Help with new business plan: where do you put your ad and marketing $$$’s?

[alexthornephotography]

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>For the most part, my photography business has been part-time job at best. All my clients have all come through word-of-mouth. As a stay-at-home dad, I haven’t wanted to be that busy anyway, so the few gigs I’ve gotten here and there have been fine. Well, both kids are going to be in school fulltime starting this fall, and I’m interested in picking up some more businesses. Also, the end of last year was great. I had a few high-paying corporate gigs come in and everything went extremely well. I’m confident now that I can consistently and quickly put out a professional product that most potential clients will want.</p>

<p>This has got me thinking about where I want to spend money to get my name out to a wider audience. I think I’ve taken advantage of all the free stuff that’s out there such as Google, Yahoo and Bing listings, website, blogs, Facebook, Yelp, Linkedin – anything I’m missing?</p>

<p>So where to spend the money? Yellow Pages, internet ads, local paper, direct mail and other options have me confused. </p>

<p>Right now I’m marketing myself as specializing in family portraits and corporate headshots. Feedback on my website would be helpful too: <a href="http://alexthornephotography.zenfolio.com/">http://alexthornephotography.zenfolio.com/</a></p>

<p><a href="http://alexthornephotography.zenfolio.com/"></a>Thanks for your advise.</p>

[kevin_delson]

<blockquote>

<p>So where to spend the money? Yellow Pages, internet ads, local paper, direct mail and other options have me confused.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>"Where do I spend my money?"</p>

<p>This is a fantastic question. Sadly, there are no solid answers, but there is light at the end of the tunnel if you are committed to a marketing plan and ready to sweat blood in the beginning.<br>

It gets easier with time.</p>

<p>30%-35% of my resources (Time & Money) are now devoted to sales & marketing.<br>

Some will tell you marketing is a black art, and there may be some truth in there somewhere.</p>

<p>To answer your question properly, you must ask yourself some questions first:</p>

<p>1) How much time and money do I have right now to devote to marketing?<br>

2) Am I willing to create a marketing plan and stick with it?<br>

3) Have I exhausted all the free marketing available to me?<br>

4) How long have I tried the free marketing?<br>

5) What is it I want that free marketing in not providing?</p>

<p>There is a belief that pervades many business owners attempting to generate more profit.<br>

That belief is "If I spend more on marketing, I will generate more profit."</p>

<p>Nothing could be further from the truth. If you had that kind of money to drive $100,000 (net) business in the upcoming year, than you need to do something else with your money.<br>

The truth is "If I spend what I have on EFFECTIVE marketing, I will generate more profit."<br>

Everything you mention is great. Yellow pages, direct mail, internet, local paper etc etc...</p>

<p>Not a single one of those will sustain profits..and the success of marketing is measured by only one yard stick; <strong>PROFIT!</strong></p>

<p>Now for the biggie:</p>

<p>To understand where the best bang for your marketing buck resides, you must be prepared to experiment. Experiment and TRACK every single dollar spent Vs ROI (Return on investment)</p>

<p>(<strong>Tracking</strong>) is everything to a successful marketeer. If you don't know which ad produced a lead, you will never know how effective your marketing plan is. If you don't know which lead produced a profit, you are wasting money.</p>

<p>I wish I could tell you this or that advertising medium works best. I can't.</p>

<p>It is several and many mediums that <strong>work together</strong> that point prospects at you and finally a sale.</p>

<p>If you haven't fallen asleep yet, here are a two examples of smart marketing vs wasted marketing dollars.</p>

<p>I live in a town of about 300,000 residents. If I extend out 100 miles, that number is about 2 million. Although most of my work is stock photography, I maintain a thriving portrait business.</p>

<p>One of several advertising mediums I use is the Yellow Pages and it works just super. Why?</p>

<p>1) I dominate the page under "Photographers"<br>

2) I am listed 1st because of how I named my business. (Alphabetical listings)<br>

3) I have well written copy in the ad<br>

4) I mention in other media "See our ad in the Yellow Pages"</p>

<p>That is smart marketing. Expensive, but it pays for itself several times over.</p>

<p>Now wasteful marketing would be a photog who pays for a listing and does NOT dominate the page. They might also say "See our ad in the Yellow Pages"</p>

<p>Thank You very much for pointing <strong>YOUR</strong> customers to <strong>MY</strong> Yellow Page ad; the first thing they will see is MY ad because I dominate the page and am listed 1st.</p>

<p>Example 2)</p>

<p>I advertise on radio often and always during drive times.<br>

Expensive? Depends how you look at it.<br>

What does it cost me? Nothing in dollars.<br>

How?</p>

<p>I approached several radio stations and asked if they would like some FREE portraits of their air personalities done.Perhaps some imagery of the station itself with the DJs at the mic blah blah blah.... Hey, you can even use these images as part of your web page advertising.</p>

<p>What do I get? FREE air time. It's called barter. Most advertising in the U.S today is via barter, Shhhhh; many people don't know this. ;)</p>

<p>The photos I created for these radio stations are fully released so I can use them (and have) in my stock biz too. Pretty cool huh?</p>

<p>I picked the stations that interested me to drive sales. Many of the stations depending on the subject matter, listening audience, programming, time of day etc aided me greatly breaking into the commercial side of photography. I didn't stop there, the contacts I generated allowed me to begin networking with others.</p>

