You cannot be all things to all men. I know this may come as a shock to you but it's true. You cannot hope to market your products or services to everyone, even if you think everyone needs them. For wedding photographers this should be obvious; not everybody is getting married. Portrait photographers can get a little confused sometimes and go around thinking "everybody wants a portrait". A good chunk of the population may well want to portrait at various stages of their life; like when a new baby comes along, or when graduating from university, or maybe because they need a portfolio to get into modelling, a family get-together, a retirement, or a whole host of other reasons. But nobody actually walks around thinking, "I really must get that portrait done".
But even within each individual discipline, targeting the general population is not a wise move. By focusing on one or more niches you're able to connect with people at a much higher level and consequently you will automatically gain more business. There is nothing wrong with being a general studio shooting all kinds of different assignments such as weddings, babies, family portraits, schools, commercial, etc; and photographers in a small town environment with only a limited client catchment area, may have to follow this approach to get by.
But for those of you who have other high street competitors operating as general studios, specialising in a particular profitable area may lead to you becoming known for this type of work. For example if your studio were to specialise in children's portraiture, and become known locally for this type of work, then many of your local competitors could well struggle to continue securing this type of work. This is a typical example of how limiting the type of people you will work for can actually increase the amount of work that you do and ultimately the amount of profit that you make.
Before taking this route you must first ascertain that there is sufficient work of the type that you wish to specialise in. One question I'm asked often is, "if I limit my market won't I be reducing the chances of doing business with more people"? Of course you will, but to succeed in today's competitive market you need to concentrate your marketing on a smaller group, into which you pour your resources.
Because you are targeting smaller numbers with the same amount of money you were previously using to acquire clients or customers, it is spread across a smaller number and therefore you have more to spend on each prospect than you would if your market was bigger. This alone makes you more successful. By specialising I don't mean ruling out all other types of work, I just mean not targeting your marketing towards it. There will always be spin-offs from any speciality that you decide to choose; wedding bookings and family portrait sessions can come from just about anywhere.
So what sort of thing should you do when you specialise. I'll use the example of baby and children's portraiture, because I think this is a market that is very easy to target, very easy to find & very lucrative. It will very often be the small things that you do that you become noticed for. Things like having a baby changing area & a children's play area with a selection of toys. Always having spare baby wipes on hand. Handing sweets out to the children at the end of a session, (although it will be a good idea to check with the parent first before doing this, as some children might not be allowed the type of sweets that you'd ordinarily use).
You can get really creative with this when you put your mind to it. Just imagine who your ideal customer is, what they want, what will make them feel special, what will inspire them to tell their friends and family about you, and just as importantly, what will make them want to use your services again and again and again.
At a very basic level the core principles of marketing are very simple.
1. Define your ideal client
2. Create a product that they will love
3. Find out where they are & what they do
4. Make them an offer they can't refuse
5. Blow them away with your level of customer service
6. Keep in touch
Still not convinced? Let's say that you just started out in business and you need to get account. Your first choice is to look in the Yellow Pages under the accounting category. Although there are a number of ads the first one reads...
ABC chartered accountants. Tax preparation, auditing, bookkeeping, payroll services, help for start-ups, management accounts.
The second ad reads...
XYZ chartered accountants. Specialising in helping start-ups get their businesses running quickly profitably and effectively.
Having read those two ads which accounting firm are you likely to choose?
This article was written by Paul Spiers. Paul is one for the few people to offer marketing advice and ideas for professional photographers. Visit www.photographymarketing.co.uk to join his free newsletter.
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