Marketing Executive Portrait Photography?

I’m seeking marketing strategies for pursuing an executive portrait photography business. I’m hoping a few professional photographers wouldn't mind offering some suggestions or directions. I’m hoping there might be a tutorial or a how to book that offers case study examples. I'm seeking an alternative to direct print mailers and following ups with cold-calls. I don't believe that printed flyers work as effectively as they use to. People are quick to toss printed flyers into the trash.

 

Thanks!

Unfortunately there isn't really an answer you're going to be fond of here. Educating corporate entities on the value of consistent corporate photographs of their team members is a tough task. There is enough turnover that they don't frequently want to invest in a one-time "everybody on deck" day shoot. I've tried the postcards, I've tried cold calls. I've gone to corporate web sites where the photographs are God-awful, and all that told me in the end was that they couldn't care less about quality photographs.

 

It's a long term relationship building process, and there simply is no easy way "in" to the market.

. . . seeking marketing strategies . . . I'm seeking an alternative to direct print mailers and following ups with cold-calls.

 

I think that one generic Marketing Suite does NOT fit all businesses.

 

It is not about your beliefs - it is about your data: if you've tracked a variety of mailing flyers and the data suggest that none work - that is not a belief, but closer to a fact.

 

a) Have a variety of Marketing Platforms and collect data concerning which one works

b) Have consistent Branding across all your Marketing Platforms

 

I think that the bottom line is you need to create "rapport". M Chadwick refers to one result of creating that rapport as a "long term relationship" - that's one result.

 

Rapport can be built in many ways and to be successful in business one must be attuned to the possibility of its creation every waking moment.

 

A very small practical example, one which I have noted causes much laughter yet very little action –

 

How many business cards do you have in your pocket now?

Are they branded consistently with all your other Marketing Platforms?

Are they made suitable to allow a personal message to be hand written on them?

Do you have a pen in your pocket to write a personal message?

How many people did you talk to today; how many people did you see, yet did not talk to?

How many of those people were released from that most personal interaction without your business card?

Why?

 

WW

Marketing 101 for me means contacting target customers directly.

 

Do you know any executives? Contact them and offer your services. If you are established with a portfolio of similar work, show them your work. If you are not established in this type of photography, you may have to do some pro bono work in the early days. I look at pro bono work in the same light as any marketing cost.

 

A very effective way to gain access to executives is through their administrative assistants. If you know any executive admin assistants, contact them and offer your services.

 

If you don't know any executives or their admins, use your network to get introductions. If your network isn't producing introductions, phone calls, LinkedIn invitations, emails and mailings are needed. Gotta get in touch with them somehow. Contact the Marketing and/or Communications Director/VP at the companies you are targeting. Contact all of them.

Some years retired, but the Corporations I worked for had PR people and usually photographer. Exec portraits were done by local portraitists of note. Marketing execs are in contact with ad agencies and they have....more photogs.

. . . I look at pro bono work in the same light as any marketing cost.

 

I seek to account for the all the costs incurred in pro bono work, as legitimate Business Taxation Deductions.

 

WW

Agreed William.

Macintosh - the free Head-shots sessions in the park this July, will be provide great opportunities for you strike up tangential conversations. Any meeting with anyone is an opportunity to provide tit-bits of information on a topic of your choice.

 

I am not suggesting that you ram an hard sell down everyone's neck - but the point is many people will know that you are a photographer but only in the genre to which they were first introduced.

 

For example, it is very likely that the couple whose wedding you shot a few months ago think of you as a "Wedding Photographer" and one of them might be the decision maker for some Corporate Portraits . . . but it is also likely that won't join the dots to think of you.

 

Think about ALL your previous clients: are they ALL still in a "long term relationship" with your business? If not - Why not?

 

Your web-page Portrait conveys to me that you are a chatty people-person: if that is so then always seek to use that gift.

 

WW

Wow! Everyone came through with some really thought provoking comments. This is all good insight! I do intend to put together a pro-bono or promotional project at a mens grooming salon. I will be sure to reply back with my results.

 

I've gone to corporate web sites where the photographs are God-awful, and all that told me in the end was that they couldn't care less about quality photographs.

—Michael Chadwick

Michael, you appear to be pessimistic. I would think that this is when a photographer should begin to sell up. Educate the prospective client and build added value. Reaffirming the value of our craft is what Photographers should be doing.

. . .I do intend to put together a pro-bono or promotional project at a mens grooming salon. I will be sure to reply back with my results. . . .

 

Good.

Well, Macintosh, thank you for "educating me" on salesmanship when you came here asking for free help. I guess my problem must be I'm a terrible sales person.

 

Or maybe, just maybe, I'm speaking from the frustrating experience of wasting several years casting pearls before swine.

