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4 - Marketing Skills

You need a comprehensive and consistent marketing message.

The best place to begin, and the hardest task to do, is the elevator spiel.

Let's say someone sees your camera and the huge camera bag on your shoulder, as you ride an elevator together.

They ask, "What do you do."

You've got twenty seconds to tell them until you get to your floor.

Write a one-sentence description of how the person you're talking to can benefit from your services.

Then, be sure to tell a one-sentence human interest story about how a client benefited from your work.

Benefits + Warm-and-fuzzy feeling from the story = Clients

Once you've figured out your elevator spiel, it will inform all of your other marketing devices, from how you answer the phone to your website.

When I described having an elevator spiel above, note that I wrote:

It's a one-sentence description of how the person you're talking to can benefit from your services.

A common marketing mistake is to market your features— not the benefits of your work to your clients.

Don't market your features: "I do executive portraits."

Market the benefits to your clients: "My clients use my executive portraits to attract more business . . ."

People care about themselves.

They want to know what you can do for them, not what you can do.

So, let's say you're starting a wedding photography business.

What's your competition doing?

How much do they charge?

What sorts of album and print packages do they offer?

Obviously, you'll study the websites of wedding photographers to answer those questions.

But, a far more important question is, what benefits do brides want?

Study websites for brides and forums in which they talk about their experiences with photographers.

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