Maria Piscopo

You know what you would like to do as a photographer--everything! But for your own marketing purposes, "everything" covers too wide a range of subjects. Clients of photographic services are really only interested in what they need. There are no clients who hire for "everything." With that in mind we asked a variety of clients what they look for when...

For the New Year, I talked with a handful of working photographers willing to share their tips and techniques on building a photography business. We discussed portfolios, new media marketing tools, how often they market to their clients, and their recommendations for starting (or restarting!) your photography business in today’s marketplace. As you read their responses, please note that though they are in different fields of photography—consumer and commercial—there are remarkable similarities in their business building techniques. Also, check out the online references section at the end of this column. Online marketing is already big and will be even bigger in 2012! In the interest of form and continuity, all online marketing references for each photographer are listed in this reference section.

Since technologies of database management (direct mail) and Internet marketing (websites) have cut into the advertising agencies’ “lock” on buying media space as the only way to sell products and services, the industry has scrambled to reinvent itself. As a result, photographers have felt an impact on their advertising photography businesses.