In September, Meredith Marlay, Vid Barkiđija, and Valentina Valić joined the Client Outreach department. Along with the rest of the team, they added 790 companies and 973 people to our database and they updated 2,773 companies and 2,866 people, and sent out 826 emails to producers, creative directors, marketing managers, and photo editors around the world.
In September, my focus was directed to Outreach in the Resource and Client departments. This was a great experience as I dove deeper into all of the valuable information Wonderful Machine has to offer. In the Resource role, I discovered a new photo festival for our database, updated photo book publishers versus stores, highlighted photo advocacy organizations, evaluated the relevancy of directories for crew and photographers, and found small yet prominent companies that help the photography industry build and stay connected.
My transition to the Client Outreach department was a highlight this month. In this role, I updated information for major clients such as 1854 Media (which is a part of the British Journal of Photography), the Clio Network, and linked Creative Hotlist to Communication Arts as a “child” of a parent company. Most importantly I closely evaluated current employee positions within our database to ensure our team and clients can effectively connect. I also enjoyed reading the latest Intel articles. This helped me understand the importance of my role as a Creative Consultant and highlighted the success stories of our current clients. I highly recommend reading our Intel articles. It is a great way to stay connected to client’s progress and the immense resources our company has to offer to them.
This past month, I worked on updating records for our Client Companies. I started by working on the Oldest in WordPress role, moving on to Publications, Agencies, and finally Brands. My work included updating all the relevant information in each record, as well as all the links. After that, my responsibility was to add and link records of Client People prospects relevant to the Companies I was updating. Lastly, I worked on evaluating profiles to determine if they were worthy of being added to our website.
This month, I started with the Oldest in WordPress role. I gradually expanded to Companies (Publications), Companies (Agencies), Companies (Brands), and People (Publications). The pace was a bit overwhelming, but I’ve learned a great deal about our diverse Client base.
In my current role, which focuses on People (Publications), I start by checking the current company of the individual in question to ensure our records are up-to-date. If the company seems like a good fit for us, I proceed to evaluate it further. And after that, I update the individual’s profile ensuring all details are accurate. Finally, I send a personalized email to establish a connection.
I also want to add that I was thrilled to have more people attend my office hours. It was great to connect with colleagues and team members. I also benefited from attending others’ office hours and it was a valuable resource for getting answers to my questions.
In September, my focus was on managing records for our Client Companies including Publications, Agencies, and Brands. My responsibilities involved updating and verifying details and links within our data records and their profiles on our website. On top of that, it is essential to have a person of contact within these companies to whom we can promote our services and Member Photographers. Regularly updating these links is crucial to ensure we have accurate information. We’re always on the lookout to see if these companies still align with our Member Photographer’s needs so we can provide them with the best opportunities.
This past month, I was in the role of People (Publications). With the digital age sweeping into online platforms and publications, many people are finding new ways to explore creative opportunities and occupations that might not have existed even a few years ago. It’s important for our records to track all the creative directors, art directors, and various marketing directors who are responsible for publications big or small. As we search for up-to-date information for these individuals, we learn that many have switched companies or even changed careers. So we work to find the best contact for each news platform. In confirming their current job, we also take the opportunity to recommend photographers local to their area and specific to the type of content they publish.
In the month of September, I worked on our People records for all three Client types (Publications, Agencies, and Brands). My work was updating the profiles of the People working in the Companies, checking if they’re still working at these Companies, and if they have new jobs, adding the new Companies where they work, or linking them to the new one if we already have a record for it.
In September, I shifted from evaluating and updating Client People who work for Publications and Agencies to Client People who work for Brands. When evaluating a Client Person data record, I first check their LinkedIn profile to determine whether or not they are still with the same company. And then I update their information accordingly. Once their data record is updated with the most current information, I send them an email to share our capabilities and to promote one of our Member Photographers who might be a good fit for that Client. The replies I received thanked me for reaching out and added that they will keep Wonderful Machine and the photographers in mind if any projects come up in the future.
I was doing Oldest Promoted for the majority of September. I then transitioned to the Parent Companies role a few days before September ended. This is where I take care of updating Parent Company records along with their children companies (with accompanying Client People records). In the Oldest Promoted role, I was able to promote Member Photographers to the following: 72andSunny, 20th Century Studios, Picture Mill, lookthinkmake, Novamex, Smoothie King, Ideas Collide, Hearst UK, University of California San Francisco, ASICS America Corporation, and Rombauer Vineyards among others.
One connection I made in the Oldest Promoted role was with the Production Director at Will Creative, a Canadian full-service agency. She said,
Denise, Thanks for reaching out and it’s lovely to e-meet you. We actually already work with Albert Law quite frequently and our team loves having him on projects! We usually only hire Canadian photographers and directors, but as you know, our industry is always changing and that might not be the case for everything in the future. I’ll share the photographer search bar with our creative team so they know this resource exists and I’ll reach out if and when we have a project that might be a good fit for you to support!
