Angela Pointon loves photographers and artists. She studied photography, but had a love affair with business and marketing. She decided to combine all three together when she started Steel Toe Images. She coaches and inspires photographers and other artists to kick major butt through her one-on-one sessions, blog, emails, workshops and her first book (coming soon), called “ A Swift Kick In The Pants: Business Smarts For Us Creative Types”. Follow Angela on Twitter, Facebook or her blog.

When you're working by yourself for yourself, you're often left to your own (bad) devices. So how do you manage to pay attention, get stuff done and keep on keepin' on toward each one of your goals?

Make yourself accountable to someone.

If you’re anything like me, I value a bit of “nagging” in my life. I like when people ask me “what’s up with such and such for your business?”

For me, running my business is a lot like going to the gym. When I go by myself, I might not get the most sweat-induced workout in. But, if I am working out with a personal trainer, I am damn sure I do what I am supposed to (or I risk disappointing that trainer!). The same goes for my accountability coaches. My coaches happen to be my husband (he’s tough!) and some of my business heroes that I’ve connected with over the past few months.

Planning and perfection are just other words for procrastination.

Know yourself. Are you going to plan the bejesus out of everything you need to do? Are you obsessed with getting things “just right” before you move on? Have you ever said, “but it’s not perfect, yet.”

Some of us go over and over and over something so much that we get bored of what we’re working on and move onto the next thing before we even reveal anything to anyone. Being disciplined also means knowing when something is good enough to ship to the rest of the world.

Want to find out more about being disciplined?

Tamara Lackey, an unbelievably successful photographer and highly disciplined business owner, is joining Angela Pointon and Tiffinbox for a live webinar on Wednesday, October 3rd from 8:30 – 9:30 PM EDT. We’ll be discussing exactly what it takes to be disciplined in your photography business. Register for this webinar, along with three others in the series, here.

This webinar session is part of a series of four webinars, all available for just a $25 donation (all donations go to support Tiffinbox). This webinar series will sell out. Learn more here.

Can’t attend live? Don’t worry. All registrants receive a recording of each webinar.

Inside this webinar series you’ll get access to the brains and experiences of people who’ve worked with hundreds of businesses just like yours. In addition, the photographers speaking have published books, taught hundreds of photographers and have work featured in places like Vogue, O-The Oprah Magazine, Professional Photographer Magazine, and many more. Reserve your spot by registering immediately here.

Angela Pointon is the founder of Steel Toe Images. She inspires photographers and other creative people to kick major butt through her consulting sessions, blog, emails, workshops and her first book (coming soon), called “ A Swift Kick In The Pants: Business Smarts For Us Creative Types”. Follow Angela on Twitter or on Facebook.

Should You List Your Prices, And If So, Where?

Pretty much every photographer I meet asks me this question. And whether you’re just starting out or have been around for years, it’s something that challenges many.

Never In Expensive Print

A photographer I met with recently was about two years into the business. They thought that glossy brochures were a mandatory marketing “must” and printed a boatload when their business first launched. That was mistake #1. Mistake #2 was printing them with prices mentioned. When you need to increase prices (which they did), those brochures become useless. Ouch.

Price sheets should be printed off one or two at a time, never more. As your business grows, your price will typically increase. You never want to have a price written somewhere that isn’t easy to change.

Maybe On Your Website

If you receive most of your business through referrals, these consumers already have a price point in mind, because they probably already asked your past client. But if your business is a blend of referrals and completely fresh clients, you might be thinking that pricing can help attract them to you.

Consumers are busy these days. If you do not list your pricing, some will be frustrated that your price isn’t listed publicly for the entire world to see. So if you aren’t going to list prices (more on that in a minute), make it very easy for them to request it. Have your phone number and a quick form on the website (asking just a 3-4 questions… not a gazillion) and respond within 24 hours with an unbelievably well written and remarkable email or amazing phone conversation about what makes your business different. Attached to that, include your most recent price list.

But Seriously, Why List It?

