Photographer
DANACOLE
Posts: 10183
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
I would love to shoot more corporate and business clients and so forth. Also product and commercial(like real estate,hotels,etc.).
My problem is I don't know how to find them. Or best ways to go about finding them.
I'm not really good at marketing as far as strategies and so forth.
Most of my business now is from word of mouth and from my website.
So my question is, how do I reach out and find the corporate and business clients who may need pictures???
Any marketing tools or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Photographer
ChristopherRoss
Posts: 1559
Eškašem, Badakhshan, Afghanistan
dncphotos wrote:
I would love to shoot more corporate and business clients and so forth. Also product and commercial(like real estate,hotels,etc.).
My problem is I don't know how to find them. Or best ways to go about finding them.
I'm not really good at marketing as far as strategies and so forth.
Most of my business now is from word of mouth and from my website.
So my question is, how do I reach out and find the corporate and business clients who may need pictures???
Any marketing tools or advice would be greatly appreciated. That really is the age old question isn't it? How to find quality, high paying work.
Best method I've ever found for finding work as a designer (which I am sure would work for a photographer as well) is postcard marketing. Get a nice postcard designed, in your case feature a photograph and on the back make it look like a real postcard.
Then, you have a choice ... either bulk print a catchy phrase on hundreds of cards and bulk mail them or write a custom message and drop them in the mail.
The reason btw that postcards work better than anything else is that unlike most other forms of marketing, a user must look at it before deciding it's junk mail, the same can not be said for an introduction letter (which requires being opened).
Once a month, I sent out 1,000 postcards in my region and generate enough design work to keep me and two assistants busy for the month.
Photographer
Watt
Posts: 12
Fayetteville, North Carolina, US
thisismyurl wrote:
That really is the age old question isn't it? How to find quality, high paying work.
Best method I've ever found for finding work as a designer (which I am sure would work for a photographer as well) is postcard marketing. Get a nice postcard designed, in your case feature a photograph and on the back make it look like a real postcard.
Then, you have a choice ... either bulk print a catchy phrase on hundreds of cards and bulk mail them or write a custom message and drop them in the mail.
The reason btw that postcards work better than anything else is that unlike most other forms of marketing, a user must look at it before deciding it's junk mail, the same can not be said for an introduction letter (which requires being opened).
Once a month, I sent out 1,000 postcards in my region and generate enough design work to keep me and two assistants busy for the month. Best Advice I've seen on here yet...I agree 100%..Check out
http://www.team-iba.com/default.asp
Photographer
CreativeSandBoxStudio
Posts: 1984
London, England, United Kingdom
dncphotos wrote:
I would love to shoot more corporate and business clients and so forth. Also product and commercial(like real estate,hotels,etc.).
My problem is I don't know how to find them. Or best ways to go about finding them.
I'm not really good at marketing as far as strategies and so forth.
Most of my business now is from word of mouth and from my website.
So my question is, how do I reach out and find the corporate and business clients who may need pictures???
Any marketing tools or advice would be greatly appreciated. Get your portfolio into the hands of the art buyers for these companies......ad agencies...design firms. THey are not going to walk up to you and say Hey! I want you unless your work is out there and don't be blinded by the illusion of movies & TV as to the image of a photographer shooting. Doing your homework on the types of clients you want to work for and being honest in approaching them with good hard core images that realte to their product or a style that sets you apart from the rest. No easy answers but a lot of hard work at promoting yourself.
Photographer
ChristopherRoss
Posts: 1559
Eškašem, Badakhshan, Afghanistan
AlexAlexander/Moderator wrote:
No easy answers but a lot of hard work at promoting yourself. Between initial marketing, client consultations, followup calls and quarterly enquires I spend almost as much time in promotion mode as I do actual creative mode, I can't see it being any less for serious photographers.
Photographer
vanWingo
Posts: 177
Lawrenceville, Georgia, US
dncphotos wrote:
I would love to shoot more corporate and business clients and so forth. Also product and commercial(like real estate,hotels,etc.).
My problem is I don't know how to find them. Or best ways to go about finding them.
I'm not really good at marketing as far as strategies and so forth.
Most of my business now is from word of mouth and from my website.
So my question is, how do I reach out and find the corporate and business clients who may need pictures???
Any marketing tools or advice would be greatly appreciated. It matters not their field, the self-employed person's princilpal job is sales.
I agree as a general rule that direct mail is the best method for identifying prospects. Of course that requires having a mailing list (which you can purchase or create yourself from the telephone book). Be prepared for very, very few responses. Though when someone does respond, you'll have your foot in the door.
If there are a few (say, 500) corporate potential customers, then telephone them directly and ask for an appointment. You'll want to prepare a telephone script beforehand. Be prepared that uninvited sales people are not given grand welcomes. Though when someone does invite you in, you'll have your foot in the door.
With your foot in the door, you'll need a sales presentation ... and so on and so forth until you close the sale.
I suggest you start with a book, such as "Selling For Dummies". It's a good place to start, though it's only a start.
Photographer
Doug Lester
Posts: 10591
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Others have suggested sending out mailings and that can be an effective technique. but there are some things you need to do first. First, consider whagt cort of corporate client and corporate work interests you. For example, are you interested in annual reports and corporate portraiture? Small Product? Advertising? Catalog? Which of those are shot in your area? Because a corporate headquarters is located in one city, their ad agency and creative work, might be done an another city. For example, until a year or so ago, creative work for the Glock Firearms Catalog, a european company was done in Atlanta.
As a new photographer with no track record, you can forget about major national or international corporations, so concentrate on small and medium sized local companies. Study their needs! Look at their existing ads and if you can match or beat their existing quality, then move them to the top of your list. Now start building your portfolio, actually portfolio(s). If you are going after annual report work, don't show the client product work. If you are going after prepared food clients, show them food in your portfolio, not portraiture. Show them what fits their need! Not just what you already have on hand. Before I retired, I had a good six or seven different portfolio books and a couple of copies of each so I could drop one off for overnight viewing.
Now make telephone contact, find out if they use an ad agency or do their work in house. Then cold call the right person asking for an appointment to show your portfolio. You may or may not get one, but that's OK, it's just your starting point. If they say no, for whatever reason, that same day mail them a slick promo piece with a letter again asking for an appointment. In about a month, send another, then send one about every other month, with four or five phone calls per year. Once you get an appointment, that's when you have to be a salesman! Learn how to sell your work certaily, but more important learn how th sell yourself!
All of the photos you show them, not more than 12 or 15, should, no MUST, be the sort of photos they need. For God's sake don't show any of corporate clients glamour portraits. If you do, you'll be amazed how fast you find yourself on the sidewalk.
Photographer
DANACOLE
Posts: 10183
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
thank you guys for the wonderful information and thanks to the ones who emailed me info as well. . I now have some more ideas to market myself 
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