Photo Marketing Mentor

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If you’re familiar with social networking then you’ve most likely heard of Facebook. Facebook is arguably one of the most popular social networking tools available for photographers and creative service providers on the Internet.

As a creative marketing consultant I spend quite a bit of time exploring various fan pages that I am invited too by creative professionals. Unfortunately on many I find the a very vital key of client attraction missing from their pages and that’s the topic of today’s article, how to create a client attractive Facebook Fan page.

1. Target carefully and with intention - For example, the bulk of my clients are pro and aspiring pro photographers, and in my work one of the first things we examine is their social networking outlets. Typically the first thing I notice is photographers “following and friending” solely other photographers. In a typical conversation I’ll ask the question, “If you are a photographer who specialize in the portraiture of women –  and so for the sake of this illustration let’s say you photograph expectant mothers. Why then are majority of your followers other photographers? The point being in order for this photographer to find more clients he or she must start inviting people that fit their target profile.

As you build your base of fans and followers you need to ask yourself: “Does this person fit my client profile?” If not, you can make the decision whether or not to include them on your fan page, but for best results you should focus your efforts on inviting people that fit your ideal client profile.

2. Be informative - As your list of “targeted” fans grows make sure you provide useful content by sharing your knowledge and demonstrating your expertise. One way to do this is to post content that will educate and inspire your target audience. There are many opportunities to demonstrate your expertise via short articles, tip sheets, MP3 audio recordings, and video slide show presentations, behind the scenes videos or still shots with “diary” style entries.

If you do this properly much of the pre-selling will be done for you to the point that when your prospect decides to contact you they are 80 -90% ready to work with you.

Often content creation is where many photographers become stumped because they “think” that the only content they can offer is their photography. The bottom line, make sure that your content is engaging, solves a problem or answers a question for your client. This takes us to the next step.

3. Close with a strong call to action – Again clients hire you to solve problems and in order to do that you have to know what it is. All that’s left is to communicate that you are “the photographer” who can solve it. One of the easiest ways to do this is craft what I call a “call to action statement” or mission statement, emphasis on “call to action”. For example, I’ll share mine with you,

Call to Action Statement

“Are you photographer or creative professional who suffers with “marketing reluctance, but who understands that marketing is vital to client attraction?” If this sounds like you then you are in luck because I specialize in Client Attraction for Creative Professionals. As a matter of fact I have helped photographers and other creative professions develop systems that makes client attraction a snap!

If you would like to learn how you can attract more clients and grow your photography business I’d like to invite you to check out my program designed especially for solo entrepreneurs who specialize in the arts and it’s called the “Client Attraction Starter Kit” and it’s available for FREE on my website at photo-marketing-mentor (dot) com. Visit my website today to CLAIM your copy! -end-

Can you see how the above statement would be enticing to anyone who fits my ideal client profile rather than just a listing my name and contact information?

So to take this a step further, once you craft your “call to action mission statement” you can now use it on all of the content that you produce. For example, you can verbalize it at the end your audios, display it at the end of your videos and articles. Post it throughout your fan pages, website and blog.

This is how you make your Facebook fan page more client attractive. Let’s recap.

1) First, define your target audience and invite them into your space
2) Second, once you connect inform with content that inspires, educates and entertains them, and…
3) Finally, lead your fans into taking action by crafting a “take action” mission statement that will ensure they do just that, take action.

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It is said that is easier to get business from someone who’s already given some, than to find a new client.

Think about how much it costs you in terms of time as well as money to acquire a new client. As it becomes more challenging to acquire new clients (especially in this current economic climate) it is far easier to go back to former clients and ask for new business.

Unfortunately many photographers tend to be on the side of the fence where they are constantly prospecting and searching for new clients. Nothing wrong with it, but it can be an awful time consuming process. If find yourself in this situation one way to break free of it is to ask yourself, “how can I serve my existing clients or former clients in new ways?”

In this article I am going to give you three suggestions you can use to keep your calendar full with additional work from existing clients while resurrecting relationships from former clients for new work. The key is to position yourself as your clients “in house” photographer.

