5 Ways for Photographers to use an iPad to Jumpstart their Business
1. Editing On-the-Go
The iPad is never going to replace a desktop computer for photo editing. However, it does come in handy when you are looking to quickly edit a few pictures. I recently traveled home for the holidays. My parents wanted a picture for their Christmas card. I was able to quickly take a picture on my Canon 5d MarkII. Then I connected my camera directly into the iPad using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. The kit allowed me to download any of the pictures from my camera to my iPad. Apple makes this whole process very easy and seamless.
Once the pictures are on your iPad, there are lots of great apps you can use to edit your photos. I encourage you to download a number of apps and figure out which ones work best for you and your style.
Here are a few of my favorite iPad apps for photo editing:
- PS Express – Allows you to do basic editing like crop, contrast, sharpen, and add borders.
- Filterstorm – This is probably my favorite photo editing app. It allows for more advanced editing like adding text, canvas size, editing the curves, redeye, and it even allows for layers.
- PhotoFX – If you are looking to just add a quick effect (glamour, faded, film, etc.) to your picture, this is the app for you.
2. Client Viewing
The iPad has great screen resolution and a wide viewing angle (meaning you can have multiple people looking at it from different angles and they can all see the same thing). This makes the iPad perfect for client viewings!
Here are a few ways to display your images on the iPad for your clients:
- Built-In Photo Slideshow – Create an album with your client’s pictures on the iPad. Then, click the slideshow button – yes, it is that simple!
- Smugmug – Smugmug is an online image hosting service for photographers that allows photographers to sell their images. Since I use this service and my photos are already uploaded to Sumgmug this is my preferred way to display images. Smugmug also has a slideshow feature.
3. Accepting Payments
Say goodbye to the, “I don’t have any cash” excuse! The iPad allows you to take payments using tools like Square. It is free to get an account and a credit card reader from Square. They do charge a small fee to use the service, but in my mind, the convenience is with the price!
4. Handy Tools
Since the iPad connects to the internet, there are a lot of tools and apps you can use that relate to your business.
Here are a few tools that I use:
- White noise app – I love using the WhiteNoise Light app during my newborn sessions.
- Music – I use Pandora for all non-newborn sessions.
- Weather – You can check the weather and sunrise/sunset easily using The Weather Channel for iPad app.
- Appointments – Use the integrated calendar to say on top of all your bookings.
- Learning – You can subscribe to photography magazines, purchase photography books digitally, or just follow your favorite blogs.
5. Marketing
Where would your business be if you didn’t market it?!
The iPad has lots of tools to help photographers with marketing. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Twitter – The Twitter iPad app takes Twitter to the next level!
- Facebook – The Facebook iPad app allows you to quickly and easily add pictures and messages to your Facebook Fan page.
- Flickr – The Flickr iPad app lets you easily upload pictures to your Flickr account.
- WordPress – Update your blog in real time using the WordPress iPad app.
The iPad is so versatile I’m sure that there are more uses for the iPad in photography that I didn’t cover. Leave a comment below with your favorite use!
This blog post is brought to you by KristeenMarie Photography. Be sure to check her out on Facebook. Kristeen is an Indianapolis, IN Photographer who loves ice tea, the color purple, technology, and small children. She loves many things in life – though there are not many that she loves more than photography. She loves life and wants to capture every bit of it using her camera.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
5 Ways for Photographers to use an iPad to Jumpstart their Business
11 Ways to get Free Marketing for Your Photography
One of the challenges of charging for your photography is figuring out how to get clients. You’ve got the technical know-how, but what about the business and marketing side? Strapped for cash and looking for ways to generate buzz about your photography? No problem. Marketing doesn’t have to cost much money if you are willing to put in the time. Here are 11 proven ways to get free marketing for your photography business:
Networking
Networking is a great way to get your name out there and make connections with other businesses that can lead to partnerships and referral business. Be sure to have a plan of what you would like to accomplish (meet two new people, etc.) go prepared to chat up lots of new people and finally, have a plan for follow up. It’s those follow up get-togethers for coffee that can lead to new business.
Wisestamp
Wisestamp is a free email app that allows you to turn every email signature into a mini marketing campaign-you can add your links for Facebook, Twitter and your blog, as well as include feeds so your latest update or post is featured.
Many photographers are successfully building their business with Facebook marketing. It only requires about 10-20 minutes per day, and you will start to see your reputation grow. Why would you want to get on Facebook when you are already blogging? Because that’s where your clients are, and it’s another opportunity to connect with them in a fun, social way.
Pinterest is basically a way for users to collect and share images of things they like or convey a concept they want to express. It’s another great way to connect with your clients and prospective clients about creative ideas for their sessions or to express your own creative vision. It’s a very diverse platform that works for photographers who tend to be visual.
Cross-Marketing
Cross-marketing is partnering up with another business in order to help each other with marketing. Perhaps you could approach a children’s clothing store about offering a photo shoot with their latest clothing collection in exchange for holding a mini marathon session at the store?
Think outside the box and figure out where your clients are. This concept can be applied to any type of photography. Not everyone you approach will be receptive, so you keep trying until you find a good match.
Blogging
A blog is a great way to communicate with your audience what you are all about and what you offer. Your blog is basically a blank canvas to express creative ideas, share bits about your personal life, educate clients, share images and showcase products. A website is like a brochure, whereas a blog is like an ongoing conversation.
