All language subtitles for 22 Business - Marketing.mp4

Now let's talk about marketing.

Marketing is by far the most important
facet of my entire business.

And it all starts with your brand.

You are your brand.

I see a lot of photographers that have
these cheesy brand names, such as

snapshot photography,

excel photography, or something, that's
not them.

And so you need to go by your name.

If you're not doing this already.

I know it's hard, because it's a
business.

You don't want to be a representative
of your brand.

But you are your brand.

And keep that in mind.

So if you aren't going by your name,
it's important to start.

If you want to take this to the next
level.

I don't know one single high end
photographer that's going to go under

some names such as double exposure
photography.

So you need to make sure that you go
buy your name.

And also this gives you the advantage
of, if you're ever Googled, you're

unique to you.

And keep in mind that when you're
building relationships out in the

field, they're not going to remember
your brand.

They're going to remember your name.

If you do go by this pseudo brand name,
such as double exposure photography,

you're immediately putting yourself in
the pack of all these other terms and

all these other keywords.

That's going to totally negate your
chance of getting to the top of Google.

But if you put in something like clay
cook, something that's unique, you're

going to increase your chances to
really rise to those ranks.

Since we're on branding let's talk
about the logo and the identity of who

you are.

So the logo is the first thing that
people see when they go to your

website.

If you don't have a logo that
represents you, well, it's not

professional.

It doesn't look good.

They needed to change that.

You need to always have a professional
perception on your website, on your

mailers, or any sort of marketing
material that you put out there to the

world.

If you have a cheap looking logo, your
photography will be perceived as cheap

as well.

So with my logo, I spent some time on
this.

It was a back and forth collaboration
with a graph designer named Jeremy

Ritchie, it's a hand drawn logo.

And we went through over forty
revisions on this to develop this

really messy looking rock and roll
style of logo.

So if you look at the logo on my
website, it flows really well.

It represents my work.

It's got a really nice, cohesive

style of branding.

But if you're to suddenly replace this
logo with different sort of fonts and

standard fonts, my site immediately
looks cheap and generic.

And that's a representation of my work
as well.

If I've spent so much time investing in
creative projects to develop the best

portfolio I can.

Why would I want to put those images on
a website with a logo that looks cheap

and diminishes them?

I see a lot of photographers with a
cheap looking logo that completely

ruins their identity.

Most of these photographers assume that
they can create these logos by

themselves, but most of us aren't
graphic designers.

And that's something to keep in mind is
that if you aren't a graphic designer,

then hiregraph designer, make sure that
your brand, your logo and your identity

represent something.

That's expensive.

It represents something that people
want to invest in.

Now that you've seen my website, let's
talk a little bit about that.

When I first started photography, there
weren't a lot of options out there.

It used to be that a website would cost
a fortune to develop something that

looked really clean, inviting and
professional.

But these days there's services such as
smugmug or square space that make it

really easy.

Now for just a small fee a month, you
can develop a really professional

looking website.

That's clean and provides a great user
experience.

I personally use smug mug,

and it's a service that provides an
easy platform to develop a website in

just a few hours, which is exactly what
I did with my site.

Smug monk's grave because they offer
proof in galleries and print galleries.

I often use proofing galleries when I'm
working with an editor or a client or

high end client, and needs to proof the
shots before we decide on a final

selection.

I don't use these galleries to sell
prints, but if you're into selling prints,

smugmung is a great way to do it.

When you're designing a website or
you're having a website designed for

you, there's a few things you need to
remember.

First, it starts with the url.

In email you want an url that's easy to
type out, it's easy to remember, it's

simple and it's strong.

With email, you want to make sure that
you have something that's professional

and easy to remember as well.

You don't want clay at Yahoo dot com.

You want something like clay at
claycook photography dot com, or info

at claycook photographydot com.

Keep it professional.

I see a lot of photographers that
completely remove the personality of

their website.

They don't have an about section, they
don't have a headshot on their website.

No one knows who they are, where
they're from or how to get a hold of

them.

You want to make sure that you have an
about section in a contact information

section, to where people can easily get
hold of you and find out who you are

and who's creating this work.

Another thing to remember is that you
want to keep your website simple.

A website is generally just a gateway
for social media.

And clients generally spend less than
thirty seconds on a website.

So you want to have your portfolio
straight to the point.

You want to keep your portfolio slim
down to your best thirty to fifty shots.

So the website you developed not only
needs to be super simple and to the point,

but it also needs to be easy to
navigate, especially on a mobile

device.

So let's talk about your online
portfolio.

The images that you're going to put on
your website.

A few years ago, I had a hard core
website critique for my agency.

And the biggest thing is that I had too
many galleries.

I had too many photos on my website.

We went from over 250

photos on my website to my best thirty.

Then we took those photos, we separated
them into galleries, so they told a

story, and we separated them by
category, by personal projects, fashion

projects and portrait projects.

And so if you're go to my website,
you'll see that I have it lined out in

categories from portrait fashion, one
fashion, too.

And then personal projects.

If you don't have enough imagery to fit
into those individual portfolios, such

as portrait fashion or personal
projects, that you may want to consider

just creating one portfolio to put all
those images in.

As long as it tells a story and has a
nice flow, then you're in the clear.

Nothing's worse than having five or six
galleries and only five or six images

in them, especially if you're trying to
sell your brand as a commercial

photographer, when you have galleries
of weddings, you have galleries of

babies or anything else.

Another mistake I see a lot of
photographers make is that they put

galleries on their website that are
completely unrelated to their branding

and their identity.

So if you're a commercial photographer,
you don't want galleries of babies or

families or weddings on your website.

The same goes for if you're a family or
wedding photographer, you don't want

your commercial work, or anything
that's unrelated on your website.

