Want to stand apart from the competition? Take a current trend and incorporate it into your photography business.
In Professional Photographer Magazine’s web exclusive article, Marketing Yourself as a Greener Wedding Photographer, they provide several steps to promote yourself as a green wedding photographer. Weddings definitely seem to be the key field of choice for greening up your business. But even if you run a portrait, commercial or even fine art photography business, you can still promote yourself as a green business. Here’s how.
1. Be genuine
If you want to promote yourself as a green photographer, you must become a green photographer. You can pick up many books at the library or bookstore on going green as a business, such as Smart Green by Jonathan Estes or Green to Gold by Daniel Esty. Or search online for what it means for a business to become green. You’ll quickly find a wealth of tips on a variety of ways to make your business more eco-friendly.
Then look at your business practices and policies as a whole, and start making changes. It may be moving your studio back home to avoid using gasoline. Or finding the best eco-friendly printers for your business cards and brochures. Green products – you can find a running list of green suppliers for photographers at Greener Photography.
You can also look for organizations (such as Greener Photography or the Green Business Association) that will show you how to become a green company, and provide you with the credentials as well.
2. Educate your customer
There are two reasons you need to educate your customer about your choice to go green. First, it tells your clientele that you care about the environment and have made the choice to make changes in your business practice. Second, it tells your customers why it matters. It’s great to say, “I’m reducing my carbon footprint”, but a significant number of people may simply say “So what?”
You need to provide them with why they should care within your marketing campaigns. If you are choosing to use items made from 100% recycled paper, why is that important? How many trees does it save? Make your customer see the difference, and why your product line is doing more for sustainability.
3. Let your customers participate
While you should always have the greenest products and processes in place for yourself, your customer may not be as enthusiastic about it as you are. Give them choices, and allow them to see the difference for themselves, then make an educated decision on what’s best for them.
For example, you may show several lines of albums. You may prefer one choice over another, simply because of the process they use for production. Educate the client, show them several options, and allow them to make the choice that best suits their likes and tastes.
It’s okay to still offer choices, and have different levels of eco-friendly products and services. The important thing is to always stay true to your beliefs, and create options built around what you truly believe in. You will quickly find you are attracting clients that believe the same way you do, which will allow you to continue down a “greener” path.
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