1. Ask - I know it sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many photographers fail to ask for additional work while they are working with existing accounts. There several ways to do this with finesse for example; you can have your new clients fill out a questionnaire at the start of the job. The questions should relate to the job you’ve been hired to do.

Let’s say for example you are an architecture photographer then you could ask if they need printing work done like annual reports and other collateral materials. You could inquire about photographing other buildings or residential properties they have in their portfolio (including interiors).

Once you get to this level other possibilities could include photographing the principal owners in the companies family portraits and events. The key is to allow additional opportunities to flow naturally, but not let them slip through your fingers because you failed to ask.

2. Court former clients you can do this by dropping notes about your interest in working with them again via hand written note cards, handwritten works better because it shows that you took the time to contact them and not just send a form letter. Handwritten letters are often referred to as a warm letters. Think of it like the holiday letter that your aunt writes to update everyone of the families previous years accomplishments and activities.

In addition if you’ve won any awards, received any significant press coverage or been acknowledged in any way there is nothing wrong with dropping a note about your achievements or perhaps even a tear sheet.

3. Offer to schedule a lunch or coffee date nothing gets your prospects attention faster than a face-to-face meeting. As a matter of fact when you send your warm letters you can place a pre-addressed stamped card to inquire if the recipient would be in interested in scheduling such a date. This is great way to follow up with your notes and/or warm letter.

Again nothing demonstrates your intention to be of service than sitting down one-on-one with someone. Remember to keep the conversation focused on their needs, not yours. You don’t want to come across like you’re desperate for work. And finally ask, ask for referrals, ask for recommendations and finally be sure to offer a referral fee or a discount on the next job you do for the person who referred you.

I realize in this article that I have touched on some issues that could raise concerns for some photographers reading this regarding spreading yourself too thin. For example, “If I offer to shoot anything and everything for my clients won’t that dilute my marketing message?” I say, not necessarily. Let’s look at it from two perspectives.

Let’s first address the issue concerning your skills; I mean it may easier for an architectural photographer to shoot portraits than for a wedding photographer to shoot architecture. I don’t know you know your capabilities more than I, the bottom line, if you don’t feel comfortable working in an area outside of your marketed specialty then don’t offer the service.

On the other hand if you are confidant you can execute the assignment I say, go for it.

The second point addresses positioning yourself from a marketing prospective. Let’s say you are an architectural photographer obviously you’ll want your portfolio, website and conversation with prospective clients to be centered on architecture. This applies to any photographer in any specialty.

The key to becoming your clients “in house photographer” is to present yourself as well as you possibly can in your chosen specialty, then once you’re “in” with the client, continue to probe and uncover how you can be of further service. Finally, do, deliver, rinse and repeat.

Bonus Info: Are you an entrepreneurial minded photographer? Would you like to learn how to Attract More Clients & GROW your business in the next 12 months? Guaranteed!

To find out how I’d like to offer you my Client Attraction Starter Kit that includes: a 5-part mini audio course, “5 Secrets To Attract More Clients & Grow Your Photography Business!” Plus a complimentary subscription to my bi-weekly ezine “Eye On Marketing”. You can claim your FREE Client Attraction Starter Kit by visiting: www.Photo-Marketing-Mentor.com

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Realize That You Have Cash Sitting On Your Hard Drive    - If you’ve been shooting for anything length of time it’s probably safe to assume that you have an extensive library of images on your hard drive just sitting there collecting virtual dust. Now is the time to go through work, print samples and breathe new life into your library.

Offer them on your website for sale -or- contact a small local gallery or perhaps even a coffee shop. Anyway you can get your work in front of eyes can be great way to raise your visibility. The benefits can range from direct print sales all the way to private commissions.

Expand Your Reach By Marketing Online As Well As Off - If you’re stuck on print marketing i.e. taking ads in physical publications or direct mail perhaps it’s time to start marketing your services online. Today we have so many options for getting the word out about our services from personal blogs to social media networking websites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter just to name a few. I urge you not to dismiss these tools as the domain of high school kids, trust me when I say that major business is being conducted via these sites.

I’m personally constructing educational programs for photographers and making deals with prospects that I’ve never physically met. Get online and expand your reach, it’s practically free and the benefits can be business transformational.

