Photography Business Marketing 1-2-3

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Tips for advertising and marketing your photography business.

Your business's survival depends on it's customers. It's important to have a photography business marketing plan and budget in place before you launch your start-up so that you don't end up investing a lot of wasted time and money.

Whether you photograph weddings, events, own a portrait studio, offer pet photography services, etc.. you can generally use the same marketing techniques listed below. The reason for this is that you are usually targeting local clientele, and the service is usually more "personal", customers want to see a portfolio of your work or referrals from previous clients as to the service they received.

Placing ads in your neighborhood yellow pages and local newspaper is a starting point. You can also get creative in your advertising strategies, which can mean lower marketing costs and reaching a more targeted market.

The more different marketing methods you use, the greater exposure you'll have, which can bring your more photography customers. See Sample Photography Business Marketing Plan.

Keep in mind that advertising your photography business is a continual process, but you want to focus much of your effort when you first launch your company so that you can establish a client base. From this client base, you can gain customer referrals (how to get referrals), so you will not have to spend as much money or time on advertising in the future.

Set up a Website
Since you want to have a portfolio of you work easily accessible to prospects, it's important to have a photography business website to display your talent. You can save money by creating your own website with simple online design programs, or outsource the job to an affordable website designer.

Photography Business Websites
For about $5/month, you can get your own photography business website that you can design yourself - with over 2,000 template designs in 100 different business categories with easy-to-use website maker.

Business Cards, Free
Yes, you can hand out business cards so that people have your contact information, but you can include much more information on them to essentially promote your photography service similar to an advertisement. You can design your own business cards online - and get simple tips for increasing your sales.

See also: 30-50% off postcards and brochures. Design your own marketing materials online using professional templates. Designs provided, printing done for you.

Get Free Publicity
Write a short and simple press release or "letter" to your local paper announcing the grand opening of your new photography business - or (if your business is not new) an event that you will be hosting (like a drawing for a prize, a workshop you are hosting or event you are sponsoring).

Your press release can be short and simple, and you can find press release samples you can follow on this page: How to Get Free Publicity

Advertising with Coupons
Customers love saving money with coupons, so it can be a very effective way to bring positive attention to your photography business. Even when coupons are not redeemed, you receive exposure in newspapers, magazines, online or in neighborhood coupon mailers. More information: Advertise with Coupons


100 Postcards from $1.99 | Postcard Marketing
You can send a more targeted or specific message to prospective clients by using postcards. You can save money by using online services for qualified customer leads, postcard design and printing.

First, decide on a special introductory offer or discount. Second, design your postcards online using professional postcard templates with VistaPrint (you can get 50% off here). And third, get targeted leads through a lead generation network (where you can compare several lead providers to get the best price) like Resource Nation.

Custom Car Door Magnets
Easy online tools let you design your own car magnet for cheap, and then you can basically get free advertising whenever you drive around or park your car in a public place. Make it clear and easy to read by using large print and not too much text. Images work well only if they help communicate your business service.

Local Search  
More and more people are looking for local businesses online (instead of the traditional yellow pages) - and you don't want to miss out on this market. Local Search sources that are affordable and receive substantial traffic include: Google Local, Yelp, Super Pages and Insider Pages.

See Also: Business.com for a $100 free advertising credit.

Photography Business Marketing Guide
Handbook for getting more photography business clients. Save money buying through online textbook warehouse, Textbooks.com

Work with a Marketing Strategist
If you would rather pay someone to do your marketing for you, Bourn Creative can handle all of your online and offline marketing tasks. They can launch a complete campaign for you, design your logo, build a website and help you create your brand.

Bourn Creative is an award-winning marketing and design firm that does big business, but treat clients like friends. Get a complimentary Strategy Session for your business.

You can also get free quotes from multiple providers in the marketing service that you want:
Online Marketing | Telemarketing | Lead Generation | Search Engine Optimization