I have a very small marketing budget for this year as I am just barely getting started. I'm really just looking for some encouragement from some of you who now have a steady flow of business going. How long did it take you before that happened for you? Any specific steps you took that you believe got you to that point? I realize it could be a long process and am trying to be patient Any advice is welcome!

welllllllllllllllllllll......on this forum you're not going to get a lot of "encouragement" for spending money on traditional marketing.

most (not all) of us feel that traditional marketing is wasting your moola in this industry. you need word of mouth & personal relationships with vendors. your avatar is an awesome shot! have you been doing many weddings? if so, are they referring you like crazy?

you'll get tons of love here....just not for advertising $$. i need to go look for anne's post about it....



found it!!! all i had to do was a search for "toilet" and it came right up, lol.
http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...2&hl=toilet

read that thread....read it well!

It is a marathon - not a sprint.

Dont expect to spend money and BAM, the phone will start ringing. If it does, toss some my way...
Write up a plan, of where you want to be in 3 months, 6 months 1, 2, and 5 years. Be realistic. How many weddings do you want to shoot? How much do you need to charge?

Good luck!

Eric

Kelsie -

While I agree with Jillian's post about "traditional" marketing - there is something to be said for online advertising when you are just starting out. If you want to get experience under your belt, and get yourself established, I would take an online listing with the knot.com - I knot there are a LOT of people that don't like this site, but for us it was a gold mine when we were first starting out. It isn't too expensive for a profile listing and it will at least get your name out there and get brides coming to you.

Rita

Depends on where you are whether the Knot is worth it.

theknot.com (and any other advertising for that matter) can work, with two caveats:

1. the advertising has to be shown to a large portion of your target market.

2. you have to be one of a few (or at least one of the most prominent).


this can be a) difficult b) expensive depending on how saturated your market is. mine is really incredibly saturated. i'm on weddingchannel (b/c of pictage), but waaaaay far back in the listing...so no hits. (i could pay more for a better listing, but i don't really want to.)

sooooo, if you want to do advertising, really really really do the research. know that it's going to take more $$ than the basic listing. choose one place/media, and throw all your moola into that one, so you can have the biggest & the best.

me ra koh is a great example of this...she suddenly placed a $$$$$$$$$$$ add in Grace Ormonde, and is now seriously one of the top wed photographers. but she didn't go in half way, and just wait for the phone. she went in all the way, with the elite.

i'm taking a more personal, make all the friends you can & get WOM approach.

And it was an extremely big gamble.

Thanks guys! I am definitely at that phase where I've only got a few of my very own weddings under my belt (thought having second-shot for many more), so not a ton of mouths out there to refer me just yet. I am working on getting some small books of my work into some of the higher end bridal stores here and going to set out on a mission to meet as many coordinators as I can.

Thanks again!

I've been a graphic designer for over a decade and on '05 I had so much freelance work from word-of-mouth that I was staying up until 1am 3-5 nights a week ad took my laptop with me on camping trips on the other side of the country. So I left the agency life for one of self employment as a designer with a bit of marketing, advertising & photography savvy.

With that being said, I've told a client (and very good friend) many times that I'm in an industry that I don't have much faith in. There's just too many people and businesses that will take your money and convince you that it will grow your business when all they're doing is filling the back pages of their publications and web sites that nobody sees or reads.

Trust your gut, it knows more then you think.

My two cents, all you need is:
a killer web site with lots of portfolio samples
a business card that makes go oooh and ask for another
happy clients that want more, they'll tell their friends (and she told 2 friends, and he told 2 friends ...)

As previously mentioned, word of mouth is HUGE - in every industry. But, sometimes you need to boost that word of mouth (meaning, getting more mouths to spread the word!)
Marketing can be a big asset to your business but you really need to be smart about it. Figure out who your target market is - figure out what she reads, where she shops, ect. Then, put your money into reaching her there. Don't spend money on the small ad in the local newspaper that runs every week...most likely, your client won't notice that. If you're going to do an ad, make it big, and noticable - then it doesn't have to occur as often, since your budget is sorta limited.
Sorry - just reverted back to my marketing classes in college! Hope that helps a little.

+1
And the best way to spend left over advertising / marketing money (after the Web site is up and the business cards made) is to offer a few free shoots to key people who will start the word a-spreadin'.

I started full time last June. I'm so busy now I can hardly stand it. I can link almost every one of my current clients and leads to TWO jobs I did for free last summer. (It's getting to be six degrees of separation, but I can still link almost everybody back to those two jobs.)

the last couple of "web site promotional companies" that have called me I've told we have more bookings than we can photograph so I couldn't spend money to turn away business. when they offered to get me a high placement for search certain terms I asked them to go ahead and type those terms in and see I was already in the top 10 under more than one of the big engines.

one thing to REALLY consider is what will happen once more calls and clients start coming in. we had a tough time keeping up with calls and consultations before being ablet o go full time and not meet between jobs and other obligations.

it may be said already... the short book Marketing Without Advertising helped to put some of this in check. Once you get up a great website and great samples, sharp looking cards to pass out, and key clients excited... you'll see things grow. Keeping up with it is the hard part - it sounds great to be that swamped but be ready for the effort in customer service to keep up with and keep happy all these new clients!

eB

I'll second what Samanthajo says, dont waste your money in the classifieds of the local paper, invest in one or two eyecatching ads in a bridal magazine. for me the best has turned out to be , word of mouth and a link to a quality bridal website. to find out which one to go for I simply pretended I was a bride (obviously an ugly one) and googled what I thought I would search for to find a photographer, the first site on the list is the one that got my business in terms of a payed ad and the phone hasnt stopped.
All the best
steve

Hi Kelsie,

I love your avatar!

In Phoenix, I have found that the best return on ad dollars comes from joining referral groups and doing bridal shows (caveat - you must stand out from the crowd!). The Arizona PPA group is a place to meet other new photographers. Over time, I've made some wonderful friends... they refer me when they are booked and I do likewise.

The bridal shows at the Phoenix Civic Center (bridalfashiondebut.com) generate a lot of traffic but there are tons of photogs. If you create really beautiful photography, make some very large images, display them cleanly and prominently in an uncluttered booth, you can easily stand out from the crowd. Put out 1 or 2 sample books on pedestals.

Sometimes its hard to keep up with venue coordinator turnover, but if you take time to treat them nicely, have a short conversation, maybe attend rehearsal, I find that they will often ask me for pics and cards. Sample albums left at venues can become expensive and dated... give them nice pics for their own presentation books.

Magazine ads are hugely expensive... I feel that the upscale bride is more apt to do a internet search instead. Try Google adwords or Yahoo.

Feel free to call me or visit anytime... I'll be happy to show you what I do.

This is really helpful guys! You're pretty much affirming what I was thinking and I am feeling so much more at peace about this whole thing than at the time I first posted this original message!! I think I'm going to check out the PPA Arizona - thanks azmerm. I may eventually pick your brain a bit more

We've had great results with google adwords! You can set whatever budget you'd like.

adwords.google.com

Different things seem to work in different places. Here adwords are absurdly expensive ($3-$5 per click) and only get you low-end weddings. Wedding sites also get you nothing but low-end weddings (and much fewer than before). Bridal mags get you nothing at all. Bridal shows are where all the major studios book - but it's too expensive to compete with them. That leaves word of mouth among clients and vendors.

And here are some things to remember:

Everybody has a great site with great images.
Everybody has neat business cards.
Everybody has satisfied customers.

"You go girl!"