Myth:

If I send out an email marketing blast,
I better hire someone to answer the droves of phone calls
asking me to bid on their next campaign.

Of course, email may be an effective element in a photographer’s marketing plans.
Before you begin to create a marketing plan, ask questions like:
Who am I? Where am I going? How am I going to get there?

What Do You Want Your Promotions to Accomplish?
“I just want to keep my name out there.”
That is not enough!

A series of great promotions are most effective when they engender
the full Oh Yeah! response which may go something like this:

Oh yeah! Joan Jones. I know who she is.
I know what she does and how she sees.
Her promotion is pinned up over my desk.
I am hoping to find an application for her work next time an opportunity arises.

Sales Promotion

Why does the commercial arts industry use the term self promotion when the action is intended to increase sales. If your marketing doesn’t contribute to increasing sales, why do it? Why do so many people in this industry believe sales is a four-letter word. Promoting without sales energy may make your marketing impotent. Sales promotion may help create positive perceptions and increase desire for your services.

Remember that you are not the only one promoting. Since the proliferation of email, art directors and art buyers receive an average of 100 email solicitations a day; not all from photographers. That is 500 a week. Let’s say the art director or buyer was off on a shoot for a week. He or she came back to an overflowing mailbox filled with email. What do you think happened to most of those promotions unless they were different from all of the others in message, form, concept, and of course the quality of the photographs themselves.

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Eleven Industry Myths Demythified!

It is ineffective to do the same thing
or even the same thing differently.
It is vital to innovate; to do something new and different.

The Time is Ripe!

Please see and hear a recording of  my Webinar on this subject at liveBooks.

Photographers must make drastic and far-reaching changes in their ways of thinking and behaving.

The world of commercial photography, as we have known it, has changed. The industry needs to focus on severing ties with the past and to invent innovative ways to find and proclaim a new vision – institutionally and individually. We all know there is something wrong. We have experienced the devaluation of services provided by commercial photographers. We have tried to fix things by focusing on copyright, usage, and branding. All important, but not enough.

It is my observation that many members of the commercial photography community are coming from victim mentality. Many feel oppressed and are placing blame on others. These are conditions that are symptoms of resistance to change and growth. We need to develop far reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving – more of a cultural and social change than an overthrowing of authority.

Is photography a calling for you? Are you resisting your calling? Is you career based upon your passion and beliefs or are you second guessing the marketplace and doing it just for others and for the money? If so, is it working? The more scared we are of a calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore, the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.

The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch. He or she takes on the assignment that will bear him into uncharted waters, compel him to explore unconscious parts of himself or herself. Is she scared? Hell, yes. She’s petrified.

So if you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

But first we need to look at some myths:

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