“My $1,600 photography advertising mistake” plus 1 more: Digital Photography School

---

My $1,600 photography advertising mistake Posted: 18 Jun 2011 12:19 PM PDT I wasted $1,600 on advertising last year. How many ads did I get for that? One. Yup. One whopping big full-page ad in a local magazine. What did I get out of it? A big, fat, juicy nothing. Not one phone call. Not one email inquiry. Not even more traffic on my website. So what am I going to do? Tell you how to advertise and how NOT to advertise if you’re looking to go into photography as a business. Why do we advertise? Most of us photographers are creatives. We’re looking to pull the business out of our creativity and make it pay us. What’s one thing the majority of creatives suffer with? Business sense. How’s that supposed to work, eh? We want to go into business but are too artsy fartsy to have a clue. Most people know one thing about business: you have to advertise. And for someone with a little money to spare starting up their business, splashing out on some advertising is often a dismal first move. We don’t like to sell ourselves, so taking out an ad or juicing up the balance on our Google or Facebook ads account seems to be the way to go if we want to avoid actually selling. Why didn’t my magazine ad work? I thought the magazine ad was a sure thing. I thought it was perfect because it went straight into the school bags and homes of my target market: people with children in a wealthy area. In retrospect, it didn’t work because: It was in print. You couldn’t click the URL and get right into my website. Parents don’t have time to remember to take that page to their computer, type the URL and visit me online. I mistakenly thought I was advertising for sales when really, I was advertising for brand recognition. Advertising doesn’t directly equal sales or money. It equals “oh, hey…there’s that photographer again”. Great if you want to build a reputation and get your brand in front of people’s eyes. Not great if you want to book sessions. I only did it once. It takes at least three months of continual advertising get people to act on what they’re seeing. What would I have done differently? If I were going to do a print ad again, I would have spent that money on many quarter-page ads and not one big whopping full-page ad. I would go into it knowing that I was building a reputation, getting my work in front of people’s eyes. I wouldn’t sit by the phone and wait for the work to roll in. The crash-and-burn disappointment from that mistake was a really hard lesson to learn. It hurt big time. It hurt my confidence and it hurt my finances. I’m still smarting from it even as I’m writing this. Ouch. How to advertise for sales, not just for recognition? You can’t get away from it. You have to SELL yourself. Save your money and hit the streets. This is what I do: Set up tables at wedding fairs. MEET PEOPLE. Get their details. Contact them a few days later. Book a meeting to discuss their wedding. Book the wedding. Simple! But you have to get out there and put a face to your work and that ain’t always easy. When I see a beautifully pregnant mamma, I give her my card. I tell her that I shoot maternity and newborns. I give my card to women with engagement rings. I give my card to everyone! For every 20 people you connect with, you might only get 1 session but you’re still building your brand and now that I’ve been doing that for a couple years, some clients heard about me from more than one friend and I got the same reaction {for free} that I got from my $1,600 ad: “Oh, hey…there’s that photographer again!” Post from: Digital Photography School's Photography Tips. Check out our resources on Portrait Photography Tips, Travel Photography Tips and Understanding Digital Cameras. My $1,600 photography advertising mistake

This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (12-18 Jun ‘11) Posted: 18 Jun 2011 07:45 AM PDT Weekly Assignment We finished off our Symmetry Assignment this week, and we saw many different ways that we can find symmetry around us. Our winner this week was i speak in math’s black and white glass. This was a very clear example of symmetry in the way that the black mirrored the white and the way it was clearly split down the middle. This one had an almost graphical quality that stood out to us. Our first runner up was shutterbugdeb’s barn image. The barn is so symmetrical it almost looks as if someone put a mirror in the shot. Even the top window with it’s angles is clearly symmetrical. This was also a good example of a black and white image that captured the tones nicely. And last, but not least was Cambyses‘ “Light at the end.” This was an interesting shot. In fact, it reminded us a bit of the Vitruvian Man” the way the arms are in the photo. This was an interesting way to include a human element into the symmetry assignment. We also started our Diagonal Lines Assignment this week. Diagonal lines are another compositional technique that can add interest to an image and help guide the eye through it. As always, a quick reminder of the rules. First, your photo must have been taken between 8-22 June 2011. Second, your photo must include the words “Diagonal Lines” and the date the picture was taken. Finally, your EXIF should be intact, and it’s helpful if you can include some of the main points such as camera, lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. Next week our Horizontal Lines Assignment will be posted, but don’t forget you can start photographing now. Good luck everyone! Post from: Digital Photography School's Photography Tips. Check out our resources on Portrait Photography Tips, Travel Photography Tips and Understanding Digital Cameras. This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (12-18 Jun ‘11)