10 Ways To Attract New Email Subscribers

5 Steps To Creating A Successful QR Code Campaign

Do you have a Smart Phone? Are you using QR codes in your marketing campaigns? If not, it may be time to add this to your toolbox, and reach out to customers in a whole new way.

While they are still new a novelty here in the US, they’ve actually been used around the world for quite awhile now. Yet more often than not, when I do see people using them, they are making costly mistakes. Use these steps to guide you into using QR codes the right way.

Step 1: Create Your QR Code Strategy

Have you ever created a postcard on a whim, and sent it to a random list? Of course not. If you’re going to invest time and money in a postcard campaign, you’re going to strategize the best opportunities, hand select the mailing list to send to, and create a postcard that speaks directly to those people.

The same applies to your QR code plan. You need to understand your target audience, and direct them to an offer made exclusively for them.

Start by understanding your target audience. Do they know what a QR code is? Do you need to explain how to use it, or direct them to a code reader? Where will they be scanning the code and what do you want them to do from there?

Next, decide how and why you are using a QR code. Are you putting it on your existing marketing materials? QR codes are easy to use, create and print. You can put them on your business cards, place them on your storefront window, or include it on your blog or Facebook account. Where they find your QR code depends on how they will use it.

A QR code on your storefront window may be a great way to target walk-by traffic, give them a coupon to try you out, or even provide initial information on your services. If they are already sitting at a computer and find it on your Facebook account, its easier to send them to pages where they can watch videos, or even get a free ebook to provide more information.

Without directing people to a specific place with a specific task in mind, there isn’t much difference providing a URL. What makes QR technology so effective is you can provide the best information possible right when your customers need it the most.

Step 2: Create Your Codes

There are numerous ways of creating QR codes, both for free and pay. You can create free QR codes quickly with Google’s URL shortener. Simply type in the URL you want the QR code directed to, and hit shorten. It will appear in the list below. When you click on the details, you can open up and review stats for that URL, and it will also provide you with a QR code you can use on just about anything. Keep in mind it’s a small code, so you won’t be able to blow it up to large format – but its great for using on your sites, Facebook, etc.

Dig Deeper: 10 Sites That May Inspire Your Photography

You can also use the Microsoft Tag system. Tags are completely customizable, so you can move beyond the “black square” technology, and incorporate colors, graphics and even text into your tag, making it more personable and brandable.

While both of these systems are free, there are many other companies that offer QR or Tag technology that allows you to enhance the user experience. Do a quick search and you’ll find a wealth of information on this new and growing technology. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: android, iphone, marketing Campaign, microsoft tag, QR Code, smart phone technology

Are You Taking Care Of Your Online Persona?

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

You probably do it a hundred times a day.

You head over to Google and type in a quick search to find something. It could be the definition of a word. It could be a product you have been searching for. Or it could be a search to find the solution to a problem you’ve been having.

Search has now become a standard in our vocabulary. If you need something, you Google it.

But while you are searching for other things, someone could very well be Googling you.

It doesn’t matter if you write something, have a site, or use a social media platform. Even if you’ve completely stayed away from the Internet, with the tools available today, anybody that knows you could be writing about you.

They could write up a review of your business.

They could write about a party you recently attended.

They could post photos from Friday night’s big game.

It doesn’t matter if its true or not, or even if its you, you can be labeled within a few minutes time.

Yes, some names get lost in the masses. And if you have a common name, it may actually be harder to track what is being said about you.

But if you have a fairly unusual name, tracking can be as easy as Googling yourself once in awhile.

Start By Avoiding

The easiest way to avoid having problems with your online persona is to avoid making the wrong impression through your writing and posting. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: alerts, google, monlitoring Internet presence, online profile, opinions, persona

Is Google AdWords Your Solution To More Clients Dropping By Your Photography Business?

by Virtual Photography 1 Comment

Google is doing some pretty serious promoting at the moment. This week alone I’ve received two letters in the mail, an email offer, and a variety of online offers for $100 in free advertising.

What could be better than that?

Have you ever tried Google AdWords? With AdWords, you can set up an account, put in your credit card, and choose the keywords you would like to advertise under. Then any time a potential client heads to Google and types in your keywords, your ad will come up in the sponsored section of Google. The more you are willing to pay, the higher you’ll be placed.

In theory, it’s a great form of advertising. You can be up and running, and have the top listing in under 15 minutes.

But is it the right way to advertise your business? That depends.