SEO
Search engine optimization is not as complicated as it seems. If you have a blog, it’s easy to get started. All you do is include keywords in text, tags and images that will help customers find you. For example, you could do separate blog posts about different types of services to help people find you when they are searching for that service. To take it a step further, name images with keywords, so instead of loading up 3209KL rename to “Wake Forest Wedding” so people searching for images of weddings in Wake Forest will find you. Once you understand the basics, it becomes easy to include SEO as a part of your regular activities.
Local Listings Online
Get Listed is a free one-stop service for updating local listings online. The process can easily be completed in about ten minutes, so it is well worth the time and super simple to do.
Referral Gifts
Past clients are a great source of referrals, and what better way to encourage referrals than offering incentives? Offer a service or product that doesn’t cost too much but has a high perceived value as a referral incentive. When business owners say “my business is based on referrals from happy clients” and “the greatest compliment you can give me is a referral” they are letting their clients know what they would like them to do. You have to ask for the referral.
Contests
Contests are a great way to do build buzz and build excitement for your brand. You’ll want to put together a plan that encouraging sharing so your message can be spread to new potential customers, and therefore build your base. Be sure to follow state laws and Facebook terms whenever holding a contest on your page or blog.
Getting Published
If you want to focus on building press and prestige for your work, getting published is a great way to go. You can submit images and story ideas to trade publications in your field as well as local media outlets. Once you’ve been published, you can use that publicity as a tool to promote yourself and open doors to more work. I’ve written a free guide on getting published that you can download today.
So there you have it. Some of these techniques can be implemented in the next 30 minutes; others require a greater time commitment. Marketing takes time to nurture and grow into a reliable source of leads, so don’t expect overnight results. However, if you are planning to build a business to last, then what better time to lay the foundation for success than right now?
Lara White is a professional photographer and blogger. Her free guide explains the step-by-step process she used to get featured in over 70 magazines and blogs: Get Published: A Guide for Wedding Photographers. For a weekly dose of business and marketing advice for photographers, check out her blog at PhotoMint.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
11 Ways to get Free Marketing for Your Photography
Silent Marketing Tips for Photographers
A Guest post by Agnese Aljena
We all know that word of mouth is the best form of marketing, but for creative industries it is even more important. The world has a perception – “artists don’t like to post advertisments around, they love to create art. And if somebody is hanging posters about himself, it means he is not good enough.” The truth is that good artists really don’t need marketing, everybody finds them anyway.
We as artists can quietly help the word to spread around – I call it “silent marketing”. Here are a few tips, tested by myself and other creative people. I will not talk about internet and social networks – if you read this then most probably you know how powerful they are. This time I will be giving very practical, down to earth tips – they are very simple and very effective. The main goal is to get people talking about you.
Business Cards
Many artists have really nice business cards, but there are thousands and thousands that don’t even have one. I have printed a few pictures from my portfolio on my business cards and every time it turns out to be a long ceremony of business card exchange. There are a few really good things about it – people see my portfolio one more time (and I have an extra possibility to talk about this or that picture, thus turning the conversation into more emotional mode).
It attracts the attention of other people and usually more people get my cards. People can’t choose one picture, so they take two or more. Having a nice card that is chosen by taker, will add an extra possibility that the person will not throw it away. If the card is excellent, it might happen, that it will be shown to others. And if the card is exceptional – if somebody got several, then it might be passed to somebody else.
Final Product
We live in a digital era and more and more photographers use digital tools to present their final work. These tools are very useful and they help to spread the word around, but don’t underestimate the world of tangible materials. If your customers are companies or high tech guys, then this might not be for you. I work with families with small children and I know that moms are too busy with their little ones. They don’t have time to share pictures on social networks and they don’t have time to print them.
Not all of them have iPads or time to upload pictures on their cell phones. A very good solution for spreading my name is good old prints that I am giving along with CD. I know that moms of my models will meet other moms. They will talk about babies and kids. And there is a bigger chance that they will take the prints and show them to others. And they do – this is how I get more than 90% of new customers.
Packaging
When I give the final product to my customers, I usually get the first compliments about the result and they are about packaging. People know, they will get a CD. In most cases they think that it will be just a CD in an envelope or plastic box and most probably there will be something written with a permanent pen on the disk – just like the CDs we have at home. You can turn this moment into a positive and unexpected experience. Packaging is not that time and money consuming, but it gives you a chance to say without words that you care about your customer, she or he is special to you, and you invested more than it is expected from you. I have seen that my packaging is still alive after years! People wrap and unwrap it.
Delivery time and place
Think about time and place, where your customer will be or where he might open and see your work for the first time (in any of the form, files, CD, prints). If he or she is in the office, then all colleagues will hear about you. If there is planned a party, then all guests will see pictures and will talk about you. You know your customers better – find time and place that could help to whisper your name.
Gift cards or vouchers
There used to be several months when I spent more time printing and packaging gift cards than taking pictures. The key is to get gift receiver cry or close to it. I am a children photographer and in most cases my contacts are young women – moms of little models. They are emotional and accessing their hearts is not very hard, but some of them really cry when opening gift card. In most cases it happens in parties, and it is hard to skip tears. Everybody will know why and your name will fly in the air for some time. I make my cards as personal as possible. I include the name of the gift receiver, I ask the gift giver to choose from several quotations – all of them are touchy, and I write the text using tiny emotional details that I ask from gift givers. All together with the nice packaging it explodes into emotions that are above average. People love to give presents that make gift receiver really happy.
And don’t forget to put several business cards into envelope of gift card or final product packaging!
