Your Steady Why and Adapting How
Your Steady Why and Adapting How, by Cameron Sterling
In my webinar with ASMP on April 29, 2020 I talked about how different parts of content strategy can reduce buyer's risk; help your clients make the best choice for their problem; and help you get work for your unique selling point, not your price. With the many disruptions from COVID-19, communication with your content is especially important at this time.
This webinar continues a theme from a presentation I gave last October at Yale organized by ASMP CT about how the content your audience needs to see from you has changed over the last 5-10 years. However, many photographers and small businesses still use content as they did back then. Photography and small businesses now need to show potential clients more types of content with consistent values to earn their trust and demonstrate relevancy.
ASMP CT, Yale University, October 10, 2019, Room photo by Asher Almonacy, Display photo by Scott Indermaur
This includes content about how your business addresses current safety requirements and logistics due to COVID-19. Your informative content can and should take many forms, from FAQ text, social posts, services, to new personal projects and case studies. In other words, your messaging should communicate not only how you solve visual problems has adapted, but also why you solve visual problems for your ideal client is unwavering.
I have heard from many photography business owners about changes they are experiencing. Some are finding new ways to help clients, but many are finding it difficult while they and their market adjusts to the new “How” - how work gets done.
photo by Harivansh Mareddy / Adobe Stock
Change and uncertainty isn’t new to photography businesses. I will never forget when I helped Richard Avedon with his first digital capture ad campaign for Hewlett-Packard in 2003. He was skeptical of digital capture but intrigued. The ad was for a desktop printer and featured a self-portrait of Richard Avedon. Ironically, the ad did not mentioned this historic moment of digital capture by the iconic analog photographer.
Over the decades many have thrived or folded because of change. The change from film to digital was a significant change in process. However that and other changes happened over years, not weeks and months like we have today with COVID-19.
If we choose a fixed mindset over a growth mindset we will find ourselves out of sync with the needs of dynamic markets. So whatever you do, don’t give up on your “Why.” Give in to a growth mindset that embraces your changing “How.” Give in, to the idea that looking for and showing the new ways you solve client problems is the new normal.
People have always preferred familiar fixed ways of doing things, and with good reasons. There is safety, efficiency, and belonging in these pathways. COVID-19 though, has forced change on us so acutely that it can not be avoided it in the same way some photography businesses resisted digital and internet processes. We instinctively resist change and want certainty, but this feeling can be a key inhibitor of growth. The downside to change and growth is it’s scary - it leads to the unknown. On the bright side, change and growth make room for new voices and ways of solving todays problems.
All of this directly relates using content - images, motion, words, and design - to show how your business is adapting to your client’s changing problems.
People will always choose brands they trust to deliver, we can take some comfort that this is not changing. Remember though that to be a trusted small business, and reduce your buyer’s risk, your brand’s values need to be seen consistently, through your content. It also needs to empathetically meet your client’s needs to know why and how you work, not only what you make.
How your business applies its values to its process, can and should adapt. Look for content opportunities to show your new “How” with your steady “Why” to help your ideal client make informed decisions that reduces their buyer’s risk and choose your unique selling point.