I also heard back from the Deputy Design Director at The Magnolia Journal. She said:
Thanks for reaching out! While I don’t have any immediate projects that come to mind, I’d love to have a login for the website to access the library. We occasionally have stock needs and it’d be great to have a new resource. I’d be happy to hop on a call to hear more too and share some typical stories we could use help around.
Last month I went from Parent Companies to OOO Replies.
The Parent companies’ role involves working through all of our Companies marked as “Parent Companies”. I update them, sorting through their subsidiaries to understand which subsidiaries we already have (updating them if needed), and evaluating any to add to our database that we may not yet have. We track Parent Companies in our database for reasons like understanding the relationships between companies (sometimes related companies will share a creative team) and because they can lead us to other good prospects that might hire professional photographers (a Parent Company’s “child” might be a good prospect for us).
OOO Replies is a very necessary role where we check all the OOO (Out of Office) replies that we get. Many times, an email reply is automatically sent to us because the recipient is on vacation or maternity leave, or they don’t work at that company anymore. Our work in this role is to track all that information and make changes to update our database. We review all of the information that appears in the OOO emails. This includes the email addresses the replies come from (which may be different from the one we sent it to), names (which may be different if the person has gotten married recently), phone numbers, addresses, websites, titles, etc. Sometimes the emails we receive will share information about a colleague who is covering for them while they’re away. We always check if that person could be a prospect for us and add them to our records if we don’t have them yet.
This month, I switched from handling the Out-of-Office replies to working on Vertical Markets (Companies). In this role, my task is to review lists of leading brands in specific categories and add new ones to our database. This process will help us build a database of the world’s top brands that might require professional photography services.
My first role was in Vertical Markets and involved browsing the internet and finding companies in a specific category. Some of these companies were already in Daylite. So I updated those entries and sometimes I discovered new, promising prospects to add. Once I had a list of the 50 biggest companies in one Vertical Market, I could move on to another. After that, I was transferred to a new role. Now I work to find the best people to contact at every company in the Vertical list.
Throughout the month of September, I worked in a role within the Client Outreach Department called “Industries.” This role entails updating and maintaining our database with the leading companies in various industries. The aim is to ensure that our database remains both current and accurate. This enhances our Clients’ and Member Photographers’ experience. Part of this process also includes evaluating long lists of companies within each industry. We do this to identify and include only the most relevant companies in our database. While the “Industries” role demands considerable time and effort, its importance cannot be overstated. Maintaining an up-to-date and precise database directly impacts the value we provide to our Clients and Photographers. Having an up-to-date database enables them to access relevant information efficiently and effectively.
Currently, my role is to explore LinkedIn in order to find new companies. I specifically look for companies that fulfill our criteria of being good photography prospects.
In September, we connected with FCB Health to bid on a project. This project was for a pharmaceutical client who needed to photograph patients in their homes. Additionally, we connected with Digitas Health to discuss and bid on another pharma lifestyle project. Also, we discussed our capabilities with Power Home Remodeling. We are in the process of setting up a meeting for their entire creative team to elaborate on how we can help them with photography production. We connected with Accenture to bid on a project for a tech company, we discussed a few upcoming projects with Arbor Day Foundation, and we produced a corporate headshot project for Cencora.
My current Client Outreach role is working on Brand People, focusing on Producers and/or those in production positions. Notable September Client Projects included coordinating a shoot for Edelman and eBay with photographer Emily Andrews. Craig Oppenheimer executive produced, and I produced, a shoot for Cencora with Member Photographer Justin Clemons. I recommended photographers for projects with Pan Up Productions, Slim Agency.
My role in the past month was to research, update, and email Client People at Fortune 500 companies. I aimed to identify the best people at these large companies who would be particularly good prospects for our shoot production services. I then offered up calls with them to share our production capabilities, familiarize them with our website features and photographer/director databases, and better understand their overall creative needs.
On September 15th, I had a call with a Creative Director as well as an Art Buyer and Rights Administrator from Harper Collins Publishers (Canada) and Harlequin (Canada). We discussed our website features, photographer/director search tools, stock requests, and production capabilities. Also, we discussed their stock photo needs and they mentioned how they value having resources for higher quality work that feels like custom content. I demoed the website features and directories for them both, and they liked the ability to create and share shortlists with their team when researching photographers. They mentioned a growing need to hire local crew throughout the US and Canada. So we discussed how we can assist with photographer and crew sourcing as well as more hands-on roles in executive production for larger projects. They were both impressed with the way Wonderful Machine worked and let us know they look forward to another call to introduce us to their broader creative team in the future.
Have questions about how we promote our photographers? Check out our Membership page. Want to know how you can get the most out of your Wonderful Machine membership? Check out our Jumpstart page or just reach out!