Why should you go to a tradeshow? If you’re an established photographer you might think,  “been there, done that”. If you’re just entering the business the idea of challenging your bottom line with an expensive trip might make you dismiss the thought completely.

Think again. Why do you suppose thousands of photographers make time in their busy schedules each year to attend not just one but several tradeshows? Seasoned veterans and newbies alike flock to Imaging USA, WPPI, SPA and countless other shows. Last year WPPI’s 29th annual Convention and Tradeshow drew over 12,000 attendees and 365 exhibitors.

Tradeshows keep growing in popularity. They’re a lot like the mall on Christmas Eve; big, full of excitement and a lot of fun. If you haven’t been in awhile, you’re missing out. If you’ve never been, it’s time to give one a try.

Where else will you find hundreds of vendors gathered under one roof ready to tell you about products that have not yet hit the market? Staying ahead of the curve in a creative industry is essential in today’s economy. Your customers expect you to be up to date and offer the latest products.

Where else will you find workshops and seminars that will help you grow your business?  Head back to your studio with cutting edge knowledge, skills and information that will increase your profitability.

Where else can you network with people from all over the country? Sharing information and exchanging ideas leads to solutions and better ways to move your company forward. Networking in person is a great deal more effective than social networking. Make new friends, new contacts and watch your business expand.

Where else can you listen to industry leaders who can provide insights into trends, market forces and business strategies? We all need inspiration and motivation. Just one insight can change the way you look at your business model and lead you in an exciting new direction.

Tradeshows are a major educational opportunity. They present you with new ideas, stimulate creativity and challenge you to think out of the box.  Make 2010 the year you
invest in your business by sampling a tradeshow or two!

Photographers are creative beings. They turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with just the right light, just the right angle and of course just the right talent. The problem is photographers have to market themselves and often that visual “right” brain just freezes at the thought of creating and implementing a studio-marketing plan.

Marketing has taken on a new life with the advent of websites, social networks, blogs and the ability to post video. It’s become more creative, so it’s actually easier than ever for you right brainers!

“Our website is our  #1 marketing tool,” Michelle Stevens said. Stevens and her husband Justin own Artistique Photographie based in Tualatin, just outside Portland, Oregon.  Stevens was named Wedding Photographer of the Year in 2009.

Their website layout is elegant, yet warm and inviting. The home page is divided into three sections; Weddings, Blog and Portraits. The blog is front and center.

“We’ve been blogging for about three years,” Stevens said. “The greatest thing about blogging is how searchable the content is.” The studio has booked weddings simply by adding the name of a venue into the title of their blog. “The important thing is to put both the ceremony and reception venue, as well as the city and state in your blog title,” she said.

Social networking has been an instrumental part of Artistique Photographie’s marketing plan. “Facebook is a huge part of our marketing strategy,” Stevens said. “ I don’t think there’s any studio that should not be using Facebook as a part of the way they reach clients.”

Stevens always pulls one or two photos from a session and posts them to a client’s Facebook page. This creates “teaser” photos on their wall and of course those photos are posted wearing the studio logo. This creates a buzz, getting the client, their family and friends excited about seeing the rest of the photos.

“Last week I received an email inquiry from a bride who saw our images on her friend’s Facebook page,“ Stevens said.

That is the entire point of social networking. Your work speaks for itself and the social networking machine is doing all the heavy lifting. You have no direct mail printing costs, no postage, and no expensive print media advertising.

Stevens’ primary focus when marketing her studio comes down to four avenues: the website, the blog, a Facebook presence and online bridal sites.

The studio has a few more marketing strategies that work exceptionally well to demonstrate their talents. They’ve created a gallery that showcases wedding details, something that is often overlooked. Most photographers show details but few make it a point to bring attention to the fact.

“Brides spend a ton of time on the details and they want them captured,” Stevens said. “One big thing about marketing is that even though you know that you do something and think it’s a given, it isn’t necessarily so. You really need to show all the aspects of how you capture a wedding to make sure you’re covering what is important to each bride.”

The last important piece of Artistique Photographie’s marketing plan is one that engages the viewer and allows them a peek behind the scenes. Stevens had Ambient Sky Studios shoot a video about the photo shoot experience. “People buy experience as much as they buy physical products,“ she said. “We wanted to show what a shoot with us is like. We are very lucky to know some amazing videographers who create cinematic wedding movies so the quality of the video is great.  Networking with professionals in other fields like this is critical to being able to come up with different ways of marketing.” Stevens had a huge response from the video and reposts it periodically to keep it close to the top of their blog.

