marketing

Identity Crisis

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A recent Black Star blog post by Jim Pickerell gives advice to photographers who are trying to licence their stock pictures. He’s been involved in the stock photo business for over 40 years.

Pickerell writes that since there’s such an oversupply of stock images, photographers need to get their pictures seen by photo buyers. He then goes on to list some numbers and statistics.

The interesting takeaway from this article is for any business that’s thinking about using stock pictures for its marketing instead of commissioning its own original corporate photography or business photography.
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Fix your profile

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Business portrait, executive portrait, headshot, social media portrait or profile picture. No matter what you call it, a picture of yourself is important for your business. Really.

For social media, the most important picture is the author’s own portrait. For businesses, both small and large, having online portraits of key employees is very important. Really.

People trust what (and who) they can see more than what (and who) they can’t. A profile without a photo is like a day without sunshine. (Okay, I made up that last bit but hopefully you get my point).

From an Inc. Magazine article titled Fix Your Profile Picture:

Your profile picture is about branding you and the business you own. Are you handling it that way?

(. . .)

Invest the money in a professional photographer. Profile pictures are a booming sideline for many professional photographers. Hire one. It should cost about $200 depending on where you live and what you need specificially [sic].

(. . .)

Update your picture every couple of years.

 

Can’t get no satisfaction

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The most popular web site in the world is, of course, Facebook. The site with the lowest customer satisfaction rating is …. Facebook.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index just released its 2011 survey results for customer satisfaction of social media web sites. For the second year, Facebook is in last place. Since Facebook has almost no competition (yet), it has no incentive to be good.

But considering Facebook’s low user satisfaction, its current size dominance cannot be taken for granted in the future. For companies that provide low levels of customer satisfaction, repeat business is always a challenge unless customers lack adequate choices, as in the case of near monopolies. It is possible that Facebook’s gigantic user base in and of itself might provide a certain monopoly protection.

Since a photographer doesn’t usually have a monopoly on photography services in their area, the photographer has no choice but to provide good customer service. This is more important than producing super artistic photography. (Yes, the quality of photography must be consistently at least equal to professional standards.)

Customer service isn’t just about promptly returning phone calls and delivering the pictures on time.

Good customer service includes such things as: understanding the customer’s photography needs, foreseeing and then addressing any potential problems before they become problems, making sure the delivered photographs meet the proper specifications for the required use, suggesting alternative ideas for the photography, and knowing how to properly use all your tools (camera, computer, software).

If customers are not satisfied then the photographer hasn’t done their job. Delivering just pictures isn’t enough.

 

Why journalism can be the best marketing

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In my tiny corner of the Web, (i.e. this blog), I’ve mentioned that the best thing a business can do for its marketing photography and public relations photography is to hire a photographer with a journalism background.

I’ve also written that one of the best things a company should be doing to enhance its brand, increase public awareness and even do a little good for their community is to put editorial content on its corporate web site, (e.g. photojournalism, photo essays, documentaries).
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Misleading Intentions

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A new online stock agency (of sorts), called ImageBrief, recently launched in Australia. What’s different about this stock photo agency is that a photo buyer first posts a description of the picture(s) they’re seeking along with the price they’re willing to pay. Interested photographers can then post any of their stock pictures which meet the buyer’s description. The photo buyer chooses the “winning” picture(s) and pays the photographer. The stock agency gets a commission.

Okay, so far so good.

But look at some of the photo buyers:

• A coffee shop/bakery was looking for a picture to market its store. Rather than hiring a photographer to produce authentic photography of the store’s own products, the shop bought a stock photo which featured another company’s coffee and someone else’s baked goods.

Would you consider this to be misleading advertising by the coffee shop?

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About the About

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Most photographer web sites have some type of an About Us page where the photographer writes something about their background. Often, this is a waste of a web page.

First, potential clients don’t care about a photographer’s hobbies, where they went to school or what their dog’s name is. All of this is irrelevant to a customer who’s really looking for some indication that the photographer might be the answer to their photo needs.

Second, by talking only about themselves, the photographer leaves one person out of the conversation: the client.
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Telling not selling

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Most photographers don’t want to be a salesperson selling photography. Many hate to advertise or promote themselves. Most don’t want to call attention to themselves by yelling, “Hire me!”

Photographers generally just want to go out, make some nice pictures and then have a cheque magically arrive in the mail. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. You must show loud confidence in your business. If you’re not confident about you then the customer won’t be confident about you.

In the previous post, I wrote about advertising, marketing and being remarkable. In that post, it was suggested that advertising isn’t always the best option when marketing a business. But other forms of marketing are possible and even required.

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