Now we get to the why. Why… I mean, really… why list pricing on your website? What do you feel it is going to accomplish? You do not want someone choosing you based on price. So why go there right away?

If you and I were going on a date, I wouldn’t ask you how much you were planning on spending on me the first time we met. And you shouldn’t let people be so rude as to judge your value from a website visit alone, either. After all, what makes your business unique and what establishes your value is so much more than a price.

But ignore me if you must. If you’re going to list prices, be a tad vague. List starting prices and clarify that exact pricing will be provided. Give yourself the opportunity to at least engage with them, discuss your style and what you have to offer before you can have the only deciding factor be price.

Don’t Wait Too Long

If you do decide to remove pricing from your website, telling a potential client your pricing at a face-to-face meeting is too late. You’ve already invested time in them, and remember: you are qualifying them as much as they are qualifying you. Before you sit down with anyone, communicate how you’re unique and what you have to offer, and state your typical pricing range or send them your pricing sheet. Ask them if it’s within their budget. If it’s not and they aren’t willing to adjust their budget to afford you, you’ve saved yourself a ton of time. Spend that precious time on more qualified clients, instead.

How has listing or not listing prices worked for you or against you? I’d love to hear your stories!

Today's guest post is by Nate Grahek, a professional photographer and founder of StickyAlbums.com, where you can create branded photo-album apps for your clients’ mobile devices. Follow Nate on Twitter.

We all know that to compete with other photographers, we have to differentiate ourselves. We have to have a competitive advantage: something we do that sets us apart.

Buisness textbooks talk about three main competitive advantages: Product, Price and Service. The most successful companies are really good at choosing one – and executing really well on that area. Apple is a great example of this. Their number one competitive advantage is Product innovation. They consistently introduce new products that are markedly better than their competition’s.

It’s nearly impossible to compete in all three of these areas. Of course there’s no way Apple could release amazing new iPads AND also compete on price. Why would they even try?

Contrast Apple with a company like Walmart, who focuses exclusively on Price. For better or worse, Wal-Mart’s obsession with bringing customers the absolute lowest price is core to the success of the company.

For either company, trying to do both Product and Price really well would mean giving up the thing that sets them apart.

To clarify: just because you’re focused on one area doesn’t mean the others can be garbage. Apple has their Genius Bars, Walmart sells organic veggies … but that’s not what those companies are known for. Apple makes the coolest devices. Wal-Mart has the lowest prices.

As pro-photography becomes a more and more saturated market, picking your competitive advantage becomes more and more crucial to your success. Like Apple and Wal-Mart, your competitive strategy needs to be baked into your brand.

Next week I’m going to explain WHY customer service should be your competitive advantage. Then I’ll give you some concrete action items–things you can do today or this week–to make your customer service so good your clients can’t help but tell their friends about it.

Meanwhile, I am giving away 3 – $100 credits towards StickyAlbums PRO. Enter using the widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please Note: Contest & $40 Discount ENDS Tuesday 6/19 at Midnight

(Don't wait to see if you win) Winners who are already StickyAlbums-Pro members win the $100 in cash.

The albums are a great marketing tool: they’re like rep cards or brag books, but they’re always at hand and your clients won’t run out of them.

Mobile devices are changing how we live and how we do business. However, word-of-mouth referrals are still our most valuable currency. StickyAlbums gives you a way to leverage this mobile revolution into wow-factor referrals. StickyAlbums also helps you target clients who can afford premium photography – people who use iPhones and iPads have already demonstrated their affinity for premium/boutique products.

If you choose to check out StickyAlbums and end up upgrading to the PRO subscription level, contact me. If you provide them with my email address as someone who has referred you to them, both you and I receive TWO additional months added to our account. Pretty sweet, eh? Here is the email address to enter: orders AT seshu DOT net. Cool?

Good luck!

Today's guest post is by Craig Robinson. He works as Editor for a Facebook Ad manager tool called Qwaya. Besides writing about topcis like this one, Craig covers other trends within Social Media for Qwaya and he has studied Social Context and Media-Communication Science.

