Photoshelter creates some seriously kick ass marketing tools and their content development is also really quite good. Yesterday, the company announced their new guide giving insights into how photographers are viewing 2013. They summarized it themselves in the infographic above. But to get the full details, you should really sit down and internalize the 19 pages worth of content. After some careful review and a read-through three times, here’s what I took away:
– Photographers care about marketing quite a bit
– Photographers will invest in lenses and classes. Less than half will invest in camera bodies, lights, and software.
– Finding new clients and getting found online are big problems
– Not many of them are concerned about finding the right gear (most shouldn’t be)
– Most photographers are on Facebook; Twitter not so much and even less care about Instagram.
– They want to improve their websites. Phoblographer contributor Sander-Martijn recently revamped his website quite a bit. You should check it out on an iPad and also try interacting with it there.
– 40% use the iPhone to conduct business, but many still don’t use their phones to do it.
– Many photographers still give out CDs even in these days where optical drives are becoming obsolete.
– 65% still aren’t concerned about video
This is all really interesting outlooks. When I used to work in Retail Social Media marketing, those around me would always talk about how the end of times are coming and that video and stills are going to be merging extremely soon. Personally, we still don’t totally see it–and in addition we always say that content is king and that gear comes second or third, though we understand its importance and would never recommend a knife when you need a screwdriver.
On top of this, the social media world is extremely saturated and creating new and innovative ways of marketing yourself is going to be a challenge that will require better understanding of who your clients are.
