Marketing yourself and the Best Use for Promo Cards + Contest Below!
Most photographers have a promo card. A promo card is a card that you leave behind with a client or give to potential clients that you meet that shows a few shots of your work and has your contact info on it. It’s like a large, fancy business card. Your promo card can be as different and individual as you and your work is! Some photographers have very unusual cards, varying in size and texture. Some photographers stick to more standard sizes of postcard size ( 4″ x 6″ ), 6″ x 8″ or 8″ x 10″ sizes and do the normal glossy or matte finished textures.
I just made a new promo card because I recently signed with a really great agent and we needed a new card with my info along with her info on it. We made up a small run of only 150 cards to start because we are going to do new promos constantly this year. I gave her 125 of them and kept 25 for myself. That shows you the difference in who’s really pitching my work now. My agent is out there showing my book a lot. I do too, but not at the same rate or amount of times. I stuck with the standard 6″ X 8″ card because I feel like the simpler, the better. What I feel is important, after doing promo cards over 20 years, is that the IMAGES have to be strong. You have to show your strongest work on your promo card so you can WOW your recipients. I’ve shown examples of my card on this post. We went with a black glossy card because my sites are black: www.melissarodwell.com and www.melissarodwell.net. As you can see, my logo from my sites are on my card as well. It’s what we call branding. It’s my identity and what I use to sell myself and my work. We decided on three strong color images, and all strong single fashion images because Cindy, my agent, is mainly pitching my book and the cards to fashion clients right now. I will eventually have to do a “music” card that goes out to potential music clients and record people, etc. Different promos are needed for different industries that you’re going after.
The whole promotional engine can start to get expensive! You remember my post on portfolios. Since I wrote that post, I have signed with Cindy Newman at D1 Agency and we changed up my portfolio….again! She didn’t like the Pina Zangaro books, and truth be told, I wasn’t thrilled with them either. While they’re slick and cool, there is something lightweight about them and they get fiingerprints like crazy on the cover, so I was always wiping the poor covers down every other minute. We went back with the “Old School” book from House of Portfolios and I was really pleased she went in that direction. While they are an industry standard and they all sort of look the same. they are really nice leather bound books and they have a Pro feel to them. But all this costs me money. New portfolios, new promos, new mailers. It adds up.
The Contest
So here’s some good news! U Printing has written me and has offered an incredible deal to my readers! U Printing is a trusted online printing company that provides high quality printing products at incredibly great rates! They’ve been in the business of printing for over 25 years and pride themselves on fast turnaround, low human error factors and great quality for a stellar price! Seriously, you can’t beat that when you’re looking around for printing companies to handle your postcard and printing needs. Check out the link to their Postcards. They also offer a great deal on large Canvas Prints. Canvas prints are a good way to go if you’re considering exhibiting your work, like I talked about in my post about Exhibiting your Photography. It’s also a great idea to offer clients that want to go the extra step and have a nice sized canvas print of your work. I can imagine wedding or portrait photographers could add this as part of their pitch to prospective clients.
So here’s the deal: U Printing pitched me the idea of a contest for my readers to participate in. Two winners will get 250 free promo postcards, and one winner will get a free 18 X 24 canvas print. This is what you have to do to enter: leave a comment at the end of this post describing what you would use the postcards for and/or the canvas print for. The readers who described the best uses for the canvas print and the promo cards wins! It’s that simple!
Postcards are a great way to start out with doing a promo card. For one, you can mail them directly. With larger promos you have to buy envelopes to mail them (extra costs) and then you have to pay more postage because they’re bigger (extra costs) and they’re also sometimes too big to stick in your pocket when you go out and you run into someone who asks: “Do you have a business card?” I’ve used postcards often in the past and especially when I started out. U Printing is a really reputable company with big experience and track records under their belt. For online printing, they’re up there with the best! ( I wouldn’t recommend them otherwise. )
So….what would you use your postcards for? Or the lovely 18 x 24 canvas print?
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Great job of explaining the concept and how it applies to your own marketing plan. I am working on a strategy for expanding the reach of my work and this type of insight is exactly what I need. The contest is icing on the cake.
Thanks!