Adopt An Attitude of Bold-Thinking - When times are tight financially our natural inclination is tighten our purse strings, understandably. And while you don’t want to be fool hardly with your spending you don’t want to be stingy in your thinking. (What I mean is that now is time to adopt an out-of-the-box attitude, don’t automatically assume that you have “spend” more money.

Think how can I make better investments? Sometimes your investment will require a financial commitment, but in my experience I’ve found that some of the most powerful investments you can make are in “Relationships”. (So now is the time to think bolder, resist retreat and encourage reaching out. Contact individuals that you can create joint ventures with. These relationships can be other businesses that can use your images, or photographic expertise to promote their services and vice versa.

For example, a small hotel or resort may be interested in promoting a weekend photo workshop, especially if you can bring in new customers for them. Going back to the first point I made in this article about cash on your hard drive, see if you have images that you could print and offer for sale in local boutique or shop. I recently brokered a deal like this for a client and it was great opportunity for both the photographer and the shop owner.

Finally, don’t allow today’s challenging economic climate to knock the wind out of your business. Use this opportunity to think bigger. Money likes speed, don’t wait; get started today. Create a list of potential joint venture partners and see how you create an offer that combines what you love to shoot as a photographer with businesses that need to bring in new customers.

And now I’d like to invite you to get instant access to my free Client Attraction Starter Package that includes my 5-part training audio course and special report: 5 Secrets To Attracting More Clients & Grow Your Photography Business.  You can pick this course and several other valuable bonuses when you visit:

http://www.photo-marketing-mentor.com

You’ll receive tips, tools, techniques and strategies to help you either get your photography business off the ground -or- increase your existing business by opening new markets today!

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Welcome to my new video training series for professional photographers who want to attract more clients and grow their photography business. I will be offering new video lessons (about 20 in all) on a weekly basis, but if you would like to receive them more frequently you can do so when you sign-up to receive my new Client Attraction Starter Package program.

The Client Attraction Starter Package includes:
- My 5-Part audio training on client attraction and online marketing
- Also includes a “never been released” training seminar on Building Your Photography Business w/Referrals
- Finally you’ll receive a subscription to my ezine “Eye On Marketing” that will provide you with even more tips and training to help you Attract More Clients & Grow Your Photography Business.

To enroll in this package visit my website at http://www.photo-marketing-mentor.com - or you enter your first name and email address in the fields provided on the upper right hand corner of this blog.  Once you confirm the first lesson will be rushed right out to you.

If you’re ready for even more laser focused 1-on-1 training, I highly recommend my Photo Marketing Biz Blueprint Strategy Program, where you and I will spend some very valuable concentrated one-on-one time discuss your specific marketing needs. Then we will laser focus on the areas where you may be feeling stuck or confused and need some additional support to help move you forward.

At the conclusion of our session you will walk away with a personalized marketing blueprint that you can hand off to an assistant and implement immediately.

To learn more about my program visit my website @ http://www.photo-marketing-mentor.com/blog/strategysession

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A well crafted press release can be one of the quickest ways to attract attention for your business. The reasons why most people don’t use press releases generally falls into two camps, either, they don’t know how to write one (we’ll address that here in this article) Second, they’ve tried press releases in the past and received less than positive results so they gave up.

Press releases, especially online releases can get your business in front of millions of eyes in a matter of minutes. But before I get into specifics of crafting the release I want to assure you that if you follow the steps I’m going to outline below you’ll have the foundation of a winning press release that gets you noticed every time.

Here are my 3 keys to crafting an attention grabbing press release.

Key #1. An attention grabbing press release starts with an attention grabbing headline. Your headline is the most important part of your release. Why? Because it’s the first piece of text your reader sees and… most importantly if chosen properly it will insure that the reader will continue reading.

Open your release with a powerful question that stops the reader dead in his tracks.

Think about the results you want your reader to receive, what problem will you solve? For example, what questions have your customers been asking that your press release could address? I’ll give you a couple of examples.

For purpose of this article I’m going use a fictional portrait photographer and we’ll name her Jennifer. Jennifer specializes in portrait photography for business professionals, more specifically, people who hate to have their photos taken.

