​Back in February, I had a fun idea to launch the SCU Diner. The concept was based mostly on fast food, which most of us have a love/hate relationship with. It serves a purpose, and there are few things better than a great sub sandwich when you're on the run.

So, we started sharing fast business ideas, and just like fast food, they're meant to fill a need. They help you remember things you need to stay focused on when you don't have a camera in your hands!

We've shared forty different "blue-plate specials" over the last few months, and it's time for one more before Christmas and New Years!

With a new year right around the corner, you're down to the wire for 2018. You've essentially got ten days left to tie up loose ends on business and set things up for a cleaner slate in January. But December isn't just about closing the books on the year. 

Today's Fast Food Special is a reminder of things you might want to do beyond just wrapping up business.

• Holiday Wishes: While it's a little late to do a custom card for December, it's not too late to remind those people most important to your business how much you appreciate their support. From venues to wedding planners and clients who have referred business to you, take the time to make contact and remind them how much they mean to you.  A "thanks" can range from taking somebody to lunch to gift baskets and even phone calls.  Don't let the year close without saying "thank you."
• Major Purchases: If there's high-end gear you need for your business, you've got ten days to make the purchase and still take the deduction. Check with your accountant and find out if there's a benefit to taking the hit in 2018 based on your current deductions, revenue for the year, etc.
• December Deals: The Photokina show took place this past Septemer, and a lot of manufacturers announced new products. That means there may be some great deals still available at retail on previous models of cameras, lenses, lighting, printers, etc. New products coming in means the dealers want to move out the older inventory. Remember that doesn't mean the older stock isn't good, just that new models are coming in.
• Manufacturer Rebates and Bonuses: Take a look at all of the products you use in your business and then go online and check each manufacturer's programs. For example, Profoto has a great promotion going on right now with the A1 which ends on December 31, 2018. Excire Inc. has a program running until December 26, 2018. Tamron's rebates end on January 5, 2019. Marathon Press has a BOGO (Buy One Get One) on holiday cards ending December 31, 2018. 
• Contract Renewals: From your insurance to websites, QuickBooks and Internet service, etc. check to see what savings are out there if you renew now. And, are you adequately insured? Are there major purchases you made during the year that need to listed on your policy? If nothing else, checking the dates on all the agreements with companies who support you will help you remember the timing for payments in the new year.
• Your Marketing Video: I still fail to understand why more of you don't take advantage of technology and put together your own mixed media promotional video. Combine still images with short video clips and great music to create your own marketing film. Technology has made it so easy and you've got most of the material to put together highlights of 2018 in a 2-3 minute film for your website.
• Airline Tickets: If you're headed to IUSA in Atlanta, now is a good time to be making flight arrangements. You're thirty days out, and don't forget to lock in your hotel as well. Don't wait until the last minute and then pay top dollar.

It's not directly about wrapping up business but it does deserve top billing:

• Your Family: There's that old expression about "shoemaker's children needing shoes." My mother used to constantly remind me that she wanted new pictures of her family! Take the time during the holidays to capture images of your own family. From Christmas to New Years everyone has opportunities to capture and create those special images that will become tomorrow's favorite memories. There's also a place for a few classic image or two in your marketing slide show and even next year's holiday card.

There's no question that December is one of those months that's incredibly busy and then slows down so you can let out a sigh and kick back a little. It's a great month to finish looking at this past year and be a little reflective. Pat yourself on the back for another year in business and start to think about your goals for the new year!

Fast Food Friday is brought to you by:

​It's the Friday after Thanksgiving, and if you're an American, you're probably enjoying leftovers from yesterday's holiday dinner. So, having fun with Fast Food Friday, I ran across this post in the SCU archives from four years ago, and it's perfect for today.
 
While most of the time Fast Food Friday posts are short, the "new menu," thanks to Excire has a lot of bigger entrees. It's still fun to think of it as this week's "blue plate special" in the SCU marketing diner, but it takes a little longer to consume.

Looking for new blog content? If you have a blog and said "No," you're lying! Everyone is looking for content, especially about topics to draw in readership. Well, here it is - as today's "Chef" I'm giving you one of my favorite recipes, and it's going to expand your audience, and get your community more involved. 

