Are you being pigeonholed?

Everyone knows that when you’re marketing you should focus on a niche. It’s true. It actually makes life much easier if you’re focusing on one group of people.

But if you’ve been told that your niche is a type of industry like Pharma, automotive, sport or adventure, and you’re only targeting brands in those niches, you could end up with quite confused messaging.

That’s because brands in the same industry are all competing, and anxious to stand out from each other by targeting different types of consumers.

Some pharma advertising will be calm, some energetic, some humorous (like the Go To Skincare ad captured by Billy Plummer above), some gritty, some edgy, some serious, some warm and connected, etc. It’s the same for any industry. There are even calm sports brands!

So the way to define yourself as a photographer is not what you photograph and film, but HOW.

If your work is warm and connected, you’ll want to look at getting work from people who need that. And guess what? It won’t just be one niche. It will be an array of brands from banks, to insurance companies to automotive to sports drinks to clothing.

Suddenly more doors will open to you.

It’s much better for your brand if it’s solid and consistent in style and feel, and for you to focus on brands and decision makers who need that, whatever industry niche they are in.

Armed with this knowledge of your own brand feeling, everything else becomes clearer.

• Who to target.
• What kind of personal work to make.
• What to share in your marketing.
• Communication with your agent

So what is your brand? And how does it make people feel?

When I work with any photographer the first thing I do is Blitz their work and help them identify their own unique look and feel which in turn has helped them attract work which is aligned with what they love doing. You can book a Blitz for November here.

And if you’re in UK, join me next Monday for my London workshop ‘Stand out from the crowd’, and we’ll delve into this in more depth.