Agnese Aljena is children and family photographer and lifestyle business blog owner.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Silent Marketing Tips for Photographers
Branding Your Photography Business – Part 1: Logos
As a former PR person, the importance of branding was always a topic I was harping on with clients – from individual authors to multi-million dollar corporations and non-profit agencies. How a business presents itself can be the difference between success and failure. Photographers are no exception to this rule. How you brand your business – from logo to business cards, website to social media pages, portfolio to promo piece – all affect a buyer’s decision whether to work with you or not.
Let me caveat this entire series first with a contradiction. Branding is irrelevant in context to the quality of your images. No amount of money that you dump into amazing branding will make a difference if your images simply aren’t where they need to be for a particular client. Your images always come first.
That being said, photography is an incredibly competitive industry, and there are many shooters out there with comparable levels of work. This is when branding comes into play to help give you the advantage over another photographer. A buttoned up package and production shows a client that you value every part of your business.
The first post in this four part branding series dives into logos, chronicling my own journey developing a new brand and highlighting other commercial and wedding photographers branding.
What’s in a Logo?
It’s hard to argue against the importance of a logo. In non-visual fields it’s often what buyers first identify with in a brand. In the photo industry it plays second fiddle to your images, but it’s still an important visual cue and tie-together for your clients.
A logo is best when it is a written or designed representation of the style of your work. Whether you’re an edgy fashion, luxury travel, flirtatious lifestyle or classic wedding photographer your logo should have a distinct connection with your style. Think how silly it would feel for an edgy fashion photographer to have a Comic Sans font as their logo. Apply that same font type to the flirtatious lifestyle photographer, and it just may work.
Different font treatments and designs evoke a certain emotional response from us. I can’t say I know the science behind it, but I’m sure you could easily point out a design that had a classy feel to one that had a whimsical feel without any training either. You don’t have to be a typophile to know how a font makes you feel when you see it.
Logos can be as simple as your name in a certain font or as elaborate as a multi-font, multi-color, iconographic and artfully designed branding display. The choice is up to you, but generally you’ll find logos vary a bit between the commercial and wedding industries. The reason for this is because different audiences prefer different styles. Commercial photographers usually have logos as simple as their name in a specific font, with perhaps a design element or two thrown in. Wedding photographers often vary from simple fonts to elaborate graphics and designs.
Check out this list of logo examples from both commercial and wedding photographers. Notice how their logos closely resemble the feel of their style of photography and come together to emphasize their brand.
Commercial photographers: João Canziani, Nick Onken, Stephanie Rausser, Cheyenne Ellis, Thayer Allyson Gowdy, Ben Watts, Mikkel Vang, Sharyn Cairns
Wedding photographers: Lizzie Kimball, lunaphoto, Alexandra Meseke, Ben Adams, Kyle Barnes, Daniel Usenko, Sean Flanigan, Trevor Dayley
The DIY Logo
Chances are when you’ve made the decision to get a bit more serious about your photography and start branding yourself, your first logo is going to be a do-it-yourself (DIY) creation. You’re probably not too confident about your images yet (or even know what you want to really shoot) but think they’re good enough to maybe throw a watermark on them or put them on a website – which of course you need your name on at least!
Almost everyone starts here. It’s where my branding journey began as well. For those of us without a design background or very little familiarity in Photoshop or Illustrator, the first incarnation of your logo will probably be pretty simple. When I first started I had no idea what I was doing. I picked a font I liked that was already on my computer, opened up Photoshop, made a logo on a white background to match my website, and saved it as a jpeg. I didn’t even know about PNGs, transparent backgrounds or anything else! You can see the first incarnation here.
But just because you’re making it yourself, doesn’t mean you have to be as limited as I was. A simple way to spruce up a logo using just your name is by find a great typeface. Sites like FontSpace, Fonts, and dafont all offer a great variety of free or low license rate fonts. You can find thousands of different fonts organized by themes, styles and use. All you have to do is download, add to the font folder on your computer and start creating! If you have a bit more skill in Photoshop or Illustrator, you can even add graphics, icons or other elements.
Make sure you select a font that is licensed for free commercial use and not just personal use if you intend to use it on your website or business cards and are making money with your photography. If there’s a personal use font you really like you can often email the original designer and get it for a small license fee. These fonts range anywhere from $20 to hundreds of dollars, but can really add a great look to your logo.
DIY Pros: free or very low cost
DIY Cons: personal design time investment; often look hand-made or lower quality; may not be consistent across several mediums
Freelance Designer or Friend
If you’re stuck in that in between point where you want a better logo and brand identity than you’re capable of making yourself but don’t have a big budget to invest in a full service design or ad agency, a freelance graphic designer may be the best route for you.
Often the people who take this route have a friend who is a graphic designer, or know a friend of a friend (of a friend, etc) that is one. Sometimes it’s the neighbor’s kid who is going to school for graphic design, other times it’s the freelancer you met at a networking function. There are resources online too like iFreelance to cruise for graphic designers and post a job to bid on. There are some great pros and cons to using a freelancer that often vary greatly depending on the designer that you use.
There are all sorts of arrangements that can vary the cost when working with a freelancer but principally involve around; the quality of their work, the speed of delivery and the hours of design time. It runs similar to the old marketing saying, “You can get it fast, good or cheap. Pick two.” You might get someone to make you a logo incredibly cheap… but it could take months before you see anything (if at all) – or you could get a great logo right away, but it’ll cost.
Whatever the case may be and whether you work with a professional from a recommendation or your friend who happens to be a graphic designer, you need to get a signed contract that details the scope of the project, deadlines, design rounds and any penalties for breaking contract. There’s nothing worse than paying someone several hundred dollars for a logo and then having them flake out on you. Friend or not, treat this as the serious business transaction that it is.