I’m just breaking into commercial modeling and I’ve been told I need a comp card! As a student, the cost of getting signed with an agent is nearly putting me out in the street on top of my school expenses and the thought of having to pay to have comp cards printed is terrifying! The whole point of my modeling is to finance my photography education (NYU’s Tisch school of Arts) which is by no means an inexpensive school, but it seems like such a catch 22! In any case, I’d use the promo cards, in a round about way, to get the education I need to hopefully one day make it as a top photographer!
WOW, great post. I would use the cards as a hand to hand advert. for my Super Model Seniors (High School) It’s a new marketing tool I use. I select 4 seniors who get to shoot free all year long. 1 shoot a month. And they get free cards (Promo Card) with there images on the and they can hand them out to friends at school. and everytime a new senior books a shoot they get model cash, which is points that go into the prints they want. It is free to the 4 seniors, all they have to do is hand the promo cards out to other seniors and juniors. I treat all there shoots like a fashion shoot with MUA, Studio and Outdoor shoots. Not the cookie cutter images that plague this area. That way they will really want to show the promo cards to others and feel like a Super Model. Hence the Name: Super Model Seniors. So far so good. My wife selcets the models based on looks, personality and style. Got to be a student who is in love with there self and talk about wanting to be a model. These kids normally will really blow up the shoot and get all there promo cards out so they can get more the following month with there new images.
So they never have to pay as long as they promote hard.
Easy-Peezy Lemon Squeezy.
Sweet looking promo card. I’d use the promo cards to not only try to get work and clients but to attract talent (models, stylists, fashion designers) to do cool shoots and build up my portfolio.
And the canvas print would go above my fireplace. The bare wall has always bothered me, and a canvas print would add the right amount of style on the pumpkin orange walls.
[...] Marketing yourself and the Best Use for Promo Cards A tutorial on using promo cards to market your business. (tags: photography business marketing) [...]
Recently I sent out my first promotional emails to a list of potential clients. I’d use postcards to follow up with those who expressed interest in my work. Canvas print will go to my studio sitting area, people like big screen TVs, people are getting impressed my large prints.
Melissa, I have couple of questions regarding portfolio. Our camera sensors have aspect ratio of 3:2 while 11×14 portfolio doesn’t match that aspect. As a general rule do use full bleed printing (by cropping photos) or you leave borders around the image? What about horizontal images?
Cool opportunity! I’m in the middle of rebranding myself and overhauling my portfolio, after which I will be doing a mass mailing to agencies, reps, clients and magazines both in my hometown and out of state. I hope to be moving to a larger market-city that has more of a need for the work I do. These postcards would be a perfect addition to my plan and a much needed one at that!
The canvas print would also be perfect for a benefit I’ve recently been asked to contribute to. A local musician has been diagnosed with an advance form of cancer, and an art auction / rock show has been organized to raise money for his treatment. Local artists are donating work for the sale, and I wanted to be involved. I was going to donate a small print for the cause, but a mounted canvas print would be a much higher-seller.
Thanks for the opportunity!
I would use both to assist with a recent display that I contracted. This would a HUGE help.
Fantastic! I actually just completed the “Professional Practices” class towards my photo degree, and as part of the class we designed our promo materials. So I have my postcard all ready to go, but unfortunately being on a student/emerging professional’s budget I’ve been doing a DIY printing to at least have *something* to hand out to potential clients and when networking with industry professionals (models, mua’s, clothing designers).
Post/promo cards are so important, as they’re something you can easily leave behind with a potential client or when networking as something to “remind” them of you in the future.
Winning this to have *real* printed postcards would be so awesome! They definately look better than the DIY and in my opinion give a much more professional image.
Nice work
Hello Melissa, i ended up here on your page after noticing you added my profile in Flickr.
Glad to see you are living The Dream as far as a photographer would wish.As for myself, i am not too much a fashion photographer and always tried to shy away from proposals to get my hands “dirty” with it.
I do have to employ it however when shooting my weddings but for now that is where it ends and stops.
I am more a photojournalist and landscape photographer and actually i have just returned after one year in Europe shooting Gypsy life and old peasant’s in Eastern Europe.