Because when a client views your
website,

that's not something they want to see,
it's not something that's

related to them.

And so you immediately cheapen your
brand, and you immediately put off a perception

that you're not the expert in that
niche.

So I know a lot of commercial
photographers who are also wedding

photographers, but they would never
link those two entities together.

You would never know that this
commercial photographer was also a

wedding photographer.

Now you've discussed a portfolio, a
bout page and a contact page, but

you're going to notice that I don't
have a pricing or an investment section

on my website.

This is a very controversial topic for
a lot of photographers.

I promote the fact that you need to
lose the pricing, get it off your

website.

And there's a few reasons why.

First, you're backing yourself in a
corner, you're cutting any leverage,

and you're completely negating any sort
of negotiation at that point.

As you saw in the previous section,
sometimes I'm charging 800 dollars,

sometimes I'm charging eighteen
hundreds from my creative fee.

If I was to have a pricing section on
my website and make it public, it would

be a one size fits all solution.

And as you saw in the previous lesson
that's just not something I can offer.

Another reason why don't want pricing
my website is because I want to have a

conversation with anyone that's
interested in my work.

A lot of photographers are scared
because I think their inbox is going to

be flooded with inquiries about their
pricing.

But I've found it to be completely
manageable, and actually gotten a lot

of jobs by just people asking, what's
your rate for all these reasons.

I would not recommend putting your
pricing publicly on your website.

Another section of your website that I
think is so important is a blog.

By having a blog, you're able to post
imagery that doesn't necessarily belong

your portfolio, but it's still
interesting to share.

So what I like to do is post a lot of
imagery but also supplement that with a

lot of text

posting, my blog does two things.

One, it adds a personal element to my
brand.

Two, it really steps up my seo game.

In many cases, potential clients find
me through my blog.

They might read about a journey I had
or a personal project that I posted

about.

And by reading these blog posts, they
feel like they might have a little bit

more personal connection to me than if
they would have landed on my website.

The way Google works is that it puts
major emphasis on text.

If you're only posting images to your
blog, you're going to have a lot harder

time ranking higher on Google than,
say, another photographer who's writing

text along with those images.

With my blog posts, I like to write
content that I would read it's more

about experiences over technicalities.

So instead of writing about cameras or
lenses or lighting, I like to write

about feeling and mood and experiences.

And I think that my followers and the
people that read this content

appreciate the human element over that
technical jargon.

Now that you have a clear understanding
of what it takes to have a complete

website, you want to make sure that you
have your social links to Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even
Snapchat

very apparent on your site and easily
accessible.

And we'll dive into social media later
in this tutorial.

But make sure you have these social
links easily accessible.

The next form of marketing I want to
talk about is tangible print, having a

tangible print portfolio and or print
mailers that you're going to send out

to clients.

There are a lot of clients, such as art
buyers, art directors and advertising

agencies, that are going to require you
to mail them a print portfolio.

As you can imagine, these people see a
lot of work.

So it's more important than ever that
your portfolio stands out.

The print portfolio I'm currently using
is made by mullenberg.

The reason why I love mullenberg is
because they provide a lot of options.

The book that I have is sleek it's
edgy.

It has a really nice binding, and the
pages and prints are interchangeable.

These books can get pretty expensive.

But if you're going to put all that
work into mailing one of these out to a

potential art buyer, a client or an ad
agency,

then it's important to spend the money
and invest that time into making

something that's going to stand out
from all these other photographers.

They see I currently have one print
portfolio book, and it makes the rounds

to different agencies and different art
buyers around the United States.

By having a print portfolio

it's allowed me to have my work in
front of some really high end clientel

that normally wouldn't go to my website.

Another thing that I mail out are
standard promotional materials,

otherwise known as mailers.

Over the years, I've been represented
by several agencies and have developed

a list of physical addresses where I
can send these mailers to potential

clients around the world.

Once a year.

I pay to have several hundred of these
mailers printed out and mailed out to

these physical addresses.

On these lists that we've developed,
this list contains addresses of

addingcies, art buyers, art directors
and creative directors in companies

that I really want to work with
worldwide.

If you're looking to build a list like
this of your own, a great resources

agency, access,

agency access provides a lot of great
services for photographers.

But if you're looking to build a list
such as the one I have,

it's definitely the way to go.

Once this mailer is out and in the
hands of an art director, a creative

director, or sometimes an art buyer,
then you're immediately added to an

editorial list of photographers.

The ultimate goal for these mailers is
to get my information in the rolldex of

these creative directors, art directors
and art buyers,

so that they need a great photographer.

Let's, say, the city of louville.

I'm their go to guy.

While we're on the topic of mailing
lists

there's another option, which is going
to be the cheapest option, and that's

email lists and newsletters.

With a service like agency access.

You can not only get physical addresses
of these art buyers, art directors and addingcies,

you can get their email address, which
is really useful when you want to put

some imagery right in front of their
face.

The advantage of an email newsletter is
that you can start the conversation

right there, right away.

But the disadvantage is that it's going
to get lost with all the other eight

emails and loss in all the noise.

All of these methods are ways that I've
promoted and marketed my brands.

But keep in mind that at the end of the
day, a lot of this is just noise.

And what the most important thing about
marketing is relationships.

After a long day of shooting, I often
feel like I want to go home and sit on

the couch and just relax, but I force
myself to get out and meet new people

and meet people in person.

And I've found that that has gotten me
more jobs than any of these other

marketing techniques.

You may have noticed that we've left
out social media in this marketing lesson,

but I find that it's such an important
facet of my business

that I want to devote an entire chapter
to it.

So in the next business section, we're
going to dive into everything I love

about social media