This chapter is an excerpt from the in-depth e-book, Creative Freelance Marketing for Photographers.
There is a term called Pareto’s Principle, or the 80/20 rule, which refers to situations where 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
This is a very important idea to understand when growing your photography business. 80% of your overall sales could come from 20% of your clients or products. 80% of your print sales could come from 20% of your images. 80% of your income could come from 20% of your marketing.
This rule, in some form, is going to be prevalent throughout your career.
Because of this, it is important to learn what those 20%’s are. No matter how hard I try, a relatively small percentage of my images make up a large percentage of my sales. A few photographs get shown much more often than any of the other images.
A few original pieces or a single well-done project can be the driving force in your career, particularly early on. Having these will make your first impressions that much stronger, so figure out how to create a few of these remarkable works.
Spend a lot of time on a few pieces, or do a full project with the most potential, and then use that work as the backbone of your marketing. A single strong project can take your career a long way.
The same principle applies to the marketing avenues that you choose. It is different for each business, but a significant amount of your marketing gains will probably come from a few sources.
It is your job to figure out what those successful sources are and to focus your time on them.
There are some who made their careers off of Facebook and even off of the early rush of Google+ because they found something that worked, and they kept pushing it. There are some who made their careers off of single projects that were shown all over the internet.
When you see something is working well, do not be passive; instead, run with it and push it as far as you can. Those successes do not come along that frequently, so you need to take advantage of the ones that do.
For further education, download Creative Freelance Marketing for Photographers.