Facebook is a great marketing channel for small businesses. If you put some effort into creating and tweaking your campaigns, you may outperform bigger competitors who won’t spend as much time on a single niche. But it takes a lot of testing and result analysis to succeed. You can’t just put up an ad and wait for it to convert.

Before we go any further, let’s quickly look at the advertising options available on Facebook.

Social or Antisocial Ads

You could say that Facebook ads range from classic, banner-like online ads to social recommendations.

The first category consists of the ads you see to the right of your news feed. When you click them you’re usually directed to a company’s webpage where you’re supposed to sign up or make a purchase.

Remember, though, that you can still be quite creative when you make these ads even though there are rather strict rules regarding text length and image size etc. Here’s a short list with great tips on how to change things up.

Just keep in mind that you need to have material in the ad that is followed up when the person clicks through to wherever the ad is pointing. Forget “smiling ladies” and generic “persons standing around having fun together.” Use pictures and texts that really represent what you are about instead.

On the other hand of the spectrum we have sponsored stories, which is a mix between an ad and a recommendation from a friend to a friend. This could be that someone comments on your fan page and the comment is converted into an ad shown to his friends. It could also be a check-in at your studio, an RSVP to an exhibition or that someone likes or tags an image you’ve posted.

Basically anything can be turned into an ad/recommendation, and for people working in creative industries, social Facebook ads are often the best option. You highlight when someone does something on your fan page and this action is then spread to this person’s friends. People see that you are “liked”.

Facebook Ads Optimization

Facebook is packed with people. Everybody is there. So your problem as an advertiser is not how to reach out to as many as possible but rather how to reach out to the right people – people who will like you, visit your website or fan page, and in the end become a customer.

Because of this you have to use demographic features when you’re creating your ads, such as age, interests, geographic locations etc.

My biggest advice for aspiring Facebook advertisers is to test everything – different type of ads and different targeting. This is the only way to really find out what which your best target groups are and what kind of ads they respond to.

One such group could be women in Seattle who like photography and are between ages 25-35. If you approach them with both traditional Facebook marketplace ads as well as sponsored stories you’ll soon find out what ad type matches your business goals and then you carry on using the best-performing ads.

You can of course organize the ads yourself through Facebook, but it’s a bit of a hassle. You will have to keep track on your own which ads are running, when they are running, how much impressions they get and so on. After a while this can cause some problems as you are probably spending money on stuff you don’t want.

When you’ve started to run several campaigns simultaneously you might benefit from using a tool to help you keep track of where you are in the advertising process, and perhaps even more important, which ads that actually made profit or met your business goal in terms of number of likes etc.

The only tool on the market today that provides a full self-serviced solution is Qwaya. The tool is completely browser based so that you can access it anywhere. Qwaya has direct access to Facebook’s API which means that it’s always updated with the latest segmentation features and demographic options.

Most Important Thing When Making Ads

When realizing that Facebook is full of people with different interests and demographics it’s easier to create ads with them in mind. One key thing to remember is to always A/B test ads for the same demographic group and follow up on the result.

Don’t just run ads and hope for the best. You might improve the results if you tweak them a bit. Use the statistics that you get from Facebook, perhaps Google Analytics or some other tracking source. In doing so you will be able to quickly move your advertising budget to ads that perform well and cancel ads that just cost you money.

Again, the key is to start advertising to different people in different ways and then let the results dictate the future.

These are just some short tips on Ads for Facebook. If you are interested in learning more you can check out this page for more Facebook marketing strategy tips.

Would you like to win a month-long access to Qwaya's Premium Plan (valued at $149)?

Here is what you need to do to win:

1) Comment below, telling us how you would use your Qwaya account
2) “LIKE” Tiffinbox on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tiffinboxmedia
3) Tweet “I just LIKED #Tiffinbox on Facebook – http://seshu.me/JSOBYk – for a chance to win a month of Qwaya for my photography business. Please RT!”

