INTRODUCTION
Marketing can seem like a daunting task. Websites, SEO, social media, and email campaigns – where do you start? It seems even scarier when you donʼt have a budget to allocate to your marketing efforts. If you donʼt have the money or a budget for marketing, your first inclination is to give up. You donʼt do anything at all. Is marketing without a budget even worth the effort? Can you get anything for free these days?
The answer is a resounding YES. You can market your business without a budget. In fact, most marketing tasks can be accomplished for free if you know what to do.
How do you figure out what you can or should do without a budget?
Marketing For Photographers Without A Budget
MARKETING PLAN
Marketing is not an exact science. It involves trial and error. As a photographer or creative person, you should be used to trial and error. When you find something that works, you stick with it and perhaps amplify it. If you try a promotion that doesnʼt work, you drop it and move onto a different strategy.
Developing a marketing plan will help grow your business by identifying the marketing tasks to focus on to achieve results. Market consistently and plan things out to make marketing manageable and not an excess time constraint.
To build a marketing plan you need to do the following things :
Determine what you are able to invest
Identify the biggest gap in your marketing
Find opportunities to bridge that gap
Prioritize opportunities
Measure results
Make adjustments to the plan
MARKETING GOALS
If you donʼt have a budget, itʼs still possible to come up with a marketing plan that works for you. You can spend a lot of money on a marketing plan - but you donʼt have to. You can also spend a lot of money on marketing that is ineffective especially if you work with a self-proclaimed marketing expert who is no expert at all.
STATE YOUR LONG AND SHORT TERM GOALS
Are you just starting your photography business?
Do you need 10 more clients a month to operate? If not ten, how many?
Do you want to expand the services for your photography business?
DETERMINE WHAT YOU ARE ABLE TO INVEST
If you donʼt have any money to spend, do you have time on your side? Money can help marketing efforts but so can time. If you do have time to spend on marketing, learn about social media and SEO or attend in person networking events. If you donʼt have a ton of time, thatʼs ok too.
The most important thing about marketing is being consistent. Commit the time to make marketing work – whether itʼs 20 minutes a day or 20 hours a month.
IDENTIFY THE BIGGEST GAP IN YOUR MARKETING
Whatʼs your marketing challenge? Are you unable to reach customers? Perhaps youʼre having difficulty setting your business apart from competitors? Or, are you struggling to close sales once you have met potential clients?
You might have more than one challenge; thatʼs ok. Once you figure out what you need to work on, you can focus your efforts.
IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES TO BRIDGE THE GAP
What, in the short term, can you do to lessen the gap between what you want and what you have now? Work on finding solutions to your marketing challenge. What solutions, you ask? Well, at the end of this marketing without a budget series Iʼll share with you some ideas to get your name out to the public that wonʼt cost you anything but time. In the meantime, take out a notebook. Call this your marketing notebook. Write as many ideas as you can for promoting yourself.
PRIORITIZE OPPORTUNITIES
Once you know what you need to do, rank those things in order of importance. Do the easiest thing first, or, if some efforts depend on others, do those before anything else.
You donʼt start buying paint for a barn that you havenʼt built yet – the same goes for marketing. If you donʼt have a website, you should get one before developing a social media presence. You need a website for people to visit before you interact with them on social media.
MEASURE RESULTS
Find out what works by tracking and measuring your results. Are clients emailing you or asking about your service on social media? If they are, what are you doing to make it happen?
The benefit of knowing this is so that you can stop wasting time on things that donʼt work and focus on marketing tasks that DO work.
MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE PLAN
There will be fluctuations in marketing success. Some tasks will work better than others. Keep track of what works and make adjustments accordingly.
As a photographer, you might find that your business is seasonal. During your down time is when you seriously evaluate your marketing plan and what youʼre doing to promote yourself. Make marketing part of your everyday thinking and business routine. Without marketing and promotion you wonʼt get far unless you have one huge strike of luck.
In the Part 2 of this Marketing Without A Budget Series, we will discuss various ways you can promote your photography business. Nothing is difficult. Everything is about time.
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