<p>One ph call I received because of the FREE radio advertising was from a law firm who wanted exec portraits done. I was paid for the shoot and introduced to a Supreme court judge (pic is in my samples on PN)..and that photo was licensed as stock to American Judicature magazine.</p>

<p>I hope you are seeing a pattern develop?<br>

Your marketing does not start and stop with one medium; each medium must feed the other.</p>

<p>If you take a course in Marketing, I assure you, it will be worth its weight in gold when you are done.</p>

<p>Until then, may I suggest a book for a start?</p>

<p>"<em>Guerilla Marketing"</em> by Jay Conrad Levinson.</p>

<p>It's a very inexpensive paperback. I purchased a copy a few years ago. In that book I found (2) sentences that changed the way I market. I won't say what the (2) sentences are because they worked for me based on how I was marketing back then, so it may not work for you.</p>

<p>What you will get out of the book are marketing methods you may never have even considered.</p>

<p>Here's a free tip that is tried, true and well proven:</p>

<p><strong>FREQUENCY + CONSISTENCY + BRANDING = SUCCESSFUL MARKETING.</strong></p>

<p>Have you ever heard that little jingle by INTEL? As soon as we hear it we know what it is.<br>

It is played often, it does not change and the image (meme) associated with it is unmistakable.</p>

<p>Marketing today amid the "noise" of others and getting noticed is no small task.<br>

I hope this has at least given you pause to ponder.</p>

<p>All the best.</p>

<p> </p>

[acedigital]

<p>Beautiful work Alex, my only comment is the slide show on the main page seems a little too large for my taste, has a definite wow factor, but I would use more page space for more info. Maybe make it a 1/4 smaller? Just one opinion though :)</p>

[toddr]

<p>I'd suggest looking at running Google Adwords in your *Local* area...also set up a Google Places account with photos.</p>

[alexthornephotography]

<p>Kevin, thanks for the great response. It definitely gives me a lot to think about. </p>

<p>Mark, unfortunately Zenfolio only offers basic website templates and I can’t change the size of the slideshow. If business picks up for me next year, one of the first things I’m going to look into is have a professional website built. </p>

<p>Todd, I’ll also look at Google Adwords too.</p>

 

[stephaniehillphotography]

<p>I am starting my photography business and I am running into difficulties finding clients. I appreciate the question Alex, and the advice Kevin. Thank you</p>

[stephaniehillphotography]

<p>I am starting my photography business and I am running into difficulties finding clients. I appreciate the question Alex, and the advice Kevin. Thank you</p>

[alexthornephotography]

<p>Thanks Stephanie. I'm still wondering if listing in the Yellow Pages is a "must do", or do people mostly decide who to go with through word-of-mouth. For my market, I guess there's only one way to find out.</p>

[ted_suss]

<p><strong>FREQUENCY + CONSISTENCY + BRANDING = SUCCESSFUL MARKETING</strong><br>

This is GREAT advice. Your dollars will be best spent in fewer places rather spreading them out....-TED :-)</p>

[kevin_delson]

<blockquote>

<p> Yellow Pages is a "must do", or do people mostly decide who to go with through word-of-mouth</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Word of mouth AND Yellow Pages.</p>

<p>The word of mouth referral might forget your number or not have your business card, so the dialog might be something like this....</p>

<p>"He's a great photog"<br>

"Do you have his number?"<br>

"Um,No...but I'll let him know you're looking for a photog"</p>

<p>Better if the word of mouth person could say;</p>

<p>"I don't know his number, but he's in the Yellow Pages"</p>

<p>See? Each marketing effort needs to work together; feed off each other. </p>

<p>Yellow page advertising is only expensive if you don't implement it properly.</p>

[bobbollinger]

<p>As a lawyer, I have found that advertising in the Yellow Pages is a collossal waste of my money, no matter how much I spend or how well-done my ad. <br>

I would suggest you take out only a small ad in the YP, so that people can find your phone number if they need to, but concentrate more on word of mouth and the internet. In my law business, which is admittedly not the same as photography, I have found that potential clients are using the internet more and more to find a lawyer. I suspect the same is even more true for photographers due to the visual nature of the craft. But hiring a lawyer to perform a skilled and often creative service for you is not entirely different from hiring a photographer to perform skilled creative services for you. <br>

The Yellow Pages are very expensive, and those books are going out mostly to people who will never ever need or want to hire you. And go into that sales meeting understanding that most of what the YP sales reps tell you about how great their product is is almost certainly unadulterated BS. </p>

[alexthornephotography]

<p>I did some PR consulting on the side and also found that the Yellow Pages was worthless. But, I suspect that professional consulting businesses such as law and PR are geared toward a different crowd. Photography has more of a mass market appeal, and I'm wondering if a Yellow Pages ad would be useful.</p>

<p>Also, I live in the Washington DC Metro area and my website is nonexistent when you type the typical search terms into Google and other search engines. I'm hoping Yellow Pages will at least get my name in front of eyeballs that are looking in places in addition to the Internet. </p>

 

[e._p.]

<p>A good mix of online and offline marketing is the best way to go. Make sure you hit all the local online stuff and like another person posted, frequency and consistency will bring you success. Also try to hook up and partner with other vendors who can refer you to their clients, word of mouth is huge.</p>