10 marketing lessons from 10 years of being in photography business

business

I could write a year's worth of blogs just on marketing alone... I mean there are people out there whose entire job is marketing... But the point is, business does not exist without marketing. EVER. Why? Because marketing is simply the art of promoting your business to potential clients.

That's it, so simple!

I find that most photographers fail to understand the basic principles of marketing, so I wanted to give you a quick guide to Marketing 101.

There are three stages of marketing, and you can't get to a sale without going through all of them:

Stage one: Awareness

Stage two: Trust

Stage Three: Consideration

We often refer to the marketing process as a funnel. The top of the funnel being a wider (and cold) audience, and the bottom of the funnel being a more selective/narrower (warmer) audience.

A potential client at the top of the funnel, is a cold lead. A potential client at the bottom of the funnel is a hot lead or a client ready to buy!

If your potential clients aren't aware you exist, they can't even begin to trust you, and if they don't trust you, well they are definitely not buying anything from you.

If you are a new photographer, then before you can focus on making sales, you have to focus on making people aware you exist, so then, over time, they can trust you and only then, when they have a need for a photographer, consider to buy from you.

Here are the 10 top marketing lessons i learn from 10 years of being in business:

Clients won’t come find you before they know you exist, it is your job to let them know
People buy from people, it's all about who you are
Fortune is in the follow up
People rather buy from someone they know or someone that was recommended to them than an advertiser
Happy clients will grow your marketing faster than you can ever say "facebook ads"
Organic marketing is the cheapest and easiest way to grow a business
Your friends, family, and network are FULL of potential clients
You need to define a niche because you need to know who you are looking for before you can find them
Confused people don't buy: your message just needs to be simple, clear, and consistent
There's no one click solution to growing a business. It takes time, it takes work, and it takes trial and error. Be patient