Marketing

I think the biggest challenge I face is just creating my "Brand" and marketing that. Over the last week I've been quite here on the blog because I have been busy trying to figure out how to really sale my brand. You see there are so many photographers for clients to choose from how do they pick? Is it purely Technical merit? Artistic? or something else? I think you have to have the technical and artistic, but most photographers venturing to this realm have that. So a lot of times it comes down to who you are. Do you sale yourself as THE photographers they want?

I've really been focusing on my wedding work this past week so I am going to talk about that for a bit. Now I am still actively working on entering the commercial ad world too. But I do enjoy shooting weddings. It is very rewarding to create the first set of family memories for a new family. I work very well under pressure, and I never slow down the entire day. I push and push for the next great image. After talking to my mentor this past week I realized that a lot of what I am doing at a wedding and the shoots surrounding it is actually editorial work with some lifestyle thrown in here and there. I honestly hadn't looked at my work that way before. And all of the sudden I felt really comfortable moving, no sliding over into commercial work.

I've also been flipping through bridal magazines cutting out great images for inspiration, and even cutting out the ones I know I could do better. Thinking and thinking, "How do I get out there?" I need to sale me. So I decided to put together a promotional video. Why should a bride have to wait to meet in person to hear how I feel about wedding photography? They shouldn't so I put together a 9 minute video that touches on what I think the most important points about how I shoot, and what I bring to the table are. And I'll give you a hint, there is no gear talk or talk about lighting or even a sales pitch about free prints.



Now you may be wondering why am I putting this effort into my wedding work? I have no intention of stopping my wedding photography. As a matter of fact for the market segment of commercial work I intend to shoot for I think it just goes hand in hand. However, you can expect to see in several months a new commercial centric website. It will be separate and apart from my wedding photography. The two will not link to each other. It's not that I am ashamed of one or the other, but my clients have got to see a consistent message. You know you can not be all things to everybody, and that is more true in the world of photography.