​A well-done blog is one of the best marketing tools you've got. The only thing that will render it useless is if you don't know what you're doing with a camera in your hands! As with everything I write about - you've got to have the skill set.

Your website is about what you sell, your products and your services. Your blog is about what's in your heart. An excellent blog gives you the opportunity to go off track a little and be involved in your community. There are very few things with this strong a potential to help you build brand awareness. This is all about working to establish yourself as the photography expert in your community. It's a soft-sell approach, without getting in anybody's face.

There's a bonus with today's Fast Food Friday Special...listen to the minute and a half "First Byte" that gives you a taste of what's coming and why it's so important!

The whole idea with today's post is to build terrific content using businesses in your community. So many photographers complain about not having enough material and needing things to write about. Why not start featuring all your favorite places, starting with retail establishments?

Here's a great example - everybody has a few favorite restaurants, pizza places, etc.  Start with a visit to one of your favorites and shoot an environmental portrait (wide angle) of one of the staff in the restaurant. Maybe it's the chef in the kitchen or the host/hostess, a waiter or waitress or the manager. The point is, you're going to pick somebody who's added something to your life in your community, even it's inches to your waistline!

Next, do a short write up: 50-150 words is plenty. Talk about one of your favorite dishes and include a link to the restaurant's website or if they don't have a website, give their address. This is about recognizing one of the places in your community and why you like to go there. It's about sharing your experiences.

Having trouble understanding environmental portraiture? It was one of the legendary Don Blair's favorites. He'd shoot with Hasselblad's 30mm fisheye and pull in as much of the subject's environment as he could. Here are a few examples I pulled off of Google when typing in "Environmental Portraits." Click on any image, and you can find out more about the artist and how the image was used.

Now, let's pull the concept together with a marketing plan.

Each time a new community profile post runs, print out a hard copy and put it into an inexpensive acrylic free-standing frame. I went online and Googled "Acrylic Frames" for the example at the right. This one is an 8x10, but depending on what you print, a 5x7 might work as well.

At the top of the image add the following text, "Community Profiles - As Seen On ______________'s Blog (_____________.com)". Drop it off as a thank you to your subject for their time to pose and contributing to your content.

​Here's one of the best benefits of community profile posts - They help establish your expertise as a photographer along with being an enthusiastic member of the community. Every establishment loves a little publicity, and you're giving them a chance at more exposure, as well as showing your appreciation for whatever role they've played in your life. Each subject is going to become one of your ambassadors. Don't under-estimate how excited they're going to be about being featured on your blog when you drop off that acrylic stand.

Here are a few more tips to help you make this more effective...

• Build a stash of profiles. You need consistency for a blog to be effective, so post at least twice a week. Getting twenty of these community posts done in advance would give you material for one day each week for almost five months. It's the perfect project to do in the upcoming "slow season" of the first quarter of 2019.
• Run one community profile a week.
• Everybody in your community has the potential for a profile. Don't forget clergy, dry-cleaners, teachers, law enforcement, bank tellers, supermarket managers, doctors, dentists, restaurants, even the Chamber of Commerce. The list goes on and on. 
• When you run out of establishments, think about other topics. For example, pets of the community have almost the same draw, just not the added exposure with the acrylic sign. You could also do "Leaders of the Community" and theme the series.
• Create your own publicity! Once you've published a half-dozen profile posts, send out a press release about the project and include a couple of images of members of the community. You never know who's going to read the release and what new doors it might open.

This is about giving back to your community using your skill set. You're looking for the community to be good to you. So, you better make sure you're good to your community!

Fast Food Fridays are brought to you by:

As always, Fast Food Fridays, especially with our new "menu" is meant to give you ideas to help you build a stronger business. I've been sharing these since February, and each "blue plate" special has offered help on a different aspect of your business.

Thanks to Excire, we expanded the menu in the SCU diner offering bigger entrees. Posts with more details also mean they take longer to enjoy but we're stepping away from fast food with concepts to help you increase reach and sales.  

