Mark Metternich
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 p.1 #1 · Marketing Tips from the best! | |
I thought that might get a bit more attention "Marketing Tips from the best!"
This will be PART 1 Portfolio/Limited Edition Gallery Quality Prints/ Open Edition Prints. 
Australia's premier panorama photographer Ken Duncan (See KenDuncan.com / Panographs.com) is one of the very most successful landscape photographers, and very best marketers (the best and most successful as far as I am concerned) in the world.
Last summer I had the great privilege of hanging out with him in his home for a few days (where we became friends and thoroughly discussed marketing, business, and everything) as well as accompany him to The Great Barrier Reef for a week or so to help participate in and help with a five star photography tour, and top notch work shops. It was worth every penny!
I also got to tour Kens office, 2 of his galleries, his lab/printing company, his framing company (he had about 75 employees total) and the funnest thing was simply driving around talking with him. He is one of the most generous men I have ever met!
Here I will share, for the benefit of the group the basic heart and soul of what I learned from that priceless trip. It is very basic information, but has entirely changed my life, and approach to marketing and shooting photography. I have implemented to substantial degrees this information, with, so far, very great success. This year, without marketing very much at all, I have made literally thousands and thousands of dollars. In the next coming years we plan on taking it as far as possible.
So here is the bottom line in English:
(Before the marketing portion I'd like to interject this simple key: Passion! Do whatever you are truly passionate about, and with a lot of hard work (which of course can be fun too) and consistency you'll be successful.)
Marketing:
Before I met Ken I was trying to make $ with my landscape photography anyway I could. Stock, putting my work in coffee shops, and many other things. Ken basically said this "Stop doing all that." "The money is in galleries, period!" He went on to include the "one on one" meetings with folks with our portfolio as foundational, as well as eventually doing exhibitions.
So #1. Simple one on one meetings with folks to show your work is the absolute most important thing. Nothing beats it.
#2. Eventually making enough money to invest in enough supplies to do a (or some) exhibitions. Start small. My first bigger one will be at a very large church in Las Vegas.
#3. Eventually doing quality high end galleries.
I found Ken to believe that almost everything else is a waste of time, and that landscape photographers are massively exploited. When I got home I quit all my exploitations (and wasting all that time pursuing it all) and am now doing two main things.
1. Very exclusive high end Limited Edition Prints.
2. Open Edition prints for those who cannot afford the exclusive stuff.
That is it!!! Quality fine art prints period (that is not to say I won't do books and a few other things one day). The heart and soul is now prints for me, and I am totally happy doing it this way.
How am I getting sales now
A knock out mind bending portfolio. This is the bottom line! This is the absolute foundation of everything that comes next. If you have great work (and many here do!) and you have it presented right, you will be successful. Folks will want it. You will gain a reputation in no time.
So this is what I learned: Nothing beats one on one personal connections with people! No matter how big you get, this will always be the best and most important area to pursue. Keep it simple, and just say "hey, would you like to see my portfolio?" Then simply show your work, no strings attached.
This brings me to the core of it all, your portfolio...
Eventually you have got to invest in a portfolio to die for!!! Ken calls it the "WOW factor"! Nothing beats a portfolio done to the highest level with the absolute best of the best of your work. You want to knock 'em out of their socks and blow their minds. They will throw their wallets at you (loaded with cash) if you do this right.
So how
This is some of what I learned, and have implemented, and have seen a lot of success so far with:
Get the printing standard up to the absolute tops! When Ken saw my portfolio, he said "GREAT work!" "But you need to get your printing standard up, and you need to overhaul your portfolio." I thought to myself "what is he talking about?"
So this is what he insists on:
Big prints, from 18 to 24 inch.
Fuji FLEX Crystal Archive Professional paper, printed off a Durst Lambda at 400ppi.
I'm now using this, and am totally, totally amazed at the quality!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sure it costs me a lot more than other printing I have used, but as far as I am concerned NOTHING can beat it in the world right now! When you knock someone out with one of these babies done impeccably, their mouths drop to the floor, and if they have money, they fork it over fast! Personally, I had to spend about $700-$1000 making 24 inch test prints with the material, and then making adjustments on my side to get it to finally look the best I could. Then I now simply apply those adjustments to other images I send to my lab. Ken uses no other paper for his Limited Editions and believes it is the very best in the world right now. I agree 100%. You have to see it to believe it. Of course I am talking about 400ppi TIFF's perfectly processed for that paper.
Portfolio should have 20-30 total images (30 - if you have a big library of images). Only show the very very best of your work. If you only have 3, then just show the 3!
Each image needs to be separately mounted on mounting board! Kens portfolio is the best I have ever, EVER seen, and I am slowly getting mine up to that standard. He has his images mounted onto hard black (almost plastic like) mounting board (don't know the name right now) then laminated with his own laminate he helped to develop. The images will have about 2 inches of frame around the image (the black board). Then he has black velvet on the backs so that they will not scratch each other when stacked. His world class lab offers this service if you are interested :http://www.createdforlife.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=64
Separate images as apposed to bound, or on two sides... allows folks to compare freely the individual images they like best.
80-90% of the most common purchasers of photography are WOMEN! And they often buy based on color schemes of the rooms they want to decorate. Keeping your images mounted separately, and not bound to anything allows them to mix and match easily...
Obviously this can cost a lot, but the way you PRESENT your work will have everything to do with how they hit people, and also how much they will shell out for your images! I used to sell my work for $50-$150, now I am getting $400-$1000, and I plan on doubling and tripling (and even more) that in the next year.
This brings me to something he said that struck me: "Don't judge other people by the size of YOUR wallet!" Once he was doing an exhibition at a very nice 5 star hotel and a guy came up to him and asked "how much do you want for the entire collection?" Please realize that Ken seals his work for about $3000 - $60,000 each image! - no joke! (I told you he knows his marketing). Ken laughed, and the guy walked off. Later that night he found out that the guy was one of the richest businessmen in all of Australia, and might not have been joking!
Back to the portfolio. I personally could not afford to do my portfolio at that level immediately, so I used my brain and and did it more cost effective first. Then after substantial sales, I am now able to move up to having them professionally made (I'm doing this very soon) by Ken's lab. What I did was go to a popular art store "Art Media" and get thick black mounting board. I had 30 of them cut to 14X20 (for my 12X18 images). Then I printed my images Costco 12X18's and mounted them with spray mount on to the mounting boards. I did tons of test prints, and re prints untill I had each image totally maximized using the COSTCO system. 12X18's are only $2.99 there. I then put these finished peices into a carrying case. The Fuji FLEX TIFF images printed at 400ppi as mentioned above cost about $100+ for each print at this size! I was not able to afford a $3000+ portfolio at the initial stages of this. But you start with what you CAN do. The when you start making the bucks, you just upgrade and stretch. But the investment is absolutely worth it if you have some nice images! A portfolio done right will have people loading you with money in no time, which in turn will pay for itself quickly.
Lastly it is critical that you frame up one larger, best shot really beautifully as a demo to go along with your portfolio. This is so that when you show your portfolio, people can relate to how these shots will look ideally!!! I will talk more in this issue in Part 2.
This is the end of part1. Feel free to PM me or respond here, and I will get back to this as soon as I can. Please be patient, since I am soooo busy right now!
Thanks.
Edited by mark70x70 on Apr 10, 2007 at 05:48 PM GMT
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