-Advertising

http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2010/04/15/5-marketing-tips-for-photographers/ 

Hope this makes sense and helps.

This site has a lot of Business secrets!!

http://www.cjlewis.com/

Following

http://danheller.blogspot.com.au/2007/02/photo-marketing-isnt-about-pushing-its.html

Ive added this into our added blog sections. Just another blog giving us information about Business and Marketing in the photography world.

Videos of Business Tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIJjS1SPpMc&list=UUFeIJ3znnKFQzWkrXEa41eg&index=35&feature=plcp

The uploader of this video has videos of tips for photography business and this is his first tip which was "Telephone Secrets". When I saw the video it made me realise that I've never thought of calling clients and talking to them to get more work, so it was an interesting video.

Marketing yourself with PhotoBOOKS - via Photoshelter

These days it is quite easy & cheap to produce a photobook, so why not use a photobook to market yourself and your work?? You would be silly not to.

As humans we are textile creatures and having a book to hold onto and flick through evokes more emotions then staring vacantly into a computer screen. A photobook can be kept at your studio so that clients can look through your work. Also it doubles as an example of what the client could potentially take home. E.g. A wedding album could be finished as a photobook.

http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/marketing-yourself-with-photobooks

Bloggers let me know you think of this online guide.

How would you use a photobook to get business?

All that jazz xo

Photoshelter.com is a great site...

Check it out

http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/

A free download for 'The Freelancer's Online Marketing Blueprint'
http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/freelancers-online-marketing-blueprint

I will be downloading this online guide and posting back to let everyone know what I thought and learnt.

Fellow business marketing blogger I recommend you have a read and check out the other links on the photoshelter site.

Could get some good discussions started. 

Jazzy Out  x