When You Need a Photography Consultant

and they’re not certain how to reach it.

And there’s no reason they should be certain. The sort of business planning and marketing skills that can take a business where it wants to go demand a whole range of talents that differ drastically from the creativity needed to be a great photographer. They also often require the kind of detachment that can only come from a disinterested observer.

Like management consultants, creative consultants aim to deliver those talents (and that detachment) to professionals working in creative fields. Unlike management consultants though, they often bring years of hands-on industry experience to their clients as well expertise in their niche.

Getting the Marketing Right

Amanda Sosa Stone, for example, studied photography at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies. She then spent several years as an art buyer at advertising firm Draft FCB. She has been a contributing photo editor and co-authored The Photographer’s Survival Guide with Suzanne Sease. She now works with Agency Access, a marketing service for creative professionals, and provides personal consulting for photographers. The list of talent that she’s helped include Jim Krantz, the 2010 International Photographer of Year, Nick Onken, and National Geographic’s Assignment Division (with co-consultant Suzanne Sease.) More usually though, she works with commercial photographers who shoot advertising, editorial and corporate images, and with consumer photographers who photograph weddings and consumer portraits. Her aim, she says, is to provide help with editing, with creating presentation material such as branding, websites, portfolios and promotional material, and to lay out a marketing plan.

The process begins with the photographer sending Amanda an email explaining where they were, where they are and where they want to go. Amanda also asks to see current or older portfolios or any printed material the photographer might have. She and the photographer will then have two phone calls, each lasting an hour. The first call will discuss presentation and provide suggestions for ways in which the photographer can improve his or her website and portfolio. The second will focus on marketing and lay out a plan for the year ahead.

For photographers who want a Premium Consult, Amanda will then provide reviews of the photographer’s new marketing material (which includes list building), the final printed portfolio and the photographer’s new website. She’ll also follow up after six months and eleven months to see whether the photographer is still on track and moving towards his or her goals. The most common mistakes she sees photographers making, she says, are pretty basic:

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