Stockland Martel

What is a “Master Marketer”? If you ask PhotoShelter, it’s someone who understands that they’ll probably spend more time marketing their images than they did making them. Who gets that it’s not enough to make great work.

“Many photographers believe that, if they continue to create amazing images, the marketing will take care of itself. This is not true,” PhotoShelter co-founders Allen Murabayashi and Grover Sanschagrin note in their blog post “Selling Yourself: 10 Traits of the Master Marketers.”

The traits include being persistent; scientifically measuring the efficacy of each marketing effort and not relying on “feel” to determine if something worked; knowing your audience; and finding a niche.

“…The Master Marketers know that if they are successful at defining a niche, people will ask for them by name when they want it,” says PhotoShelter. “When a photo editor says something to you like, ‘We’re looking for an Avedon-style look for this assignment,’ you’re experiencing the results of a Master Marketer who identified a niche, then defined it for everyone else.” (I don’t think Avedon was thinking about marketing when he developed his style, but I get their point.)

At the end of the piece, PhotoShelter names 10 photographers who fit the description of Master Marketer. One of them is our own Vincent Laforet. Go here to read the entire post and see who else made the list.

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