Heading into the New Year, it’s impossible for a studio, serious about marketing, to discount the value of a website and blog. The cost of creating and maintaining a website is negligible and blogs are free. Social networking is simply a form of communication

Whatever you do, start with a website first. It’s the most important piece of any marketing plan. Stevens has plans to rework their website for even greater search engine optimization. “ If you come up on the top of a Google search and you have an amazing website, you really shouldn’t have to do any more marketing!”

Why do you need a website? An amazing number of professionals still don’t have one. Seriously. What if you’ve been in business for years and you have a great client base? Your customers know you and love your work. Repeat business is a non-issue. You’re coasting, doing fine. Why rock the boat?

Here’s why. Photography is a competitive business. Whether you specialize in sports, seniors, portraits or weddings, new photographers appear in the market place daily. For every seasoned photographer who knows running a successful business is not a piece of cake, there are ten more grabbing the latest camera, printing business cards and slapping a magnetic sign on their car doors eager to take business away from you. These new photographers have websites, you can bet on that.

The web has changed the way we do business, completely and forever. When was the last time you used the yellow pages to find something? Can you really afford to be complacent?

Here are the primary reasons why you need to have a website.

•    Establish credibility
•    Increase visibility
•    Showcase talent
•    Hold the attention of a prospect long enough to turn them into a client.

What’s in a Name?

The first step in the process is to get a domain name. This is the name that defines your website, like poundslabs.com. Domain names are inexpensive and yours forever, as long as you pay the annual bill. Check out Register.com or GoDaddy.com.

Doesn’t a “Host” hand out the appetizers?

No, but a web host will open the door for you. Host in web world means a company that opens the door to your site and gives it a place to call home. Try DogBark, GlowHost or GoDaddy.

Build it and they will come.

How do you “build” a website? Some web site hosts provide a web site builder.   All you need to do is click on a design you want and then add text and photos. There are many websites that give tutorials on how to build your own. Companies like Adobe Dreamweaver or MacWebsite Builder, offer packages of varying prices. You can also hire a designer who specializes in web sites.

What makes a “good” website?
•    Good layout and design
•    Easy navigation
•    Great content.
•    SEO friendly

Why am I doing this again?

•    Clients have 24/7 access to you and your work.
•    You’re global. Potential clients all over the world can now “see” you.
•    Targeted Marketing. Those two words alone make a website completely worthwhile.
•    It’s cost effective.
•    Your competitors already have websites!

If you’ve already got a website, stay tuned for Website 101.2 to make sure it’s really working as an effective tool for marketing your studio!

Eric John Photography specializes in fine portraiture and wedding photography. Eric John Anundi. and wife Shawna established their business in 1993 and have become one of the premier studios in Oregon. Eric has been the recipient of a Fujicolor Masterpiece Award and four Kodak Gallery Awards. He is a past president of the Professional Photographers of Oregon and has served on the board of directors of PPO for five years. The Anundis realize the importance of staying on trend both in their creative endeavors and in their approach to marketing. In January of 2009 Shawna began blogging as a key ingredient of their marketing strategy.

“I had heard over and over how important blogging was,” Shawna said. “I watched webinars through PPA and Marathon Press that talked about how to blog, what to blog and how to stay in constant contact with your customers.”  Shawna thinks it’s vital to stay in touch with existing customers, show potential clients their work and most of all to give visitors to their blog a feeling of knowing more about the Eric John family. “ So many of our customers have become our friends as well and we love to stay in contact with them.”

The Anundis had their web designer create the blog to match their website. “Consistency is key and you want everything to look the same so people recognize the “ericjohn” look,” she said. The couple use Blogspot. “It’s free and very simple to use, something you can do at home and your customers will love it.”

Shawna tries to post daily but when there’s a time crunch she has a great tip. “Do your blogging in on or two days for a long period of time and set the blog to post on different days”. The Anundis use the site to showcase their work. Although Shawna does write about specials and events they have going on they realize most people want to look at the photos.

It can be hard to measure the return on a blog but the Anundis have a counter to keep track of visitors and know that their blog gets a lot of traffic. “We also know our customers are always asking our employees when their son or daughter will be on the blog and how excited they are. It’s a great way for them to share these images with other
people and feel famous for a day!”

Blogging is an essential tool for photographers today. Staying in touch, by giving clients a sense of constant contact makes them feel special and involved.