I feel these are rapidly vanishing people and cultures and the wisdom and wealth of experience that could be gathered from them is also rapidly disappearing.
So, i obliged myself in fulfilling this task of preserving their plight and needs although i do not even know if i an even a mediocre photographer , at best.
Wishing you all the best and hope we could keep in touch.
Great post, Melissa! I love the look of your promo cards
currently, i use promo cards as sort of a business card and portfolio preview for my high school seniors and their moms. i take their photos with a fashion twist and they just love that! on the back, my contact info is on there. for this year (hopefully, might have to do this next year) i am planning to coordinate with one of the high schools to do a prom fashion show. i’ll have a couple of my female seniors pass out the card and they will be used as tickets and my advertisement to get the word out. i might also partner up with an organization that donates used prom dresses to kids in the inner city so they can go to prom as well. i’ll probably add that onto the promo cards. so that’s the plan!
I am just designing a new promo card for the “people” side of my photography. Since Im doing more New model portfolio work and Kids and sports portraits. I would use these smaller promo cards to hand to parents and clubs and teenagers for Senior portrait work.
The canvases are always a great way to get attention to your Space at events . They make such an impressive statement. I would love to add some large canvases of the models to my Display.
I’ve been toying with the idea of carrying a mini-portfolio on me at all times, so the postcards would probably go to that cause. That way I can keep them in my purse and bust them out when I meet potential models/other interested people on the street (so I don’t have to scribble down a website and beg them to look at it when they get home). As simple as it seems as a concept, the money just isn’t there for a student such as myself. I try to do the best I can with what I’ve got, but I have needs and the drive to become known.
The canvas print would be sent to my grandparents in Italy. My grandfather is a talented painter who couldn’t succeed in his environment, so it is important to him to see me grow and make something of myself doing what I love. We don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, and to have some tangible representation of my dreams in their home would mean so much to them and me.
Hello, Melissa! I’ve been waiting for this post for long time. And, you kept your word about it. Thanks, great article!
Melissa !!!
I love contests… Ok, I’ve recently decided to move to portrait photography for living. I love weddings, studio and on location shoots. The promo card would help me to attract new clients and models. I would probably use a few promo cards, one for weddings, one for commercial use and an other one for portrait.
The canevas ? I would use it as a sample to show to my clients what I can offer them after the shooting…
Verry simple use as you may see, but I’m shure, that it would be verry wise money spending for me !!!
Ciao
Jean xxx
Hey Melissa,
I am just starting out as a photographer and am in transition from my last career. I do not have a Website other than posts I have of Flickr. I do not have business cards. I do not have any large print of my work so far. I would love to win this contest and get the ball rolling.
I have been trying to build a portfolio and learn everything I can through the Photographers I admire. You are one of them. I didn’t want to put up a so so website and have so so Cards. I wanted to have my shit together and look “PROFESSIONAL”. My friend owns a studio and said I could have an exhibition there as well, which is a big motivation.
Basically, my goal this year is to do it all and be successful as a photographer. Obviously starting at the bottom. The postcards and canvas would help my get my work seen for all types of promotions, start a Branding of my photography, and help launch my photography career.
Thanks for you blog. I look to it as a mentorship!!! :0)
Best,
Nikki
Thanks for the opportunity! For the promo cards, I would definitely start handing them out right away! I’m trying to get into wedding photography and portrait photography, and they would definitely help with starting up! With the canvas, I’d probably have a shot from my portfolio blown up and hung in my living room, which doubles as my office. Great opportunity to show some of my best work!
Thanks again!
Wow the promo cards look great. I can use them for sure since I need to build up client relations!
What I would do if I win the promo cards and canvas: I will organize my first fashion exposition and give every visitor a promocard when they leave! and offcourse I send one to Melissa too
The canvas I will show to my clients as example and in between it will brighten up my live in the livingroom.
ciao Sander
Hello Melissa,
Thanks for posting this promo card article. It really helped alot especially when I’m at the same stage of designing my own promo card. However, I am stuck in designing the back of the card. What other information should I put on it other than my logo,name,website, phone number, and email? Would you suggest to put some more pieces of my work on the back?
