Do Different Professions Really Require Different Marketing?

Some of you may be wondering why marketing yourself as a wedding photographer is any different than marketing yourself as an electrician (for example). Aside from being completely different professions, there are certain unique nuances that come with being a wedding photographer, and grabbing that perfect audience will be done in a much different fashion than any other profession. Luckily, we will go into all of that below and, if you are actually a photographer (wedding or not) you will hopefully learn a thing or two that can help you out.

So let’s get into it!

What Makes Photography Marketing Different?

It is not exactly “photography” specifically that is different, but it is the profession I chose for the day. Like our previous post, we will pretend to be a local wedding photographer who wants to market their business. First, we will want to look at what our competition is doing and what makes us different from them. This is called a competition analysis and is the first step anyone who wants to market themselves should take. From there it is critical to build out social profiles and brand presence, but this is where photography begins to differ from others.

Due to the level of competition in the photography industry (and the wedding photography industry in particular) it is important to distinguish yourself among everyone else. To do this, you will need a rock solid presence on relevant websites that cater to wedding photographers (Wedding Wire for example). It would also help if you are good enough to have your photo’s featured on authoritative mediums, and to list any awards or accolades you have received for your past work.

Anyone can say they have awards however, so it is equally important to have reviews. A review from a past client can give a prospective customer the boost of confidence they need to hire you, or push them away with one fell swoop. For this reason, photographers and restaurateurs absolutely must ask each and every client how their experience was, and if they could share it on one of the many business review sites. Going back to our local wedding photographer example, you can see the photographer I have linked to has numerous awards, and multiple five star reviews on all of his social media. This is a prime example of what a successfully marketed portfolio should look like.

How to Start From Scratch

If you are just getting into the wedding photography business, you will be up against stiff competition. Every single major city in the United States already has well established and seasoned veterans dominating the market. However, using smart marketing techniques, you can build yourself up and stand with the giants. The best advice for someone just starting out would be to get clients. Not only that, but treat them like they are paying you a million dollars even if they are not. The reason for this is that not only will they put some money in your pocket, but they will build your reputation, refer you clients, and most importantly leave you glowing reviews.

In the 21st century it has become increasingly difficult for more traditional brick and mortar businesses to keep up with the rapidly advancing movement of technology and digital marketing trends. In this article, we will be examining how a “regular” business can keep up with the way consumers are shopping. We will be focusing on a fictional locksmith business, as this is an industry many would not associate with online marketing and one that many business owners may not even know that they can leverage.

Forms of Advertising

There are multiple forms of advertising we as a locksmith could utilize however, some are better than others, and we will list our top picks below. We have selected our choices based on ROI and ease of use for a non-tech savvy user, as well as popularity among the marketing community. Each will be broken down individually below.

1. Social Media Marketing

2. Video Marketing

3. Paid Advertising

We will discuss these three advertising strategies in more detail below.

Social Media Marketing Explained

Imagining we are are newly formed locksmith business, we could do a number of things right off the bat. First, we would need to get some social media accounts set up. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and many others account for a large percentage of internet users, and many people are actually going to these platforms to not only read reviews, but directly make purchases as well. For this reason it is vitally important to be present as a brand across all social mediums. We can also run advertisements on our social media, but given the emergency nature of our assumed profession, this might not be a viable option for our business.

The Big To Do About Video Marketing

Videos have become an incredibly powerful way to get your message across to a consumer and, with over 4 billion views on Youtube each day, it would seem silly not to get some of the traffic for your business. Youtube is not the only platform however, and users on sites like Vimeo and Sprout are increasing as well. An example of a video marketing strategy can be seen below by a company that actually caters to locksmiths (we will touch more on it in the paid advertising section.

Locksmith Marketing Video Example

In the video above, the company in question is essentially renting out the digital real estate that the video has in Google and Vimeo. For a local business with no advertising know how or budget, this can be a very viable way to drive targeted traffic to your business. In our example, we might rent this video and replace it with our own promotional video that talks about our company. This way, we can simply get directly in front of the traffic already going to the clip, and use it for our own benefit.

Paid Traffic Advertising

Paid traffic is one of the most used methods for client generation, brand promotion, and overall traffic acquisition. There are a number of paid advertising mediums available to business owners including Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and even good old fashioned radio ads, all of which have ups and downs. There are also other services offered by companies such as the one mentioned above. Let’s say that our company is based in New York and we want to get in front of all those people we know are searching for our services online. We could simply find a company like the one above that runs a New York locksmith directory, get ourselves a listing, and be all set. Taking that one step further, we could narrow it down by city or town, so that when people look for a local locksmith, they find our business first.

Google Ads and Facebook ads are also great ways to generate traffic (especially Facebook). Their ad system allows you to narrow down your target audience to the exact demographic and base it on interests, life events, relationship status, and much more. These targeting features allow a business to focus in on their ideal client, and speak directly to them, which is incredibly powerful.

In conclusion, there are a multitude of ways you can go about getting clients for your business, and the route you decide to take depends entirely on your company, the audience you want to target, and what plain ol works.