“I don’t think you can afford to not blog or use Facebook,” Shawna said. “It’s what this generation is all about. Don’t be left behind!“

http://ericjohnphotography.blogspot.com/

SEO = Search Engine Optimization. Why on earth do you need to know about this as a photographer? Well you have a website. That is your calling card. Websites are where people go to make sure that you are “real” that you are the professional they need. In order to find your website, you need good SEO.

According to Wikipedia “search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines” like Google or Yahoo. Good SEO means people find your website on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing and hopefully within the top three non paid listings on that page. Remember those first few listings on search engines are not free. People pay big money for that placement.

There are services specializing in SEO and they are available for a monthly fee. They will analyze your site and have engineers work on properly coding the right words that will be picked up and move your site up the “ladders” or lists that appear when you search for a company. These fees are often out of budget for photographers. In fact, they are often out of budget for most professionals!

Don’t panic. There are many ways to get good SEO.

Put your keywords to work. Keywords are words and phrases that are essentially short cuts to information a consumer needs.  Some of the keywords for the photography industry would be simply  “photography”, or your particular specialty, for example; “wedding photography”, “senior portraits” or “sports photography”. Make sure you use these phrases in your site, but don’t overuse them. Overuse has a name now, “keyword stuffing”. The search engines are on to this and it can end up harming your site. Balance is everything.

Hyperlinks are another good way to make sure you get good SEO. Hyperlinks are those words and phrases that you see within the text of the copy on your website or your emailed promotion pieces, highlighted in blue. They link to an external page or website.

Cross-linking to a site with good SEO will increase yours. For instance, your photography company is a resource service for a well-known event planning company. Potential clients like to see sources on the event planner’s sites. If you work consistently with an event planner, the beauty of hyper linking phrases and cross linking sites is mutually beneficial. It’s millennium marketing!

Photography is a highly competitive industry. Marketing has changed drastically over the past few years. We’ve shifted from the traditional marketing model of sending out printed promotional pieces, buying ads in magazines and advertising on radio or television. The old promotional avenues are cost prohibitive and really no one is paying attention to them anymore.

Think about it. Today everyone has DVR, so they don’t have to view commercials. The advent of iPods has turned people away from the radio. No one has time to read the newspaper anymore so ads there are not going to bring you customers.  Traditional avenues of reaching potential clients have dried up.

What has replaced those avenues is a whole new series of marketing channels.

Every professional now has a website. That is your calling card; the place people turn to make sure you are legitimate. A website is the most vital piece of your marketing puzzle.  What else do you need?

BLOG IT
Create a blog. A blog is essentially your voice. You can educate your clients, post new photos and include links to great information. More importantly, a blog creates an instant feeling of friendship. It draws people to you and your business. Creating content for your blog is another way to be found on the web. People will pass your posts on to their friends creating a deeper and wider visibility for your company. A recent webinar on HubSpot, a web based company specializing in inbound marketing software, revealed that companies who blog have 55% more visitors to their websites. You don’t have to post every day. Post once a week, even once a month, but develop that presence. Have a look at WordPress or Blogspot and get started!

FACEBOOK IT
Facebook is a phenomenon. Never before has anything captured such universal, global attention. If you don’t have an account, get one. It’s important and it’s easy. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/2u5yd6 for the complete lowdown.

TWITTER IT
Social media is the new buzz term. It includes Facebook, Linked In, and a host of other outlets. One of the most influential of these is Twitter. Think about Twitter as the Readers Digest version of Facebook, without the quizzes! Short, sweet and to the point. Type in the keywords for your industry. Look at “wedding photographers in Dallas” (or your particular area) or “sports photographers in Houston”. If you are not showing up on the first page, then you need to Twitter! There is already a conversation about your industry going on. Join that conversation.

LINK IT IN!
Linked In is probably the most seriously regarded of the social media. This is definitely a business resource. There are 48 million users. Executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are on Linked In. You can find and be introduced to the professionals you need to work with to accomplish your goals. It’s a terrific avenue to drive business back to your website. Take a look at this link, which includes a step-by-step video: http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/

Don’t let any of these new tools overwhelm you. The best news is that they are free. Decide how much time you can devote to social network marketing each week. It shouldn’t take up more than 10% of your time. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and get started!

October 1 – October 31
The Pounds ChromaLuxe Sample Special will make it easy for you to make the samples you need for 2010. ChromaLuxe is truly a unique method for enlarging images - the vibrant colors of advanced dye sublimation, the high-gloss finish, and the durable, ready to hang mounting make this an outstanding product for all markets.  Set your studio apart from the competition by offering ChromaLuxe as a contemporary alternative to traditional Canvas and Gallery Wraps.