Promo cards are really an artist’ oversized business card that give Client’s first impression of the artist’s work and style.
Canvas prints are good for exhibiting an artist’s work either in a gallery or even in a coffee shop or restaurant. Therefore, showing your work and your name in public which allow the audience to know more about the style of your work.
P.S. Melissa, I recently wrote you a message using this ‘Contact’ section in your blog for asking you for some advice. Just wanted to know if you got it. Thanks.
Cheers,
Kristine
Wow! Just what I need. I am in the final stages of redoing web site, blog and branding and I need new cards but after all the other expenses I wasn’t sure how to do this as well. And the canvas will be a great addition to show my clients since it’s easier to sell these if you have them to show! Thanks for the contest. Loving your blog!
Hello Melissa,
Thanks you and Uprinting for this wonderful contest. I also enjoy contests, especially when they are photography related. I hope Uprinting get lots of work from it.
As for my entry, I was going to say that I could use the canvas to show an example to my clients of how a photo would look on canvas in order to make more sales. This is something I would like to do in the future, but after reading the post about the art auction, I think its a worthier cause than my own.
Good luck EE Berger.
Hi Melissa! It sounds like your new agent is really going to work for you – that’s great!
I am in the finishing stages of getting my first studio ready to open! Postcards are a perfect way for me to spread the word about it! And a canvas would really help towards getting my display pieces for the new space! Also, still being fairly new to everything I’m always looking to check out a few more printing companies!
Thanks!
I love reading your blogs. its always so helpful. im currently in the process of starting my own photography buisness. ive worked with a couple of clients, nothing big. i think this contest would really help me out, i would love to prepare my own comp cards, because ive been printing all my flyers, b-cards, and photos from my little home printer, meaning having to buy ink and paper then cut the paper myself properly, and doing all this when its needed like now…lol… hard work, but it has to be done.
as far as the canvas print, that would be a bonus to the promo cards. i def would love to print one of my works (http://www.flickr.com/photos/patlei_photography/2863537025/in/set-72157607299245331/) on canvas and be able to post it up in my fathers babershop.
thanks so much for the contest. happy weekend.
patlei
Nice postcard Melissa! You look so gorgeous by the way, how do you get so thin?
I’m just getting into the industry myself, and now that I’m working more with agencies and clients I definitely need new promo cards! nothing beats good marketing in these times. As for the canvas print, I’d definitely send that home to my parents. My mom just celebrated her 67th birthday and my dad’s 89th is coming up.
i almost left you a post once…
I have been reading your blog, sometimes i get mad when you don’t post for awhile… but still check anyways knowing you didn’t… whats wrong with me?
glad to see you posted another…
i am a student… sortof. well, i go to school. and i just had to give up my internship with a local commercial shooter to finish up. sad. anyways, i have this independent study class i set up called… well not offically called, but i named it “professional preparation”. catchy huh? the point is to make a site and leave behinds and such for potential clients. as well as some keywording stuff and a few other organizational type of things… so should i tell you why i could use the cards?
canvas is not my fav, well to be honest, i really don’t like it. but it seems to be in right now. big money maker at least. i have an instructor that started a “healing with the arts” program at the downtown, get shot walking in the door, hospital. he’s their curator. good guy. real educated. anywho, donated two pieces already. not fashion work, but my favorites. (his too) i could probably pon that canvas off on him. they need lots more work. they are trying to correlate art with quicker recovery times and “healing” by subjecting patients to art in their rooms and such. good cause i thought. maybe you do too.
no more weeks and weeks between posts…. deal?
-m
Great idea and perfect timing for me Melissa!
I literally JUST quit my “day” job and it’s time for me to get out there and market myself. I’m completely rebuilding my portfolio in the next 2 months and will need some great promo cards to send out to potential clients and art buyers. Since I’m pretty new to the fashion/commercial photography scene I need a strong intro to these people who have never heard of me. I will use the cards to make a statement and showcase my work. I appreciate your reminder of branding and having cards that match your website and your business card, etc.