Freelance Pros: could be well-designed, cost effective, minimal personal time investment
Freelance Cons: could be poorly-designed, excessive personal time investment, tardy delivery, risk factors with flakes
Agency Designed Logo
For photographers really looking for the full treatment and a well-thought brand design, the best way to go is with a professional and reputable design, marketing or ad agency. These are companies ranging from three to hundreds of individuals who specialize in creating identifiable brands. It does come at a cost though, but in my personal experience I’ve found the investment to be absolutely worth it.
There are a lot of benefits to working with a design agency. First and foremost is working with a team of professionals who are constantly creating branding for a variety of clients. Even if your work is designated to a less experienced or newer hire at an agency, it passes by several eyes and receives input a few times before it ever reaches you. If you can, try to find an agency in your area that has worked with photographers in the past, or other creative professionals. Agencies often specialize with clients in specific industries. Those who work with photographers usually know better what we’re looking for (and what attracts clients) in our industry.
When you’re shopping around, you can talk to multiple agencies and receive a few estimates to compare them. Don’t just look at the final price tag each quotes you, but also pay attention to what comes along with it. Things to look for are how many design revisions you get before you’re charged for extras, what the final deliverables are and any consultations. I recommend working with an agency that sits down for a consultation before working with you, to understand the direction you want to take your brand and any ideas you may have.
When I finally made the decision to work with an agency, I went with the creative team over at The James Agency. I’ve known people there for a few years, had seen a lot of their fantastic recent work and was happy they were willing to meet for an initial consult. I wanted a new brand clients could identify with that was fun enough to fit the style of my images, yet simple enough not to dominate. Together, they honed down just the right look for me that I could use across a number of mediums (website, biz cards, promos, etc). The feedback I’ve gotten has been tremendous, and it has really helped tie together my brand. Definitely a big improvement over my DIY logo.
It doesn’t just happen on the first try though. We took several revisions to get just the right look. Take a look here at the options and progressions we worked through when designing my logo. From a variety of looks to narrowing down the right style and then working through color treatments. Expect to go through the very same process.
I also asked a friend of mine (Lizzie Kimball) her experience while working with an agency in creating a new logo for her wedding photography. Here’s what she had to say:
When I started Lizzie Kimball Photography, I wanted branding that was fun, simple, and appealing to brides. I created a logo on my own, using a fun font I found on my computer and a flower decal that was included in the font. However, after looking at my logo I felt it was too whimsical and childish; not very appealing to the modern, sophisticated bride that I wanted to attract.
So, I made the decision to hire Becky from C1 Design and told her that I’d like to make a logo that was simple, clean and sophisticated. She presented me with my new logo that’s been in use since the spring of 2009 and it has served me well. With my new brand I still show my fun personality through my name, but I’m also able to present clients with a professional, simple branding that enhances my images rather than distracts from them.
I also made the choice hire a professional blog designer, Loverli Creative, to shape my blog around my logo making it clean, simple and appealing to the modern bride. Hiring a professional logo and blog designer are some of the best business choices I’ve made – yes, they were expensive investments, but it allowed my images, branding and blog to blend together into a cohesive design to appeal to my ideal client: more importantly, during this processes I was still able to put all my focus on doing what I do best: taking photographs.
Agency Pros: consultation, multiple revisions, experienced professionals, on time delivery, superior quality, customization to multiple mediums, better brand identification
Agency Cons: lost in the mix of other clients, higher costs
Logo Summary
So whether you’re working on your first DIY logo, hiring a freelancer or collaborating with an agency, make sure you do your homework and know what kind of feel you want your brand to project alongside your images. First and foremost, keep working to make your images as good as possible. Remember, great branding only helps give you that little extra edge, it can never take the place of the quality of your images.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Branding Your Photography Business – Part 1: Logos
Running the Photography Marathon to Success
“Human beings are made up of flesh and blood, and a miracle fiber called courage” – George Patton
A marathon is 26.2 miles. To some people that may sound horrifying, plodding along for that distance – why would anyone want to do that? To others, it is a challenge they deem worthy; an epic battle of mind, body and discipline. It is a challenge that from day one requires that steady and unbreakable miracle fiber – courage. What can running a marathon teach you about reaching your goals as a photographer?
26.2 miles of courage.
Success does not happen overnight. Whether you are in the midst of realizing your vision of becoming a successful photographer or reaching the finish line in a marathon, you must put in the behind-the-scenes work to get there.
Maybe you have a dream of putting your nine-to-five (and your boss) in the rearview mirror and making photography your full time job. Some of you might want to open your own gallery someday with your prints gleaming proudly upon the walls. Whatever your goal is, it is achievable. Believe that you can do anything, believe that whatever happens along the way that you will persevere. With that mentality, you will surely reach the finish line with your hands in the air and your head held high in victory.
In distance running, it is essential to break down big mileage numbers into more manageable pieces. It is easier to stomach ‘the next 2 miles’ versus trying to focus on the distant end goal (the finish line). Your road to success as a photographer must also be broken down into manageable goals and tasks. If you are trying to go full time, do not fixate solely on having to profit X amount before you can quit your current job; instead tell yourself that you are going to get your website tuned up, network as if you are full time and start increasing the amount of jobs that you are quoting and actually booking. That will build your base and prepare you for the rigors of the harder parts of the ‘race.’ Think of this period as your training. If you do not put in the training, when race day comes, your chances of success will be greatly diminished.