Today's special is a little different because we're serving up a plate about advertising. So many times over the years I've heard stories about wasted money and poor results.

Most often the problem is the business invested too much in just one type of advertising without looking at all the other things they should have been doing. The result is almost always too much money spent on one vehicle and no coordination through a few other channels for reach.

Over the years I've heard so many photographers talk about advertising as if it was some strange new food they tried and didn't like. Look, my Dad hated lima beans, but that doesn't mean he gave up eating!  
 
The same logic applies to virtually ALL publications regardless of whether they're an Internet or printed media. I know a lot of you, especially those of you who are wedding photographers, get hit for advertising in upscale local printed magazines. For today's special, when I use the word "publication" it covers everything from websites to printed magazines and newspapers.

"We advertised once, but..." The whole statement is absurd. If you only ran an ad in a particular publication once you wasted your money, no matter how good a rate you had. Why? Just about every authority I've ever read has talked about a minimum of running an ad three times. Think about how much noise there is in our lives. You have to build awareness and consumer recall isn't going to happen with just a one time run.

Poor Results: You need to find out why your ad didn't pull well. Was it confusing? Was there too much copy? Did you hit the consumer with something exciting or could it have put a rock to sleep? Did your ad match the demographics of the web publication? Was there a sense of urgency for your target audience to respond?

Location, Location, Location: You've heard the expression as it relates to commercial real estate, but advertising in a publication is no different. Where was your ad in the publication?  With magazines, a lot of companies believe the forward third of the book is more prime than anywhere else. On a website that changes, but the concept is still the same - maximum visibility. Obviously, with a magazine, the inside and back covers are strong, but there are some other great locations...for example, opposite the Table of Contents or dead center of the magazine, if there's a tip-in subscription card or some other piece of literature.

Fractional vs. Full Page: A full-page ad will always drive your ego, but will it drive traffic to your business? I'm a huge fan of fractional ads but used in multiples on sequential pages. I learned this lesson from the master himself, Bruce Landau, who the industry sadly lost many years ago. When Bruce was the VP at Bogen he almost always ran multiple third-page ads, typically three in a row on the right-hand page. It was very effective and gave him as much, if not more bang for the buck than many of the big companies running full and double-page spreads.

Leveraging Editorial: Many of you get approached all the time by reps offering a great rate in local publications. They'll cut what seems like a great deal, but you can make it even better. Let them know you're interested in advertising, but you'd also like some editorial support. There are so many opportunities - a profile story about your business, a story about a particular application you specialize in or an article about a community fund-raiser you're involved with. Editorial in any publication has room to be less objective, as long as there's something newsworthy in the story.

Don't forget about links to enhance your online presence. A publication offering additional exposure with links in solid relevant editorial can drive traffic to your site, just like a good magazine article can drive traffic to your front door. Again, make it part of the negotiating process.

Ask to see the demographics: You need to know who the readership is before you spend your money. For example, if you were a cosmetic company launching a new nail polish would you advertise in "Guns and Ammo"? Anybody who says "yes," lock up for the day and go home.  For the rest of you, pay attention to the readership of the publication. We know that women make 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the portrait/social categories. If that's where your expertise lies, then you want to be advertising in publications that reach women. The same applies to children and family photographers, fine art photographers, etc. Every specialty has its own audience with a few that overlap.

Advertising is just one part of the marketing equation. A print or online ad with a particular company followed by inactivity in any other area will never accomplish as much as it could.

Don't forget all the other components as shown on the right. Print and Internet advertising are only two of the areas targeting consumers.

This is where your blog comes in along with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Social media plays a huge role today in helping you expand your reach.

And, don't forget the look and feel of your website, community involvement, and publicity in your community. Direct mail, if done right, is another strong component.  The point is, you can never slow down on building your brand and for any campaign, you need 3-6 of the elements in the illustration above to be effective. 

Fast Food Fridays are brought to you by:

This is the 29th Fast Food Friday feature and just about everything on the menu has been about components for a stronger business. There are so many things you can fine-tune to establish a more powerful brand and create a better business model.