As for the print, I would love to give that to my mother to hang on her wall because she’s been my number one supporter in my endeavor to make it as a professional photographer. She loves my photos and I think she would be so proud to see her daughter’s work blown up like that and hanging on her wall.
Thanks for going into detail with marketing and branding. It’s good to see both you and your agent are working together… rather than one over the other.
I have had a website up since August and always carry business cards with me. Whenever I hear people ask about my work and such I always give them a card. Never had the opportunity to send promo cards out, so that would be really nice. Was always afraid to make and send, then get no reply in return. I guess that just what you have to do though. Be confident in the work you choose and be open to whatever may come of it.
As for the canvas print, there are a few bare walls in my dorm room that could be filled with a piece of work, or maybe offer my first client with the promo cards a free 18×24 canvas print
But I think the promo cards would benefit me more than a canvas print, as of now. I really need to get my work out there…
Great post and great contest. Thank you for the opportunity.
Im currently in my last year of college and will graduate with my degree in photography in a little under a year. Fashion is what inspires me and drives me. My favorite thing to shoot. However, I don’t live in(or even near) a city with much of a fashion culture. Its also an unbelievably saturated market. I plan to move to (either west or east, still deciding if LA or NYC will be a better situation for me) right after graduation. The cost of moving, on top of the fact that art school student loans are astronomical, makes moving like this tough. I know this is the career I want so Im gonna do whatever it takes. Even if it means I have to live in a box!
I would use the post cards to mail to potential clients in the market I chose to move to before I get there. This way when I arrive I have already made some contacts and established prospective clients to start getting work as soon as possible so that there’s a (slight) chance that I may not have to live in a box . It would be a good way for an unknown young photographer from a different city to start getting his name out there.
Im doing all of this on my own and out of my own pockets. I have had great support from my family but they’re very skeptical, and very far from wealthy so I have learned from a young age to be self sufficient. I would love to give them the canvas as kind of a thank you for all they have been able to do for me, and to show them that maybe, just maybe, theres a chance I’ll actually pull this fashion thing off. HAHA.
I would be kind and gift the promo cards to my good friend, who has her first solo exhibition coming up soon. It’s a one night ‘do, and she would love these to give to all the invitees on her list. The night is meant to showcase her photography and get her name out there both locally and around the UK and she’d absolutely die if I gave her a huge stack of these promo postcards to hand out.
And the canvas print… Well I have no idea what I would use that for, but I wouldn’t mind one of my pictures printed up professionally on canvas.
Hi Melissa, thank you for your great post. I really enjoy to read them. What would I do if I get those promo cards? Well, I think I’m going to print my best photo works and give them to my best friends.
Since the photography agency where I used to work closed on this January, I think it would be a great promo postcard to promote myself because I have to start my own photography business…
well, I’m just in the process of branding myself, and designing my print media.
Currently i have my business card designed and shipped off to the printers, my next project was a matching promo/comp card and to get some prints done up as samples for prospective clients. To read this is perfect timing!
Basically this year i am planning on building a client base and networking my ass off. Which means… leaving those people with a little something to remember me by. I plan on submitting to a few magazines within toronto, aswell to participate in more shows, and to prepare my submission into the FAT fashion show in Toronto. I’m currently branching off and working with musicans, and I would also like to create a promo card for that genre aswell.
I am planning to apply for an MA in Photography at the London College of Communication of the University of the Art London this year.
So I would make my friends go “wow”, my future lecturers go “woohoo” and my so-far-non-existant clients go “oh, sure”.
Hello I am 16 and am inspiring to become a fashion photographer, I would use the contest prizes to help me gain my future as Ibelieve they would really help me.
Your contest is unbelievable and would help me a lot with what I wont to do, I am going to try my best whatever as I wont to be confident I will sucseed one day
If you do not pick me
Good luck to anyone who wins
I wish you the best
Thank you
I am a hairstylist and even though I am not a photographer I love reading your blogs and watching your videos because it is a great learning experience on many levels. I not only work in a salon, but I do photo shoots to develop my skills to hopefully one day work for a major magazine or designer. I recently had some new photos taken of my work and I would love to submit the postcards of my work to clients, magazine, reps and agencies.
