Let me tell you my schedule this week: Sunday, I did a family session at the beach and I edited their photos and was able to provide a beautiful slideshow with marketing content for my own business the next couple of days. Then I was able to design two logos, I have two consultations with two different businesses about marketing, re-design a website pretty much from scratch, and make a video for social media for another client - then I have a wedding this weekend with a Photo Booth And that is a pretty typical weekend for me.
Is it because my work is that good if people are just calling me and texting me all the time? No. Is because I know how to market myself and then get in front of people, I’ve been doing this for eight years.
I can tell you right now that the number one thing that I’ve learned from being a photographer and graphic designer?
Is not actually doing amazing work- even though that’s important- its learning how to market yourself
The number one thing I hear across the board people texting me and calling me all week have been: ‘how do I get clients?”
“How do I become a successful business owner?”
(again, back to finding clients)
“I just want to make money in my sleep”
“how come nobody is calling me or booking me?”
“What do I even post?”
“ How do I post every day?”
“What should I be saying on my posts?”
“How do I build a website that people are going to want to click on it and book from?”
(again with ‘how do I find clients?”)“
How do I stay organized and how can I get leads?”
All right first things first, let’s start from the very beginning What kind of product or service are you selling? how many other people are selling that product or service in your area? If it’s anything like me being in the Hampton Roads area Virginia, there’s over 5000 registered photographers at least on Facebook that I know about. So there’s a lot of different people doing the same things in my area There’s also thousands of videographers and graphic designers in my town is well How do I stick it out on my own and entire crowd of people that are all selling my stuff? Maybe I should just make really nice pictures and spent all this money on equipment education in time (education equipment are very important but they are not the most important things)
I know for myself personally, I am constantly talking about my business.
I pretty much live breathe and eat my business 24 seven 365.
I always have to think about how my contacts can create sales I am constantly trying to not just tell people what I did in a session or in a consultation, but I’m giving them away to book me and call me on every single post that I make.
I do this by not just posing a pretty photo and having a bunch of hashtagsI post a short sentence about myself that they can find me and what services they offer and pretty much every post. When my phone is not ringing and my email is not alerting me of a new customer Lead, I go on Facebook live or start blogging about something interesting.
When I do blog I’m not just writing about my latest wedding on my latest session, I’m talking about something helpful and useful like “5 ways to look good in any camera”
I literally have business cards everywhere, I have business cards in my car, in my wallet, in my camera bag, in my husband‘s wallet, and his office at the church and pretty much anywhere else I can think of.
I have 10 shirts that have my business name on them in some capacity so everywhere I go I am wearing my business. Every time I have an event at the church or social event, I bring my camera and take pictures and talk about my business. I can pass on my business card and literally three sentences of meeting somebody. Every time I’m at the park and I meet somebody I always ask them what they do and then when they ask me, I give them a business card and tell him when I do
If you have a product or service, you should not just be thinking about how you can make your product or service better, You should be thinking about how can I get leads? How can I get new customers?
You do this by being in peoples face all the time.
People need to see you seven times for them to make it decision about you. They need to be able to trust you enough to invest in you and want to spend money on your product or service. How do people start trusting you? By them getting to know you, and by them seeing you constantly and If you’re anything like me and you don’t get a chance to leave your house often because you’re a stay home mom,- get on Facebook live weekly, make a video about something you’re learning, just do a phone video recording in your car on your way somewhere so that you can talk through your latest discoveries and if you think “I’m camera shy I’ll never be able to do that,
well then I guess you don’t want to get sales.
People are more likely to click on a video (like over 100 times more than a photo) so, make slideshows on your phone,
use apps I have video components,
start talking about your business or something that you’re learning in a video format,
start a YouTube channel,
start Facebook live-ing
You should be thinking about marketing like losing weight.
I know I’ve been thinking about that a lot since the past six months I’ve been on a pretty big exercise and diet kick And what I have learned is that its daily decisions with good choices every day makes a big difference in the long haul You can’t lose 60 pounds by eating one salad one day a month. You have to think about your entire lifestyle, choices, food intake, exercise plan, getting up early sacrificing time, not hanging around certain people, not being in compromising situations- and also its of other things that could hinder you from reaching your goal.
Marketing and selling your business are very similar.
You must make daily choices and decisions that are intentional to reach your goalThere’s no way that you’re going to sell your business and your product based on one Instagram post once a month. There’s no way that people are going to want to invest $500 in your photo session or make up line if they don’t know who you are and how they can trust you
Take five minutes a day to post either an inspirational quote, a little bit of your work,
a personal thought or inspirational lesson,
and educational tool,
tips or tricks,
video about you talking about something
or anything else that you think would be good content and valuable content for people to invest in
It’s a little choices and a little decisions and make a big difference when it comes to marketing. Its every day thinking about how you can read people’s lives and not just trying to sell a product Let’s talk about websites real quick OK it doesn’t really matter what website hosting company you use because they’re all different and they all do different stuff. Square space
WordPress
And show it are all kind of set up very similar things,
wix has a little bit more flexibility when it comes to having more choices when it in the design aspect
It doesn’t really matter what website company you use if you don’t have the content on your website the people are looking for and the way to capture their attention then you’re going to lose clients
The bounce rate on most of my websites are around 45 seconds to a minute and a half. And basically what that means is within a minute and a half or less you lose people off your website and then click out of it because they don’t see what they’re looking for and don’t see how they can contact you and make a lead and make a sale So what I do is I have a first page strategy. This strategy basically gives them a Cliff Notes version of your website within the first page without them having to click all over to find the information they need If you are a photographer, the top things are people looking for are your gallery of your images, your pricing starting points, the testimonies, and how to contact you So all of those things and to be on the front page. Even if they’re not very lengthy or wordy- as long as people are getting the information they need in a fast way for them to quickly find something and make a decision and choice about you within a minute
Let’s talk about when most people are on their phones and on social media and on websites. Most people are on stuff between the hours of 6 and 9 AM then hour for a lunch break at work and then at night from 8 to 10 PM are the most popular times There’s so much content and so many different creators out there so when you do get somebody’s attention they’re probably going to go to go on your stuff within one or two minutes
Most are on their phones in the bathroom, on buses, waiting for things, on a lunch break or, getting ready for bed etc. you have a very short time span to capture their attention have them want to click on you
in a nutshell this is what we went over today
you have to post every day for your business.
People need to see you seven times in order to make a decision that and that’s in a consistent way, start creating videos about your product or service even if it’s just on your phone, even if it’s just an instructional video of how to use your product how do use your servicepeople are 100 times more likely to click and buy a product or service based on a video than a photo When you do get a website make sure that they are getting all of the information that they need on the front page of their website And finally start creating business marketing habit every single day whether it be five minutes a day
creating a social media calendar,
creating a content calendar,
creating a blog calendar,
creating a marketing schedule,
You have to be intentional about your business and your marketing in order to make the sale need help with your web design layout, social media, marketing consultations, creating a mailing list and creating email campaigns, or any other marketing questions I would love to answer them for you!
Christal Marshall is the owner of Virginia Photos and Films, Virginia Marketing and Media and Virginia Beach Photobooth Company.
She lives, breathes and does media and marketing pretty much 24-7 for over 14 local business through social media management, website design, photo, video or media coverage or graphic design.
She is a homeschool mom of three, cat lover, sushi eater and poke fan!
She started her business in 2011 with nothing but a $400 camera from Amazon, now she is has been published in over 60 different blogs and websites for her media work and rank top Wedding Photographer in Virginia Beach.