However, today's "blue plate special" is a little different cuisine than what we usually offer. Indirectly it's about better utilizing your time, but directly it's about staying out of time-wasting discussions that drain your creativity and take you away from your core goal - building your business.

The idea was influenced by a series of stupid, inflammatory comments on a Facebook Forum where I'm an administrator. Dozens of artists got into a series of senseless battles accomplishing nothing. Then, as I was scrolling through the SCU archives, I found a rant from four years ago on a similar topic. Like any good diner from my days living in New Jersey, I brought back a favorite, but with some new ingredients. 

Next week we officially hit the fourth quarter and if you're going to capitalize on seasonality, you can't be wasting your time-fighting battles and dealing with trolls.

Time is your most valuable commodity, so let's stop wasting it on things that don't matter! Let's start with the way, so many of you get involved in battles on Facebook:

Read the complete thread before you comment. By the time there are 20-30 comments, more than likely whatever you're going to add has already been said. So, why bother?

Don't respond to the most recent comment, but to the request from the person who did the original post.  Somebody says something that's less than politically correct, and all hell breaks loose as one blowhard after another decides to show he/she can enter the battle of wits to see whose sarcasm can take the trophy...the truth is, most of you are terrible at this game anyway. In the end, you just make a fool of yourself.

"There are no erasers on the Internet!"
Unknown

"Act as if your grandmother's watching!" It's from my buddy Levi Sim, and I've used the quote at least a dozen times over the last few years. You don't need to shred people when you don't like an image. You also don't need to sugar coat your criticism, just be honest, but do it under the umbrella of being helpful.

Get a thicker skin! The problems on Facebook go both ways. A few of you love to play the bully and crush people because they're just not as smart as you. On the other side of the coin, some of you get offended over somebody's "tone" when they've told you your image is bad. Seriously, everyone knows when they post an image whether it's a "wow" print or simply sucks! Let's get a thicker skin and accept that nobody matters except your clients. 

                                                        "Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder."
                                                                                        Dean Collins

Learn to communicate! The hardest vehicle for communicating is the printed word. It shows no emotion. You can't hear the inflection in anybody's voice. It's just what you wrote, and a lot of you are not very good writers - you don't express yourself the same way you would if you were face to face with somebody. You write what you feel, and what's in your heart never makes it to the printed words.

Stop reporting posts just because the topic offended you. Not everybody likes the same things you do. It's important to report posts that truly are offensive, and they range from the porn mongers to sunglasses ads.  However, there's nothing worse for an administrator than one of you deciding a comment about a bride's ugly dress was off topic, and you choose to defend her "say yes to the dress" choice. It doesn't mean the thread wasn't appropriate.

Don't believe everything you read! Just because it's on the Internet doesn't mean it's true. Yet, every day somebody posts something that sets off hundreds of photographers. I'm not talking about the challenges we all deal with in hearing things from Washington, but about changes in technology, rumors about new and old products, information about our favorite photographers and educators, just to name a few. Check the sources before you react.

"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that no one can confirm their authenticity!"
Abraham Lincoln

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I started Fast Food Friday to help more of you think about those things you need to do to build a stronger business. With the seasonality of the fourth quarter right around the corner now is the time to be fine-tuning your business to be proactive rather than reactive!

Today's special isn't fast food at all. I'm sticking with bigger entrees, giving you more to work on. While these new lunches are more extensive, they also have the potential to provide you with bigger and better results.

We've got a guest "chef" today. My good buddy Scott Bourne is sharing an archived recipe for building traffic on your blog, but we're "cooking" today's special together! He's got the entree, and I'm throwing in dessert!

Remember, this is only one "meal" - building a successful blog is about great content, consistency and paying attention to your target audience. Too many of you have let your blogs become nothing more than an extension of your galleries with image after image from client shoots!

by Skip Cohen
​
Scott's shared five outstanding tried and true tips, but I want to add to his list.

