Kammy Thurman of Laurel, Montana writes:
“I hope your Hounds can help our photography studio, Anchor Photography. We’ve been in business several months and we want to become the most recognized studio in our area.
“That will be tough because we’re up against studios that have been in business for 30 to 50 years, and more. I am trying to think of ways to use publicity because the other studios don’t do this, and I know it would build visibility fast. I’m just trying to think of ways to that aren’t blatant advertising.”
When a local photographer opened a studio here in town, he was up against the same type of established competition. We host concerts here at our park and he contacted us to see if he could photograph each artist during their shows. He then submitted the photos to the local newspapers, who were happy to use the pictures (with his byline), but didn’t have the manpower to send someone to cover the event. He simultaneously built his portfolio, a relationship with the newspaper and with us. He now does photography work for our park, as well as photoshoots for the advertising section of the newspaper and has his name in the paper almost daily!
Ten Quick Tips:
1. Offer a free hour long class/seminar on improving snapshots to the public. Publicize it in the events section of the local paper. Collect email addresses from participants and start your businesses newsletter.
2. Start a photo blog with tips and before/after photos to emphasize the effects of lighting, etc.
3. Start or participate in a photography group on meetup.com.
4. Sell cameras and film, not just your service, to draw in more/different traffic.
5. Take photos for local charity events, and post them on your website.
6. Offer to help teach the girl scout and boy scout merit badge on photography.
7. Pitch to local reporters the concept of a portrait as a unique personalized gift for holidays, weddings, anniversaries, a young lady’s 16th birthday, etc. Offer to take the portrait for free of all couples celebrating their 50th anniversary for the local paper.
8. Offer to help local food blogs with food photography.
9. Offer to compile a book of old photos from members of the community for the local historical society to publish as a fundraiser for their museum.
10. May is National Photo Month. Work with your local library to put up a photography book and resource display.
An Aside – I live in New York, not Montana, so I may be wrong about people in your community, but I feel that your picture on the website is not as professional as it could be. When I book a photographer for my wedding, I do not want to hire someone in a black shirt, red tie and hat. An action shot with a camera and a plain white shirt seems more professional.
Align yourself with your local community foundation and photograph the people and facilities receiving its grants, then make sure you get a credit line when the newspaper and the foundation’s newsletter publish the results.
No local foundation? Do something similar with the community college, the historical society, the chamber of commerce, or even a freelance writer.
Some ideas to throw out there…
Darkrooms– their use seems to be disappearing like the cassette player which side are you on?
Maybe you want to revitalize their use so you start a darkroom fan club in hopes of passing on the skill to younger adults.
Maybe you have the largest darkroom still in use in your town or state of Montanna or maybe you just closed down the last remaining dark room because you can’t find enough help with the necessary skills to use it or maybe there are darkrooms overseas so you export your film to Indai because they’re the only ones that still know how to use the ancient technology. Is any of this relevant to you?
Are you involved in any kind of photography policy at schools for camera phones or news orgs.
Here’s a Montanna photog just in the news:
Montana Photography
Just the headline itself can give you template to use in your media releases…(by the way maybe Montana Photography is a good keyword for you)
_________ Combines Love Of ________ and Photography.
Are you involved in anything that seems counter to photograhy? Obviously the more topical the better.
“Montana Dad And Daughter Combines Love Of Nintendo and Photography”
“Montanna Man Combines Love Of Garbage and Photography”
Offer to take a photo of children for parents to have for a current ID photo for safety purposes. The studio that does my son’s school pictures issues an id to every kid who has a photo taken. It would bring people into the studio, and of course, you would have lovely family photos, etc around as examples of your other work. You might be able to do a partnership with a local police dept to do a child safety seat check at your location on the same day. A news release and local media would pick up on it, as well as free placement in the coming events section of local papers and local magazines would generate free publicity.
Assemble a traveling exhibit of your photos. Place at the Laurel Golf Course, Laurel Airport, large employers like Cenex Oil Refinery, and other high traffic areas.
Sponsor an event or contest with the Laurel Chamber of Commerce. Idea: Laurel At Work. Employers enter to get you to come spend a day on site taking pictures of their people and facilities to showcase what they do.
Develop a wedding contest with the Laurel Outlook newspaper. They promote the contest and you offer to do the winner’s photos. See if you can round up some other wedding vendors to make the contest bigger.