After some time, you have finished your training and you are ready to toe the line. It might be a scary moment, but most good things involve some fear. When the gun goes off, stick to your plan and don’t let what others are doing influence you at this point in the run. If the person next to you tears off at a screaming sprint, just relax and know that at some point they will fizzle (the running term is ‘bonk’). Run the pace you know you can sustain until the goal is met.
What does that mean? Don’t feel pressure to achieve all of your smaller goals right away; do not be pressured into spending significant amounts of cash on advertising and promotion. Now is the time to get into a rhythm and start ticking away the miles towards the big goal at the end of the road.
The message of the tortoise versus the hare does have a downside – if you move too slowly, your path to becoming a successful photographer will never have a chance to grow to a healthy point. If you stop at every aid station and sit down, you will be losing that time to your competitors and some goals will have to be restructured due to the time you may have wasted. Being a professional photographer is like distance running – it is not something you can dabble in, you do it or you do not.
Your competitors and colleagues are going the same place as you are; work with them. Now I am not suggesting that you give away trade secrets or spend large amounts of time helping them along the course (unless it is a mutually beneficial relationship). What you can do is accomplish what tired runners turn to in the latter stages of a marathon – feed off of other’s positive energy, ask directions from people that have been where you want to go, offer encouragement to an ailing competitor so when you need that same push it will be returned. Just make sure you choose the right group to run with. Your finishing time (and your entire race for that matter) could be in jeopardy if you are associating with negative people. When you are down and out, you are only as good as the people around you.
Whatever you do, don’t stop. Just. Keep. Going. I have had low points in both my professional photography career and my time running big distances. Know that at some point you will hit a bad patch. It is what you do at that moment, and how you handle that bad patch that will make you what you are. Also know that every bad patch you can push through will make the next one seem easier to manage; you have been here before and persevered. Maybe your phone stopped ringing, maybe you see your competition booking jobs and you start to doubt your current setup and start asking ‘are my prices too high?’
Fear and doubt are elements of risk and they are coming at you like a freight train. Meet them head on, with your feet firmly planted, steady and calm, knowing you have the courage to handle it. Whatever you do, just keep going. One foot in front of the other, take a deep breath and have a drink of Gatorade. One foot in front of the other, one small goal realized on your way to the big goal – success as a photographer.
Deidra Wilson is a Las Vegas wedding photographer , renowned entrepreneur and triathlete. You can follow her on twitter at @deidraphoto.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Running the Photography Marathon to Success
What Every Photographer Needs to Know about Email Marketing
Photographers are increasingly turning to new social media technologies to get word out about their businesses (Facebook pages, Twitter, Google+ and more are topics we’ve featured in the last year).
There’s certainly some wonderful potential to engage people with social media – but my suspicion is that many photographers are ignoring a method of online communication that is much much more powerful and effective at reaching out to potential clients and building loyalty with previous ones – Email.
Email is Not Dead
Back when Digital Photography School was just starting out (April 2006) there was a lot of talk going on around the web about how Email was Dying as a technology. At the time it was the Syndication technology of ‘RSS’ that was going to kill email but since that time there have been numerous other ‘Email Killers’ touted including Facebook and Twitter.
While there has certainly been an upswing in the number of people using social media – email is still alive and well. In fact it is central in my own business as a blogger. Since 2006 we’ve had over half a million people sign up to receive our weekly newsletter while in the same time around 140,000 have signed up to connect with us on social media. Thank goodness we didn’t put all our eggs in the social media basket!
We’re certainly not ignoring social media marketing – but email is where our #1 focus is.
Our use of email highlights that people do use it – usually on a daily basis, that they respond to emails (both to visit sites and make purchases) and that it is also a way to virally grow your business (emails get forwarded on from one person to another).
To ignore email as part of your marketing mix could be costing your photography business revenue.
Email Marketing for Photographers
Email marketing is not just something for bloggers – it is also something that those in all kinds of businesses should be considering. It is useful to build relationships with current and potential clients, to help you build your brand and profile and to drive sales.
It can be used in any number of ways but a number of photographers that I’ve been interacting with online lately tell me how effective that they’ve found it to be in a number of key areas:
- showcasing work – Many photographers have blogs which they use to showcase their work and build credibility with potential clients. Two photographers that I’ve chatted with this week tell me that they send out weekly emails with a couple of their best images and the stories behind them (and then links to the blog to show more). In doing so they’re reminding people on a weekly basis of the quality and style of their work.
- running promotions – Another photographer tells me that any time he’s got space in his schedule he simply emails his email list with a promotion offering XX% off his services for the first 5 people to respond. This isn’t the only kind of email he sends (he too sends out emails showcasing this work) but he reported that every time he sent his email he found his schedule would quickly fill.
- word of mouth promotions – another photographer this week told me that he follows up all clients that he’s worked with with an email giving them incentive to pass on word of his services to friends. He gives them a free print for every new client they bring in.
The key with email marketing is to get the balance right between ‘promotional’ emails and emails that people genuinely find useful and interesting in some way. I’d recommend that emails showcasing work, telling stories and even giving clients tips/advice should probably make up the bulk of the emails that you send – with promotional ones being less regular.
The way you use email will of course vary from photographer to photographer depending upon your business model. For some it will be more about keeping in touch with previous clients while for others it will be more about reaching out to potential ones.
Update: One other strategy that I know of one photographer using is to email new clients after a shoot with a quick and simple survey to see how they found his service. He not only gets valuable feedback from clients with this but makes an impression on them with his interest in improving what he does.
Invest in an Email Service Provider
Sending clients and potential clients emails is a great idea – but you should seriously consider HOW you send those emails. I would recommend using a service designed for this purpose rather than just sending these kinds of emails via our own email provider.
