Marketing Your Business Part 1

  I have owned a fairly large business for almost 25 years.  I know a lot about marketing and branding your business.  I would like to share some of that knowledge with those of you just starting out in the business world.  I also think that some of you that have been in the business world for a bit will benefit from my knowledge.  Now I am not saying that I know everything but for many years I have ran a very successful business so I must have gotten a few things right...right?

#1  Let's begin with BRANDING.....For my photography business I have been attending these events on facebook called "Tagging" parties.  They work in the sense that your fan count will go way up however how much $$ will that actually bring you?  I am talking about the photography side of it, not the props, clothing, jewelry etc because these are items that people can and will order online.  Even if you are selling the mentioned products or Actions, you are going to have to set yourself apart from all of the other photographers who are attending these parties.  How can you do that?  How many of you actually pay attention to those businesses that you have liked?  I will tell you the truth, I don't unless they stand out to me either by their Name or by What they post. One last thing to think about is this; If you Like other businesses from your business page how many post will your potential clients have to wade through to find your work, your offers or even who you are?  You want to keep your business page as clutter free as possible. Yes your business page is about you and that is where your $$ will be made.

  The first and most basic is Your Business Name.  Now there are millions of "Photography by <insert name>" on Facebook and the Web so if your business name resembles the above the chances are you will not stand out from the other million photographers with the same idea.  I can actually tell you the Photographers on Facebook that I will remember above all of the others.  You need to think of something catchy, and make it SHORT!  One other thing to keep in mind is how does it roll off the tongue?  Do you stumble?  One way to get an idea of what I am talking about is do the following, the next time you attend a tagging party or you are looking through Photographers on the internet:  Go through many list for a couple of days and see which ones your remember.  There are some that I don't even I have to click to see if I "like" them because I remember their name!  Try this and then come back here and let me know what you think.  Even if you don't use Facebook as an advertising venue your name is the most important aspect of your business especially if you live in a large City or if (like most areas) thousands of other photographers.  What is going to set you apart?  BTW I know you are thinking "Hey her business name is Photography by Lyn" so what the hell does she know.  The truth is, I never named my business.  As I stated above, I have owned a business for years.  Photography was my hobby for many years.  The digital age was born and I was hooked.  Friends and employees started asking me to do their photography for them.  When people would ask who the photographer was they would say "Lyn", hence the Photography by Lyn.  Now that I have a studio and have set my business up through legal avenues I have continued with the name only because over the 10 years I have been doing it I have built a large customer base.  I also live in a small City and I am very well known as a public figure.  If I moved my business would not survive.  It would have a better chance if I had a short, catchy name.

  I have seen many photographers/businesses that try to incorporate what type of service they sell in their name.  That is fine if you are going to continue to do only 1 type of photography.  However I have found many times that not being the case.  For instance I see one Business with the name Black & White Photography but when I looked at their pictures they had full color ones in their portfolio.  Their name did not represent their business. To you that may not sound like something important however if I was a potential customer that wanted color pictures, I would not call that photographer just because of the name.  Try to come up with a neutral name in the event you suddenly find yourself wanting to do other things.  This way 10 years down the road you want to venture into other areas of photography you will not have to change your name.

I have also seen some with names so long I wonder how in the world they watermarked their photos with it.  I also wonder how many clients are turned off by the long name watermarked on their photos. In marketing it is always better to have a short, snappy name.  For instance which name would you remember "Through the Lens of Victoria" or "Charmed Photography"?  For marketing purposes the Charmed Photography works the best.  Can you imagine putting "Through the Lens of Victoria" across someone's wedding picture?  As a client I would be as worried about this as I would be about how well they take pictures.  It is too long; however it could be incorporated into a tag line which often times works as well as the name.

  The last item is a Logo.  I have seen some pretty awful logos out there.  For most businesses an elegant logo works best.  I would not use a picture as a logo.  I also wouldn't use something that when made small people cannot tell what it is.  The logo should be incorporated into your signature.  Let's face it, this is going to be on photographs for many years to come so you want something nice, something fancy and something that fits with the name of your business.  Before you decide on a logo check out some of the more popular photographers.  Come up with an idea and please please Pay someone to draw it for you and load it into your editing program.  This is money well spent as this is what will represent your business.

  I wrote this blog at 3am in the morning.  At the end, I was rushing and I feel that I didn't explain enough about the Logo.  I will go into more detail now.

  For your proofs or online presentation you can use any Logo that you wish.  In fact with all of the stealing of photos on the net I feel the bigger the better.  However you do not want it so big that the picture loses it's meaning.  You do not want to cover their faces in any way.  I suggest using a very low opacity for anything that is going to cover the face and higher opacity for the part that covers the rest of the picture. 
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    One other concern about stealing of your photos is that watermarks can be removed or cloned out.  There are 2 ways that you can prevent people from stealing your photos.  #1 Upload low resoultion photo's  #2 Watermark your photos.  Most of us photographers do not want to upload low resolution photos because they do not present well.  We are after all advertising our photography business so we want the best presentation online that we can achieve.  Watermarking our photos with a signature is a must. One of the best editing programs out there is Piknic.  You can upload your photos from anywhere.  You can then apply your watermark and publish directly to Facebook.  Yes these pictures can be stolen and displayed on other websites or their wall however they cannot be printed because the quality is so poor.  There are also many FREE programs out there specifically for Facebook that will make your picture look fabulous but cannot be printed.  The one that I use most is from MCP photography.  You can find them on facebook.  They also have some great actions!  For my website I use the Lightroom and once again if someone downloads any of my pictures and tries to print them they will be very disappointed.  Personally I think photographers have gone a bit overboard when someone uses their pictures without their permission.  If you are doing all of the above they will not make a profit off from them.  If they are using them as part of their portfolio then I feel bad for their customers because they will not get the quality of pictures that is represented.  Bottom line?  Watermark your images, make sure you use a program that will present your pictures well online but cannot be printed off line and last be PROUD that someone admires your work enough to use it!  NOTE:  Many people do not realize that by using a photographers picture without permission is illegal...so please if it happens to you, do not be a Drama Queen or King...write them a note explaining and ask them to take it down.  There is no need for all of your fans to go to their wall and chastise them to the point of embarassment.

Back to the watermark itself:  My watermark is a bit too long however on my finished projects when I make it small, it still looks good.  I can make it small enough where it doesn't interfere with any part of the picture.
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  I designed my signature myself in PS5.  I made it into a brush which makes it simple to do each picture.  If you do it this way I recommend that you save it as a layer in the event that you want to edit the picture in the future.  In the near future I am going to hire someone to do my branding.  Yes I am going to keep the name however I need to take the next step and make my signature better so it will stand out. 

  I hope that this information has helped many of you.  Please feel free to e-mail me any questions that you may have.  I am always willing to help new (or experienced) photographers to make their business more successful.
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Growth 01/07/2012
 
I have been working on my photoshop skills and I am very pleased with the following pictures.  The first one is of a young girl who was bitten by a dog.  The day I took her pictures she was very uncomfortable with the way her face looked.  I promised her that I would fix it not knowing if I could or not.  I am so proud of the way it turned it.  From what I heard all of her teachers cried when they saw it.  I spoke with her mom after Christmas and she was very happy with it.
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This next picture is over 20 years old.  It was a 3x4 to begin with and was in pretty rough shape.  The client didn't want much done to it as she wanted it to look "old".  I fixed a few rips and tears and lightened it a bit.  I also tweaked the colors as they had faded over the years.  When I printed it, I was amazed at how good it came out.
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