1. "Mom" Appeal: For most of you, your target audience is "Mom." Women make 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the portrait/social categories. That means your content needs to have appeal to Mom, but so does the look and feel of your blog. Your content needs to be relatable to your readership.
2. Gift Ideas: It's holiday season, so share ideas on things to do with photographs. From frames to albums to canvas and prints, technology has made the choices to suggest virtually unlimited.
3. Making "Mom" a Better Artist: There are things you do every day as a photographer that you take for granted, but can help Mom do a better job of capturing images of her family and event - even if it's just with her cell phone. Share ideas on composition, lighting, fill-flash, and storytelling and help her get better results.
4. Throwback Thursday: Use your own throwback images to help remind your audience how fast the kids are growing up, and their family is changing. It's like the old "Subliminal Man" on Saturday Night Live - you've got to plant the seed for an updated family portrait this holiday season.
5. Be Consistent: Scott already hit on the point above, but I want to hit it again. Consistency is crucial in building readership, and if you find yourself blogging every full moon, then you're better off to shut off the blog entirely and come back when you can make the commitment it deserves.
6. Build a Stash: Every post doesn't have to be done in real time. If you look back at a previous Fast Food Friday special on blog ideas, they can all be written in advance. Build a stash of posts you can use and then don't relaunch your blog until you've got 12-15 posts all ready to go and in the pipeline. Then alternate between posts in your stash and something fresh each week. 
7. Guest Posts: Sharing and exchanging content with other blogs help you build stronger awareness. Look for partnerships where you swap material with other photographers and groups within your community.
8. Support Your Community: Writing about upcoming community events gives you more traction in terms of giving back. It also helps define your role better as somebody who's helpful. You're likely to find the sponsoring associations for each event you help publicize sharing your information and helping you build more awareness.

Can you survive without a blog? Of course, but here's why I believe it's so important. Your website is about what you sell. Your blog is about what's in your heart. The two work together just like publicity and advertising to help you establish a stronger brand.

And, if you're stuck and need a little help or have questions, then you know where to find me! I may not always have the answers, but I've got a fantastic network, and we're all here to help you thrive, not just survive!

Last week we turned up the volume on Fast Food Friday with a new "menu." Each blue plate special since February has included things photographers need to do to fine tune their business. Now it's time to get into some bigger entrees!

Remember the reason I started this series - there's so much you can be doing to strengthen your business and secure a stronger market share in 2018. 

I'm staying with the new menu, and this week let's put together a time-sensitive list of things you should be doing NOW! Every year many of you do the same thing, you think of great ideas too late. Let's make this the year that none of you should on yourself!

The seasonality of the fourth quarter is right around the corner with great potential for increasing business, but why not be ready? Let's turn 2018 into the year that made you a "showstopper" in your community!

While this has the potential to be one of the SCU Diner's best entrees, it's up to you to make it all work. So, here are some things to be thinking about NOW to capitalize on business during the holiday season.

• Relationship Building: This is the time to hook up with people in your network involved in community events. Hopefully, you've been building relationships all along, but the challenge now is, who's photographing the various holiday events around your community this year? Who's doing portraits at the various dinners/parties around town like Kiwanis, Rotary, etc.?
• Who's on your "thank you" list? Now is the time to start thinking about extra things you want to do for those vendors who helped you earlier in the year. It might be time for a fruit basket for that wedding planner who's been good to you. Or, maybe it's taking your favorite florist out to lunch or dinner. Remember, everybody gets busy over the holidays and the sooner you plan something, the more potential impact it has.
• Holiday Cards: I've written about them a few dozen times over the years, but right now I'm talking about your holiday card featuring one of your images and a holiday message to your clients, vendors and the opinion leaders in your community.
• Products for Your Clients: From holiday cards to prints, frames and novelty items - pick up a phone and call your lab! It's such an easy question, "What's new?" You're looking for ideas to include in a holiday promotion as well as possible thank you gifts for a few exceptional clients.
• Open Houses: The topic has already been covered in two different blog posts, over the last week. But this is a perfect time to host an open house to feature your work and further build your reputation in the community.
• Community Education: Most of you have the experience to do a program for your community to help them raise the bar on the quality of their images over the holidays. Do something through your church, a parent's night through the school or just a couple of evenings in your neighborhood. This is about sharing your expertise as a photographer. There are so many things you do every day that shared, can help people become better photographers - composition, fill flash, exposure, storytelling, printing images, etc. 
• Ramp Up Your Blog: From gift ideas this holiday season to tips on technique, your blog content goes hand in hand with the relationship with the community. Remember "Mom" makes 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the portrait/social categories - so share posts that target Mom.
• Own Your Zip Code: Now is the time to be knocking on doors and introducing yourself to all the businesses in your community. No matter what your specialty, all of you have the ability to help business owners with their photographic needs. A wedding photographer for example might say, "My specialty is weddings, but if there's anything you ever need help with in photography, I've got a great skill set and other photographers I work with who will be able to help." That's all it takes - throw in a handshake and leave your business card.
• Headshot Campaign: I love the idea of having fun with this one and positioning it as a community cleanup campaign. No matter where you are there are dozens of professionals who need a new headshot. Have some fun with this and do a holiday promotion and get people thinking about how long it's been since they had a new headshot.
• Partnerships: I've written a lot about partners in mailers, online promotions, and live events. You don't have to do everything alone. For example, hosting an open house with two other companies gives you two more ambassadors to get the word out and bring in more guests for the event itself. Plus, splitting the cost three ways reduces your out-of-pocket expense by a third!

