MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS - PT.2
MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS - PT.2
If you missed last weeks’ blog: Market Your Photography Business
Tips for designing your marketing machine
I want to give you a couple of tips for when you want to design a car like this. This isn’t a marketing project that is meant to be taken lightly. But when you do it right, it really pays off. Your photography business will not survive without a well-thought-out, well balanced marketing plan. And a professionally wrapped “rolling billboard” is a great marketing piece for your photography business.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
Pick out a reputable auto graphics company. This is one of those cases where you get what you pay for. The goal is to have this car on the road for as many years as possible and going with the lowest bidder may mean that your wrap won't last as long. My recommendation is to find big name companies in your market that use wrapped vehicles to market their business and ask them who they work with - and why.
WORK WITH A DESIGNER
Preferably, their designer. As photographers we are very particular about the look we're trying to achieve. Asking a designer to read our minds and get it right on the first try is simply not fair. So what we did was ask for the template that the designer was going to be using. You will be pleased to know that those templates are Photoshop documents. Yep that's right, you can design your own car in Photoshop using a simple template. So we took that template, dropped our photography in it, added text and went to the designer with a rough outline of what we were looking for. The designer then took that rough outline and smoothed off all of the rough edges and made an amazing vinyl wrap for our car. By doing the rough design in Photoshop myself I shaved weeks off of the project and got exactly what I wanted.
PLAY THE LONG GAME
Choose photos that will still be in style in 10 years. The longer you have this car on the road the cheaper it is. We have had our Cube on the road for 60 months now so the cost for the vinyl wrap per month is now down to $58. That dollar figure will continue to get lower and lower the longer we have it on the road. So choose pictures that will be in style for a very long time. Photography that is trendier may be out of style sooner causing you to have to rewrap your car (or suffer through the embarrassment). In fact, displaying out of style pictures might actually be detrimental to your business. So choose your pictures wisely.
take the plunge
Go big or go home. Do NOT cheap out and try to save money by simply adding a vinyl logo to the back window of your car! We had our photography logo and contact information about the back window of our car for years and received a total of 0 inquiries. That's right - 0 customers. With just the window of our vehicle covered we blended in with every plumber, insurance salesman and Mary Kay lady on the road. Not only that, but you couldn't read it at 60 miles an hour. With the whole car wrapped no matter how fast you’re moving people can read your contact information. Do it right or don't waste your money!
Buck it up, buttercup
Don't give in to the fear. Creating a marketing vehicle like this works! YES it's a lot of money and YES spending that kind of money is scary. But I'll say it again. Creating a vehicle like this works. It WILL bring you clients. So if you have to save up for a couple years to make this happen then do it. If you're the type of person that wants it now then there are a couple of other things you can do to make this business decision possible today.
The first thing is a small business loan. Banks will actually loan your business money to do this. The second option is available if you're buying the car brand new. You can actually work with the car dealership and have them add the cost of the wrap to the cost of the car. Yes, you'll be paying interest on the vinyl wrap if you do this but it is an option. Lastly, ask your auto graphics company if they offer financing. Some do. Some don't. But again you'll be looking at a higher interest rate. So if your fear comes from spending cash you don’t have or you fear the hassle then don’t worry. Getting a custom wrap is easier than you’d think.
EASY Photography Marketing
Let’s wrap it up (Get it? Wrap it up?)
So now we’ve reached the conclusion of today's blog. Creating a rolling billboard like the Troutmobile is a great way to spend your marketing dollars. This is going to be a marketing method that we use for decades because it works. We are so confident in recommending this as a marketing option that whenever I talk to new photographers I always recommend it. Not to brag you guys but these cars made me so much money!
Photographers are all on the same team
Now I know we've just scratched the surface of how to create cars like this and how to finance them. So if y'all have any more questions I encourage you to ask in the comments section below. I'm always happy to sit down with you guys and help you and your businesses succeed. I believe this is extremely important because photographers are going out of business at an alarming rate. Right now it is more important than ever that we all open up a dialogue and share what we know. Instead of considering each other as competitors we need to realize that we are all on the same team and that the team is shrinking. So I encourage you to help me fight the good fight and don't be afraid to open up that line of communication. I'm happy to be an open book and I'm thrilled to be part of your team.
- Daniel