King Lawrence. Yes, King. It was his mother’s maiden name. He wishes the story was slightly more interesting than that. Especially since he’s asked almost every day the origins of his regal title. Sometimes he even has to whip out his driver’s license just to prove he’s not lying. Cool name aside, King is a fantastic portrait photographer. However, great photography isn’t always enough. So when it came time to start promoting himself to a larger audience, King came knocking (figuratively) on our door.
In the past, King had solely been sending out print promotions, but now wanted to venture into the email promo world. He first spoke with our production director, Jess Dudley, to decide on an audience to target. Together they came to the conclusion that King should send his email promos to clients in his region—mainly Texas and Arizona metro areas—so he could begin to get his name out there. Jess advised sending out a new promo every two months. This way, King wouldn’t be over saturating potential clients’ email boxes but would still keep them updated with his latest work. Once the details were all hammered down, King and our design director Peter Clark begin talking about the email design.
For King, less is more. His existing brand is clean and minimal—the photos taking center stage. His print promos and portfolio are printed on high quality matte paper, with large images, giving the impression of a fine art print while still working commercially. He was hoping his new e-promos could follow that same clean style, and also somewhat visually resemble the fine art print fashion of his print promotions. After a few rounds of comps and revisions by Peter, they mutually agreed on a final design.
Since art buyers and photo editors are inherently busy, and often inundated with promos, it’s essential to create something both unique and memorable. Promos need to quickly pique the viewers interest and compel further investigation. This needs to be accomplished through good design.
After the design is established, the next important aspect of email promos to tackle is the subject line. King needed to get people to care about what they’re about to look at. Time and time again we’ve been told by art buyers and photo editors that a simple subject explaining what they’re about to see is what they want. And most importantly, they hate subjects like, “Urgent! Open immediately!” and other equally misleading (and annoying) lines. For these promos, since we were trying to promote his sports portraiture work, Peter and King decided on the subject line “Latest Sports Portraiture Work – King Lawrence.” This told the viewer in one line what they’re about to see with no big surprises. This way, if an art buyer was looking for sports portraits, they would immediately open his work. Also, it makes it easy for his promo to be categorized in a folder and searched by either his name or specialty.
King loved the final product and soon started sending it out to the targeted list Jess put together for him. Two months later, we put together a second promo for him, which was also sent out. King is now due for a third email promo to be sent out… so keep your eyes peeled art buyers!
Need help creating a new email campaign? Send us an email.