Jennifer has a personality that relaxes her clients and puts them at ease, so as a result her clients walk away from their session feeling better about themselves and they receive great photos as well. Jennifer understands that a lot of people hate to have their portraits taken but they must for business purposes.

What’s your goal? What do you want the reader to DO after reading your release? In the case of Jennifer she wants to attract more prospects to take advantage of her free 15 telephone consultation where she can discuss their needs, put their mind at ease and then ask for the booking. To make this happen Jennifer needs a headline that addresses the issues of her prospect. Here is a headline Jennifer could use:

“Is The Lack of a Professional Portrait Hurting Your Business Opportunities? -or- Do You Dread Having Your Portrait Taken?”

These are questions that stops the reader in his tracks, it poises them to ask themselves is this something that I am doing? If the answer is yes, they will continue to read. If not, they will stop, if they do no worries, they probably aren’t your ideal prospect anyway and they’ll move on.

The second reason why question based headlines are so powerful is that they remind the reader of their hot button issues or pain points. Let’s face it, if we don’t experience some level of discomfort chances typically we don’t act as quickly. In the case of Jennifer’s ideal prospect she wants to remind them that they are potentially missing opportunities because they’ve been avoiding having a professional portrait taken.

Okay so now that we have opened the release with a hot button issue it’s now time to aggravate it. How? By pointing specifically to what/and or how they are missing opportunities and then bullet pointing these hot button issues. So on to key number 2.

Key #2. Have the body copy of your press release flow naturally from your headline. So, if Jennifer’s headline is: “Is The Lack of a Professional Portrait Hurting Your Business Opportunities?” The next logical text will flow from that headline. Jennifer would continue highlight the problems her reader will experience if they continue to avoid having their business portrait taken.

For example:
• Not being able to book high end speaking engagements for radio or television interviews with meeting planners & producers because they don’t have a professional photo.
• Not being able to build trust with their online prospects because no one knows what they look like.
• Reminding them that a quality photo speaks louder than words.
• If the reader is a book author they must have a photo for the publisher.
• Publicists won’t work with them if don’t have a professional photo. Slows done success, Impedes opportunities.
• Some companies require a professional photo of their upper management team for their annual reports, websites and brochures.

A key way to make sure your body copy flows from your headline is to use bullet points like I did above. Try to hit on at least 5 to 7 hot button points that your reader can relate to or identify with. Also make sure that your services address these issues.

Remember, you are a problem solver for your client. So once you’ve reminded them of their pain by asking a powerful question, aggravate it further by pointing out what they are missing out on via bullet points. Now it’s time to introduce them to the solution, your solution. This moves us on to key number 3.

Key #3. Know in advance what you want the reader to do before you write the press release. In the case of Jennifer our photographer specializing in business portraits she wants to schedule more pre-booking consultations. So after her body copy she must close the press release with a compelling offer that make readers pick up the phone and call her to book their free consultation.

Jennifer’s sample closing: “If you dread having your portrait taken and your fear is now affecting your business opportunities I’d love to help. Contact me for a complimentary 15 minute: My Best Face Forward Makeover phone consultation”.

Visit my website today at: www.mylastheadshotsucked.com (play on words) to schedule your FREE consultation and as a gift you’ll receive a copy of my special report: 5 Simple Wardrobe Adjustments That Will Make Anybody Look 10 Pounds Thinner.

This brings us to the final and most vital component of crafting a client attractive press release. Close your release with an action that the reader will be required to take. Jennifer makes an offer that her reader must follow through on to receive. In this case, her free special report. The one thing I want you take away from this article is no where in Jennifer’s press release does she talk about herself or her credentials.

She doesn’t need to (not at this stage) the point is to focus on the issues and problems of the reader and compel them to act. Once they visit her website and register to receive the special report and book the free consult Jennifer can then introduce her credentials, but the press release is designed to do two things and two things only, grab the readers attention and cause an action.

And now if you would like help with constructing your first attention grabbing press release or help navigating on any type of online marketing tools available for professional and prosumer photographers visit my website at www.photo-marketing-mentor.com. When you go there you can download a copy of my Audio program and free special report: 5 Secrets to Attracting More Clients and Growing Your Photography Business.

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