Lessons

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

(applause) Thank you, wonderful people, for joining me today. I know that I've taught a whole bunch of different classes, everything from lighting, and posing, and creativity. And the classes that tend, tend to get less enthusiasm is business, but it's the exact opposite, 'cause that's what you should be so excited about. I can't tell you how many times, I see a photographer or someone who's successful, and it's not 'cause they're that good, at all. It's about their social media, it's about their marketing efforts. And so that is exactly what I wanted to share with you today. I am extremely lucky, to be able to have the life and career I want. And that's in no small part to social media, but also to marketing. So when I met Robert, I had started to figure out the social media thing. We started working together six years ago, and I had been doing a bit of social media. Like I started studying and building my audience, but I didn't know how to turn that into money yet. Which is the par...

t we all kind of want to know a little bit more about. So Robert, tell 'em about how I was doing, when you met me. Things were a bit of a disarray. Lindsay's great, but the whole website presence and brand, everything was kind of all over the place. I don't know who was helping with it before, or if Lindsay was doing it herself, which most of us do, but it was kind of all over the place. And I met Lindsay at a Fashion Photography Workshop. And I was shooting fashion portrait type stuff back then, and I had done a little due diligence, and I was looking at her website presence, and she had like a store, and a blog. And he was scoffing. Because it was bad. And you know, she came over and I said, "Do you need help with your", I said, "just a curiosity, do you need help "with your online presence?". And she was like, "Yes, absolutely!". And it was kind of like an overwhelming yes, it was kind of, all down hill from there. What? (laughing) He's mean to me. We started working kind of on just getting the house in order. And that's something that we're gonna talk about too, getting your house in order, your online house, which is your website, and getting people back to that. We kind of unified all the different things, because you know, there's a blog, and then you might have a store, you might sell prints, and you have your website, so it's like, how do these things all talk to each other, and work together? And that's kinda what we started doing, and then we started getting into, really the marketing part of things and developing our strategy. It's a lot of trial and error, and it's a lot of testing. Because you could read about this stuff 'til your blue in the face, and then you implement, and you're like, nothing happened! You really need to test, and pivot and you know, kind of go from there. So one of the things he taught me, was that I need to think of myself like a marketer. As an entrepreneur and a marketer. I wanna just let you, let this part kinda sink in. Remember how we are photographers and retouchers. Oh, and then sometimes we have to do accounting. Oh, oh, and then we need to know like, oh, my gosh, like, we do everything, right? Well, the marketing and the social media, and the business is one more of those elements. I today, I'm lucky enough to be able to work with big brands. And I put this up here, and this is the actual, the CreativeLive team encouraged me to, because the reason I was asked to do this class along with Robert, is that I taught a little, like a short 20 minute class, for the CreativeLive team. So the people that work here. And the class was how to get the life and career you want, with the help of marketing and social media. And I mean it, like I have been able to build to this direction, but it wasn't on accident, it's definitely having a strategy. So what we're going to do, is we're gonna talk about our strategy. You know, we talk a lot about social media, and everybody kind of always assumes that's like the one platform that you can really utilize to build your audience. While that is true, and you should be constantly building your audience wherever you can, it's not the only area. So everybody always struggles with like, either what do I post, or I get no engagement, or what network should I be on? So we kind of, we talk about different strategies that are gonna bring people from multiple areas, back to your website. So it's not all freakin' out about having to concentrate on social, and feeling like that's the one area that you have to. And a lot of people talk about social media marketing, and I think that's where that stigma comes in, it's like, that's the only way I'm going to be able to reach people. But that's why we kinda talk about a few different strategies throughout this entire class. So I'm gonna say that I was partially wrong in the beginning. Because I actually wrote a book on social media. And it was fine, and it was all relevant. But I saw so many photographers that would get really big in social media, like huge followings, so I assumed that they were successful. And then, I talked to some of 'em, and it doesn't translate to money, or doesn't translate to bookings, it doesn't translate to business. And so, one of the things that we kind of miss, is that big social media following, doesn't necessarily help you be successful at business. Also, you don't want to post fingers, post fingers, Wow! Post your photos, cross your fingers, and then hope that something happens. So social media is just a small part of it. So what I want you all to know, and how we're gonna kind of start diving into things here, is that this is not a social media class. There is an element of social media marketing. As you know, I mean, not only do I have classes on it, but there's so much information out there about social media. And we photographers, since we know we can just post photos, we're like, oh, this is easy, I got social media. We're going to talk about marketing. And these are things I, some photographers are talking about it. But there's all these terms, and words and things that he introduced me to, that every other successful business, and every other sector uses, and then we creatives, we kinda, we just don't know them. Because we're creatives, and we shy away from the business part. So what he's gonna do, is he's going to be that constant voice from the marketing side. And at times, I'll help to serve as the creative translator. So he'll give you the marketing jargon, and I'll say, well, listen, but this is what you really need to know. So we are going to talk about, not just, not just one or two little things, we're gonna talk about the big tools that people use, to grow their business through marketing. The ones we think are most important for photographers, exactly how you as a photographer should use them. Again, this is the part you care about, in