Getting Your Photography Business Back On Track

by Skip Cohen

​It's Marketing Monday, and if you're old enough to remember the Mickey Mouse Club, it's "Anything Can Happen Day." Three things point out where my head is:
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• Sherry Hagerman announced she was going "off the grid" for a week to take a break. ClickCon is all thanks to Sherry, and I found myself envious of how brilliant it was just to step away and recharge.
• I let politics into my head with a conversation about the nonsense of Trump's comment about injected a disinfectant. THAT'S NOT WHAT HE ASKED. We were watching the briefing live, and honestly, it wasn't a bad idea to explore. What if medicine could use the same principles behind a household disinfectant to kill the virus in our bodies? Isn't that what we do with chemo already? I'm tired of the Democrats and the Republicans battling it out for themselves and not the American people!
• Last but not least, on our morning walk today, we had a conversation with a neighbor about the protest crowds in San Diego who are fighting to open the beaches. I'm amazed at the pockets of pure stupidity that seem to abound in this country. 

​The result of this rollercoaster of thoughts this morning resulted in me yelling at Alexa to play the best of White Snake! LOL So, consider yourselves warned - it's merely going to be a strange morning!

The image above is of our gardenia bush that we've been nursing for over a year. It's finally blooming. It got me thinking about marketing. The flowers are stunning, but not for long. However, as quickly as one dies, another one is opening. Your marketing right now has to follow the same one-after-another pattern. 

Two months ago, our lives changed. Getting back to what used to be the norm is taking longer than anticipated, but that doesn't mean you have to sit back and keep waiting. So, let's hit some tips and start NOW! You've got one goal - jumpstarting your stalled biz. It's nobody's fault business died, but it will be your fault if you bury it now!

It's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get up!
​Vince Lombardi

• Start a campaign to be in touch with ALL of your past clients. Make it a multi-faceted program combining phone calls, emails, and texting. You don't have to be selling anything - just check in on them to find out how they're doing.
• Pull together other business associates in your community. On an episode of the f64 Lunch Bunch, we shared a screenshot of Lori Nordstrom's. A few days earlier, she had been on a zoom meeting with thirty other businesswomen in the community - just to talk about what they were doing or could be doing together.
• Look for partnerships with local vendors. For example, Mother's Day is just under three weeks away - find a couple of partners to enhance social distancing for Mom and then roll it out into your community!
• Start reviewing your product line up. It starts with a call to your lab and merely asking, "What's new?" Before the pandemic, the professional labs were offering a long list of unique products. Now's the time to put together a new "menu" for your target audience.
• Social distancing has changed all the rules, but that doesn't mean you have to close up shop.
  • Check out this share last week from my buddy Joe Elario. His son JP who many of you have heard speak at WPPI over the years in the Miller booth, has reinvented Pop-Up portraits and he's working online directly with his clients.
  • Then there's the coloring book idea from Steven Gotz. Turn those family and children's portraits into line-art for coloring book pages to share with your clients.
  • And senior photographers don't forget this year's graduates! They've got the toughest graduation of all, but there are so many opportunities for you to be supportive. For example, Marathon Press still has its BOGO program going on grad cards, giving you an opportunity for a little more profitability too. 
• It's time to publish a press release! Let people know what you're doing. As you slowly bounce back, use your email base; data base of past clients; opinion leaders in the community, and your blog to let people know what you're working on. Talk about new products, partnerships, services and even additions to expanding your skills. 

Just like the next gardenia ready to bloom, think about your marketing plans for the rest of the year. Marketing doesn't mean one special offer after another, but a continuous stream to maintain your presence. 

I've shared this illustration numerous times over the years. You've got the greatest collection of marketing tools in the history of business - but nothing happens if you don't get started!

Most important of all, if you're stuck and just bogged down because of the stress and anxiety of the challenges today, pick up a phone and call a friend; find an educator you respect and check out what they're sharing, or give me a shout. I won't always have the answers, but I've got a network of friends who will!

Last night one of my favorite people, Jennifer Maring, shared the perfect quote:

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I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.
Always go for it!

Things are starting to get back to normal, but it's going to be a slow journey back to the "good old days" of two months ago. You can speed up the process by making sure you're maintaining a strong presence. Don't let this time become a stretch of your life where you look back with regrets over things you could have done.

And don't forget -  we really are all in this together. And, there are so many of us willing to help!

Note: Gardenia thanks to the LUMIX G9 with 30mm LUMIX G Macro lens. Minor post processing in Luminar.