When it comes to the canvas print, I am an educator which means I travel around and educate the latest in coloring and cutting, fashion design ect. to other hair stylists. It would be great to show my work on a canvas (very powerful) and to explain that whatever there passion if they keep fighting anything is possible.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Averil Hull
I focus on travel photography and take a lot of street portraits in developing countries. Obviously I’d use the promo cards to gain new work leads, but I’d also leave them with some of the people I photograph, who have very few personal possessions.
I’d also remember to send one to my mum!
I would use the Promo cards to promote my self. Have Photographs on the front that will catch the viewers eye and bring them in to my work and further more want to contact me. The images will speak for me, strong enough not to be thrown in the trash, in he corner or in a drawer, but to be shown to others,passed on hand to and looked at eye to eye and posted up on the walls for everyone to see. The canvas would be a entry piece for the little galleries that i show my work. it will be the 1st piece that the viewer will see and bring them into the world of fashion. My opening Photo.
Melissa you rock lady!
The cards look gorgeous
I’ll be ordering new ones shortly.. I like your idea of creating new ones periodically. Smart smart smart!
The idea of a promo card is interesting. I’m a software engineer. Every company I’ve worked at has printed me up 500 little white business cards. The same ones EVERY businessman on the planet carries. (i hand out about 8.) Since I’m working at a company whose vision is photo sharing from mobile phones a promo card might be a more appropriate business card. I’m going to suggest it to the business folks.
If I won I’d pass on the offer to the CEO who would be in a better position to use promo cards.
Thanks for the idea!
[...] of you fashionistas head over to The Fashion Photography Blog to enter their contest on Your Promo Cards. I’m very interested to see all of the entries. I’ve always had a fondness for fashion [...]
Hey!
i need a comp card. My friends doesn’t believe me when I say that I love to take fashion pictures just for the look, and the beautifulness of the photography.
They just believe that I take pictures just to be in presence of youg, wounderful women…
The compcard is needed for social purposes, I need it to make myself beliavable!!
I would use the cards for networking. I’m just starting out and need all the help I can get. Free advice, free supplies, etc. I’ve already been so blessed with the folks I’m already running into. It’s been amazing! The canvas? Well, what a thrill it would be to have one of my photos ‘large and in charge’ whether in my living room or somewhere else!
They sound like a great company, I’ll have to check them out.
I would like to spread the word about my work with the promocards. I would like to do a pro-bono work for teenagers that can’t afford senior portraits.
The canvas would be great, I’m trying to get a local coffee shop to show my work, and I would give that to them to put on their wall to promote my work.
Thanks
Useful tip, thanks! Nice write up on lenses. I just bought a 50mm 1.4 for 50.00 used. Just last week, I finally bought my first DSLR, D70s. It came with a 28mm f2.8. I’m hoping to buy an 105 or 135 before Spring.
What I would do with an 18×24 canvas of my work?
Spring is coming up. I would have a textile/fashion student friend cut it up, make it into lingerie, bikini or mini skirt and do a photo session with it. I want the design to use as much of the 18×24 as possible. I hope the texture of the ‘canvas’ print shows up well if I shoot a close up.
I may have a Uprint logo somewhere on it as a tie in to the sponsor of the contest. Now, to figure out which image I want to use if I win.
What would I do with 250 free post cards of my work?
This is a tough one. I could go with a traditional answer: “Oh, I’ll mail it out and promote myself.” Kinda boring, kinda expected, kinda….safe.
Oh, I would have it turned into a mannequin……..kinda safe. Or, turn it into ‘hard’ outfit. Using stiffer materials, like these 10 or 12pt stocks, it can be turned into really ‘stiff clothes’. Imagine, a corset that’s made of this stuff? Shoes? Hat?
We are talking about fashion, right? We are talking about art, right? We are talking about risking public failure & humiliation, right? It’s not like I’m going to be killed…just humiliated if this doesn’t work out? So, why be safe? To paraphrase & reinterpret Neil Gaiman: Unknown, like me, should be more worry about obscurity. (He was referring to writers, actually)
With those items made (the 18×24 canvas outfit & the 250 postcard outfits), I want to arrange for a daring…. or “daring” (if I win, I’ll figure out what “daring” will require” of me) concept photo shoot in a high traffic area in Cleveland. I want get as many eyeballs on what I offer as a freelance photographer.
