There is no better way for a photographer to gain exposure then when they post images online for customers to view and buy!
It’s an amazing benefit that photographers have over almost every other type of company. The cost to purchase Ad Words to gain website traffic would be more than most photographers make in a year. Why don’t all photographers post images online then? I think there are a couple of factors involved:
1. Photographers are artists not marketers – the same reason a lot of people can’t shoot great photos. (Like Me)
2. Some of today’s great photographers, who have become speakers, tell other photographers not to post images online – (now we are back to listening to artists not marketers). Face to face sales are important, but not all events present a face-to-face opportunity, you have got to do both online and direct sales.
3. Photographers think just posting images on Facebook will be good enough, but it only works well for a day or two until the photos get the buried. Facebook posting does not even come close to having the same impact as posting on a professional looking cart. My suggestion is to use Facebook to make a post with a link to the images in your cart. Facebook is great for a lot of things, but not for a company using it for its only online connection.
4. A lot of photographers base the reason for not posting images online because they do in house presentations (remember, I’m a marketer and I would do the same for most jobs). I think the thing photographers are not grasping is that to stay in business you need to keep marketing 24/7… So after we had done the presentation, when walking my customer to the door, I would say, “By the way I will post your images on my website so you can share them with your family and friends.” What did I just do? Basically it’s like handing my customer a stack of my studio brochures. Even a corporate head shot customer could bring 5 to 10 people to your site that did not know who you were. A wedding could bring in hundreds of visitors – and the advantage is that a friend or family has already hired you – What better referral can you get?
The golden rule in marketing: The more people who know about your service, the better you will do!
If you are one of those people that do not post online – I want to hear the reasons why not.
Or if you are one of those speakers who advises against it – we all need to hear why you recommend this to others!
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