I'll randomly pick one person who has commented below, LIKED Tiffinbox on Facebook and posted the Tweet as it appears above. Winner will be notified via Facebook on June 15th.

Today's guest blot is by Shuva Rahim, a photographer in Eastern Iowa. Read her first post on Tiffinbox, “9 Tips For Clear & Consistent Client Communication.” When she's not focused on her photography business, she teaches businesses about how to effectively use social media. Follow her @shuvarahim.

Marketing IS never-ending. Some photographers are awesome at it, some aren't. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. But I know how to work hard and am not afraid to put myself out there. When I first proposed this post for Tiffinbox I was all gung-ho about it. I accidentally created a marketing “formula” without realizing it. Then after the first few drafts of this post I felt less certain, only to realize the only person who can expertly speak about my marketing is me. The following is what I did for one session. It's not the “right” way or the “wrong” way but it's my way. It hasn't made me millions (yet), but it's gotten me attention and free press and business … and allows me to create with a level of honesty, heart and love that fulfills me as an artist.

I introduced a new session last fall called Beloved, an unposed session aimed for longterm couples focusing on who they are instead of what they look like. I had been shooting Beloved-style since 2010, but it wasn't until 2011 I decided to really start promoting it. The marketing required a lot of thought, planning and time.

1. Promo video. After more than a year of photographing Beloved, I approached two different couples to photograph complimentary sessions, and hired a videographer. For me, this was a 6-month project (mostly because of scheduling). One of the sessions was videotaped and interviews were done with both. The end result was a short promotional video I was able to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and my blog. You can watch it below:

2. Media outlets. Once I had the video, I contacted various media outlets in my area and used it to pitch a story about me and Beloved as a product that was unique and celebrated relationships. My first media exposure to this was a newspaper interview in November (about a month after releasing the video). The second was a live TV interview on Valentine's Day (four months after releasing the video). The more recent was a feature in a business newspaper (five months after the video). All these media exposures are free publicity, and I blogged about each one, and subsequently created a link on my blog showing the promo video along with the media exposure. Again, something I share multiple times on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. As a former reporter I knew media staff are busy. So if I didn't hear back I would followup.

3. Silent auctions. I created a 12×18 mount with a Beloved image, with my name and contact info on it. I provide that to whatever charity is holding a silent auction. In addition, I make a custom certificate (8.5×11 paper) laminated for each auction, in which the bid winner takes home. The certificate states a deadline – usually 10 days after the event – in which item must be validated. Validation for me means to contact me to set up an appointment. Every time I've had this strict time clause, the session has been validated. (A great tip I got from Sarah Petty's Joy of Marketing). Previously if I put a deadline of 6 months or a year, I got nothing.

4. Blogging. Blogging. Blogging. I was a newspaper reporter for 6 years prior to becoming a photographer, so this part was easy for me. However, it does require an immense amount of discipline. Not only do I blog my sessions, I blogged about my products. Before the promo video was done, I also blogged about the individual interviews we did with the couples. I also posted status updates on social media about the progress of the promo video before it was released. It was a way for me to tell people what I was working on and create anticipation. Since then, I blog about the silent auctions I'm participating in where Beloved has a presence.

5. Getting out there. Earlier this year I made a goal of connecting with at least 6 different people each day, Monday through Friday, whether they were already old contacts or new. I'll be the first to admit I've slacked off … some. But it's kept me on my toes, and in people's minds. To some degree, I consider myself a reserved individual. But I'm confident in my service and product, and I use that to leverage how I approach people. I've been in and out of various business groups since i started. Finding a good group of people you connect with takes time, much like building a relationship. But it's always about the other people, not you. Learn about everyone else, what makes them tick and what they like to do for fun. Then talk about you.

Marketing for Beloved is never “done”. In the end, as long as I believe in the experience and the product and love what I do, Beloved may very well be a longterm endeavor.

What steps are you taking to market your photography? Discuss below!