What advertising is working best for you?

[dnpayne]

So, I thought I would start up a new thread and see what different advertising options you all are experimenting with and which avenues are the most cost effective for you.

As you know, I'm just now getting my feet wet with photography. I'm shot a couple weddings, a couple maternity shoots, a handful of engagements and I have 3 weddings booked in the future. I've also gotten quite a few leads that haven't turned into bookings yet. All of this was done through word of mouth.

With that said... I'd really like to grow what I'm doing into a business. That means advertising. Obviously, that takes money, which is in short supply.

I recently put up a few Facebook ads with a minimal budget to test the waters. Nothing yet and only a couple clicks. Still trying though.

Bridal Shows - I have been debating about this for a while. Not sure.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your stories and ideas for your areas.

[Jim Poor]

1. Word of mouth.
1b. Facebook, which I consider word of mouth.

2. Talking to folks I meet when I'm out and about at event and just out and about in general.

I did splurge on a local WUSA9 add and for the six month term, got exactly ZERO traffic to my site from it.

[dnpayne]

Yeah, Facebook is my lifeline at the moment. Everything has come in through there (not ads, just friends of friends).

Have you messed with Facebook ads at all? I'm trying to figure out how to fine tune them down to make them actually work for me.

But I agree, everything has been word of mouth, but I want to get jobs coming in from other avenues too as I can only rely on word of mouth so much. Currently I'm working full time doing something else so it doesn't really matter. However, my long term goal is to do photography full time and it's scary only relying on word of mouth.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by dnpayne

Yeah, Facebook is my lifeline at the moment. Everything has come in through there (not ads, just friends of friends).

Have you messed with Facebook ads at all? I'm trying to figure out how to fine tune them down to make them actually work for me.

But I agree, everything has been word of mouth, but I want to get jobs coming in from other avenues too as I can only rely on word of mouth so much. Currently I'm working full time doing something else so it doesn't really matter. However, my long term goal is to do photography full time and it's scary only relying on word of mouth.

No Facebook ads for me.

[MindyRaeL]

I can't help much in the way of weddings... I stay as far away from that as possible.
I shoot primarily children, and I've gotten a lot of business from meetup.com. Just plug in your zip and keyword mom, and there are tons of mom's groups. I sponsor two groups, giving members a slight discount. You could try plugging in wedding or engaged or something similar as your keyword and see what pops up in your area.

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by dnpayne

Yeah, Facebook is my lifeline at the moment. Everything has come in through there (not ads, just friends of friends).

Have you messed with Facebook ads at all? I'm trying to figure out how to fine tune them down to make them actually work for me.

But I agree, everything has been word of mouth, but I want to get jobs coming in from other avenues too as I can only rely on word of mouth so much. Currently I'm working full time doing something else so it doesn't really matter. However, my long term goal is to do photography full time and it's scary only relying on word of mouth.

Facebook is great. It's the accidentally perfect medium for this kind of thing, with the ability to not only display work, but also tag people and use the viral method to indirectly drive people to your work.

The ads.. I've tried in the past, but it didn't prove to be a great vehicle. It was easy to get the fans, however as that translated to a worthwhile return per click, it's debatable. The only thing having a lot of Fans does is massage your ego.. it's not the same as what I mentioned in the first paragraph. I suppose to a certain extent, once you have a few hundred fans it lends some legitimacy to your operation, but that's about all I can think of.

Aside from that, I advertise through The Knot. It's probably more expensive than you're willing to go, but it drives a huge amount of traffic to me and is arguably the go-to source for brides these days.

Word of mouth is pretty much a catch-22. You can't generate it until you have done plenty of work for plenty of people, but in the beginning, you don't have that critical mass to get the work.

I was lucky in that I was already plugged into a good network, who really pushed me to friends in the beginning, and I reached that 'critical mass' quickly so that it became self-sustaining as I built my book relatively quickly.

The only other way I garner clients is through exchanging leads I can't take with another photographer.

I wouldn't do a bridal show, though they must be successful. It kind of feels like speed-dating to me. Happily I don't need to.

[dnpayne]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Facebook is great. It's the accidentally perfect medium for this kind of thing, with the ability to not only display work, but also tag people and use the viral method to indirectly drive people to your work.

The ads.. I've tried in the past, but it didn't prove to be a great vehicle. It was easy to get the fans, however as that translated to a worthwhile return per click, it's debatable. The only thing having a lot of Fans does is massage your ego.. it's not the same as what I mentioned in the first paragraph. I suppose to a certain extent, once you have a few hundred fans it lends some legitimacy to your operation, but that's about all I can think of.

Aside from that, I advertise through The Knot. It's probably more expensive than you're willing to go, but it drives a huge amount of traffic to me and is arguably the go-to source for brides these days.

Word of mouth is pretty much a catch-22. You can't generate it until you have done plenty of work for plenty of people, but in the beginning, you don't have that critical mass to get the work.

I was lucky in that I was already plugged into a good network, who really pushed me to friends in the beginning, and I reached that 'critical mass' quickly so that it became self-sustaining as I built my book relatively quickly.

The only other way I garner clients is through exchanging leads I can't take with another photographer.

I wouldn't do a bridal show, though they must be successful. It kind of feels like speed-dating to me. Happily I don't need to.

Thanks for the post. I've been researching the Knot, but I've read on some forums that it didn't really work out for the price. I guess each area and person is different though. I suppose the only way to really know is do it yourself.

[dnpayne]

Originally Posted by MindyRaeL

I can't help much in the way of weddings... I stay as far away from that as possible.
I shoot primarily children, and I've gotten a lot of business from meetup.com. Just plug in your zip and keyword mom, and there are tons of mom's groups. I sponsor two groups, giving members a slight discount. You could try plugging in wedding or engaged or something similar as your keyword and see what pops up in your area.

Interesting. I may give meetup.com a try. What are the cost's with sponsoring groups? Is that the only way to put ads on there?

[NicoleScraps]

Going along with the word of mouth idea, you need to figure out what group (s) of people are your target client. I really want to focus on babies, maternity, and seniors. For the babies and maternity, I got really friendly with the organizer of a local pregnancy and lactation support group. Bingo! She talks to tons of pregnant ladies and new moms every single day. I have gotten about 6 jobs in the last three months from her. I am actually going to take out a year long ad on their website as well.
Seniors---well duh, I had to find the kids. I put out the word that I was looking for high school seniors, I found a few kids that were friends of friends, did their photos for free (no sitting fee) gave them a discount on prints and gave them a stack of cards to pass out at school. It has been awesome. It costs me $5 per kid to make up 100 cards and my gas money to the location.

Edit: I did put an ad in the local paper one time and got exactly ZERO response from it.

[BuddhaPi]

Not a photographer by trade but here goes..

1. search engines via organic listings ..no paid ads
2. word of mouth ( I offer a generous referral program)
3. Postcard mailers - only yields about a 1% return, which is enough to pay for printing & postage, the rest is exposure. I v'e had clients that had the postcard for over a year before contacting me