From your blog to all the platforms in social media, direct mail, and community involvement, your reach has the potential to grow every day.
Use Your Blog: Your website is about what you sell, but your blog is about what’s in your heart. Share content that’s built on a foundation of capturing memories. Share gift ideas with photographs, reminders on updating family portraits, stories about legacy services…and the list goes on and on.
Joint Promotions and Direct Mail: Design a snail mail postcard with 1-2 partners hitting the same target audience. From email blasts to oversized postcards – you don’t need to fly solo. By doing things with partners, you expand your reach to each business entity’s mailing list. Marathon has a whole team of people in place to help you plan, design, product, and mail promotional offers.
Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram: While there are endless arguments over the decline of some venues and the growth of others, that doesn’t change each platform’s effectiveness if done right. But everything starts with you understanding the demographics of your target audience! Then, pay attention to where they “hang out.”
Be Active in Your Community: Remember, reach isn’t just about how many people you can reach with social media or direct mail. This is about you building a community that knows your skills and believes in your support. Being active in your community shows your commitment and makes you more than just another retailer. Look for activities that demonstrate your willingness to give back!
Teach a Community Class: Whether it’s kids, parents, or just individual adults – you’ve got the ability to do a cleanup campaign in your community. What are you cleaning up? Bad photographs…and it doesn’t matter if they’re captured with iPhones or DSLRs – most of you have the ability to teach a class on photography and storytelling.
But none of the above are effective if you’re not consistent! With your blog, post at least 2-3 times a week. On other platforms like Twitter and Facebook for example, post regularly and be involved in some of the forums related to photography that are more consumer targeted. You’re looking for places your target audience is visiting, not professional photographers.
Most important of all, with everything you post, be helpful! It’s so easy and just being nice will help you build momentum, readership, and obviously reach!
