I’ve met a LOT of photographers lately who are finding the
task of independently selling their own stock quite daunting. In particular,
many photographers wonder how they can compete against agencies that have
massive resources and existing relationships with art directors, ad agencies
and the like.
The simple and most effective answer is to start by
competing with them on a level where you can actually win! The best way to do
this is to pick a niche and make it yours.
Let me explain…
Agencies often do a good job of getting your work in front
of buyers, but are typically challenged in terms of dealing with very specific
and narrowly focused subject matter. After all, there are only a certain
number of topics that they can specialize in. With this in mind, your goal is
to define a specialty topic that you can “own.”
The market you are in and the topic you want to specialize in
will define just how “narrow” you need to get in order to find a niche in which you can
thrive.
Consider the example of a commercial photographer in
Southern California who shoots underwater as a hobby. This would be an example
of an excellent niche. That said, we need to narrow it down a bit.
For instance, if you search “underwater photography California”
in Google, you get 394,000 results. If you narrow it down to “underwater
photography San Diego” you get only 162,000 results. If you narrow it even
further to “underwater photography La Jolla” there are only 24,400 results and
a “first page” that you could definitely get listed on if you take the time to
do proper search engine optimization on a relevant section of your Web site,
Gallery or blog.
Does this mean you want to limit yourself to such a narrow
niche? Not a chance! However, a narrow niche like this is a great starting point. Having narrowed things down, you now have a very specific set
of obvious potential buyers.
You might start by contacting the La Jolla Chamber of Commerce
and letting them know about your unique collection of images from their area. Chances
are good that they will also give you some tips on other people and businesses
you might want to talk to. Depending on your promotional strategy, you might
even consider licensing the Chamber of Commerce some of your images at a very favorable
rate in exchange for photo credits and promotion.
Next, you might want to contact a selection of relevant businesses
in La Jolla and let them know about your collection of images available for licensing. Typically, you’ll get a mix of businesses
that have in-house marketing staff and other companies that use an agency. In
the latter case, find out who their agency is. Chances are that agency would also
want to know about your collection of photos.
To support these activities you might also try a few non-traditional
tactics. For instance, you could:
- Start a blog, posting
stories and photos from your underwater sessions in the region.
- Find a good quality
printer of postcards and visit all the relevant local stores with a sample
of postcards featuring your images and their branding (plus very clear
photo credits and your URL). They may well be more than willing to offer
such a postcard for sale. You’re not likely to get rich from this sort of
postcard revenue, but it could be an extremely effective way to become
known as THE photographer in this area.
Realistically, with the approaches outlined above, you could achieve “success”
within 6 to 12 months with some diligent effort. Conversely, if you put in the
same amount of effort but spread it across a number of different stock areas,
it’s unlikely you’d get nearly the same amount of traction in that timeframe.
The real question is how to then grow this
first success into something even greater.
Interested? Check back next week as we discuss how to expand
upon a successful niche.
