How to market yourself is a matter of concern to all photographers without exception. According to US statistics, on average, no more than 30% of the self-employed photographer’s working time goes directly to his chosen activity, and the remaining 70% to marketing. All act differently. Some send promotional postcards to advertising agencies in the old fashioned way, some play sports with clients, some are waiting for the grass to grow under their feet by placing ads in the Yellow Pages… New times brought with them all sorts of high-tech methods of promoting wonderful us: e-mail blasts, social network campaigns, you name it… All this is wonderful, and thousands of Facebook likes seem promising, but face it: you want to take pictures… Besides, the promotion in itself does not bring income.

In view of the above, I realized for myself that if I have a choice what to do for free, waste my life on Facebook, or take pictures, it’s probably better to do the latter. Therefore, my main method of finding serious customers is free services. Please note, not cheap, but free. The secret is in how to present it. Just to shoot for free what you usually do for money is economically meaningless and from the business model point of view is hopeless. I have found for myself two equally effective ways, the choice of which really depends on a client.

Let us consider two specific examples, each of which represents one of the above methods:

Method #1: Volunteering, or selfless assistance

It is well known that actively seeking business contacts in a yacht club is a serious breach of the rules of engagement. Soliciting clients is the most effective way to become a persona non-grata. If it’s for money, that is… It’s quite another thing to offer the race committee to take a series of photos of classes of the adult Learn-to-sail program in order to make a presentation to get a corporate client  interested in involving her employees in sailboat racing. Yes, it took me three nights on an inflatable dinghy that I would rather be racing, but guess who was hired to photograph a ten-day Mediterranean trip of a twelve-yacht fleet?

Method #2: Mischief and Art Photography

I once went to a ballet school and asked for permission to shoot a rehearsal, supposedly for a personal project. In fact, I really needed to test two new lenses for Carl Zeiss. This could be done anywhere, yet I chose the ballerinas, because firstly, it is beautiful. And secondly … The next day, I posted the photos from this rehearsal on one Facebook and over the next two days I watched mothers of the young talents shedding tears of joy  and posting hearts in comments. Somehow it just so happened that I have been working with a ballet studio and a youth dance company at the Detroit Opera House for more than four years after that.

Now let’s count the beans. Taking into account all costs, including the cost of my working time, equipment depreciation, gasoline and minor expenses (for example, cranberry juice in the yacht club after the shooting) and compare them with the amount I would spend, acting traditionally (for example, paying for an ad campaign), the difference would be about one to a thousand – in favor of my method, and this provided that the advertisement would work and the agency would not let me down.

Of course, no one has made  irrelevant such elementary marketing rules as the need to maintain contact with existing customers, analyze demand and supply in the market, and maintain their presence on the Internet. This needs to be done constantly, regardless of what is your main promotion method.

The Sale

But that is not all. Free service is a great way to be in the right place, show your abilities and create demand for yourself. Then comes the crucial moment, a sale. The Sale.

My main rule – I always quote a realistic price and never negotiate. Moreover, I can politely and persuasively explain to the client why it costs so much and how this price relates to the market situation. He cannot suspect me of greed, or unscrupulous pricing practices, because he himself witnessed the level of responsibility and the quality of the result, for which he was not required to pay. Importantly, the client saw me working for my own pleasure in  a manner much more respectful than “well, please allow me to take a picture for you free of charge, pretty please”.

I do not give unreasonable discounts for a very simple reason: I remembered the  law of conservation of matter from the high school. This law is universal and it is just as relevant for photographers, as for stoichiometry of chemical reactions. I (and you, by the way, too) have a standard of living that I want (and you certainly also want to), at a minimum, to maintain further. If I devalue my services, say, by 20%, it will very soon turn out that my standard of living will decrease by this very 20%, which is not at all in my plans.

Irakly Shanidze © 2016