photography marketing newsletter

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Newsie bits
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Welcome everybody. I hope everyone had a great year. I had a great year, with business better than ever. I admit I did slow down my marketing in the last few years, but ramped it up it several areas, specifically with direct mail and displays.

In this day and age of uncertainty it's more important than ever to strategize your marketing more effectively than ever. Of course, this always means you should start with a good procuct. The down side of digital technology means that the masses no longer view us photogs as the magicians we used to be. Everyone's a photographer nowadays; all you need is a point & shoot, and, simply point, and shoot, and voila! Results.

Amazing results. With little or effort. Why hire a photographer?! Cousin Frank has a new Canon Rebel (looks just like the ones those high paid pros use), and oh, yea, he has that huge program, wazzit called?? hmmmm, yea, Photoshop, yea, that's it. He has all the tools. Makes him a photog. Or at least able to take photographs as good os the ones that high-priced pro took last summer at cousin Jordan's wedding. Right? Not!

Listen, first off, if your work is as good as cousin Franks than you gottta get with the program. One thing we can deliver, and are obligated to, technology or not, is quality images, well composed, well executed and properly light, above and beyond the competition. And the competition is cousin Frank. They are everywhere.

More than ever our work needs to rise above this noise. There was a time when you could get away with simply knowing how to use your camera and lights, and create a half-assed image with half-assed lighting, but those days are over. Finito. Gone. The genie is out of the bottle and there's no putting him back. Everyones a magician.

You need to also apply more aggresive marketing because of this new attitude. There was a time that all you had to do was get a handle on the technology of using cameras and lights, invest in some gear, get a biz card and hang a sign and you were in business. People would come to you, the magician.

Those days are gone as well. There's no use whining about it. Complaining or finding reasons why it doesn't work anymore ain't gonna make it better, unless you like to rest on a litany of rationalizations to make you feel better and less responsible for failure. Your business is a reflection of YOU. So suck it up and get with it.

Learn to get better at you craft and learn how to innovate marketing programs that work. I do this in my business all the time, so I speak from experience and from the trenches.

I hear it all the time. People complain that direct mail doesn't work in their area. They yearn for some magical solution to there markerting woes, instead of sticking with the fundamentals. (The same applies with photography by the way. The fundamentals; good exposure, lighting, composition, rapport, timing etc etc etc. Nothing has changed there, just perception.)

The fundamentals of marketing are just like the fundamentals of good photography are just like the fundamentals of good race car driving are just like the fundamentals of cooking are just like the fundamentals of good candle-stick making and, well, you get the point. Stick with the fundamentals. Starbucks did. Good coffee innovatively packaged and well presented (at a premium I might add). The Body Shop did as well. Soap, innovatively packaged and presented.

We all have the same fundamentals available to us, no matter what business we are in, photography not excepted (many people wrongly get sucked into their own egos and walk a dangerously close line to becoming a statistic because of their false sense of importance and talents and messianic complex.)

The basics: create a sellable product. How do you know if it's sellable? Simple. Watch peoples reactions. The market won't lie to you. Create a product based on events in peoples lives that have a whole lot of meaning to them (babies, family, weddings, graduations, xmas, etc etc etc....) Find your market, craft a compelling message and use lean and mean media (=cheap, responsible, measurable and effective).

In a nutshell: market, message, media. The three big ones in marketing. There ain't no more to it. Fail in any area and you risk failure in business. If you succeed in spite of yourself or any ignorance in this area, you may not be better off. Why? If times get tough for you, you won't know what it was that worked for you. Therefor, you risk not having the tools and marketing skillset needed to help you evolve and grow.

Conclusion: You can be God's gift to photography and be able to take oustanding images with a 20 year old camera and a coke bottle as a lens, but without marketing and business skills you are severely limiting yourself. Marketing is the number one activity and strategy that you should devote your time to mastering. Of course you need to grow and get good at photography, but not as a replacement for the marketing tools needed and the fundamentals. And oh, I almost forgot, you do need to learn to sell. Selling is the key common denominator in all activity. Matters not if your selling while shooting (which you are, like it or not, people are always asking themselves consciously or sub-consciously: should I buy from this person?") or selling in print or selling in person.

On that scary note, ask yourself about your year. How'd it go for you? Did you achieve the goals you set out to achieve? Do you have any goals? The New Year is upon us, are you creating compelling, reaching, vivid goals and directions for you, your family, your destiny? Or are you floating aimlessly at the whims of destiny and chance. You get to choose. I guess that can be scary for some. It means time to grow up (as if that's a bad thing- "growing up" gave me more fun, excitement, prosperity, creativity, love, humour, toys, etc etc...ok, well, it was hard at times, but worth the process.) Don't forget to include goals that involve getting over any fears or any form of self improvement. When you improve the owner, you improve the business.

