Please enter your email and website or LinkedIn to receive more information about our free and paid accounts.
Please enter your email address below and we’ll send you instructions on how to change your password.
With endless options to promote yourself and connect with clients, building a marketing plan may seem like a daunting task. Social media is king, print promos are still in the game, and there are more ways to reach out to potential clients than ever before. All of these possible avenues lead to even more questions. Marketing Mentor offers an opportunity to discuss your options with an experienced professional in the industry. As part of this program, you not only get to learn marketing best practices, but you work hand-in-hand with a consultant to develop a marketing plan that’s right for you.
Feeling the chaos that is marketing, Houston-based food and lifestyle photographer Ryan Price came to us looking to drive his business forward and attract more commercial clients. He wanted someone to walk him through the process of finding relevant contacts and reaching out to them — “How to put [his] best foot forward to either pitch a project or get on their radar.”
This is completely new territory for me, and I knew that I needed to invest in experts to help me navigate this. I needed someone to help explain some of the industry standards that I should operate under and how to get my work in front of the right people.
Enter our Marketing Mentor program. For two hours each month, Ryan and I discussed his branding and marketing. We wanted to target and connect with artisanal food and drink clients, along with small to mid-sized brands that carry niche products.
We started our conversation on branding, specifically his website. He still had a few leftover elements from his retail business that needed to be removed, and his web edit needed a fresh perspective. To position himself as a brand narrative photographer specializing in food and lifestyle, the images in each gallery needed to make an impact and be purposefully selected; they needed to visually tell a story.
After our discussion of how to best choose and organize photos, we moved on to the topic of active marketing. The first step to any marketing approach is to research clients. My advice to Ryan was to start by simply paying attention to what appeared in his everyday life. He started to notice local companies and keep track of those that were relevant to him. From this, along with looking online, Ryan was able to build a list of potential clients.
Once he knew which companies he was interested in, the next step was to find the person at each company who’d likely be in charge of hiring photographers. This brought us to a discussion about LinkedIn. Ryan researched brands, ad agencies, and publications he’d like to shoot for and followed them on LinkedIn. Not only can it be a great tool for passive marketing, but it can also assist in finding relevant points of contact.
After navigating through research, our next step was outreach. If a handful of clients were surveyed on the best means of getting in touch with them, they might all have different answers—phone calls, emails, elaborate promos, or networking events. The possibilities are endless, but it’s important to test different options and find what works for you. Every photographer should have a marketing mix to attract different clients, so Ryan and I spent some time outlining his. I suggested he start with a personalized email, including a link to his website and Instagram and a call to action. We went over marketing materials, email language, outreach etiquette, and social media strategies until he felt comfortable enough to implement them on his own.
In the aftermath of our mentorship, Ryan had this to say:
I was glad that Katie took the time to actually delve into my business and not just rattle off a script that is the same for anyone going through the program. She wasn’t afraid to speak honestly about things that I needed to change and to also meet me at the ground level and give me practical steps for getting to where I wanted to go. I felt that she truly wanted to see my business succeed.
In the time since our mentorship, Ryan sent out beautiful print mailers to local restaurants. This led to a project with The Stella Hotel, which was a great addition to his portfolio!
Looking for a mentor? Reach out to connect with a marketing specialist! Or, give us a call at 1 610 620 0200.