Since I'm having fun with the diner analogy, your dessert with today's entree is the added strength to your brand awareness and eventually your bottom line revenue! Most important of all, remember to include your family in discussions about what you're doing to create more excitement this holiday season.

Food tastes better when you eat it with your family!
Anonymous

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Since February, I've been sharing Fast Food Friday - posts about things photographers need to be doing to build a stronger business and help make 2018 an outstanding year. The SCU diner has served up twenty-five different "blue plate specials" covering your website, blog, marketing, networking, and demographics, just to name a few.

This week the SCU diner is taking on a new cuisine, thanks to Excire Inc. Excire's Search Pro software helps photographers save time when it comes to searching for images through Lightroom Classic CC. For many of you it's going to be a huge time saver, helping you find important photos faster.

Keeping with the theme of things that can save you time, I decided it would be fun to change our menu, and start giving you ideas to help you become more efficient in marketing. We're going to expand this series to focus on specific promotional ideas to help you grow your business. We're going to mix up the "fast food" with some bigger entrees! 

Fast Food Friday is going to give you bigger ideas on how to better utilize your time starting with this week's promotion:  putting together an open house. Between part-time and full-time photographers there are thousands of you who don't have a studio. To that point - whether you have a bricks and mortar business address or work out of your home, these next couple of months are the perfect time for you to host an open house and introduce the community to your work.

Let's start by getting rid of the stigma of not having a full-time business address. Obviously having your own studio gives you something more to talk about, but this is about showing off your work together with your personality. It's about getting your community to know who you are.  
​

