If you’re a professional photographer, and you happen to speak with a member of our team at Social Rocketship, the conversation might go something like this:
Photographer: I’m not sure if I should hire a digital marketing agency or not.
Social Rocketship: No, you shouldn’t.
Photographer: But wait, didn’t Social Rocketship start as a digital marketing agency?
Social Rocketship: Yep, that’s how we know.
Photographer: What should I do instead?
Social Rocketship: Use the same tools we use (for cheap!)
Photographer: (breathes a sigh of relief…)
Confessions of a Digital Marketing Agency
If we were to title this post something different, it could be:
Confessions of a Digital Marketing Agency – How Photographers Can Use Closely Guarded Internet & AI Tools & Training to Scale their Photo Studios to 6-Figures and Beyond.
It’s true that Social Rocketship was founded in 2010 and our primary focus was serving clients as a digital marketing agency. Over the years, we’ve helped small business owners grow their businesses by marketing online on their behalf.
We still have many loyal clients who we happily provide services for.
And now the market is evolving. With the advances in technology, like AI, it’s never been easier to drive new business online. More on that coming up.
Why Photographers Hire Digital Marketing Agencies
When it comes to marketing online, there are all kinds of agencies that have popped up over 15+ years. Digital marketing agencies, social media marketing agencies, digital ad agencies, search engine optimization agencies, and so on.
They all pretty much do the same thing – drive you, the client, more business by marketing online. For the sake of this post, we’ll stick with the term digital marketing agency (DMA).
Most of the time, business owners, especially photographers have hired DMA’s because:
#1 – they’re not sure what to do
#2 – they think it’s too hard
#3 – they don’t have enough time
The Problem with (Most) Digital Marketing Agencies
There are some inherent challenges with contracting a DMA.
For starters, most agencies:
- Don’t offer guarantees
- Have contracts (no month-to-month billing)
- High expensive retainers PLUS ad spend
- Aren’t transparent with little to no reporting
- Take a long time to drive tangible results
- and more
But let’s go a bit deeper.
Let’s say you hired an agency to run Facebook and Instagram ads for you. Their monthly retainer is $1000 and they want you to spend an additional $1000 on ads to begin. It seems like a big investment but you decide to go for it.
Here’s the problem:
Most of those hard-earned dollars are going into the agency’s pocket and not yours. They have a lot of overhead with employees, office space, supplies, etc. In fact, there are some agencies out there who proudly show their huge corporate office. And guess who’s paying for that? You are!
So at best, only 50% of your ad spend is actually being spent on ads. That may be great for their business but not for you. It means that your money is not being invested effectively. That’s why it’s an outdated model.
And now, all of the same tools agencies use are available directly to anyone.
Tools like workflow automations, social planners, advanced CRM, AI chat bots, and more – they’re all accessible directly to you, the professional photographer.
Simply put, digital marketing is no longer:
- expensive
- hard
- time-intensive
The Best Way for Photographers to Drive New Business Online
Just like authors who self-publish, or musicians who have their own platforms, thanks to the internet, more and more artists, like you, are able to cut out the middleman publishers and agencies. They can go straight to the people.
The new way for photographers to grow is to connect directly with their dream clients. You can use the same tools agencies would love to keep secret so they can charge you big bucks on big retainers. But now you can stop paying humans money to do work that you can have software do for you!
After getting yourself set up, you can spend just 10 minutes a day and get a steady stream of new leads coming to you and booking on your calendar.
It’s why more and more photographers are flocking to our suite of marketing tools. And even better, they’re getting fantastic results themselves. They’re claiming back their time, they’re saving a ton of money, and they’re 100% control of the entire process.
So imagine actually having all of your marketing dollars actually being spent on ads that drive real clients to you! Imagine being able to run the entire process with just a few clicks! Imagine being able to wake up to new dream clients automatically booked onto your calendar!
It’s all possible now!
The New Digital Marketing Model For Professional Photographers
Our #1 job now is to empower you, the professional photographer, with the tools, training, and support you need to take full control of your digital marketing.
#1 – We’re the most affordable solution out there – no more expensive retainers!
#2 – We’re the easiest to use – you can be up and running and getting new leads within an hour
#3 – We offer the biggest ROI – you get access to everything you need to be profitable (even a 10x return or more) within the first 30 days
Instead of trying to create a wall between you and your marketing efforts, we “open the kimono” and give you access to the best tools in the business.
But we go even further than that.
We supply the best on-demand training to help you implement these tools and book new clients right in your very first month!
Even better – with every single photographer, we offer 1-on-1 live support.
If you would like to see how our tools can help you drive new booked photo sessions, even this very month, just watch a quick demo here!
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