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No Bs AID: Will you be warm this Christmas? We raised almost $5,000.00. All those who donated were from the No Bs Photo Success Inner Circle forum. Of special note for their generosity is Craig Minielly (Craig's Actions) and Bay Photo Labs who kicked in $500.00 each.
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There's still time to spend your winter holidays in beautiful Cozumel, and learn new skills. Check out the details.
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The No Bs FreeStyle Wedding System is arriving tomorow. I am putting together the sales letter this week and will blast you all an email with a great limited time intro offer. I don't send many promo emails, but this will be worth hearing about.

We sold out the first batch VERY FAST: SOME EARLY COMMENTS ON THE No Bs FreeStyle Wedding Success System:
"The NoBs Freestyle Wedding System IS Ausoome! What a wonderful Xmas gift! I just received mine and am blown away with the professional presentation and content. Rob and James this is the bestest mostest wedding training system I have ever seen. If you do not now or ever photographed a wedding you could have no problem photographing weddings with the info contained in these DVDs. You too should get a Wedding Educators award! I have to go now too much to see and learn! Joseph Leduc"

"Hi Rob, Belated Merry Christmas! Just a quick note to thank you for autographing my copy of Wedding System DVD which I received as a Christmas gift. I've been through most of the first DVD so far and I love it!! You and James have put together an invaluable tool for newcomers like myself. Thanks so much. John R"

"Great work of the wedding system guy's. As you know I have been in the business just a long as you Rob, and have seen many tapes and cd's on photography. I have a library of a lest 50. This is by far one of the best.Charles Vandersluys Master Photog., Cr.,"

Las Vegas 2007 Mark your calendars. WPPI, (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) is happening March 24-29. We will be there March 25 to the 28th. We have a trade show booth reserved and are putting on a one day event/workshop the Sunday, March 25th.

Please, buy my book. I need money for clothes......
EXPOSED: The Naked, Uncensored Truth to Running a Successful Photography Business it ready! You can order the book by going here. I will post more details on soon (when I squeeze in the time!). It's only $19.95 + $2.95 shipping, 170 pages
Recent email I received: "Rob, your book arrived here recently, and I am impressed!I'm only in ch. 2, but I already have several things underlined. Also, the quality of the book itself surprised me. I expected something less, but see that it is a REAL, bound book. How cool!Thanks for sending it. I know I'll enjoy it. -Tracy
p.s. Oh, I drew some shorts on you. I do have a family, you know. :-)"

SAVE 50% OFF THE SIGN-UP FEE UNTIL FRIDAY JANUARY 5th. We had a "bring a friend into the forum" special over at NO BS Photo Success Inner Circle Photogaphy Forum and James says to offer it to any of the Profitable Studio Newsletter recepients. If you aren't a member, join now and take advantage of the many members benefits. READ ABOUT IT HERE. When you sign up the amount will be 50% less than indicated on the sales page. (expired)

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Photography Marketing Strategies
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Every Christmas we like to give our best clients a special gift and a nice hand signed card. This year we gave out some personalized note pads that our lab made for us. They were a huge hit. I loved driving around a few days before Xmas handing them out. Many people were home and invited me in to show me their wall of photos. It was very cool to say the least.

One of our best client said this to me: "Rob, you give me a gift everyday." In reference to all the portraits that I've taken of her family over the years. Her walls were plastered with my images. What a great feeling.

Here's an actual phone message from one client after she received the gift that I had left in their mail box. I've shot her wedding in the mid nineties and have seen them in my studio at least once a year, sometimes twice. (expired)

A new spin on a thank you card. Recently I purchased some royalty-free music from MusicBakery.com. I've made several purchases from them over the years, but this is new, and totally cool.

I had a feeling years ago video was going to be a great tool to use in our marketing. I was mentioning to Tina just the other day that I will be creating some videos for our clients to help them prepare for their upcoming sessions. Why not? It's an easy way to save them time and get the message across clearly (and drop a few subtle hints on wall portraits). Would love to create some videos on using potraits for wall decor as well. I think many clients would like this information via the web

Anyhoo, here's the email video I received from Music Bakery a few days after I made the purchase:Thank You Video I'm still blushing:)
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Here's my idea of a very good photographers website. They specialize in dog portraits and are quite good at it. This site loads fast, and is loaded with many samples, information and easy enough to navigate. They give you just about all the information you need to make a decision and explain everything. No wonder they are so successful. Well, I assume they are. I emailed them and requested an interview and Margaret, the owner, sounded like she was swamped. I believe she's in for the interview, but you need to be a member of No Bs Photo Success to get it, and all the monthly success interviews. So far there's over a years worth of interviews

Above left and the other two on the right are a few samples I created for clients. Sometimes you need to show them something different to make the sale. I always like the slim jim panorama cropping. It is very effective on the right image and has a great impact with the clients. The composite on the left was something I created very quick initially in proof form when the client asked for something "different." The font used on the big letters was Edwardian Script and the names are Century Gothic. Both favorite fonts of mine.
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I take Cardio Kick Boxing at the local Gymnastics and Martial Arts place. The guy who runs the kick classes said they were doing photos of the classes in progress, for a flyer.