The reasons for this are numerous:
- Email Service Providers will increase your deliverability rate – send too many emails like these from your own email service and you’ll find the deliverability of these emails will decrease over time. ESP’s specialise in email and their deliverability rates will be significantly higher – as will your emails open rates.
- Statistics – ESPs provide you with stats on how successful your emails are. They’ll tell you how many people received your emails and how many bounced, how many people open them, how many people click on the links in them etc. All of this helps you work out how to improve future emails.
- Split Testing – most ESPs allow you to test different versions of the same email to work out which is most effective. For example you might send emails to 2 halves of your email list with different subject lines to test what people response to best – again this improves your results.
- Spam Testing – some ESPs give you tools to test whether your emails will get caught in spam filters before you send them. This increases deliverability.
- Auto-Responders – one great feature that many ESPs have is the ability to automate your email marketing. You can set up a sequence of emails that all new subscribers to your list get at predetermined intervals. You might start off with a welcome email, follow up a few days later with a showcase email of your best work, send an email a week later with a discount etc. Over time you can test which sequence works best to both deepen client relationships and drive sales.
- Double Opt in Subscriptions – it is important to note that what I’m NOT talking about in this article is spamming potential clients. In many parts of the world it is illegal to email unsolicited emails to people and you need to use what is known as a ‘double opt in’ system where someone needs to give you permission to email them by confirming their subscription after they’ve subscribed by clicking a link in an email you send them. ESPs have this tool in place to make it easier to get important opt ins.
dPS Uses and Recommends Aweber Communications
There are many good email providers but the one that we use and recommend here at dPS is Aweber.
Aweber have all of the above features plus a lot more. They offer a wide range of templates to make your emails attractive, give you a range of widgets to get signups to your email list (including one to put on your Facebook Page), integrate with Facebook/Twitter, offer the ability to segment lists into different types of subscribers, let you send emails based upon the RSS feed on your blog and a heap more.
This is a paid service but you’re paying for a heap of features that will increase your effectiveness and you’ll only pay based upon how many subscribers you have.
Aweber also give you the ability to test drive their service for free – to do so just sign up below and you’ll be emailed the details:
Can You Have More Sales, Too?
Helping over 102,000+ businesses like yours raise profits and build customer relationships using AWeber’s opt-in email marketing software for over 10 years.
Alternatively check out what Aweber has to offer here.
Do you Use Email to Build Your Photography Business?
I’d love to hear how photographers are using email as part of their marketing strategy – please share your own stories in comments below!
Note: Links in this article are affiliate links and dPS earns a small commission if you sign up and become a paying user of Aweber – however dPS is also an avid user of Aweber and recommends the service whether you sign up with our links or some other way.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
What Every Photographer Needs to Know about Email Marketing
5 Tips to Expand your Photography Business Skills
You want to turn pro? Great! First ask yourself why. It is not as glamorous as it may seem. Can you sustain your passion for the art of photography while shooting somebody else’s vision? Are you ready to take whatever job comes your way to make ends meet? Are you able to work with the demands of a commercial client or a wedding shoot? It can take years to find your own niche market and specialize in one photography genre that you really enjoy. Not discouraged yet? Okay, keep reading!
Think turning pro is a measure of your skills? Think again! There are many amateur photographers out there who have far better skills than pros. One thing amateurs have, and pros often lose, is the passion. Turning your hobby into a job can kill the passion pretty fast if you let it happen. I wrote an entire article about this earlier which can be summed up in a few words: Nurture the personal projects to keep the passion alive.
Ready to run a business first and be a photographer second? Hope so! Marketing yourself will suck up most of your time, especially the early years, so be ready for that.
There is nothing wrong about having a 9 to 5 job and keeping photography as your passion on your days off. Actually if you are thinking of turning pro I would definitely keep the day job for a while until you know for sure you can deal with the business side of photography and you’re able to pay the bills with it.
I make a living as a photographer and I was very lucky to be able to keep the passion for the craft alive and even see it grow with my business. It can be done, and if that’s what you want to do, go for it! You won’t know until you try!
Good business skills are also a talent. Some great photographers also have great business skills but it’s not that common. It’s the old right brain vs. left brain thing. You may have noticed some awesome photographers who couldn’t make it as pros and some not so great ones who are very successful at selling their work or services. Do not underestimate the power of good business skills!
When hiring a photographer, most people hire the whole package: Your photography talent + your business expertise + your people skills. That said, if your dream is to turn your passion into a business you don’t have to give up simply because you don’t have the business skills.
1- Get some help from qualified people. Look for a mentor in your area or online. Services such as SCORE in the States offer free business advice, workshops, events as well as templates to get you started with your business plan.
2- Maybe your partner or spouse has good people and business skills and will help you with that side of the business. It’s okay to be the artist and let someone else handle the customer service side of the business. And if you’re really good at what you do, they won’t mind dealing with someone else for the nitty gritty stuff!
3- If you have a solid portfolio, but lack the nerve or skills to sell yourself, hire an agent. An agent works on commission, marketing your work, so you can happily concentrate on your craft. It’s not easy, especially for artists, to blows their own horn. Having someone else do it for you can really make a difference! There are also online services, such as Agency Access, that cater to creative people.
4- Remember that your most important clients are your past clients. Treat them right and they’ll be your best PR people. Get written referrals from customers, add a ‘testimonials’ page to your website. Word of mouth is the best advertising!
5- If all you hate doing is billing people and dealing with accounting, that’s an easy fix. You can hire an accountant for as little time as an hour every week, or use an online billing service. Starting out and can’t afford it? Consider trading services for a while. Accountants need photographers too!
