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.
When sending cold emails, is it better to include attached imagery, only links, or both?
I suspect (and have no actual proof), but my inclination is usually to send a link rather than images via email. I may be one of the few agents in the business to say this. Still, I suspect emailing our larger corporate clients’ image attachments will attract more firewall-stopping activity, preventing them from receiving our emails. What is your experience with this?
Are email promos worth the financial investment these days?
Yes, I still think we should be sending mass emails because it’s one marketing effort we can control. It’s worth the price.
What do we do with our email promo “clicked” lists?
To know who CLICKS from our email promo to our website supplies valuable feedback shaping our marketing direction. Analyzing this relevant resource can be what you need to know.
TO SUCCESS WITH @ASKSTERNREP
How do I leverage this abundance of accolades and high-end client work to get more exposure? My past mailers and hand-curated marketing promos have yielded a 3% response rate, and I must say I’m a bit frustrated.
Emails in general seem to be a dying breed, pushing us to figure out new ways to be in touch. They are no longer the one dependable marketing tool as they now serve one piece of the promotion pie.
You know I’m all about Instagram, so that is my first suggestion, but of course, we still need to push those promos out.
Email promo material should go out in two separate ways, which will, in turn, support each other:
1. Mass email lists will have a lower response rate because they are a larger list of unknown clients, but provide us with solid marketing open/click data.
2. Smaller fine-tuned lists built around those we know, and those who open/click the larger mass emails will get better traction.
Our business used to have closed doors to anyone not on the upper levels of their career, but these days, doors are open to fresh thinkers. It’s changed, and experience is not the number one requirement anymore; new solutions are the name of the game. Get yourself out there with YOUNG THINKING in our new world!
Why can the best cinematographers serve the story and change their look for each script, depending on the requirements of the script, but if a photographer does that, they are condemned, overlooked, and discarded for being a “generalist?”
We get to choose two types of paths: technical savvy with a lot of variety, or those who provide a more specific, curated style, look, and feel. Both options can work, providing a long-lasting, accomplished career, usually depending on your situation, the size of your market, and your skillset. I’ve repped both of these and found that the careers of generalists depend on the relationships they build, and the specialists get jobs for their portfolios.
When you talk about Marketing Outreach, does this include following up with phone calls?
Do unto others as you’d like to be done to you. This sounds biblical but is also very practical in a business sense. I personally do not call clients unless it’s in the heat of the bidding moment when I can hopefully get a sense of the budget for a job. A marketing outreach phone call risks really turning off the potential client, so I would not recommend it.
Instead of getting lost or intimidated by the word – MARKETING, see it for what it is – to STICK IN THE CLIENT’S MINDS. If we break this down into simple steps, with the lead pinpoint being: be remembered, it can be easier than it seems. Increase the odds by using uncomplicated, basic human ideas of memory-provoking, catchy, enjoyable moments.