• Where: If you have a studio then there's the obvious answer, but for those of you working out of your homes - Consider a restaurant in your community or one of the venues that host the various events. If you're worried about costs, then bring in a co-host like another photographer and share the expense. Another possibility is one of the vendors you work with or would like to. For example, a florist, spa, bridal salon...any business going after similar demographics for their target audience. 
• How: Once you've figured out the cost, set it up like you would an artist's show at a gallery. You don't have to go overboard but can focus on a wine and cheese event. You're going to spend a little on a classy invitation to elevate the event and bring in some close friends to help you host. Your goal is to meet every person who comes through the door and get them to know a little about you.
• Who: Pay attention to your target demographics. First, you want to invite people who have the profile of your target audience. You might consider buying a list by zip code and then plug into the profile the various characteristics of your audience. Remember to focus on "Mom," since women make up 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the wedding/portrait specialties. 
• Fine-tuning the Guest List: Include in your invitation list businesses in your area who might be connected to your audience or have their own photographic needs to call you about from time to time. Remember the Chamber of Commerce and community leaders. You're looking for the opinion leaders at the various companies and organizations. Don't forget editorial staff at any local magazines, newspapers or websites/blogs.
• What: Besides hosting the event, your goal is to show your very best images. That means you're going to be very selective in what images you show. You're also going to print them big and have them framed, on easels or hung on the walls of your location. You want it to feel like a gallery opening.
• When: It depends on what's typically going on in your community. You don't need to battle it out with everyone's regular entertainment schedule, Friday night football games, etc. It also doesn't have to be a late night - you can go for a Sunday afternoon to an early evening event, giving people time to head out to dinner afterward. 
• Why: This isn't just about getting your community to know who you are, but also a way to thank them for their support. Even a brand new business, just getting started, can position an open house as showing appreciation for the people who have helped make it happen.
• Partnerships: I mentioned bringing in some partners in the "Where" category, but let's go a little deeper. A partner, who's chasing the same audience you are, is ideal. You not only can split the cost but share in all the promotional efforts and combining both of your databases. You're going to work together as co-hosts. This is another reason why I like hearing about photographers who team up to host an event. It's especially useful if you each have a slightly different specialty. Each partner becomes an ambassador for ALL the companies involved.
• Cause-related Marketing: If you can tie the whole event to a non-profit it's going to be even more effective. I remember Bambi Cantrell tying in an evening event with a salon/spa. She had photographed all of the staff of the salon and then co-hosted the event with wine and cheese, creating a truly upscale evening. It was complete with all the portraits she had previously created, and it was all in support of a community fund-raiser. 
• Spreading the Word: There are so many opportunities here for press releases before and after the event, blog posts and some good hits in social media. This is where you can share images from the event and talk about your love for photography. Done right, you can get several good stories out of the event, and you never know when the local paper just might run something about your evening.

Whether you have a studio, full-time business address or not isn't important. What is important is getting people to know who you are and understand your love for the craft.

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While the title "Marketing Monday" has a nice ring to it, it means nothing if you don't start off EVERY day taking a few minutes to put together a game plan. It doesn't have to be cast in concrete, just a few thoughts regarding what you want to accomplish short and long term. For me, it works with a piece of scratch paper or my whiteboard. It's that simple, but let's go a little deeper.

Marketing Monday is nothing more than a catchy name, and virtually everybody who writes about business uses the term - but what about all the other days of the week? 

Here's my point: August is rapidly coming to a close and the seasonality of the fourth quarter seems to start earlier and earlier each year. If you live in the US, then Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer, but more importantly the start of the real busy season. The schools are all back in session. Events like homecoming, Friday night games and fund-raisers in your community are all ramping up. Over and again there are opportunities for you to remind your target audience you're there to help them capture every memory.

So, what are you doing to make yourself stand out? How are you going to build brand awareness in a way that's different from your competitors?

Product Selection: A few weeks ago I wrote about Performance EXT Metal Prints from Bay Photo. The whole concept is based on showing great images in a way that's stunning and different - outside! But it's only one way to make your work standout and be different.

Over the weekend I got an email from my good buddy, Glen Clark at Bay Photo. They've set up a program for my readers - open a new account and get 25% off your first order. Then as a member of the Bay Photo family, you'll have access to exclusive offers and a new 24-hour special each week. 

I know this sounds like a mini-infomercial, but I get no compensation. I'm sharing the information because you need to find new products to excite your clients this holiday season. Most of you also need to strengthen your margins and increase revenue. Well, how are you going to do that if you keep offering the same old products?

Community Involvement:  September is the gateway to new opportunities for you to give back to your community. Remember, people like buying products/services from companies they perceive as giving back. You're looking for the community to be good to you, so you need to be good to them! 

Look for opportunities to volunteer and be a part of fundraisers around you. From working in the refreshment booth at Friday night football games to helping photographers on the yearbook, to United Way, walkathons and various nonprofits there's so much going on in the fall and into the November/December holidays. But you've got to step up and be there!

Marketing Material: It's no secret that I'm working with a new and exciting company and product, Excire. While it's remarkable technology as a search tool for your images, regardless of how diligent you've been in keywording, I see one of it's greatest values as helping you find your very best images for a marketing slideshow.

