Marketing

The best marketing advice I was given was not to swim upstream, but to go with my natural flow and not against it. If I am not in the mood to talk to people that day, then I find a productive task that I will flourish in.

Thank you- @DavidZaitz

Q:

What are the do’s and don’ts of cold emailing or DM’ing potential clients and reps?

A:

1. Contact the correct people who are looking for your type of work; don’t waste their time.

2. Use their name (and spell it correctly). 

3. Keep it short. 

4. If you are copying and pasting, make sure it doesn’t look reused or obviously generic. 

5. Sound human; imagine if you were receiving this email or dm. 

6. If you’re asking for something, limit it to one clear request. 

7. Ask a simple question that’s easy to respond to so we don’t have to overthink how to answer.

Q:

How do you quickly evaluate a photographer’s Instagram account?

A:

My usual way to quickly “judge” a photographer’s IG account is to see when they last posted on their grid. It’s not about the number of followers that makes them a photographer to take seriously; it is how often and how active they are with their second website.

Q:

What’s your opinion of IG? Do you think the pros outweigh the cons? And do you think only posting BTS/announcements as opposed to actual photos would be career suicide?

A:

My overriding opinion about choosing any type of marketing is all about IG. We can’t dance around this; telling half the story is like saying we want to show clients we can handle providing images for their marketing needs, but we can’t do it ourselves. We have to be doing at least the basics, or it’s equal to not having a website (oy!). Only posting BTS/Announcements would be using it as a temporary, occasional publicity outlet, which would send out the message that you don’t feel confident in your completed work. 

Personal work should boost the process of getting clients to know who you are. 

Ask yourself, does this image emphasize how I think or what I offer clients when they hire me?

All in all, this is about sharing what runs your creative engine. 

Q:

Is there a way to know who photographed a campaign? For example, if you see an inspiring campaign and you want to connect or follow the photographer who worked on it, how can you do that? 

A:

I used to use this website: https://www.adsoftheworld.com, but these days, Google Image Search may be the quickest way. 

-Does anyone else have ideas/suggestions for this?

Here is my question for you – what are the types of “marketing” you are hot for right now? What is calling your name? What part of this multi-leveled puzzle feels fresh on your mind and will spice you up? Go with your own flow, as that is what will pay off in spades.

As you may notice, I did not include a PDF attachment on my promo list, as they can often be mistaken for dangerous spam materials when sent by strangers.

Q:

What is the importance of a “one-sheet” attachment promo in an email sent to a potential client? How many images? And should this promo include any descriptive text about the images, background/bio, pitch, etc., or should all of the text be in the body of the email?

A:

When saying hello in an email, it can be good to have a fast visual sampling that looks like it belongs in that email. The key to a one-sheet promo is that it’s a quick, relatable read of a small number of images only, and does not need that extra step of being clicked to open. 

Every Photographer can have that REP MENTALITY mindset, no matter your situation. Your job is to continuously keep your REP (Mentality) excited by actively feeding your marketing supply chain.