Marketing Advice Needed for Photographic Printing business.

Max,

Effective online marketing is all about understanding your specific market and what needs/problems/desires/wants they have - then filling those needs and desires with your own products and services.

Usually some not-too-difficult-to-do research into your marketplace will give you the answers you need. It's very hard to convince or persuade a potential prospect to buy what you offer if that prospect doesn't already want it and is ready to make a purchase. This is called "selling into demand" and it beats the heck out of cold calling when you don't know anything about the prospect.

Your research should help you to locate where your market prospects can be found ... places like social media groups, niche forums, authority web sites, membership sites, niche blogs, etc, etc. Every market is different so you'll have to "discover" where your prospects can be found online.

When you know where to find your best prospects online, then it is a matter of presenting your prospects with an offer - something that is of good value in exchange for their email address so that you can contact them again and again and begin nurturing them with your expertise. Get these folks on your mailing list and treat them like gold! When they come to know and trust you, they will buy from you because they know you are an expert in the marketplace and are willing to share your expertise.

In summary, know what your audience wants, find out how you can best contact them, get them on your subscriber list, nurture them in your niche and show them the value you can provide, then offer to help them with their problems, wants, desires in your market. Keep building your list and growing it - you will find it's much better (conversions) to market to people on your list than to the public. Strive to have "back end" products and services so you can continue to sell to those that are already your happy customers.

I realize this is the "big picture" and an overview of just one selling process - but many online marketers have been successful with this model. You must plug in the details according to your market findings and what products or services you are going to offer.

If you need help with those details, ask specific questions here and check through the archives (search function) and you'll find your way.

Good luck to you,

Steve

You've got a great approach! It's working. A website with this information would give you a way to get in front of people with an offer you know fits you well and gives good results for new clients. Put that together in a simple way. Then experiment with your current place of Craigslist and see if you increase your results. Test there first because you already have results happening there. As you get better results, expand beyond Craigslist. And yes, in the background start building a list of prospects! But first expand what you're doing just a little bit to see what happens. Your business growth is about your personal growth and that comes from getting just a little bit out of your comfort zone at a time and trying things, evaluating and adjusting.

Hi Max,

I have several years of experience in commercial printing and I know that high-end photographic printing is a great market but photographers are a finicky bunch.

I googled your company and didn't find a website for you. I would start with a simple website to serve as a portal for potential customers.

You've already got some happy customers, so ask them to provide you a written testimonial and picture, as well as permission to use their info on your site.

Don't be afraid of creating a website; you can find some great developers and copywriters to put together something small to Start with.

I'd also ask them what problems they've experienced in the past and why they chose you. Use this information to develop points of difference and add them to your site.

Steve B. gave you some great insight into finding your prospects online. I would invest in getting some articles published in these places about how photographers can improve their files for the best print possible.

If you can afford to, once you've contacted prospects I would send them a small sample print so they can see the quality for themselves.

Once you have a better understanding of the problems your clients experience, use that information to write posts and create tools to help them solve their problems.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

Sharon

Welcome Max!

Great to see another bidding photographic entrepreneur here.

There's a whole bunch of online marketing tactics you could use, but I've always found with print work, you're always best to build a presence with the local market.

Here's some suggestions for you to consider:

- Create a Referral Program for existing clients (spread the word = 10% discounts etc)
- Outreach on dense photographic communities online (try somewhere like modelmayhem.com and localise the search to Los Angeles & Photographer filters).
- Host a free color management workshop for <niche> photographers (niches like wedding, event, portrait, landscape etc..). Offer a single 8x12 print for free to attendees, plus discounted initial print pricing for attendees to get them familiar with your business on a paid level.

Photographers are a very visual bunch of niche, you basically want to be able to express the absolute differences between a print from a 44 inch SureColor and a refurbished Noritsu and the biggest selling point I've always found was paper weight and native paper luminance.


I've done similar marketing for print with Leica Camera, Ilford and Epson in Australia so feel free to ask away. With artists, that's a whole 'nother ball game that even I'm trying to familiarise myself with.

(hahnemuhle paper master race!)

I think that referral program for existing clients. it will be good

Well, for a beginner it is a little bit tough to get proper responses or referrals at the initial stage. If you join any of referral program then you have chance to connect with beneficial referrals.