Organization Partner

If you have a small or mid-sized business, chances are that you can maximize the use of your resources by utilizing an outside agency to handle your advertising and marketing needs. Here are some tips on how to find reputable firms and agents, what you can expect to pay, and how much lead time you should give when it comes to individual projects.

Excellent quality advertising and marketing agencies are probably no further away than your phone book. Just about any city with a population in excess of 40,000 will have a few agencies to choose from. N some cases, they will be locally run agencies that know the business climate very well. In other cases, the agencies will be part of a national organization, and be in a great position to provide you with national exposure.

Depending on what your company does, one type may be a better choice over the other. If the local agencies don’t ring any chimes for you, then take to the Internet. You will find web sites for a number of advertising agencies across the globe that will also help to design sales and marketing pieces for you, set up advertising campaigns, and in general make you look very good to the consumer market. Many of these firms will want you to sign a contract of some duration, normally at least a year.

You may have a monthly fee you pay; in some cases, it may be a matter of providing the agency with a fixed percentage of the billed revenue generated as a result of their efforts on your part. In some cases, it may be a combination of the two. Depending on the nature of your business, you can anticipate a minimum charge of $10,000 annually if you engage an agency. When deciding on an agency to outsource all your advertising and marketing needs to, make sure you see story boards of other campaigns they have done and get some references. Continue Reading

It is essential to have an excellent marketing plan – without efficient marketing you will not generate the worthwhile enquiries that you wish for. You want to be looking for leads that convert into sales. There is little repeat business in wedding photography and work from recommendations can take some time to trickle through. It is essential that right from the beginning you advertise carefully. Once established, you may thrive on referrals only. In the meantime, however, look at all the different and most cost effective ways of advertising and pursue them avidly. You must always remember that your potential client will look for ‘what is in it for them’, hence focus your advertising on their needs and wants! Think about all the benefits they will get when they book you and promote this within your advertising. It is all well and good to boast about how great you are as a photographer, but they will want to see the real benefits to them e.g. free DVD slideshow, two photographers on the day, back up facilities, years of experience etc.

It is very important to find out where clients have heard about you; you then know what is working for you. At this point, you can put more effort into these areas to make them even more effective. The best way of finding out is to ask your clients. If you advertise in magazines, you can use slightly different email addresses in each magazine, which are ultimately re-directed to your receivable email address. You can identify those coming from the various publications in this way. Continue Reading