I took him aside and mentioned to him some of the basics of marketing. I told him marketing needs to always be promoting the big benefits, the "promise." That people working out only showed the painful side. Very much like a dentist who stupidly shows a drill. (ouch!)

Show the "benefits", the end results, the final outcome. Promote the big picture. Anyhoo, I offered to whip something up as a favour. Besides, I an putting a display on in the main foyer at this place so I want to help them out in return for the cross marketing and displaying I am doing there.

My cost? About 45 minutes, including the photo shoot. I asked one of the instructors, Stacey (shown in the ad), what is it woman (the main demographics for these classes) want? Easy enough. Let's show it. Stacey, by the way, is a mom with 2 boys, is 38 years old, and ONLY does these classes as her workout, so there is truth in advertising.

My benefit? It is a non-profit club, so I get a warm fuzzy feeling. Truth is, if I display anyhwere, I will do whatever I can to help them, including free photos.

Want to learn how to market to and photograph babies and children?
Earn as much as $75,000.00 a year or more with my online, instant download program.
See details here.

I hate math. Who was never good at it as go never liked that ignored it and struggled to this day with any kind of understanding to do with math. Money math, well, that's different. That's easy stuff and good for all of us to know.

My whole take on this idea of trying to strengthen something that you're not very good at or trying to encourage the development of the talent that is not inherent with any particular individual, is this: ignore the things that you suck at, and constantly improve the things that you are great at.

On a practical angle, you might want to look at it this way: delegate everything that you suck at, and only do the things that you are good at. There is one exception to this rule, and that is the area of marketing and business building tactics.

I feel it is critical and vital that you at the very least recognize marketing strategies that are important to the success of your business and at the very least, implement them. Even if that means having to delegate them. Frankly, anyone who is in business for themselves, and that includes all small time photographers, would already have an inherent predisposition to entrepreneurialism and marketing. Otherwise, you'd be working for somebody else.

Seems someone likes to receive these newsletters. The audio he is referring to is the audio from a live marketing seminar I presented recently and is avaible over at No Bs Photo Success
Read on....

"Hi, Rob!I am so glad that I downloaded your 28 day audio from No BS (okay, it was really 2.5 hours but still…)! I am learning so much! Thank you! I have been reading your archived newsletters on your site (and yes, I subscribed so I can get new ones$...... I now have a “marketing strategy notebook” that I will take with me everywhere. I never know when I will come across an idea! I am so excited. I have just launched an idea that I stole from Verizon Wireless. If someone refers a client to me…both the referring client and the new client get a $25 print credit (Verizon does the $25 deal for me and whoever I refer…I think this is a great idea because both people benefit). You have my brain working OT…thanks! I so can’t wait to get your book!!! You rock! Mark "Ski" Struczewski, photographer, Photography By Ski"

GURU CORNER:

"Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it...No matter how skillful you are,
you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist."
~Bill Bernbach~

Muhamed Ali is one of my heroes. I have a huge poster of him hovering over Sonny Liston in my office. The guy was amazing and likely the best athelete of the century.
Using any figure as a role model is a great way to try and emulate their best behaviours. You can use historical figures such as Winston Churchill, or living ones like Ali. You can also use people you know as role models.

The idea here is to emulate the best that they are. You can ask yourself the question when faced with a challenge: "what would so and so do in this case?" That way you get to allow your mind to "create" possibilities and ideas. I've used this exact strategy when stuck for solutions and it works.

Ali is a great example that we could all learn from.

He:
*started boxing at the age of 12 and boxed 6 DAYS A WEEK...wow. Talk about adding to his "technical mastery".
* he watched hours and hours of films on other boxers in the ring and decided he was going to emulate "Sugar Ray Robinson", who Ali admits is the greatest boxer of all time.(Ali always bragged he was the greatest "heavyweight")He liked his energy and Ray's style was the start of what became Ali's "shuffle" and his fast movements in the ring.
*Ali was master of using publicity. He was bold, outspoken and often despised. He had many critics, and for every fan he could very have had the equal amount of opponents and poeple who found him too brash and wished only for his demise.
*Ali had focus. He didn't care what others thought of him. Dan Kennedy often talks about immunity to critizism as one of the founding principles to success.
*He had character and was principled. You didn't have to agree with him but you had to admire the fact that he was unshakeable in his beliefs. Case in point: He was banned from boxing for about three years because he wouldn't sign up for the Vietnam war. He did this on very deeply felt spiritual and political beliefs, and he never flinched. These years are considered by many to have been hir "prime."

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"Talent is overrated. That you're not very talented needn't be the end of it.
— John Irving, quoting his former wrestling coach

I wrote an article a few years ago, and will post it soon. It had to do with the nonsense behind anyone saying you needed to have "talent" to get ahead. I don't believe talent is that important. That determination and desire counts for so much more. I recently found this article that supports this view:

Creativity and talent

That's it for now folks! hope you enjoyed my monthly rant.
Thank You
Robert Provencher

Hold on to your hats and take names! I will tell all! Muchos gracias!

"The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building."
~Robert Collier~