Featuring:
- 3 Panel Entry Page
- DropUp menu
- Thumbnail Galleries with Auto Slideshow
- Stylish Page Headers
- Customizable Background image and website colors
- HTML Package Website is $495 and comes with 6 Gallery pages and 2 Information pages
Package Websites
Package Sites are the perfect solution for photographers whose goal is to create an impressive web presence with only a small investment of time and money. Package Sites feature a variety of Flash and HTML designs created with the professional photographer in mind. Simply choose your favorite template, then provide Marathon with your images and text, and your website will be up and running in about two weeks! All development is managed by Marathon’s team of professional web designers, so you can be assured of a great-looking, well-functioning, attention-getting website. Learn more about Marathon's Package Websites or Contact a Marathon Websites & Services Representative today at 800/228.0629
Thanks to Derrick Pierce Photography for providing the images seen in the sample site. The song "Don't You See" is provided courtesy of BruceTunz. Thank you!
Video is created using Animoto. Read more about our special offer.
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package websites
Targeting An Appropriate Market
No matter where a business is located, it will succeed only if it has access to suitable clients. Prospective clients of an appropriate market population must have the following characteristics:
- Possess a need or want that you can satisfy efficiently.
- Be willing to consider your products or service.
- Have the financial means to purchase what you sell.
When considering a target market, you should ask these key questions about it:
- Is it large enough for you to do a satisfactory volume of business?
- Is it reachable, and how?
- Is the market segment measurable in terms of the sales results achieved?
If the answer is yes to these questions, then it is a reasonable market to consider.
Defining “Ideal Client” Characteristics
Once you have decided what type of clients are likely to benefit from your business concept, learn all you can about the characteristics of so-called “ideal clients” within each market you wish to attract. For example, if you are targeting upscale parents of young children for a family and children’s portraiture business, the mother is likely to be your ideal client so you’ll want to know the answer to these questions about her behavior:
- Where does she live?
- Does she work outside the home?
- What are her favorite personal activities?
- Where does she shop?
- What professionals, such as obstetricians and pediatricians, does she use?
- What does her husband do?
- Where do her children go to school?
- What are her favorite family activities?
- Does she belong to community organizations?
- Is she active in her church, synagogue or other religious institution?
- How would you describe her personal style?
- What does she value in terms of emotional, physical, social, and material needs and wants?
The more of these characteristics you can identify, the more clues you will have to begin structuring marketing strategies to attract her to your business. The more you know about your ideal client, the easier it will be to put yourself in her position. That way you can recognize what type of products and services she expects and what types of marketing strategies are likely to connect with her. The more you can see through her eyes, the easier it is to assure that your business concept is relevant to her life and that your marketing strategies and materials will succeed.
Categorized In:
quick marketing tips
Featuring:
- Video Entry Page
- Customizable Background image and website colors
- Thumbnail Galleries with Automatic Slideshow
- Stylish Header Fonts
- Dropdown menu
- HTML Package Website is $495 and comes with 6 Gallery pages and 2 Information pages
Package Websites
Package Sites are the perfect solution for photographers whose goal is to create an impressive web presence with only a small investment of time and money. Package Sites feature a variety of Flash and HTML designs created with the professional photographer in mind. Simply choose your favorite template, then provide Marathon with your images and text, and your website will be up and running in about two weeks! All development is managed by Marathon’s team of professional web designers, so you can be assured of a great-looking, well-functioning, attention-getting website. Learn more about Marathon's Package Websites or contact a Marathon Websites & Services Representative today at 800/228.0629
Thanks to Weisheit Photography for providing the images seen in the sample site. The song "Gotcha By The Soul" is provided courtesy of BruceTunz. Thank you!
Video is created using Animoto. Read more about our special offer.
Categorized In:
internet
|
package websites
Selecting and Understanding Your Target Market Different
Different types of photography attract vastly different types of consumers. The interests of a bridal couple looking for a wedding photographer are poles apart from what is appealing to parents who wish to have their new baby photographed. Marketing experts group consumers into “market segments” according to specific personal, behavioral and purchasing characteristics. Market segmentation allows businesses to target ideal consumers by varying their approach to the Marketing Mix (Product, Promotion, Place and Price) to more nearly address the needs and desires of these specific consumer segments.
Marketing to Women
Market research suggests that businesses get a higher return per customer when they invest their marketing dollars in promotions directed specifically to women. Even though women make up 51 percent of the population, financial experts suppose that they represent roughly 80 percent of the country’s purchasing power because they strongly influence decisions that affect household spending.