1. Are people searching for your specialty online on a regular basis?

While it may seem like people search online for everything, the truth is you have to know before you assume. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: google ads, Google AdWords, google sponsorship, marketing, Online Marketing, Photography Business

The Pros and Cons of Using Groupon

by Virtual Photography 4 Comments

Daily deal sites are all the rage in today’s economy. Groupon may appear to be the leader, but many other companies are right in line, offering their own versions:

Groupon
Google Offers – beta version
Living Social
Woot!
Eversave
BuyWithMe

You can even find a variety of niche deal of the day sites

Wozofoto
Photo Deal of the Day

While deal sites are definitely the rage from the consumer side, what about the business side? Does it make sense for you as a business owner to jump on board and make your own offer?

Before you think of running your own ad, it’s worth a moment or two to put together your plan, and understand what you hope to accomplish first.

The way most deal sites work is they offer a different deal on each day, and promote it in a variety of ways, including the site itself, emails and social sites like Twitter and Facebook. If they are big enough, they know how to get the word out.

When you put together your offer, you must give a discount off your service – typically a 50 to 90 percent off deal. The promotion is only valid if a certain number of people buy into the deal within the set period of time, usually 24 hours. Then the daily deal site will keep 50 percent of the revenues made from the deal.

While there have been many stories circulating online about the value of using a daily deal site for your business, as with any marketing tool you use, you have to understand the nuances of the tool before you make your offer. Sites like Groupon have pros and cons, just like any other marketing tool. You just have to understand how to use it effectively.

Pros

Daily deals attract a lot of customers.
If you make the right offer, it’s not uncommon to gain hundreds of new customers during the 24 hour selling process. The beauty of daily deals sites is the quickness of the decision. A person will view the offer in their preferred manner, and make a buying decision within seconds. If they proceed, with just a couple of clicks the deal has been purchased. While it’s a great way to gain new customers that may have thought about trying you in the past, its also a great way of gaining repeat business from people that haven’t used your services in a while. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: daily deals, online marketing tools, Photography Marketing, The Pros and Cons of Using Groupon, using daily deal sites for photographers

Moving Forward – Where Do We Go From Here?

by Virtual Photography 2 Comments

This post is Day 30 of 30 Ways In 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography. This series seeks to provide you with practical steps to get you from wherever you are today, to exactly where you want to be – this year! If your goal has always been to take your photography to a whole new level, hang on and start enjoying a new lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

The questions raised by today’s photographers make you wonder what’s happening to the photographic industry. And rightfully so. Is there a future for photography? Can you still make a decent living as a photographer?

Huge amounts of photographers are coming on board because of digital cameras. It’s easy to buy one, easy to understand and process an image, so it’s easy to announce you are becoming a “professional”.

With so many newbies on board, they take the easiest way possible to make a few bucks. They shoot, give the images on a CD, and then wonder why sales are diminished.

Over the past few years, clients have come to expect the files because of the trend to supply a CD. “Whose photos are they anyway? Why should I pay more than the going price at the big box development center?” Clients ask; photographers give in; sales are lowered; and the possibility of surviving as a full time photographer shrink to nothing.

What’s a photographer to do? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: future, growth, marketing a small business, mobile marketing, Photography Business, QR codes, technology

What Photographers Don’t Get About Marketing

by Virtual Photography 2 Comments

This post is Day 29 of 30 Ways In 30 Days To Redesign Your Life With Photography. This series seeks to provide you with practical steps to get you from wherever you are today, to exactly where you want to be – this year! If your goal has always been to take your photography to a whole new level, hang on and start enjoying a new lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of.

I love time travel movies. It’s so much fun thinking about the possibility of being able to leap into the future to see what its like. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what the world is like in 50 years? What technology will we be using? What will our daily lives be like?

Unfortunately, we can’t make the leap today, and know instantly what we should be doing to make our future successful. And in today’s world, even a few short months can bring about drastic change.

Think about what we do today compared with what we were doing five years ago. Would you have ever predicted spending your time on Facebook? Statistics show that the average person spends over 10 hours per month on it.

I also read a statistic that a person starting a four year technical degree today is learning obsolete technology. In other words, technology is changing so fast, that what we are learning today will no longer apply a short four years from now.

So how do we look into the future and decide what we want to do when it may not exist?

And more importantly, how can you build a business today that is ready for the future?

The First Step

The first step towards the future is realizing that everything you learned in the past no longer applies.

Yellow Pages and phone books? Dead.

Newspapers and print advertising? Dead.

Television and radio commercials? Dead.

Okay, I know I’m going to get emails that say these tools are still being used effectively, and they are still generating business. And I agree. In some ways, they are still in use and people are gaining traction from them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: new marketing strategies, Photography Marketing, small business, social marketing, Using Social Media, What Photographers Don’t Get About Marketing

Why Directories Are Important For SEO and High Rank in Google

by Virtual Photography Leave a Comment

What is the difference between a search engine and a web directory?

