theLightMatters is now 6 years old. It’s been a friendly companion over the years; a fellow journeyman constantly by my side accompanying me on my quest, as hair brained as it seemed all those years ago. It’s been with me through good times and bad, the laughter and the tears.
As I look back it’s incredible how much I’ve learned in 6 short years. I’ve changed too, transitioning from a stressed out software engineer to running an award winning photography business. I’ve discovered a new passion too: marketing.
One of the biggest lessons I learned as a new business owner was “it doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, its how you are at marketing that matters.”
I was really skeptical at first. Didn’t believe it for one minute. My pictures would speak for themselves. All I needed was a website with a gallery and tweet a few images from time to time.
HUGE MISTAKE
Same with word of mouth — once people saw my images they’d refer me to their friends.
Nope, another HUGE MISTAKE
Yes, I do get word of mouth referrals and yes they do make up 18% of my revenue but it’s taken 4 years to get there and that 18% isn’t enough to live off nor support my family.
The point is 82% of my revenue was a direct response to marketing campaigns.
(How do I know this? Because I track the source of every booking I make.)
Now, had I not run any marketing campaigns the word of mouth referrals would have been a much, much higher percentage BUT I’d have missed out on 4/5 of my revenue. More importantly, my photography business would have really suffered.
So, if you’re looking to grow your business or even just maintain parity you need to invest in marketing. It’ll put you lightyears ahead of everyone who believes their images speak for themselves. It’s easy to do and great fun.
It’s also a topic I’d like to post more about too. Hence the passing of theLightMatters. In fact there are four main areas I’m planning to look at…
…photography techniques
…photography business development
…marketing for photographers
…professional photography workflow
Basically, everything a photography business owner needs to know to grow their business.
Out of interest, I’m curious to know roughly what proportion of your time you spend on marketing your business. For me it’s around 40%. What about you? Leave a comment and let me know 🙂