It makes good sense to delegate some of the work to people who are good at it. You will have more time to do what you are good at – and love – which is being behind the camera.
Do you have a story to share about your experience in the business aspect of photography? The dPS readers would love read about it in the comment section below.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
5 Tips to Expand your Photography Business Skills
5 Ways to Dip your Toe into the Business of Photography
I had an email yesterday from a reader named Stephanie who said that she’s caught in a vicious cycle of portfolio building. She doesn’t want to charge while she’s portfolio building because then, she’ll be in business and have all the worries that come with it but she doesn’t want to launch a for-profit business until she’s finished building her portfolio.
I’ve written before about the dangers of spending too long in the portfolio building stage of your business. It’s not meant to last 10 years. And it doesn’t have to be an absolute work-for-free scenario. I’ve counseled newbies to establish their pricing structures early on and work up to full-time money while charging discounted fees for portfolio building sessions (more on all that here). But that’s not really what this post is about. I wanted to hit on the theme behind Stephanie’s comment.
What I read between the lines in Stephanie’s email is that she knows that in business, it’s all or nothing. She knows that as soon as she starts charging even a little, it raises the bar and the expectations to a level where only the best will cut it and she’s absolutely right. Do a session for free and you’re free to learn from your mistakes. Charge even $20 for the same session and suddenly, you have a photographer/client relationship and all the expectations that come with it. In order to make the business worth while, you have to do it right or not do it at all.
If you Google to find the things you need before jumping into business, you’ll find that it’s not as simple as printing up a couple flyers and making a little pocket money. Not only is it illegal to operate a business on the side, it’s not going to make enough money to sustain itself and you’ll flop before you even really get going. Photography isn’t a business you can just dip your toe into to see how it feels if you want to do it right. By ‘do it right’, I mean protect yourself with legal documents and liability insurance, protect your equipment with insurance, establish yourself with a professional printing company, have the computer and software to process your files in a quick-like-fashion that doesn’t have you up all night staring at spinning wheel icon…all that. Once you tally up the monthly overhead, you soon realize that it’s not as easy to make a quick buck as you once thought.
But fear not! Here are a few tips I have for testing the waters in the photography business:
- If you’re not ready to formally establish yourself as a business, then schedule portfolio building sessions with friend and family. Shoot everyone and everything and don’t charge a penny. Because, like I said, as soon as money changes hands you’ve entered into a client relationship and are liable for all sorts of yuckiness you’re not ready to handle.
- In these portfolio building sessions, set some of them up where you create the concepts, choose the wardrobe and location and get to flex your creative muscles. But also have some sessions where you ask what the client wants and see what it’s like for us paid-for photographers who have to cater to our clients’ every desire. This will help you learn to work with people on a professional level. You can even try it out like a full-on professional session with client questionnaires, a contract, an order form for prints – try out different versions of paperwork to see how you want to operate when you’re in business for real.
- Try all sorts of different types of sessions like children, couples, maternity, newborns. This will help you find your niche for when you’re ready to go into business.
- Even though you might not feel ready for heavy duty legal forms, at least have a model release that everyone (yup, even your own mom!) needs to sign so you’re free to do what you wish with your work.
- Instead of charging money for sessions, use your talents to raise funds for charity (don’t take the money in your own name – have checks written directly to the charity) or as bartering power with your babysitter, plumber, anyone! Trade sessions and prints for other products and services – everyone loves a good trade!
So you see you can dip your toe into professional photography without taking the dive into the business deep end!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
5 Ways to Dip your Toe into the Business of Photography
7 Deadly Mistakes You Might Be Making On Your Photography Website
Do you know that your photography website can actually be damaging your business?
Image by: Greg Mason
Google tells us that there are almost one million photography websites on the web right now. This is bad news for you.
The good news is that most of these websites suck.
Photographers keep making the same mistakes over and over again, never getting the best out of their websites.
This post will show you what are these deadly mistakes and how you can fix them in order to get ahead of your competition.
1. Your Photos Have Low Quality Or Low Resolution
This one is a killer and also surprisingly common. Some photographers are afraid to upload high quality images to their portfolio because they think it increases the chances of unauthorized usage. Forget about this!
Use only a few of your best quality images and make sure that they’re shown on your website with an height or width of at least 800px. If you’re worried about copyright use a watermark.
Image by: Chris Blakeley
2. You’re Not Saying Where You’re Located
The first thing an interested prospect wants to know when he arrives to your website is almost always: “where’s this guy located?”. The second being how much do you charge.
Don’t just say where you’re located, advertise it! It’s one of the things that makes you different from your competition so show it on every single page of your website. Of course this tip is only useful to businesses that rely on location-based services, like wedding photography.
3. You’re Using Flash
Flash is a technology that allows web developers to create some impressive looking websites but it has a big disadvantage, search engines can’t read text inside a Flash website.
For a search engine, a Flash website is just like a gigantic blank page without any text at all. Text is king in the search engine world and therefore this makes it much harder to rank high on search engines, which is not good for your business.
4. You Don’t Have A Contact Page
Image by: Storebukkebruse
This is one deadly mistake that is more common than you think! You must have a dedicated contact page with at least an e-mail address and a phone number but the more information the better.
Also, try to set up an e-mail contact form because it increases the amount of people contacting you. Make sure you show it on every page!
5. You Don’t Have A Blog
A portfolio-only website is just not enough nowadays. The web is now more dynamic than ever and the photography website with 3 or 4 pages and little text doesn’t stand a chance!