Why Cleveland? Same reason why I own a D70s instead of the D3 or the cheaper D700: lack of cash! Cleveland…I guess volcanos, tropical caves, frozen water falls are out of the question.
On the other hand, I can always wait till March to shoot “in” Africa….! I believe I got an idea.
Recap:
1, 18×24, have it designed into an outfit or article of clothing. Mini skirt/bra? Lingerie? Bikini?
2, 250 post card, have it commissioned into a clothing line. Several themes for the outfits: Safari/Indiana Jones, Glamour/Pin Up, Historic inspiration, Wedding/prom… Fetish outfits from these cards if my intent was to generate buzz? I believe 250 cards can offer up 3 outfits, at least.
3, Arrange a safari in the deepest, darkest of mid-west U.S.A. for a photo shoot. Too bad this isn’t as public as I would like it…not too much in causing a buzz and milking in for free publicity. I might reconsider this one and do it in downtown Cleveland just to get some publicity.
4, I could ask my cop friends to ‘arrest’ me & my photography, take us away in plastic ties, to help generate buzz?
How fun!
The of your post on comp cards this and contest is serendipitous.
I’ve been struggling to choose between images for my comp card so I am grateful for all of your advice in the above post.
I’m in my final year of school and I am preparing to present my work at our portfolio show in May. The chance to win 250 comp cards would be a great boon to my show! I would hand them out to guests who visit my booth, as well as leave-behinds during the many informational interviews I’ve arranged. Finally, I would use personalize the cards as the be used as Thank-You notes.
The free 18 X 24 canvas print would be the star of my booth, seducing guests and drawing them close to discover my photographic perspective.
Lastly, I promise to pay-it-forward to UPrinting and Melissa Rodwell by bragging about their products and blog to my many fellow classmates!
(And Melissa, I’d love to send you my comp card and an invitation to my portfolio show this Spring. Minneapolis in May is lovely!)
Hi!
I am from India, a fashion photographer been for 2 years. Whenever I get some free time I try and do some free work for people who cannot afford my services, especially kids. This New Year I am doing a project on one of Kolkata’s largest Orphanage (Oxford Mission) and along with 2 other assistants, shooting the kids and their daily life.
The plan is to present a book at the end of the project to the school, and one picture each to the kids.
It will be nice if we can add a nice big canvas print (courtesy your offer)
regards
Kaustav
I’m an up-and-coming LA based Fashion Photographer and have been working with many online printing companies for my Marketing for years. I came across this post and checked out U Printing and they look like they have a REALLY great product. With the 250 cards and/or Canvas print I would be handing out to Models and Agencies I come face to face with. I’m going to be walking into Agencies in the LA area very soon and these would be a huge help in my success.
Thank you FPB!
I’m just kicking off in wedding and portrait photography,
I have been seriousluy considering getting a canvas of one of my best shots as an example of what clients could do and cards to put in some of the funky bridal stores in town… these would be awesome!
A
p.s. still loving your work M
Hi from Granada, Spain. You didn’t mention whether your contest was open to those of us living in Europe but in case it is, I’m interested.
I’m just getting started in my portraiture business and I’m focusing on university students studying at the Universidad de Granada. I would love to be able to hand out quality samples of my work to interested clients. I would use the canvas print on a display table I’m hoping to set up at the beginning of each semester to book the shoots.
Great post and good ideas.
I would hang the canvas in my cube at work so when people walk by and see it and ask who took the wonderful picture, I can whip out my business card and let them know where to get some high quality portraits taken.
I would donate the canvas print to my most loyal client. They are the first magazine that has such faith in my work that they have booked me to shoot for them regularly. So this print would most likely be one of the images that has featured in their magazine and it would be presented as a token of mutual respect and, to some extent, gratitude for what they did to get me started on this road that is photography.
The cards? I would target some potential clients with direct advertizing. As boring of an excuse it sounds, I would use them to get more work. Also, these are regularly demanded by people in different networking events and portfolio showings.
