During a recession there are the same or an increasing number of photographers going after fewer and fewer jobs. In order to compete effectively in this environment a photographer need must increase the quality of her marketing. One way to produce more effective marketing is to tailor and target your message to clients wit h differing backgrounds.
There are several steps that need to be followed in order to accomplish this task. Those steps are as follows:
1. Prioritize – target marketing will take some extra work. A photographer want to make sure that extra effort is being implemented on clients who will likely provided the highest return on investment in a timely manner. Obviously more attention should be paid to those clients who spend $2,000 a session in contrast with those who spend $500 a session. Go thru your list of clients and identify those who represent your top 20% dollar amount of orders per session. Next, break those persons up by attributes. Attribute examples include those who are likely to desire extended family portraits, those who are likely to purchase holiday cards, and those who have small children.
2. Decide which target marketing message is appropriate for the current time frame. For example, October would be the best time to market for the Holiday Season. January would be the best time to market one year old shots to parents who had children the previous February.
3. Create a system to track and remind when the targeted messages need to go out. A computer system will work the best. The complexity of your plan could very well overtake the capacity of a paper system. MindManager combined with ResultsManager is one effective tracking system. Outlook may work for you. The system needs to be one that you can easily integrate into your daily workflow and one you are comfortable enough using that you will actually use it.
4. Create templates for your target marketing. Each time you customize a marketing piece for a particular client
, save it in an easy to find and locate place. This will enable you to reuse the same message for other clients when the time is appropriate.
Technology has made target marketing to be increasingly manageable. Those photographers who take advantage of this new technology will increase their profits and customer satisfaction.
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