Promoting your work as a photographer is daunting at any time, but in the fall of 2020, it felt like a real gamble to run an email marketing campaign. There were many reasons to be cautious, like the high turnover rate in the industry exacerbated by COVID restrictions and economic uncertainty, widespread remote working, and general unease about budgets and planning.
Nevertheless, Blake Jorgenson stepped up to the challenge, buffered by the fact that he had just shot an excellent campaign for RAM trucks and was in possession of multiple prospect lists from his six months of Marketing Partner with us the previous winter. The results we achieved prove, once again, that consistency pays off when it comes to your email marketing efforts.
Blake reached out to us in the spring of 2019 and, after an initial consultation, decided that the six months of list building and outreach included in our Marketing Partner service was right for his needs. This service is great for busy photographers who don’t have the time to commit to a consistent email marketing plan, as well as for photographers who are just beginning to build up their client base and want to kickstart those efforts. The basic Marketing Partner plan includes a new prospect list build and an outreach campaign on a monthly basis; photographers, however, can — and often do — include additional marketing materials such as Emailers, Print Promos, and email attachments.
By the Fall of 2019, Blake had completed six months of Marketing Partner. As a result, the Vancouver-based photographer had 125 new prospective clients and photographer reps to share his work with, so he got busy shooting. One of the commissions he shot during that time was for RAM Trucks, and this is the project that Blake came back to us to promote.
Blake decided to use his Marketing Partner prospect lists in a Client Meetings campaign, since we always welcome customization and personalization of our consulting services — and, in fact, recommend it!
Generally, you can up your chances of success if you mix and match services, and this was no exception. Despite all of the uncertainty facing the industry and world at the time of the campaign, Blake’s Client Meetings service resulted in responses and interest from brands and agencies such as Buff, Grizzly Coolers, Saatchi & Saatchi, and RPA Advertising, as well as meetings with photographer reps L&Aartist and Ray Brown Represents. To top it all off, Blake’s campaign led to him getting repped by Freda Scott.
Ultimately, working with Blake on multiple projects allowed us to get to know him and his work on a deeper level, which made our marketing efforts that much more effective.
If you’d like to learn more about Marketing Partner, Client Meetings, or both, send us an email!