Would be a tremendous help to me.
-Niko Rakkolainen
I would actually display the canvas in th front entrace to the studio as the first thing people noticed and as a conversation piece. When asked by the client if I offer a canvas sevice I would reply with a yes. After the session is over with then and only then I would explain the prices for prints and cancas;s/
With the business card/greeting card I would hand them out to potential clients and offer a print credit to them for everyone that they refer to me if they book a session. I would also atened premires and showings and hand them out there as well to dealers and others in the industry that are in need of a fresh new outlook on the portrait industry mixed with high fashion modleing.
Thanks for the post Melissa.
[...] you liked this post you may also like: Your Promo Cards Exhibiting Your Photography Marketing Your [...]
To market, to market…
I need to start marketing my work to ad agencies and publications. I have had “promo cards” on my TO DO list for a month now. Can you say “fate”?
Your promo cards look nice.
Cheers,
Timothy
[...] would each win 250 free promo cards! I wrote about great uses for a promo card in the same post, Your Promo Cards, so these two lucky photographers can start using the cards to promote themselves. The third winner [...]
Im planing to have my own promo card set soon to share my best shots with my clients and agencies to show others as a fact of recommending me
Promo card is like our short portfolio in print. really valuable for a new person in field
I’ve been accepted to the portfolio review at PhotoEspana in Madrid in June and need to get promo cards fopr the event, so I’d use them for that. Some really big names are on the list of reviewers, so it’s a fantastic opportunity, but add the cost of the cards to the cost of printing my portfolio to the cost of the flight to Spain in high season and my non-profit day job salary is having trouble keeping up. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the great info on promo cards! I have been struggling hard with self promotion ideas and finally decided that I will do a mass mailer and see what happens.
Thanks again for your blog and upbeat and friendly attitude!
Nick
hm, postcards eh? I’d definitely put them on the mail, but probably just to foreign places, since i really want to spend some time abroad. some sort of photo montage with my best shots on one side, some trivia aobut myself and photography on the other, as well as a return address. who knows? it might work!
Great information! As an experiential marketing professional by day and a photographer by nite and weekends, of course, I am not a huge fan of traditional advertising. I have quickly learned though, most clients from my photography business expect traditional marketing materials — unique ones at that. I would love to be the recipient of the 250 free promo cards — I would use them to wow potential clients and use them at networking events to dazzle the competition and show off some of my best work.
Hi there,..
google has lead me to see your page here.
its nice to see it
it can add my knowledge!!
Thanks alot bro!
Could i quote your article for my site??
Such an amazing concept! I was just going through some of your work and I must say its very creative! I have a friend who’s into photography I’m sure this would interest him.. Thanks so much for the post!
Oh…I get it. This contest is just a ploy for me to comment on your blog…right? Is there really going to be a winner behind this?
i do think so .. i like to use promo cards
me also i do .. i always use them as a photographer
i think its a respectable way and professional way to use the promo cards .. so i can show other peoples some informations .. i prefer to use it it shows that am a reall professional photographer
I would love the 18×24 canvas print for a family portrait. I have always wanted a large picture of our family in the living room!
I just got business cards done, but I can’t seem to book many appointments. I’m really trying to break into the fashion photography business, and I think that postcards could help a lot, so people could see some of my work up front.
Congratulations for the winner.
Unfortunately, I read this blog in July.
If I read it six months before, I would enjoy it.
Besides your golden valuable advices I have to admit your works have truly inspiring my creativity! You’re a JEM!!!!
Thank you so much!!!!
Harry
Ohh boy. I missed it as well. Anyway it’ a great idea. Would love to try it out next time. Thanks for the information. Cheers
Congratulations…..
hay these is good thought process and makes you more pro when you drop in to clients & agencies, even its existing ..
I’m just starting out and need all the help I can get. Free advice, free supplies, etc. I’ve already been so blessed with the folks I’m already running into. It’s been amazing!
I have been associate with the fashion since i have watched my first fashion show two years back. I am basically from kolkata and has never missed any popular shows of Kolkata fashion. From there i came to know that how these business cards are important.
Really nice idea. I would also like to try this promo card thing.