Whiskey Anyone?

Over the years I’ve tried to be conscious of what I enjoy shooting. What would I shoot if I had complete control and could produce the content that I felt challenged by and can produce something that I’m proud of as an artist? For me, that is commercial work.

For this shoot, I had an idea to produce content that felt like it could be in a magazine or trade advertisement for a new passion of mine: whiskey.

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Johanna was great to work with in helping me work through perspectives to capture the smell test. I wanted to add a bit of color so I accented the brick wall with a purple and green gel to add some visual interest. Just a slight turn from the model and a different color gel bring a very different feel between these.

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I wanted to create a mood, an atmosphere that brought you in and made you want to be a part of it. In my research for this idea I found very few ads of women with whiskey so that was appealing to do something different from what you normally see.

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Again experimenting with different lighting here. I have just two lights on Johanna. I had planned for a third but when I arrived to setup, one of my lights died so I had to make due with two.

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WPPI Session: Content Marketing for the 2015 Photographer

Jared Bauman, the founder of shootdotedit gave an informative talk at WPPI in Vegas on Marketing for the 2015 photographer.  I wanted to take a deeper dive into this subject and discuss what I took away from the talk.  Two elements that make the current marketplace challenging, according to Jared, are 1) low cost of entry for new photographers and 2) social media (if you don't use it or use it incorrectly).  Social media, especially for today’s small business owner, is key.  It can work wonders if you use it well and it can also be overwhelming to keep up with if you don’t have a system in place.

content marketing wppi 2015

The talk on content marketing underlined the importance of first knowing your target audience (i.e., your potential client).  Once you know your audience well, including their demographic profile, and why they'd be in need of your services, do the following:

  1. Develop a marketing and business process 
  2. Develop content that’s relevant and valuable to your client and provide this information in a consistent and timely manner.
  3. Attract and acquire. He referenced a book called Launch by Jeff Walker for more information.  I'm anxious to read the book to learn more.
  4. Create a persona which is basically the process of defining your target client(s) so much so that you actually give them a name and use that in how you market to them.  This can be a very powerful technique.
  5. Determine drivers for profitable customer action.  The example he gave was in the wedding space and how there are various phases of the wedding process (being engaged, then married, moving to a house, kids, etc.). All of these phases have potential marketing and relationship opportunities and they map to different phases of your relationship with them (e.g., when they're engaged it would generally map to them being a potential client, etc.). Making the most of each of these opportunities are critical to success.  One that's often overlooked is after the event occurs.  Following up and nurturing that relationship can turn them into your champions and spawn new business.

Other aspects of the discussion was around blogging, email marketing, Facebook advertising, and tools for automating the whole process.  The tools are a big interest to me.  I’m hyper focused on figuring out tools and processes that will make the process of marketing, advertising, and content delivery easy for me. Well, maybe easier.

I didn't cover all of what Jared spoke about but I appreciate that this session had actionable items and usable information.  Its frustrating when you sit through a session and at the end are left wondering, "now what?" 

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