The Marketing Basics Every Content Creator Needs to Know
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Content creators, specifically photographers and videographers, possess a sought-after talent: capturing specific moments and telling stories through their work. Yet, having these skills is not enough to thrive in today's competitive creative industry, especially when the cream of the crop is grinding relentlessly to discover new profit streams and advance their brands.
So what’s the secondary skillset these creators all have? Marketing.
Marketing is crucial in, among other things, helping creators build their brands, attract clients, build plans and achieve long-term success. And while many of these creators have a marketing degree and a wealth of experience, there are a few basic principles that can help you on your money-making journey.
Marketing Tip 1: Know your audience and define your brand
The first rule all marketers learn in college or from specific online courses is also the most important: know who your audience is. If you don’t know who you’re selling your products to, your plan is dead from the start.
The difficulty in defining your audience varies, however. If you know what your product is — say, sports content — it’s relatively easy to figure out your general audience. The more niche groups you want to reach, the harder it becomes. Further, your audience can shift at different points, but for the most part, it will, in the long term, stay the same.
That’s not to say that if you decide to branch off and work on separate projects your audience won’t change, but for the sake of this article we’ll assume there’s one general group. For simplicity, when breaking down your audience you need to focus on two main factors: demographics and psychographics.
Demographics define specific attributes of an audience, such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, income, etc. Psychographics are deeper attributes of an audience, such as their motivations, opinions and interests.
Sticking with the sports example, here is an example of a quick breakdown according to available data:
Demographics
Age: 18-54
Sex: Mostly male
Income and Education: $75K+ and mostly college educated
Race: Mostly white, but varies by sport
Psychographics
Outgoing, social, need to feel a sense of belonging/community; some participate in sports
Enjoys both attending live games and watching events on the television as a form of escapism
Apt to spend money on team or related apparel
Tend to be competitive and are compassionate about their team
Finding the information is also relatively easy, as recent data is frequently available at multiple, credible sources, such as Statista, United States government sites (if marketing to those in the U.S.) and more.
Once you understand your audience, one of the largest steps to developing your brand identity is complete. The next steps include developing a style — and a way to present that to your target group — and creating a brand kit. If you’re not new to photography and videography, it’s likely you already know your style. This is incredibly important to maintain, though it’s also suggested to be somewhat flexible with your style as you and your brand develop.
Finally, creating a style kit is important for many reasons, but, generally, it helps keep your branding consistent. From color schemes to fonts to logos, brand kits are generally easy to develop with modern tools such as Canva or the Adobe Suite.
Marketing Tip 2: Develop an online presence for your brand and content
No longer are online presences contained to just websites. Still, though it's a large piece of that digital identity, developing an online presence is one of the more difficult and time-consuming aspects of marketing a brand, mainly because it’s always changing.
Outside of creating a website, you also need to develop and implement a strong social media strategy. This is where all of what was discussed above comes into play.
Knowing your audience will help you develop both your web and social media strategies. If you know your audience is generally Gen-X and older, focusing heavily on Facebook and Pinterest to sell your product(s) should be your priority. Conversely, if your audience is mainly Millennials and Gen-X, TikTok and Instagram are where you should primarily focus your work.
Sometimes a broad approach also works, as some photographers who sell prints have an audience evenly split between multiple age groups. This may not always be the case, but figuring out where to focus your energy will help support your web presence. The overall key to winning on social media is to use your work to develop a community around your brand, as that will increase visibility, growth and sales, but more on that in a moment.
And when it comes to your website, there are a few fundamental methods to market your content.
While you can generate traffic using organic or paid means through social media, you should do your best to utilize search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. Though this is a deep subject, the main key to keep in mind is that structuring your site with keywords that fit your brand or products will enhance your visibility on Google. Of note, this is typically bolstered with a blog (organic) and keyword bidding (paid). Second, make sure your website is clean and easy to access — noisy pages will push potential customers and clients away, as will sites that are difficult to navigate.
Finally, make sure your site is frequently updated. This will not only help with SEO but will show those visiting your site you’re devoted to your work and will demonstrate your expertise.
Marketing Tip 3: Build relationships and network to build your brand
As noted above, building a community centered around your brand is integral to its continued existence. If you aren’t attempting to build meaningful relationships with your audience, your brand will come across as stuffy and unprofessional.
There are multiple ways to do this. If you’re an artist, this could be attending or hosting local shows to meet others who share your interests or meet potential clients; if you’re a sports photographer and videographer, this could be developing a content strategy that highlights local athletes. It could also be as simple as creating a newsletter for site subscribers that offers free or discounted products and services.
Utilizing social media is also important for this. As you build your brand, it’s important to interact with your followers or subscribers. Doing so (i.e. liking and commenting on relevant posts) shows that you’re not just there to get their likes and attention but rather that you want to be part of the larger body. You can also use social networks like LinkedIn to connect with other professionals in the industry, publish works to highlight your expertise in a subject or, simply, just share your work.
Last, if you’re selling products or services through social media, make sure you keep up with inquiries. The fastest way to kill your brand is to ignore or be unprofessional in one-on-one interactions with potential customers. And finally, don’t forget to reach out and suggest crossposting with other creators. This not only opens up a door to their audience but shows your audience that you’re truly about fostering a positive community rather than a cut-throat atmosphere.
Final thoughts
We all know how difficult it is to succeed as a content creator in the current system. While everything is saturated, if you have the marketing knowledge and skills you can begin to rise to the top of the pool and outcompete existing or new competition.
Though this is not an overnight fix, these marketing fundamentals will help you begin to develop personalized strategies to succeed in your market. Remember that this takes time, and to commit yourself to your brand and goals. If you do so, you’ll begin to see not just things fall into place, but also your business expand and become more successful.