this tool. But also know, that we aim, in a good way, to overwhelm you. Because I can guarantee you, pretty much, I'm gonna exaggerate, but let's say every slide in this presentation, could be an hour presentation. Like no joke, because right, we're gonna cover social media. People have week long courses on, we're gonna cover SEO, week long courses on SEO, things like that. So just know, we're gonna give you as much information as possible. So we'll tell you what's important, and then you can run with what you want to run with. Yeah, you can research some of these additional things, on your own, for expanded knowledge. You know, you can research 'em to death, and then try and still figure out, well what's applicable. Like SEO is a great example, because there's so much that you could read about all day long, and it's constantly changing, just like social media platforms. So it's like, well, how do I keep up on that. And what we found to be successful, are a finite amount of things. And we've seen that move the needle, so that's what we kind of recommend. Are there more expanded versions of that? Like Lindsay said, absolutely, especially on CreativeLive, there's some awesome courses on that. But we're gonna kind of go into, focus on these first, and get your house in order. And then beyond that, like if you really wanna pump some more effort into it, then there's expanded information on it. So the point is, this class is actually for anyone who wants to improve their marketing for a business online. But we're giving you the photography examples, 'cause I don't know, sometimes I can't connect the dots. I don't know about you, but it's like, oh, I have this big marketing picture, and then I don't, yeah, but what about for photography. I kinda miss that part. So we're going to do that for you. And we're talking about building your marketing machine. And the reason I say 'the machine' is, it takes a bit to get it all set up, but then once it is, it's much easier to maintain. Like it's, you gotta do some research here and there, but once you get it going, it has it's own momentum. So just to give you an idea, like even social media, even if I don't do anything, I get a couple hundred followers on Instagram, every day. Because it's a machine, like these things build upon, but it's that building in the beginning. So we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna build your foundations, help you develop a strategy. We'll show you how to do, like implement these tools, and then we're also going to kinda analyze what I usually see photographers doing wrong. And by what I mean, is we've talked to a lot of photographers. And so, let me paint the picture for how we're going to start, and then Robert's gonna tell you about some of the details. We're gonna start building the foundations. If you take any marketing class, a lot of these foundations will be in there. But you can't be successful moving forward in everything else, until you got this stuff. Because otherwise you're just, you're wasting your time. So it's things like your brand message, and actually identifying who your customer is. So we're going to talk about that, 'cause until you got that under control, there's no point in moving forward. So you've got that. But then, we're gonna talk about things that are a little bit more on the technical side, that photographers don't know about. So this is Robert's wheelhouse, that he taught me all about. Yes so, I mean these strategies, and a lot of the stuff that you see on here, might be daunting. You might have played with some of them, you might be familiar with it. But they all kind of help with this whole cohesive, you know, thing that you're trying to build. Yeah, the machine. It gets a little crazy, but this is what we found, through SEO, and keywords, and content marketing, and everything else, and it's not as daunting as it seems. Once you kind of setup the machine, like Lindsay said, it just kind of unfolds, and it starts to work a little bit for you. Once you have that foundation, then it actually just, hopefully, will work continuously. So we're gonna start with foundation, then we're gonna talk about tools. I know you guys will definitely like SEO, content marketing, Facebook advertising, email marketing. These are things that are kind of secrets to photographers. When you uncover them, it opens your eyes. So we're gonna start there, and then when we wrap up, we're gonna take a look at case studies. So actually show you photographers that are doing it really well. So you can see. Because sometimes if I say, oh, you gotta do this, this and this, you're like, God, who does that? And they go, oh well look, this person who's really successful about it. It's like it helps to see that. Because you put up barriers for yourself, I do the same thing. So it's good to see those successful photographers. But also, they're not doing it perfectly. So we're gonna show you room for improvement. So it gives you aspiration, and then an idea of how to analyze your own online presence and marketing machine, to move forward. The one thing, that I'll mention also, to add it to this, is there's one recurring theme throughout this entire class, and that's capturing and converting. And what that basically means, is getting people's attention and converting them either to a customer, a lead, or somebody that you can, eventually, market to and sell to. So that's gonna be the recurring theme. Getting people, not just putting your photos out on social, and like kind of hoping something happens. You wanna get them, get their attention, bring them back to your website, get them into what we, I'm sure you've heard of a sales funnel, kind of get them into a funnel. I did hear about it before him. I mean, we're not gonna get too technical with it, but you know, get them into that funnel, and then eventually, hopefully, turn them into a customer, or at least, have it start with a conversation with them. So can you see we're going to talk about a lot of stuff, right? And this is just the one-day class. So what I wanna do, is I actually wanna point you back, we have a Facebook group that we started. Was it about two months ago? Something like that, about a month or two ago. And within 24 hours, I think we had like 4,500 people, so I know there's interest in this. Interesting. And so, one of the things I love about CreativeLive, and I love about photography audience, is that we all support each other, and we're all learning together. So I recommend that you check it out, it's called the Creative Marketing Machine. And so, after this class, I think it would be a really good place, and I encourage you guys to join, so that you can talk about what you've struggled with. Maybe other people have solutions, of course, we'll step in, as well. But also, things that have worked well for you. Like it'd be great for you all to share, and help grow in your marketing machine.