A search engine – like Google – uses an automated process to rank web pages. It uses a system, a spider or web crawler, to automatically index websites and web pages, organizing them based on relevance to what someone has searched for and placing them onto results pages based on keywords or phrases.

A directory organizes links under various categories and subcategories, and allows people to find things by clicking deeper into a category based on interests.

While everyone understands the importance of Google – with 31 billion searches a month, who can ignore them? But why should you be concerned with directories?

Speeding Up Indexing

Google (and other search engines) are constantly out looking for new content that they can use in their displays. They don’t discriminate what type of sites they look at; they will use directories to find new listings as well. If a directory has authority, meaning it’s a reliable site, Google will check back frequently for new information. If you have a relatively new site that hasn’t been picked up by Google yet, placing your information in a directory will give you a greater chance of being found and indexed by Google.

How Technology Has Changed The Photography Industry

by Virtual Photography 2 Comments

If you have ever had a 15-year-old child before, you know your weekends are spent running errands just to give your child practice behind the wheel of the car. We have to log 60 hours of driving time before our daughter receives her license, so we are letting her play “chauffer” whenever we have the time. She is considerably better at it then she was a couple of months ago, so it’s easier now to look around at the scenery rather than concentrate on her skills.

This weekend we drove by an old Blockbuster store, and I started thinking about the change in the video industry. I remember a time when the big thing was to run up to the video store to get a movie for the weekend. That slowly morphed into Netflix, which gave you more convenience of getting your movies and dropping them off, but still didn’t solve the problem of getting the movie you wanted, when you wanted it. Change that today, and you can stream any video you want, anywhere you want. From mobile devices, Smart technology, and even your Google tv, you can have instant access whenever you want it. Which of course has caused old relics like Blockbuster to file for bankruptcy.

And of course industry change doesn’t end there. Look at landline telephones. More and more people are abandoning their traditional landline phones in favor of cell phone only. You used to pick your phone company based on how much they charged for long distance; now you use cell phones with one payment plan for all of your long distance needs. And if you talk continuously with people from around the world, use VoIP or Skype, and connect via the Internet. You can talk anywhere, anytime for one low price.

Every single industry that has had major change over the last 20 years is due to technological advancements. And photography is right in there with them.

Go back 20 years, and you purchased a camera based on the lenses you chose to use. If you wanted to change your output, you invested in different types of film. Film is where the magic happened, and together with a great lens gave you a dynamic photograph. You had to rely on your expertise to create the perfect image within the camera, because you wouldn’t see the results until the final processing took place. But the magic occurred at inception – at the moment you pressed the trigger and captured the image.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: cameras, lightroom, photo sales, Photoshop, technology, using film

10 Ways To Attract New Email Subscribers

by Virtual Photography 3 Comments

Back in 2005 when we first started Virtual Photography Studio, I did all kinds of studying on Internet marketing. I knew the best way to grow was to start up an email newsletter, so the VirtualPhotographyStudio Tips ezine was born.

Over the years I’ve changed the style, the look, and even how I produce my ezine, its still one of the best tools I have to market my business.

Whether you have produced your own ezine for years, or you are still looking at the possibility of starting one up, there are many things to consider as you are building.

No matter what type of photography you are in, your money will always be in your list. The only way your business will ever grow, will ever be profitable, and will ever succeed is if you create a list and market to them all the time. You can’t build a business by constantly looking for new clients in new ways. The only way to grow is to keep your existing list happy, and let them know what you are up to again and again. Which is why ezines are an amazing tool, and probably one of the most economical choices you can make.

I still talk with people who are trying to build and send an ezine on their own, with their own list in Outlook or some other program. Don’t do it. If you send large batches of email through your email program, your hosting service will quickly see it, and probably end up banning your account. They don’t want to be associated with spamming, and will quickly cut off anything that looks like it might be advertising. Instead, invest in a good ezine program – Constant Contact and aWeber are two great programs. I’ve used both, and currently prefer aWeber because it offers both autoresponder and ezine options for the same low price. I’ve used them for years, and have never been disappointed.

Is Email Dead?
While some might argue that email is a dying form of marketing, so why waste your time, I disagree. Yes, email has its problems. Right now, statistics show up to 90 percent of all email is spam. Studies show that college campuses don’t even offer email to its students because they never check it; instead they set up Facebook accounts and other forms of communication to stay in touch with their student population. But I also look to my own stats.

Right now I have a dozen or more people sign up for my ezine every single day. And on average, 40 to 60 percent of all my ezines and other email correspondence are opened up when I send it. Which means I have a ton of people actively wanting the information I provide. Why would I quit anything with that high of a response? The typical direct mail piece will only gain 1 to 3 percent action rate – my 40 to 60 percent blows that away! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Online Marketing Tagged With: 10 Ways To Attract New Email Subscribers