The solution is to create a blog. Blogs are dynamic by nature and give a breath of fresh air to any stale photography website. They’re also great for SEO and people love them.
Image by: Timothy K. Hamilton
Now, don’t use your blog as a portfolio by posting image after image. Use it in a unique and personal way by telling stories, helping other photographers or sharing new ideas. Also make sure your blog and portfolio is under the same domain because it’s better for SEO.
6. Your Website Is Slow
I personally hate this one! A slow loading time is one of the main reasons why people leave a website. Search engines also dislike slow websites, it’s been proved that Google gives lower rankings to slow websites.
The solution is to get a fast and optimized web server for photography websites, avoiding Flash and other fluffy effects. Also, don’t upload super high resolution 10MP images if your website only displays them at 800×600! And remember, use .JPG for photos.
7. Your Portfolio Is Hard To Navigate
Image by: Charlton Clemens
Sometimes it almost feels like I have to re-learn the web with each photography website I visit. I know that all photographers like to have a visually impressive and unique website but please make it usable!
Again, avoid using Flash. Flash usually means a complex site. People like simple! Don’t try to be unique with the navigation or design of your website, be unique with your content.
Now be honest, are you making any of these mistakes? Let me know in the comments.
Peter Almeida is a web designer, treehugger and photography lover that specializes in SEO Photography Websites. You can read more about this in his free e-book, SEO for Photographers.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
7 Deadly Mistakes You Might Be Making On Your Photography Website
When to Ditch the Day-Job and Follow Your Dreams
We have been planning for this moment for over a year and a half.
On June 17th of this year, I said goodbye to my colleagues and
well-paying job to follow our dreams to do wedding and portrait
photography full-time. We finally replaced our entire household
income with income from our photography business.
Most people who start photography businesses do so part-time and only dream of this day.
Eventually your business grows to the point where it consumes all your
free time and you’re faced with a hard but exciting question:
Do you go for it and leave the day-job behind, or do you scale
back and start reclaiming a bit of your life?
Here are 5 things to ask yourself before you ditch the day-job and
follow your dreams:
How much money do you need to make?
The first thing you’ll need to know is how much money you need to make
in order to replace any necessary income. If you don’t know exactly
how much you’re making from your business after taxes, expenses, cost
of goods, and all the other costs of running a business, you’re
setting yourself up for failure.
As one of those rare people who loves mathematics, I created a free pricing guide for photographers that helped us determine what we needed to charge for both weddings and portraits in order to make the amount of profit that we needed to follow our dream of doing this full-time.
I knew exactly how many weddings and portrait sessions I’d need to
book and how much I’d need to charge in order to leave my job. I had
hoped to leave last summer, but I was under the projections I knew I
needed, so we made the decision to wait one more year to make the
leap.
If I hadn’t known the numbers, the consequences may have been
devastating to our business and family and I’d probably be back in an
office job by now.
How much money do you have in savings?
Having money in a savings account is a great way to ensure that you’ll be able to pay your bills and not have to pick up a job again in the off-season.
Waiting an extra year to leave the day-job allowed us to finish buying
the gear we wanted and to put more in savings than we would have been
able to otherwise. We hope not to have to touch that money, but it is
there if we need it.
What is your plan?
If you find that you are not currently making enough to leave your job immediately, the next step is to make a plan to get you from where you are now to where you need to be.
If you haven’t sat down and created a good business strategy, you’ll want to do that first. Having a strategic business plan will help you get to your goal more quickly and will help keep you from making
costly mistakes.
Identify the places that work well for marketing your business. We
found that Facebook
marketing was one of the best ways for us to find new clients
because of its word-of-mouth nature, so that’s where we’ve been
focusing. You’ll want to market in the places where your ideal clients
spend time and money.
How hard are you willing to work to get there?
We spent about a year in “transition” where I was taking on as many of our ideal clients as I could handle while still working my day-job, and it was exhausting. I was gone about 50 hours a week for my full-time job and put in another 20-30 hours building our photography business, all while trying not to neglect my kids and husband.
We had to turn away some business simply because there weren’t enough
hours in the day.
It was hard, I’m not going to lie.
Getting a business to where it needs to be to leave your job is a lot
of work, but it was worth it for us. We let some things go (our house
is a mess!) but it was worth it in order to make this transition.
What other hesitations do you have?
If you’ve got your finances figured out and are hitting your projections, you need to address any hesitations you may have.
It can be really scary to let go of the “security” of a regular
paycheck and move into the realm of “uncertainty”.
That being said, I think that being a small business owner is actually
more secure than working for someone else.
You can’t be fired or laid-off at the drop of a hat, and if you aren’t
meeting your projections you can do something about it and have some
time to prepare.
If you do wedding photography, you may even be able to determine this
several months in advance, giving you plenty of time to make a plan as
to how you’re going to supplement your current income.
Leaving my job has been one of the most scary and exhilarating
experiences in my life, and I’m incredibly excited to see where we’ll
go in the next few years.
So, are you ready to follow your dreams and do what you love
full-time? Is there something holding you back? Leave a comment below
and let’s encourage each other in pursuing what we love.
Jamie M Swanson is a Madison Wedding Photographer who loves helping people make money with photography. With her super-dorky math skills, she created a free guide on how to price photography. The best way to connect with her is on Facebook, so come on over and say hello.< ?p>
Post from: Digital Photography School’s Photography Tips. Check out our resources on Portrait Photography Tips, Travel Photography Tips and Understanding Digital Cameras.
When to Ditch the Day-Job and Follow Your Dreams