Also, don’t forget to get your Ink Jet Samples on Canvas and Watercolor.  You can order one sample of each size from 3×5 to 40×60.  If you don’t offer  this type of print to your customers, now is the time to do a studio market test.

CODE- CHIN (Use this code for either product)
CHROMALUXE Receive a 50% discount on all ChromaLuxe products. There is a limit of one sample of each product per account. There is a limit of one sample per account.
INK-JET PRINTS Receive a 15% discount on all sizes on Canvas and Watercolor from 3×5 to 40×60. There is a limit of one sample of each size per account.

Get a head-start on the holidays by launching your studio promotions before the big rush begins. From now until September 30, you can take advantage of our Holiday Products Special. Pounds is reducing our prices for Press Cards, Gallery Wraps, Calendars, Gift Tags, and Holiday Funpacks.  You can pass the savings on to your customers with an “early bird” special in your studio.  Just use Promo Code HOL2 when you place their orders.  Here are the discounts you will receive:

Press Cards
20% discount on quantities up to 299.
10% discount on our already reduced prices for quantities of 300 and more.

Spiral Bound Calendars
20% discount on 8.5×11, 11×8.5 and 11×17 calendars.

Gallery Wraps
20% discount on 11×14 and 16×20 Gallery Wraps.

Gift Tags
20% discount on Gift Tags – four photo gift tags on one sheet.

Holiday Funpacks
20% discount on Holiday Funpacks – six photo ornaments on one die-cut sheet.

Meet Brandi Nellis of Brandi Nellis Photography.  Pounds is pleased to feature Brandi in our Signature Portrait Series.  Her distinctive style is so candid and natural, there’s no chance of kids becoming camera shy during her sessions.  While some photographers try to pose children, Brandi might just hand them a Popsicle.  Then, she’ll capture the pure joy in their smiling faces.  When it came to her own portrait session, Brandi tells us it was LOL fun too.  Read all about it in her Behind the Scenes interview.  To find out why Brandi is such a loyal Pounds customer, see her testimonial in her Community Profile.

Pounds Community Profile:  Brandi Nellis, Brandi Nellis Photography

Who was your portrait taken by and why did you choose that person?
My photo was taken by Nicole Whelan.  Nicole and I met last fall when we both donated our photography services to the Austin Down Syndrome Association Gala.  We hit it off that night and have kept in touch since.  She actually called me about a month ago to see if I would photograph her and her husband and in return, she would photograph me with my hubby.  While we were shooting, I had her take a few of me by myself for this campaign.

How did you decide on that location?
I picked South Congress in Austin because I have always wanted to photograph there and I haven’t been able to yet.  I decided to have MY photos taken there because it’s a funky and colorful place (like me.)

What is distinctive about your style of photography and what makes this your Signature Portrait?
I love photographs of people laughing…really laughing.  I love to capture when dads are tickling their kids and the kids are laughing so hard they are almost crying.  It makes me smile.  This is definitely a wide-open mouth, laughing shot and I like to laugh…a lot.

Did anything funny or interesting happen during this shoot?
We had a blast the entire shoot but I think Nicole got especially tickled when my husband got in on the act.  We just celebrated our 10th anniversary and I’m actually quite proud to say that we are still in love and still have some chemistry after all these years. Sometimes it comes out in goofy ways and we didn’t notice how we looked, but Nicole thought it was so funny.

How did you feel in front of the camera and did you learn anything that will help you when you are photographing other people?
It feels a little awkward being in front of the camera especially since I’m usually behind the lens but with my goofball personality I’m usually hamming it up in no time.  A few times I wanted to grab the camera out of Nicole’s hand and do it my way but I didn’t.  Yes, I did learn to work on body positioning that day.  We were really working to make my hips look thinner.   All I have to say is thank the Lord for Photoshop!

How do you talk to teens these days?  If you are a Senior photographer, building rapport with your customers may be a challenge.  You know you have to get beyond the range of cheesy smiles and sulking stares kids use to disguise their true feelings.  But what does it take to break through these defenses?  How can you get teens to trust you so you can create authentic portraits of them?   Photographer John Ratchford writes about making connections and meeting his Seniors on common ground in the August issue of Rangefinder Magazine.  The Pounds Community team wanted to share this insightful and touching article with you.  Make sure you have plenty of tissues handy when you read the quotes from John’s young customers!

Empower Your Seniors! by John Ratchford – August Rangefinder Magazine