Edited July 19, 2017 by michaelchadwickphotography

I would think that this is when a photographer should begin to sell up. Educate the prospective client and build added value. Reaffirming the value of our craft is what Photographers should be doing.

 

Can you explain what the value will be to a company's website (which is where these photos usually go currently) to have professional executive photos? I'm with Michael on this, the value of better executive photos for a company selling products and services, not people, is very limited. Where it does make sense is when the person in the photo is the product, e.g., consulting.

Well, I believe the value in a quality head-shot has to do with conveying trust and quality service. These are values that a professional head-shot offers…

1. A quality head-shot conveys a level of professionalism and expertise that establishes the customer’s trust.
   
2. Presenting a face represents personalization and conveys a level of quality service.
   
3. The license to share the intellectual property with third party users (Publishers) for publicity and industry recognition as an expert.
   

I understand the value of executive portraits, however reaching the desision maker to close a deal is a different challenge. That's why I'm asking for new age marketing ideas.

My comment re this bit -

—Michael Chadwick

 

Michael, you appear to be pessimistic. I would think that this is when a photographer should begin to sell up. Educate the prospective client and build added value. Reaffirming the value of our craft is what Photographers should be doing.

 

And then this bit -

 

. . . I believe the value in a quality head-shot has to do with conveying trust and quality service. These are values that a professional head-shot offers… etc. . .

 

 

Yep. I understand that opinion. I've read enough on Photonet over the past several years to reckon that Michael Chadwick understands that opinion too.

 

However, if you re read Chadwick's response and advice and place the quote you chose to use in the CONTEXT of the WHOLE paragraph - you'll note that Michael was relating his (vast) experience about "Educating corporate entities on the value of consistent corporate photographs of their team members" . . .

 

and his conclusion to the content of that WHOLE PARAGRAPH was "all that told me in the end was that they couldn't care less about quality photographs."

 

I think that you either did not read carefully enough to clearly understand the meaning of the words - or in haste, as some do, one sentence of paragraph jumped out and then was felt the urgent need to address only that one sentence.

 

***

 

It interests me that you chose to address Spearhead's direct question, yet you have chosen not to respond to the obvious angst which your comments caused to Chadwick. This point I believe is relevant to the premise of the thread and indeed goes to the heart of your question.

 

For absolute clarity - this commentary is NOT about calling you out for "upsetting" a member - Michael is a big boy and a successful businessman: my guess is he has dismissed the main conversation, but has an alert on the thread and is off doing something else, probably making money.

 

However, this comment is about YOUR marketing strategies and what goes to the heart of the preselection those strategies:

 

My view is: the base of any Marketing for a Business is the basic APPROACH (including the personality) of the owner(s) of that business.

 

*

 

Part of what I take away from this conversation, thus far, is the following:

 

1. Your Visual Branding is way out there for everyone to see: your logo is here and your business is easy to research.

 

2. You asked legitimate question and received a variety of responses and opinions on the question as you asked it; also you got some value added, slightly of the main topic but still relevant and useful for your consideration.

 

3. It is plainly obvious that your targeted comments in Post #9 solicited an emotional response from the first person who responded to your question.

 

*

 

The question that I ask now is:

WHY didn’t you seek to find out why Chadwick reacted that way?

 

The next question I ask is:

Do you see how part of this conversation could be easily seen as NEGATIVE Marketing for your business – NOT because you might have momentarily upset another professional – but because you didn’t seek to understand WHY that person was upset by your comments?

 

Some might choose to think consideration of these points is all a bit too much “touchy feely” - but the point is: Marketing is "marketing" anytime and every time that you have your business banner flying

 

You asked specifically about marketing strategies and specifically how to reach the decision maker, then, to my previous I shall add:

 

- seek to read and listen very carefully

- be aware of your surroundings and the people in those surrounding and their reactions to you

- don't assume that one can turn on and off one's best practice marketing skills and techniques - very few people can

- in business, anything and everything done under the business banner is "marketing"

 

WW

Ack - tone never comes across in email. Thank you William for having my back, but I was not upset. I should have put a wink emoji next to "maybe I'm just a terrible salesperson" because I'm not, and Macintosh's response calling me pessimistic was just funny to me. I could sell a red wine Popsicle to a woman in a white wedding dress at a hot summer beach wedding. He is asking for advice, then lecturing established full time professionals who have experience in exactly what he is asking for help with.

 

In the end, perhaps I should have simply written "Coming onto a forum and asking for free advice, then criticizing the advice you are given and even labeling someone as a pessimist because they are not giving you ice cream with rainbow sprinkles on top as an answer, is not good form."

