How to Develop A Photography Business (3)



Find Free Advertising Space

Driving home from a meeting of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) - I'm Freelance Officer of the SW Ireland Branch - I noticed something odd about the view of my car's rear window.

There was an elliptical-shaped object on the bottom left hand corner of the window, that I hadn't noticed before - but which I immediately recognized as some sort of sticker.

When I got home, it didn't take me long to see that the sticker was an advertisement for the motor dealer from whom I'd bought my car, about a year ago. I had been so busy that I'd almost forgotten that I had taken my car in for its 25000km service, that day. The sequence of events was quite straightforward:

I took the car for a service. The dealer carried out the service. I paid the dealer for his work. The dealer used my car as free advertising space for his business.

Surely I have misunderstood something? I buy a car for €37000, and I pay for regular services and repairs. Then, the car dealer to whom I have paid all this money uses my property to advertise his business for nothing. No, I didn't misunderstand anything at all. And it happens all the time - go outside and check your car or your friend's car - or your T shirt, or your rucksack, or your phone or...need I continue?

So why don't I do the same to promote my business? I could do some work for a client and then find a way to use that work - or simply the fact that I did it - to promote myself further; having first been paid for the work, of course! Thus, getting two bites of the cherry.

But, what to do to avail of this fantastic free advertising scheme that motor dealers (to name but one of a thousand other astute businesses) have been exploiting for decades? More of that in another post.

But first, a competition. Use the comments link (below) to suggest ways to get free advertising for your photography business. For the best ones (that is, any original ideas that capture my imagination) I will offer free advertising for your business on this Blog (that is: a small "blurb" and a link to your own Blog or website) for 1 week.

How to Develop a Photography Business Part 2

How to Develop A Photography Business Part 1


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Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 8, 2008 at 5:34 AM

    Great post I agree. It seems that there are so many streams of free advertising out there. Its just a matter of finding what works.

    One method of free advertising I would recommend is to take advntage of the social networking sites out there (for instance Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc). It costs nothing and the audience is already there.

    Take care,

    Genaro

    http://www.orengophotography.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 11, 2008 at 1:47 PM

    I agree. It refuse to buy a Levis shirt that has, well, "Levis" emblazoned across the front. They should pay me to wear it. That said, its probably the oldest and most lucrative form of advertising there is.

    I've created a set of beer matts for my local pub. My advert on one side, joke on the other. Pub and Punters love them as they are a bit different to the Magners and Guinness Matts. Free? Almost, bar the time to make them.

    KM

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