A 2006 survey conducted by Professional Photographers of America echoed what most savvy portrait/wedding studio owners have always maintained: Women represent at least 80% of the market for portrait and wedding photography. They are, at the very least, the initiator of the decision to purchase photography. More often than not, they also are involved in the final purchase. Since women represent the largest segment of consumer–driven photography purchasers, it is important to understand that women react to marketing messages differently from their male counterparts. In her 2001 landmark book, You Don’t Understand, Dr. Deborah Tannen brought gender differences in communication style to the forefront of public awareness. Two of Dr. Tanner’s key findings are that “Seventy percent of women learned about a product from someone who owns one,” and “Women consumers speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, rather than a competitive language of status and independence.” Obviously, this understanding must play an important role in how you market to women. Your first task, however, is to identify important characteristics of your ideal consumer—male or female—within the market segment(s) with which you wish to do business.
Defining Market Segments
The practical implication of identifying and understanding specific market segments ultimately is expressed through the marketing strategies a business adopts and the style of marketing materials it uses to execute those strategies. In the marketing materials shown, created by Jeff and Julia Woods of Washington, Illinois, you can see clearly the stylistic difference between the mailer they use to attract prospective wedding clients and the one they direct to high school seniors.
Categorized In:
quick marketing tips
Featuring:
- Unique 5 panel homepage slideshow
- Distinctive menu and header fonts
- Thumbnail AND Slideshow functioning galleries
- Plenty of little design touches you’ll just have to see
- Customizable Background image and website colors
- HTML Package Website is $495 and comes with 6 Gallery pages and 2 Information pages
Package Websites
Package Sites are the perfect solution for photographers whose goal is to create an impressive web presence with only a small investment of time and money. Package Sites feature a variety of Flash and HTML designs created with the professional photographer in mind. Simply choose your favorite template, then provide Marathon with your images and text, and your website will be up and running in about two weeks! All development is managed by Marathon’s team of professional web designers, so you can be assured of a great-looking, well-functioning, attention-getting website. Learn more about Marathon's Package Websites or Contact a Marathon Websites & Services Representative today at 800/228.0629
Thanks to Victoria's Portraits for providing the images seen in the sample site. The song "Each and Everyday" is provided courtesy of BruceTunz. Thank you!
Video is created using Animoto. Read more about our special offer.
Categorized In:
internet
|
package websites
Creating a Focused Business Concept
How do you assure that your business concept is compelling enough to attract the clients that you desire? Here are some fundamental branding principles to consider:
- Your business concept should be instantly understood by consumers, so keep it simple.
- Don’t try to be all things to all people. Today’s consumers are looking for experts . . . specialists in specific fields. While most businesses will have to offer more than one product line, consider marketing each independently, so that you don’t confuse your marketing message.
- When you market yourself as an expert in a given field, you will be easier for consumers who are looking for that expertise to find. When you are known as an expert, it is easier to create community buzz, and it’s a fact that consumers are willing to pay more for the work of experts!
- Smart marketers know that it’s better to do a good job of marketing one single product line than a sloppy job of marketing several. So if you are new in business, consider marketing one product line at a time; get that segment up and running, then move on to the next. If you have an established business that needs to refresh its marketing, consider restructuring one market segment at a time so that you can do a proper job of each. Start with the product line that you enjoy most, providing that it is—or can be—a good profit center for your business.
- Keep in mind that even if you market only one product line, you will still do business in others. When you achieve market recognition through a successful marketing effort that promotes a single area of expertise, consumers will assume that you have expertise in others. So don’t underestimate the value of a single successful marketing project.
- One of the big advantages of limiting the number of product lines you offer to the public is that your business will be much more focused, therefore much easier to manage. When you offer too many product lines, the marketing alone can be exhausting.
The two collections of promotional post cards shown below are excellent examples of how to present a clearly articulated business concept. In marketing both family and senior portraiture, Cedar Creek Photography, located just outside of Kansas City, Kansas, makes it very clear that its primary business is creating “lifestyle portraiture.” The studio’s blog reinforces this with the following statement: Cedar Creek is a lifestyle studio that believes in capturing people as they are: beautiful, unique and true to themselves. That is precisely the concept that these marketing materials portray, which makes it very likely that their message will connect with consumers looking for this style of photography.
Targeting a Niche Market
If the size of a photographer’s market area is large enough, it is possible to create a specialty business that targets one specific market segment or “niche.” A niche is defined as a market population that has similar interests and/or buying habits. Given sufficient population density, a photographer might consider creating a niche business such as wedding photography or children’s portraiture. Or the studio could emphasize a single artistic style, such as black-and-white photography that applies to all types of subjects. The marketing cards shown below, created by Tot Shots Photography, in Simi Valley, California, are quite likely to catch the attention of parents in search of children’s portraiture because it is so clearly a dominant focus of this studio’s business.
For photographers who work within a limited population base, a niche business usually is not practical; although some small-town, studios that offer a variety of product lines do emphasize one specific niche area as a means of focusing special attention on their business.
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quick marketing tips