 

Macintosh - you should do whatever works. If there was an easy answer, we'd all be doing it. Marketing is the most time-consuming and frustrating aspect of this business, sort of like auditioning for 100 different theatre companies just to get one role. It's just reality. Unless you have established relationships with the people who make the decisions in those corporate offices, you are cold-calling and mailing in order to get on their radar. You and everyone else. So, you'd best figure out what makes you so special and so much better than everyone else out there with a camera, and figure out a way to get that message across in elevator conversation time and within the confines of a postcard. Good luck to you, and I hope you will re-think how you respond to people offering you advice in the future.

Edited July 20, 2017 by michaelchadwickphotography

Well, I believe the value in a quality head-shot has to do with conveying trust and quality service. These are values that a professional head-shot offers…

1. A quality head-shot conveys a level of professionalism and expertise that establishes the customer’s trust.
   
2. Presenting a face represents personalization and conveys a level of quality service.
   

 

No offense, Executive Portraits, like portraits of serving or retiring politicians are all about ego. I always wonder if the Firm or Government shouldn't have found a better way to enhance their operation with the funds spent. Simple Corporate directory photos, useful for business purposes -- recognize individuals you might be meeting for the first time. One man's opinion.

Chadwick,

 

I think your responding a bit super-sensitive. And your writing does read with pessimism about the customers perceived value of executive portraits. Spearhead did prompt the question,

Can you explain what the value will be to a company's website

. I wasn’t trying to be a smart-aleck.

 

I realize that now-a-days customer's perceived value of photography is deceptively low. And many can behave outright adversarial towards the business of photography. And this is very frustrating for Photographers! My attitude is to hold my ground about not giving in to the clients delusion, and to champion the value of the photography business. To champion this business is what I believe Photographers should be doing when confronted with adversity.

(sigh)

 

Smith,

 

You're (that's what 'you' and 'are' look like as a contraction) implying that I faced a little adversity and just gave up. Nothing could be further from the truth. You cannot possibly know what experience I have and from what experience that free advice came. I'm going to stick to my reasonable opinion that what you said showed bad form.

 

You asked for free advice, I gave it, you called my experience "pessimism." Now you inexplicably add on and call me super-sensitive. With that bedside manner, I do sincerely hope you succeed in photography and never decide to become a doctor.

 

Champion away. Re-invent the wheel, and cast all of those little pearls before the swine. I no longer choose that to be "the hill I die on" as it were. I prefer instead to do excellent work and let the people who WANT that product come to me. Good luck with your endeavor to champion the cause of quality professional photography to the people out there that don't care. I'm sorry you didn't get the miracle marketing idea you wanted for free in an online forum. Perhaps you should come up with your brilliant and innovative idea on your own?

Edited July 20, 2017 by michaelchadwickphotography

I did NOT think that Michael Chadwick was "upset" by the comments made in Post #9

 

I DO think that Macintosh Smith did not understand the meaning of Post #2, and specifically he did not understand that Post #2 was written by someone who had a lot of experience in marketing and sales of Photography Services.

 

Further I think that Macintosh missed much of the meaning of Post #15.

 

I encourage him to read post #18 very carefully, because there is NO 'super sensitivity' in that response, either.

 

***

 

As to those who 'prompted questions' - two of mine remain unanswered.

 

***

 

As to 'not possibly knowing' what experience Michael Chadwick's comments stem - that's incorrect, because a little bit of research can identify that easily - and possibly that research was not done, either.

 

That last point is relevant to the thread too - because a good marketing approach is predicated on researching the prospect to whom you are marketing.

 

*

 

I concur with Sandy's view that many Corporate Headshots are about (their) ego: much of Portrait Photography generally is about that too, also much of marketing generally is about understanding the Customer's ego. .

 

WW.

???

It is a slow process to build corp clientele. It's true that they don't want to spend money on there team who most times don't last the year. The turn over rate is high. Most get there headshots done by the internal photographer which are the horrible pictures you see.

 

Anyhow to answer your question you need to have a professional website with professional head shots on it. Your website is today's business card and marketing tool. That's it.

Edited July 26, 2017 by michaelmowery

I think that a (excellent) website is a necessary marketing tool, but it is also 'only' part of, (usually a big part of) the overall marketing approach.

 

WW

William are you going comment on everyone's comment? If your not going to add additional advice it's comes off as snooty or criticism. I think you already stated your advice now it's my turn to give advice that works for me. I don't know how much corporate work you do but I do a lot in NYC. I have done the flyers and email blasts and handed out cards and walked into offices to no avail. All jobs inquiries that I and everyone else gets are from the website and from referrals. Corp people just google Photographers and send out email to the ones that that they like visually. It's just the way it's done today at least here in the USA.

My intent was not to come across as snooty and the comment was not criticism.

 

WW

I just don't know why you felt obligated to comment at all. The "but" and all that followed in your comment was not needed as you all ready gave your advice.