The Road to Seasonality - Part VII: Creating Awareness

If you want to catch more fish, use more hooks!
George Allen

by Skip Cohen

Every year around this time I start a series of reminders of things you should be doing to capitalize on seasonality. Today's post is modified from the SCU archives, but the point is still the same. While business has great potential all year long, it's the November/December seasonality that offers you the most potential.

This was originally the seventh post in my get-ready-for-seasonality series two years ago. However, the reality is there isn't any single key to success. But there is a winning combination of publicity, products, and promotion. 

As we head into the close of 2023, besides all the other aspects of marketing I've been writing about, you need to be creating awareness. What good is working so hard to create the best images of your life if nobody knows who you are? Too many of you think of publicity as awareness outside your control. It's time to kill the myth. Thanks to social media and communication technology - EVERY business can control and contribute to their own awareness.
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• Press Releases: Let's knock off the obvious first. Outlets for "exposure" are everywhere. The obvious big winners are stories in the local paper and their online presence, the community/city website, etc., but those are the most obvious. All along the way, you've got your blog, other public blogs, being involved in community events, direct mail, various related websites, conventions, brochures, etc. Don't forget to offer the use of your images, from a community event, for example, to the hosting group, company, or association; We're looking for anything that gets your name out there.
• Your Blog: This time of year, use your blog to give your readership ideas on great gifts this holiday season. From video holiday cards to physical cards to prints on canvas, metal, or framed and ready for hanging! Use your blog to be helpful as the expert in photography with tips to help your clients capture better images.
• Partnerships: Look for a couple of vendors in your community to partner with in a mailing or cross-promotional program. Each partner becomes an ambassador for the other two and can help you create more awareness (publicity) for your business.
• Social Media: Depending on your target audience, Facebook and Instagram still work to share your work and maximize awareness of your skills as an artist. Stop posting pictures of last night's trip to Dairy Queen! Use social media to your advantage - it's one of your best marketing tools.
• Community Involvement: People like buying products from companies they perceive as giving back. That means you've got to participate as a member of the community, not just another vendor/retailer. Start a community calendar on your blog. With each event you share, you also help the hosting organization by showing your support.
• Editorial: Those articles you see on the local town website or in the paper about other businesses don't happen by accident. Get to know some of the staff at the local publications.
• Hosting a Networking Luncheon: This is so easy to do and simply involves you contacting other businesses to join you for lunch. It's easiest explained for a wedding photographer who would invite a florist, caterer, limo service, bridal salon, wedding planner, bakery, travel agent, venue manager, etc. Find a restaurant with a private room and an easy-to-afford menu. Then bring everybody together to talk about business and what you can do as a group.
• Open House: When my podcast co-host, Chamira Young, moved to a new community, she rented a location and hosted an open house. She produced the video below, which later became a marketing piece.  There are two posts; just a click away for the "recipe" for an open house when you don't have a studio.

• "With Our Blessings:" Listen to this podcast with Bob and Dawn Davis. It might be an old podcast but there is no expiration date on how they build relationships with other vendors. Every time they photograph an event, they capture images of the other vendors involved. After the event, they send them the photos, with our blessings to use as they need. It's brilliant for relationship building and, in turn, creating publicity. Plus, it helps to build a referral network between other vendors!​​

Stop waiting for that knock at your door from a reporter who wants to do a feature profile story about you and your business. Those opportunities will come, but you have to build your own awareness first!

The bottom line is simple: "use more hooks!"