‘For this week’s activity, we will create a marketing plan for your practice which covers the next 10 weeks. Think about what you want to achieve with your photography during that time, and how you will make it happen. Your plan should include your objectives and weekly actions. Below are a few points you might want to think about‘
Before I define my photographic marketing goals, a brief background on my existing presence on the Web. (I have previously commented on my Instagram and Facebook presence).
As a long-time website owner and blogger, my business domain reached 140 countries in the past 30 days. There were 5000 visitors in that time period, which is about average. (Google Analytics) This site has often generated leads. The graphic in the header is the reach of Mick’s Leadership Blog.
By contrast my photo blog reached 47 countries, with only 275 visitors. And mick yates photography reached just 27 countries.
How was the leadership property built?
Well, probably most importantly it was my passion. Whilst ‘business’ was paying our rent, ‘leadership’ was something I studied and really got energised by. Most importantly I have a clear view in my head on ‘what good leadership is’, which I can write, enthuse and talk about. It has been a ‘strategic’ underpinning of all of my business and charity related activities, and has naturally complemented my latest work using Big Data.
Online, I moved beyond my own writing to accepting other people’s work. I wrote posts for others. I get a post to consider by guests pretty much every day, these days. I reject at least a third of them to keep standards high. And I have established regular routines and ways of publicising the materials. I have done lots of ‘physical’ talks, which also add to reputation. So, even as the Internet and Social Media changed, I was able to ‘manage’ an audience. Of course, it could always get bigger, but these days my attention has moved on.
I need to bring this learning (and passion) to my photographic reputation.
Here are the detailed analytics on Mick’s Photo Blog, which give clues about how best to proceed. Click the image to view it larger.
Feedspot (amongst other sites) rank a blog’s positioning against its ‘market space’, based on a mixture of Google metrics, social media standing and other analytics.
Currently, mick’s leadership blog is rated 77 worldwide in that ‘space’. It is a hugely competitive space, so holding a consistent position in the top 100 has been quite hard work.
Encouragingly (and perhaps surprisingly) Mick’s photo blog is rated 35 worldwide for documentary photography – the BJP Blog is rated 1st.
So, the photo blog has a decent starting position in its market, but not getting enough traffic. With this background, I have decided to see how I can leverage my presence and understanding in other online areas to build my photography reputation.
This is in addition to continuing to seek ways to grow my Instagram presence, following the experiments with promotion. Instagram part two and part three.
It will build on my current best definition of my artist’s statement – although obviously this is work in progress through the MA.
Objective:
Increase my reach and reputation in the documentary photography online space
Goals:
- Reach 60 countries with mick’s photo blog
- Increase traffic (measured by visitors) by 100%
Strategies:
- Articulate a clear focus on exactly what my photographic stance is, and where I want my online reputation to sit – communicate my passion
- Build on my personal Artist’s Statement in any personal ‘posts’ or image sharing
- Learn from my success in other online arenas
- focus on documentary and story telling
- read and research – and write about that
- regular posting
- encourage guest contributions
- give related talks
- ‘advertise’ via Facebook and Twitter, and add Instagram, to ‘spread the word’
- Evaluate how to cross-link my business properties with my photographic ones
- Refine and focus my main website, as a ‘target’ for posts
- If appropriate create a new ‘shop window’ solely for my more recent (Cambodian) work