Today’s shoppers are too savvy for gimmicks. They understand quality, cost, and workmanship. They appreciate worth but are cautious in which areas of their life they invest in. However, while there are actual financial needs a family deals with day-to-day which are unchangeable (mortgage, utilities, food), there are needs that differ from family to family. One family may determine a ‘need’ for HBO on their cable service—this is a service that is a quality of life issue. Photography is a ‘want’ issue in all families, and a good photographers’ marketing plan is to change their skills from the ‘want’ column into the ‘need’ column.

The old theories of marketing fell into a “P-Process.” All marketing came down to product, promotion, publicity, and price. If you made enough adjustments to the various Ps you would eventually tumble into the right combination for your target clientele and unlock success.

Reality marketing in the 21st century is not so simple. Most searches for traditional marketing is designed for the small business by authors that have a vested interest in keeping things simple and offer up marketing models that are twenty, thirty, even forty years old.

Traditional marketing models tell us to find a niche, be able to fill the need for that niche, and then do lots and lots of advertising. I call it barracuda fishing, because when I was a kid my grandfather took me deep sea fishing and we used hundreds of pounds of anchovies in the water to attract the barracuda to come to the fishing lines. It was horribly inefficient, but the only way to go about business.

But in today’s market of the information age, news data hits our clients’ ears 8-16 hours a day. There are 80-300 TV stations, blogs have replaced the newspapers, and the Internet superhighway has replaced the traditional concepts of shopping, news, and communications. The old paradigms no longer apply.

In addition, in today’s economy, most photographers cannot afford to invest in inefficient marketing. Each demographic have their own marketing concerns as well. But what won’t change are the fundamentals of new ‘reality marketing.’

OLD PHILOSPHY- SELL ANY PRODUCTS WITH FANTASTIC MARKETING

NEW PHILOSOPHY- CREATE REMARKABLE PRODUCTS AND LET CUSTOMERS COME TO YOU.

This philosophy is especially important in the new digital SLR evolving market. Every hobbyist and Uncle Joe photographer is finding professional and prosumer equipment more and more affordable which scares the professional photographer. And it should scare you if you are not willing to understand the business of photography. It isn’t enough to be good, you have to be a “stand out among the crowd” photographer. This isn’t new to today’s photographer—the top photographers in their field have always known it. Some call it a style, or branding; but it is remarkable marketing. THE SECRET TO PROTECTING YOURSELF AGAINST THE FALLING PRICES OF INCREASING PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT IS YOUR OWN SKILL, SALESMENSHIP AND VISION.

“It is useless to advertise to anyone—except interested sneezers with influence.” Seth Godin.

Sneezers are people who spread idea-viruses. They are people who have some interest or expertise and regarded as subject references. (How many times has a family member or friend ask you about cameras?). Idea-viruses are actually commonplace. We deal with them every day in today’s market.

Think hard enough and you will find lots of influence from idea-viruses. Remember the first time you heard about Sam’s Club? They do no advertising and yet, there are very few people that don’t know where one is and what they are about.

So how do you make your product remarkable? Well of course, the first step is to become a master of your craft and find your own voice with your camera. No amount of marketing is going to help you if your photography isn’t up to par. But your photography is only part of your business. The rest of the business is you. How you deal with the client. How you conduct yourself at the wedding or during the portrait session. These are also factors in your business. Being remarkable is differentiating yourself from your competition in real and quantifiable ways that make your services more desirable than your competition and hopefully eventually turn your competition invisible among the rest of mediocre.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATION ISN’T—Satisfaction pandering, puffery and undercutting value.

Satisfaction pandering is the trap that many companies fell into in the 1990s. The philosophy was “do whatever it takes to make the customer happier.” This manifested itself in some significant jumps in service. Saturn was a great result of 1990s TQM (Total Quality Management). The car company spent great efforts to find our the needs of their clients and design a car that was unique and tailored to the market. But the mantra of “do what it takes” is rarely tempered with deciding what were meaningful changes that also helped the business as well as the customer. Business must always evaluate customer needs and wants just as we evaluate our needs and wants in our business. The customer is always right, but don’t let them run your business into the ground.

Puffery is rampant in the photography business. People feel that you can not quantify the importance of one image over another and thus use “vapor” to fill out their descriptions. How often do we hear the words “passion” “the best” or a dozen other adverbs that mean absolutely nothing. Lots of photographers feel the need write a “my philosophy” on their web site or brochure, and after paragraphs of flowery words their philosophy is always the same—“I love taking good pictures.” Don’t bury information in words. If the message is good then people will listen.

Undercutting value is the death bringer to any business. When price becomes the differentiating factor of your business you are diminishing your uniqueness. Any competitor can cut price and eventually you and your competition will just drive down the value of the market. The weakening of prices also sends a powerful message to your clients. Inexpensive is synonymous with cheap: cheap quality as well as cost. Cheap is a red flag for service industry because it shows that you have no faith in your product—and in photography that product is you.

WHAT DIFFERENTIATIONS WORK

Be First— Getting into the mind with a new idea is an enormous advantage. Originality often translates to the customer as more knowledgeable and expert service provider.

Attribute Ownership— If your images are what has created you branding, then it is YOU that people are hiring. The look of your photos, your personality and service can be your uniqueness that sets you apart. But beware, of your competitors. If you are emulating another photographer or they are emulating you, then you no longer have attribute ownership. You have both lost. Your growth as a business and photographer should also be a safe guard to attribute ownership as well, since you should grow and change along with your clients and market demands.

Be a Leader—This is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate you, because it creates credentials. Credentials are collateral towards guaranteed performance.

History—Having lasting power can have a stand out effect. There is a psychological connection between long history and worth/importance in the industry.

Specialize your Market—Some people assume that if you specialize that you are more expert in your work. Common sense dictates that no one can be an expert in everything. This is why so many photographers use catchphrases in their marketing like “photojournalistic wedding photographer.” It is very clear what they do and how they do it. A client knows what to expect. There is some fear by photographers that you will loose clients by specializing, but if your “style” is photojournalistic wedding photography then why would you want any other clients than those that are looking just for you?

Preferred Provider—More often than not, people do not know what to look for in a photographer. That is why their usual first question is “How much do you cost?” instead of “What quality of service do you provide?” If you are the preferred provider for another business, their referral will stand you out from the competition. And since the client has no idea what look for in a photographer anyway, it is convenient to defer to another expert.

Make Your Products Special— There are lots of things photographers do to specialize their products. From Packaging, to the style of their albums; rarely do two photographers package or provide their products the same way. Even paper can make your product stand out.

Be Hot!!—When you are on the top of your game, the world knows it. Word of mouth is now and always will be the most powerful marketing tool you have. If you find the right “sneezers” you can be the greatest photographer since sliced bread. But be careful. Sneezers are into what is hot, and every photographer has to make sure they stay timelessly hot like Madonna and not a one hit wonder.

So with all of this information we relook at the original question—what makes your small business worth marketing? And the question should be YOU, with a little help of the right mind set. Be bold, be different, be efficient, and be remarkable marketable.

Some further great reading on topics like this are "The Purple Cow" by Seth Godin and "Differentiate or Die" by Jack Trout