Hi, Photo Folks:
A little good will goes a long way, so what if you offered (a limited number of) reduced cost photos of people in unique circumstances? Like – low-income high school seniors who won’t be able to purchase them for the yearbook?
Families of just deployed, or retuning, Iraq or other places soldiers?
Join up with the local hospital’s “Look Good, Feel Good Program” for patients with cancer who want a photo of them newly lookin’ good.
Work with the local weigh watchers to promote reduced cost glamour shots for people who’ve reached their goal?
Team, or individual athletic shots for Special or Senior Olympians?
Also, classes are good, especially for those “vulnerable” groups like pet owners and parents. Offer a class that teaches them how to do the outdoor stuff, but lets you do the more formal, indoor stuff.
Hope this gets your bulbs a poppin’
Lauren
In Other Words
Thanks, everyone! Great ideas!
Sincerely,
Kammy Thurman
It’s the holidays! Tell us (and me) how to take good photos. Eliminate red eye, digital snafus (sorry about the battery, honey) and capturing kids and pets that just won’t stay still. Once you give “free” info like this, people will come back to you for more complicated projects that only you can handle (i.e., weddings).
and because the holidays are loaded wtih food why not team up with a caterer/restaurant who needs to showcase their efforts?
lastly, to build on Lauren’s advice, local Weight Watchers, Curves, Jenny Craig want the nicest possible “after” photos for their clients. If I lost 50 pounds I would want a professional to take my photo, not my mom or a friend with a disposable camera.
I was going to take a similar approach to Lauren–but take it farther. Take someone in dire circumstances, maybe the young widow of an Iraq soldier KIA, maybe a local welfare mom, and turn her into a glamor queen–you cooperate with a fashion consultant an a makeup artist.
Should be able to get lots of publicity from that.
Shel Horowitz, marketing consultant and award-winning author of Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, and five other books
Growing up, we loved wandering our local mall during the school year because the local photography studios would post 8x10s and even 5x7s of the local senior pictures. We enjoyed looking for our friends and other people we knew. For many years the pictures were simply mounted or framed and hung on foldable partitions in the middle of the walkway. This is how a new photography studio launched themselves up against the “go to” studio for all formal events–the new studio now has the greater share of the market. Additionally, the mall had a great display and people tended to linger–the senior pics were usually placed near the stores where teenagers frequented while the wedding and family shots showed up near the bigger department stores.
How about utilizing social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Linked In? You could provide a link back to your web site so poeple can see your portfolio. Also, consider expanding this a step further into a quick (1 minute or less) introductory video that you could post on YouTube, your web site and share with prospects.
I know a photographer in our area who aligned himself with our regional chamber of commerce. He donates his photography services for all the chamber events. The photos he takes at the events are used in the newspaper and chamber publications. He gets to meet lots of potential customers at the events and gain visibility for his work. He also donates his services for all kinds charity events in our area; this again presents a huge networking opportunity.
I suggest creating a niche like black and white pet photographs, children in dress-up clothing, or movie star shots using a professional makeup artist. Or create or specialize in a new style/type of photography or subject. The press loves new and unique. You will still offer full photography services of course, but you will become known because of your special talent. For example, a local framing shop uses recycled or found items of architectural interest to create one-of-a-kind frames. This generated two feature articles in the first month of her store opening.
Another angle is to create an unique package such as including a CD featuring an interview with the bride and groom done before or after their wedding…how they met, how they fell in love, their favorite wedding memories.
Local sporting events. Go to the schools and take some great shots of the athletes playing their sport. Pass around cards and sell the photos online. The kids and families go in droves. I used to buy lots of them when my son was playing football. :}
I was in a similar situation when I moved my studio to a new town last January. I joined two networking groups (one lists on meetup.com which gives room for me to add photos and a link to my site). Get listed in online search engines like yellowpages.com and superpages.com; print images on postcards–overnightprint.com provides great printing at affordable prices–hand these cards out at every opportunity. I have a small gallery of fine art images in my studio so I participate in local art events to create more walk in traffic. I also collected toys at Christmas for a local charity and gave a discount coupon for portraits to everyone who brought in a toy.I also send a monthly e-card through constantcontact.com to remind people of my services.