I've written a lot about this over the years, and a few years ago we even did a contest with Photodex looking for the best self-promotional slide show. Well, if you're on Lightroom Classic (not on the cloud) Excire gives you the ability to initialize your images and then search for the best in any category, by keyword, similarities or facial recognition.

And Photodex gives you the ability to take your best images and put them together with good music and create a 2-3 minute slideshow demonstrating your skill set and love for the craft. You need to find better ways to remind your clients what you do for a living and plant those seeds for a new family portrait, holiday cards and unique photographic gifts this holiday season.

I love the idea of Marketing Monday, but the words themselves are only a clever way to theme a blog post. For all of us there are six other days of the week and they all need to start with MARKETING!

I've written this many times before: I feel like I'm trapped in an old movie and the hands of the clock are just spinning by! Well, this week seems to have gone by in a flash, and I'm trying a little experiment. 

I'm involved in a lot of different projects, companies, podcasts, and products. At the same time, it's tough for me to keep up, let alone remember what we're sharing in posts and tweets. In fact, just this morning I found an outstanding guest post from Kevin A. Gilligan about finding an artist's collective to help get your work out in front of more people. Kevin sent it to me last year, and it wound up lost in my email!

So, welcome to The Saturday Summary and links to a few of the week's highlights. Click on any of the images below to connect to the original post.

As always, thanks for being a reader. I sure do appreciate the support and the feedback. And, we've got a new week coming coming up that's going to be filled with some great content, all thanks to so many of you and the industry we're all passionate about!

Happy Saturday everybody!

Two weeks ago I shared a post about a very special company, near and dear to me, Excire Inc. Yes, I'm directly involved in the company, but those of you who know me well, also know I never take on anything I don't believe in. So, while some of you will see this post as an infomercial, the truth is, this is a Lightroom plug-in you need to know about.

It starts with being photographers who have all their images in Lightroom Catalogs. You started using Lightroom Classic years ago and now you've got thousands of images with limited ways to find them beyond your memory! Keywords help, but I've heard so many artists describe themselves as lazy and inconsistent in tagging their images.

So, you've got a need to find some specific images and like those lost socks from the dryer, you know they're out there, but you just can't find them! Over and again I'm hearing the comment, "I found shots I forgot about!"

Check out two recent guest posts from photographers, Chamira Young and Terry Clark. Both had similar experiences, frustrated in the past by the challenges of finding those "lost socks."

I'm always amazed by the ever-changing landscape of technology, and how when combined with passionate people it creates new projects, tools, and great relationships.

It's time to introduce you to Excire. I won't deny I have more than just a casual interest in this software, because I'm moving out of my regular consulting role and joining them as President of the company. But, for those of you who know my background, you also know I don't take on anything I don't believe in.

While I don't make a living as a professional photographer, I know more than I let on, and I see so much potential for Excire Search and Excire Search Pro to help raise the bar on your efficiency.


Terry Clark, a Pittsburgh based photographer and no stranger to SCU wrote the following:

Excire Search has become essential in building customized client-specific presentations. By using 'search by example photo' to find alternative photographs to those on my website, I can show fresh, unique pictures. Selecting the option of seeing 100 images from the search usually brings up enough different images, many of which I've forgotten, to create a fresh collection. This feature is extraordinarily useful and quite remarkable in its precision.

He later wrote, Another striking feature of Excire is the speed of searches. The nearly instantaneous result achieved is unprecedented.

I hope you'll check out the short video below that explains the process, then wander over to the website with a click on the banner above. This software is for Lightroom Classic users and is a high-performance search engine that runs locally on your computer and does not require any cloud services. It's ideal for photographers with large Lightroom Catalogs, but stay tuned - I'm working with some of the finest computer scientists in the world. In the months ahead you're going to be hearing a lot about Excire!

You'll find seven short tutorial videos on the website, helping you further understand how Excire can help you in your search for images. There's even a fifteen day FREE trial allowing you to take the software for a test drive of your own, before you purchase.

For those of you who have been following me and the SCU team, nothing changes in our goal to continue helping to raise the bar on your business, skill set, marketing and make 2018 one of your best years yet in photography!