The 7 Immutable WALDEN Laws of Marketing

2) Design Fluency. Yes, yes and yes! We have many more tools to do our own graphic design today, but many of us should not:-) If you don't understand design and color principles, hire it out. 

 3) Make it about others. We found this out when we started the campaign we called Images That Speak and then, Your Life, Our Art, where we asked our clients about their stories...the why of getting their portrait done. Then, when we did exhibits (which was our principle way of marketing a decade ago), we printed their stories and put them with the portraits hanging in the exhibit. Our business took off when we changed our focus to the client and away from us.

 4) Market the result. How does your art make people feel when they look at your work? Market that instead of finishes, substrates or any other "factual" items. Clients want to feel...touch their hearts with your marketing.

 5) The "E" Factor or the Emotional Factor has guided us for decades in how we market. We add emotion into every marketing piece as well as every step along the way when a client does business with us. From the initial contact, the planning session, the session itself, the selection appointment and the delivery, we use emotion. Emotion is a powerful element.

 "Studies show that people rely on emotions, rather than information, to make decisions.

Emotional responses to marketing actually influence a person’s intent and decision to buy more than the content of an ad or marketing material.

 Emotional marketing helps people decide with their hearts, which actually has more influence on buying than their minds."    

-blog.hubspot.com

 6) Careful wording. We choose our wording very carefully, using words that reinforce our "luxury" products and business. You won't here us say shoot, picture, snap, pic, etc. Instead, we say portrait or image and call our work art pieces. Becoming aware is your first step.

 7) Impact, Initial and Final. There is so much competition for a prospect's attention, you need to break through with "impactful" marketing. The 6 steps above all help create impact. 

 You have only 6 seconds to make an impression. Use it well.

 I hope these 7 points will help you as you determine your marketing for 2024.