Day Three: 2022 Marketing Makeover
Welcome to day three of the Marketing Makeover New Year's Party! So far, we've covered what you want for yourself and your photography business in 2022. You’ve written your goals down and shared them with your business besties here in the Beyond Natural Light Facebook group, and you're committed to making them happen this year!
You also know why you want to turn photography into a business, and why you want to achieve the goals you shared on day one. Today we’re going to switch gears a little and look at the who.
HIGHLIGHTS
Who do you need to be to turn your what into a reality?
Marketing is NOT the same thing as sales, and a lot of people get that confused. Marketing is a process and journey we take our clients through. It educates them about our brands, our beliefs and what sets us apart from our competitions so when they do reach out to us, they are ready to book. Marketing is a way of nurturing and becomes part of your onboarding process when done right.
In order to create marketing content that works like that, we need to have clarity about ourselves, our services, our brand and our business so we can effectively communicate it to our potential clients.
Sometimes there is a belief that success is something that happens to us in the future. What I know after 20+ years in this industry is that success is not something you just wake up having one day.
Success is a series of choices. It happens over time when we decide to continually show up and work, with intention, moving ourselves closer to our goals. Doing that is not always easy, which is why it’s so important that we not only know what we want, but we know WHY we want it.
In order to show up like that, it’s also really important that we’re in the right mindset, because how we choose to think will absolutely affect the results we get or don’t get from our efforts.
There are two kinds of photographer mindsets that we can embody as photographers at any given time. We can show up as what I call "the struggling photographer" or as "the empowered photographer".
The struggling photographer is a mindset rooted in fear and scarcity. This person has a victim's outlook on things, meaning they look for reasons outside of themselves to explain why they’re not getting the clients they need or why their business isn't profitable. This looks like blaming the “saturated” market for their struggles, or blaming underprices competition or the economy.
Here's the thing: all of those things may be real actual problems, BUT when we’re in the struggling photographer mindset, we use those problems as excuses to justify inaction. We’ll say that there are too many underpriced photographers bringing us all down, and that is why we can’t raise our rates, or so and so is only charging $50 for a session, so that means that people in my area will NEVER pay what I charge–that sort of thing.
On the other hand, when faced with the same challenges, empowered photographers look for solutions instead of excuses. These are the people who choose not to worry about or even look at what other people are charging. Empowered photographers are able to take emotion and fear out of their business decisions and instead, they look at the data.
If they are not making the money they need, they don’t blame others. They sit down and figure out what they need to charge in THEIR businesses to fix the problem. If they’re not getting clients, they don’t blame their competition or the saturated market. They educate themselves, seek help from teachers in their industry, invest the time and resources into solving the problem. Instead of looking at their competition or chasing the trends, they get clear on what they want and what support they need.
This has a huge impact on marketing efforts, because as an empowered photographer facing a challenge, you are less likely to throw up your hands and give up. It makes it easier to remember your why and then get the help you need to solve the problem and move on.
Day Three Assignment
Building your dream business is ABSOLUTELY possible. I’ve done it and have seen the photographers I coach inside of the Six-Figure Studio do it too. However, it does require making a choice about how you’re going to show up to the challenges you face.
Will it be as the struggling photographer? Or as the empowered photographer?
