I'm getting a photography business off the ground and want to start marketing as inexpensively as possible. My main business, dentistry, is a bit slow with the economy and all, meaning my wife is kind of stingy with letting me spend $$ on a second business, so I figured portraiture would be the best way to start. Other aspects are in the works but will take longer.

So I was thinking along these lines:

1) A flyer that I can put in mailboxes (or that thing under the mailboxes at any rate) around our neighborhood and other local neighborhoods. I can use the office laser printer to generate 500-1000 copies really inexpensively and fast (like tomorrow!) and start handing out with an offer for holiday specials. I can make another version to put out in my office.

2) A 5x7 postcard front and back with some example photos, the website, etc. (I admit to blatantly stealing this concept from some kiosks in local malls, but I promise I've created my own postcard design with my own pictures). One of my patients owns a print shop and can do these for me pretty fast and inexpensively on some nice glossy stock.

3) Ummmmm, I got stuck after #s 1 & 2. Any other ideas?

Of course, I'm also trying to figure out pricing for various print packages. Any suggestions on common package combinations for sizes, prices, etc would be appreciated.

Since you're in the US why not post an ad on craigslist? It's free and gets plenty of traffic. I know it's not the most "professional" solution but the price is right, it's area specific and it will surely get the word out.

Hey cool, I hadn't thought about that. should have, given that a patient recently told me craigslist might even be a good place to sell landscape prints.

My mentor and other photographers tell me that even though CL has high traffic volume, it is also the bottom of the barrel for pay and nowhere even close to what real photographers get paid. I can kinda see that in that there are soo many low-ballers (very similar to comparing the FM for-sale board[which is the best] with CL for-sale board [full of low ballers/flakes]).

Are there any other websites similar to a classifieds based site like CL, but maybe more photographer friendly or reputable

I see there is lebook and workbook..but I think those are more for marketing ones' portfolio

A. Start corresponding (or at least lurking) on more directly professionally oriented forums, such as ourppa.com

B. Depositing materials in mailboxes is actually illegal in the US, and mailers are quite expensive (the mailing lists are expensive, the materials are expensive, the postage is expensive, and the response levels are low).

C. Think of ways to meet people more personally. These days you really need to think about a higher-end, lower-volume operation, because you can't compete with Sears or Wal-Mart. That means dealing with people who place a high value on personal service and custom products.

You want to get your work into public displays that showcase you as a high-end, prominent portrait artist...such as at your dental office. Presuming you're in the local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary, see if you can do some complimentary work for higher-end social organizations--portraits of officers and such for display at their meeting locations.

I connected with our local library and bookstores to contact local artists and writers, then did portraits for them on kind of a TFP basis. I then arranged to display those portraits in the library and other venues, like non-chain bookstores and a couple of restaurants. At each of these locations, make sure your business card is available. Don't skimp on the cards; you're trying to attract a crowd that expects a luxury service, so get plush cards. They don't need to have photographs on them, but they do need to be plush.

The whole point here is to get your name moving among the higher-end clientele--when these people get a premium product, they like to spread the news. All my work these days is word-of-mouth. My "advertising" is just to make my contact information easily available. I have a website, leave contact cards ("lift cards") and business cards where my portraits are displayed, hand out business cards at social gatherings, et cetera.

Get the most recent copy of Guerilla Marketing. Lots of good ideas for low budget marketing.

I think businesses are judged as much by the medium they use for advertising as they are by the message. I don't think much of Craig's List as a way to advertise a professional business. Would you put an ad for your dentist business there?

I put an add for two months straight on three different email accounts so that is 3 adds per day for two months (charging $600). What did I get; 140 hits, 25 emails asking if they can get it lower, and one booking (cheeeeeeeaap). That tells you that craigslist is for sub $500 brides. Not worth the time or money.

I now call the low priced brides "Craigster (s)".

MIKE ben wrote:
I put an add for two months straight on three different email accounts so that is 3 adds per day for two months (charging $600). What did I get; 140 hits, 25 emails asking if they can get it lower, and one booking (cheeeeeeeaap). That tells you that craigslist is for sub $500 brides. Not worth the time or money.

I now call the low priced brides "Craigster (s)".

I was just watching a news special in which an Oakland police department vice unit regularly uses Craigslist to sting pimps who are in the underage teen sex slave trade. Apparently it's pretty easy for prospective johns to identify which ads are for underaged girls--features of the ad that are understood by these perverts. The police say they just call up the number in the ads and wait...and are never disappointed with their arrests.

So, I wouldn't want to be advertising in the same medium.

What about instead of putting postcards in mailboxes, get your secretary to hand them out to each of your patients after their visit? It sounds cheesy and maybe a little bit unethical, but hey, so is printing 1000 fliers from your office printer. Also, you may want to consider framing some of your best work and putting it in the waiting room or each patient room and then maybe put a little note such as "Portrait Photography by [Your name]" or some similar thing to give people the impression that your services are available. My dermatologist was also a photographer and the work he displayed in his office always got me and others very interested in his work, so it could happen.