Why paid work might be losing you better paid work.

Last year I invited the CD of a New York ad agency to answer burning questions from photographers on one of my programmes.

He had just been asked where and how a photographer should share his commercial (paid) work.

“Commercial work? Why would I want to see commercial work?”

The creative director looked genuinely baffled.

The fact is, when a decent advertising creative goes to your website they’re often looking for ideas, inspiration and to get to know who you are.

(Let’s face it, they’re hiring your services, not buying a piece of art).

So it stands to reason that they’re not going to find that if they look at ads already made by their client’s competition.

Of course, they may need to see your paid work, in due course.

But your paid work won’t even get a look in if the creative doesn’t like what they see in the first place.

It’s all part of the customer journey.

And if you don’t fully understand who your target customer or audience is, or how they think and behave, you might as well be trying to promote yourself to your grandma. (Yes we know she loves it, but…)

If you’re building your online presence purely around ads you’ve shot, you may be missing out on some juicier projects.

And you may find it challenging to get (or keep) a good agent, who will support you to shoot what you love making.

If you need help understanding your target audience, get in touch. My next Bootcamp programme is starting at the end of February and things are ramping up.

At the very least, make some time now to get to know who you’re speaking to. It will help, I promise.