1. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
Chapter Five: Results, Conclusions, and Recommendations
After one year of project execution and research, the results proved more than gratifying.
Understanding the algorithms of SEO, taking time to reach out to customers through social
media, and perfecting a brands image are all ingredients to accelerated profit in an integrated
media directed society. The following final chapter addresses the results of the study, supports
an answer to the research question with also concluding the study, illustrates recommendations
addressing how the study could have been improved and future plans for the business, and
concludes with a personal reflection.
Results
The results from the study proved to be positive but still in need of fine-tuning. The goal
to become searchable on Google was successful, however, the sessions those results produced
led to little profit. Google Analytics identified a significant increase in traffic to the site, with the
average visit duration being quite impressive, though a limited amount of visitors submitted a
session information request form. Further studies will need to be completed in order to decipher
the reasoning behind this. The majority of the keywords Google recorded as being used to locate
the site were children portrait photography related. These words directly tied into the keywords
that were used on the company's blog site from previous session posts. This conveys the
message that the blog's keywords have the most influence is Google's SEO search terms. Google
Analytics also was able to detect that 23% of the visitors used a mobile device. The previous site
not only did not have a mobile portal but it was flash which is not read by most mobile phones,
proving the decision to incorporate a separate mobile site is necessary in current marketing
trends.
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2. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
Using the algorithms from this study, Facebook showed to be the most advantageous for
the company. Shortly after the company rebranded, organized the page more efficiently,
increased their connections, opened their communication with followers, and more strategically
timed their posts, the Facebook business page grew quickly. This social media outlet led to over
$8,000 in organic profit, which was more than the company's total income the prior year. The
requests became so frequent that the owner began having to turn down business due to becoming
overbooked. Even though the page had become rebranded as a wedding company, most of these
requests were for children and family sessions. The Facebook contest did prove to be successful
but unfortunately was unable to lead to new business due to unforeseen circumstances of the
owner. This continues to support the notion that the easiest way to gain new clients is through
client recommendations.
Creating a niche brand was one of the company's main objectives. The business chose to
only promote as a wedding photographer geared towards specializing in fun and stylish couples.
They doubled their number of wedding sessions, which was two the previous year, to then four.
Though this number does not seem drastic, the new marketing materials and website allowed the
business to increase market value through presentation and validity, allowing them to charge an
average price for weddings comparatively with other studios at their expertise level. This means
that each wedding amounted to an additional $1,000 in profit over prior years. The cost of all
rebranding materials was more than covered after one wedding. Kristen Herber Photography
still received significantly more requests for portrait sessions over wedding sessions, which
suggests that the company will need to continue to work on their branding efforts.
Additional social media outlets showed impact. Twitter led to local vendors
recommending the company to clients, as well as providing another application for users to find
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3. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
the website. The business sold photographic prints through Instagram, as well led to a photo
session. Google+ was very advantageous in increasing rank priority. From these results, it
demonstrates that having a business present across a myriad of social media sites will prove to
bring new clients, even if that site only brings a few.
Perhaps over time LinkedIn will begin to prove itself useful, but as of right now it does
not seem promising for the company. There can never be too much online presence for an
organization so it was good to have claimed the business name on LinkedIn’s page even if it
does not provide a strong audience. There was also no data collected that showed placing a
video on YouTube benefited the company in any way. The last project launched was an effort to
increase client recommendations. After sending out 55 personalized requests, (zero clients went
online and made a recommendation) not a single client went online and made a recommendation.
Four clients were asked why they had not made a recommendation and their response was that
they meant to but had forgotten.
Answer to the Research Question
The research question analyzed was: In a highly biased market of established professional
photographers unwilling to make change, when implementing a social media marketing strategy
in a small photography business, will the benefits outweigh the costs? The answer clearly
is"yes." When a research study was applied to a part-time small-established professional
photography studio, located in the Midwestern United States, the results indicated that this type
of business had the ability to increase their profit by 42%. The social marketing plan cost the
company $473.61, however, they increased their organic integrated media income by $9,755. It
is important to note that photography studios that outsource their graphic design work would
then see a rise in business costs, however, this cost would still not outweigh the benefits.
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4. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
Conclusions
A vast amount of businesses that have not yet learned to adapt to a society of Internet
driven customers are finding their businesses suffering. This research study produced valid
quantitative results demonstrating how a small photography business can improve clientele reach
and profit tenfold through following a strategic social media marketing plan. The study
determined that the business expenses and time necessary to execute such a project was
minuscule compared to the prosperities the project produced.
Recommendations
Through this study, Kristen Herber Photography has discovered that they prefer their new
brand and are going to continue to strive for attracting more wedding clients. After reviewing
the results, it is likely that if the business began blogging about wedding photography more
often, or blogging about wedding related material and attaching relevant keywords, Google
would raise their rank priority on wedding searches. Since the company photographs fewer
weddings per year, they are going to try spreading out the timing of when they put images on
Facebook in an attempt to catch the eye of more engaged couples. The Facebook wedding client
contest proved to be successful, and is leading the studio to launch another one this coming
winter. This time they will extend it to Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram followers.
The owner has also been working on recording session footage that will be used in making
additional YouTube videos, demonstrating what it is like to work with Kristen Herber
Photography, as well as posting photography tips to blog followers.
At this time, there is no data to support why so many visitors are spending quality time on
the webpage yet choosing not fill out a session information request form. The company is going
to experiment with designing a webpage that informs customers of the starting costs of wedding
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5. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
packages, as well as what kinds of elements are included that makes Kristen Herber Photography
unique. After extensive research, there were no studies to support whether or not clients demand
online pricing or if photographers ought to not post their pricing information. The studio also
plans to partner with additional local vendors and make a list of recommended vendors available
on a page of their website and blog. The hope is that in turn, these vendors will be more likely to
recommend this company.
After having so many satisfied clients but then not being able to persuade them to take
action in recommending the company online, Kristen Herber Photography wants to explore
further options to address this. One idea is to offer a photo-gifting item at no charge to clients,
which will be given to them once they have made the review. These items cost the studio an
average of $5, making it an easy addition for the studio's budget with wedding clients.
Personal Reflections
For the last several years, I have heard feedback that I charge too little for my services
with the feeling that my marketing presentation did not represent my talent or potential worth.
How do you charge more when your business looks elementary? Through studying social media
marketing, I finally felt like I had the tools necessary to understand how to reach my market.
The results were more than I ever could have imagined. My part-time studio was never meant to
be my full time business, but now I not only look like a professional, I am inundated with
requests.
In alignment with my new website, rebranding was a smart investment. It gave the studio
a whole new look and attitude the accurately represented my personality, allowing me to attract
the clientele I most enjoy working with. Unfortunately, at this time most of these clients still
want to direct me into being a child photographer, but an influencing factor to that is being at an
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age where my friends are all having babies. Perhaps a few years ago, when all these friends were
getting married, the results would have been different.
I finally feel proud to show off my company, I feel that I may now charge clients what I
am worth, I feel like I have something to offer that is unique to other photographers. In the
future, I plan to help other small-established professional photography businesses through this
study, so that they too can be “found again,” in an effort to once again increase the demand of
brilliantly skilled photography studios.
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7. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Photography Businesses
age where my friends are all having babies. Perhaps a few years ago, when all these friends were
getting married, the results would have been different.
I finally feel proud to show off my company, I feel that I may now charge clients what I
am worth, I feel like I have something to offer that is unique to other photographers. In the
future, I plan to help other small-established professional photography businesses through this
study, so that they too can be “found again,” in an effort to once again increase the demand of
brilliantly skilled photography studios.
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