Find your audience the old fashioned way.
With email open rates what they are and your Facebook posts not finding their way onto your audiences timeline, what’s the last time you mailed a direct mail piece, or send a handwritten note, a physical DVD of your last project, a personal present, advertised in something like the workbook; just about anything that no one else is doing – will set you apart. All it has to be is different to help you find your audience:
“Physical and digital marketing aren’t mutually exclusive.” says the Workbook owner Bill Daniels (@TheWorkBook) “Photographers need them both. Printed pieces are expensive, but powerful and long-lasting. Use them when you can, but your website should always be as optimized as possible and you should Facebook, tweet and blog whenever you have something interesting to say to your target audience.” Remember staying on the cutting edge to find your audience?
At the end of the day it’s about finding and maintaining relationships. There’s a delicate balance between being forgotten and annoying. An email every week may be a bit much, but one well timed phone call, can translate into work.
CASE IN POINT:
PHYSICAL PROXIMITY CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
My daughter was up in Orlando (4 hours from my home) for a two week period. I called and emailed my clients in the area a few weeks ahead of my driving her up there to see , if we could combine my road trip to pick her up, with work. I had send a few emails, Facebook messages and phone calls over the preceding months and the last one got a reply: “Good news!” my client wrote “We’ve got work for you.”
TANGIBLE THINGS CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
I love mailing something tangible to a new (or well established) member of my audience. A post card, a movie poster, anything that will stand out. You’re in the advertising business brand yourself well – I even have paperclips in the shape of my logo – hey – they get people talking .
REAL WORLD EVENTS CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
Putting together an old school event can also get you in front of a new audience. I held the worldwide premiere of “On Wings of Hope” at an airport with the plane that’s featured in the documentary standing next to the screen. My audience is still talking about this event …
This post is the forth in a series of five exploring how you can find your audience. Check out the final post of this blog series called: “Find Your Audience: It’s Easy and Really Complicated” These blogposts started with a roadmap to help you find your audience. This series on is born from a post I wrote for the American Society of Media Photographer’s Strictly Business titled “Find your audience: It’s easy and really complicated“.
