Commercial Photography Business Plan

To build its reputation as a quality choice for commercial photography in the Rochester, NY market, Flash Commercial Photography will focus on small and medium-sized businesses. These include:

• Very Small Businesses (under 20 employees)
• Small Businesses (20 to 200 employees)
• Medium Businesses (200 to 500 employees)

To reach these target markets, Flash will use email marketing, business networking, and web marketing to find clients and to ensure that clients find Flash. The CEO, Matte Flash, will sell to clients, and both he and an additional team of assistant photographers will be assigned to client photo shoots in the Flash studio and, when needed, at client sites.

Competitive Edge

Flash Commercial Photography has a competitive edge from the reputation of Matte Flash in the business community as a high-quality photographer who is easy to work with and attentive to the needs of clients. Flash will continue to develop this competitive edge by training additional photographers with his signature style of photography and high attention to customer service.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy for Flash Commercial Photography is based on the belief that using a few marketing tactics extremely well is preferable to using many marketing tactics with moderate success with each. The following are components of the initial marketing campaign:

Email Marketing: Emailing a new business announcement and then monthly newsletters with details on new packages, the development of the studio, and new hires to past clients and other targets in the business community. Newsletters will include helpful tips on how to use photography and this will be used to gain permission from marketing departments at prospective client businesses to be sent the newsletters. Within these emails will be calls to action to encourage business referrals.

Business Networking: Matte Flash will promote the business through the local chapter of BNI (Business Networking International), the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rochester Business Owner’s Association. Through these meetings, Flash will introduce his company’s work to other business owners, share leads on business, and receive both exposure and qualified referrals. To encourage members of networking groups to use Flash’s services so that they are educated referrers, Flash will offer a 25% discount on services to members of the networking group on their first purchase.

Web Marketing: Flash Photography will purchase search engine advertising with Google Adwords around commercial photography keywords for the Rochester market and gear its advertisements towards the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Furthermore, Flash Photography’s website will be optimized for higher search engine ranking under these keywords.

Sales Strategy

The company’s sales strategy is to utilize the experience of Matte Flash as salesperson. Flash will be able to assure clients of what the company and its photographers can accomplish as all will be personally trained by him.

To increase the closing rate of prospects, Flash will meet clients at their businesses whenever possible to go beyond phone conversations. He will use a portfolio of images and testimonials. Flash will use Salesforce.com as a tool to manage the sales process, and to train additional salespeople when the time comes.

The scheduling and fulfillment of services will be administered by the office manager, who will use Salesforce.com and QuickBooks to manage clients and capture information related to orders. Standard procedures for order fulfillment will be created by Flash and checked on an ongoing basis.  

Sales Forecast

Sales for photo shoots are expected to drive the business and will grow with the growing staff. Additional photographers will be hired to meet the need first as part-time and then as full-time staff.

Supplementary revenue streams will be photo editing services and printing and framing of images. Finally, off-hours for the studio will be rented for events of other purposes to create a steady monthly stream of revenue.

Milestones

The promotional marketing before the opening of the studio is in a two month period in which an initial Web marketing and email marketing campaign will take place, directed by the CEO, with some help from the part-time administrative assistant, and marketing vendors (a Web marketing specialist). Furthermore, ads will be placed to specifically highlight the studio as a rental option for other uses.

• Web Marketing specialist will be hired to set-up and maintain Google Adwords campaign and to optimize website for search engines.
• Constant Contact will be used to maintain email marketing with announcements about the studio opening, new staff, and new services.