PhotoShelter and
Agency Access have just released a free ebook entitled “
What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The information resulted from a 35 question survey sent to Agency Access’ global database of 55,000 photography buyers. 500 responded to the survey.
When asked the open-ended question, “What is the best way to get noticed by a new client?” There were 354 responses to this question and 38% of these said email was their first choice. Of this group of respondents 75% said the email should be uniquely targeted to the needs of the customer. While email received the highest percentage of responses all the other traditional ways of marketing were preferred by some photo buyers.
When looking for stock images 61% use Google to search for images and 30% use Google to search for photographers. Buyers working for editorial publications and book publishers tend to use Google more regularly to find photographers than those in the advertising and design fields.
When looking for new talent 85% said they ignore photo contest results and 97% of book publishers said they do not pay attention to who has, or has not, won photo contests.
While having a blog may be critical for optimizing a photographer’s online presence for search engines and fans only 24% of buyers indicated that they might subscribe or frequently return to a photographer’s blog. Those looking for editorial content are more likely to frequently return to a photographer’s blog than those producing work for advertising.
Among the things buyers don’t like about web sites are slow loading, Flash heavy, hard-to-navigate sites. They also don’t like auto-running slide shows and music. The eBook included an extensive list of features photographers should include on their websites. One respondent summed it up what should be on a photographer web site with the comment, “Just show me the (money) shots!”
One interesting insight is that 50.4% of respondents said that they never view photographer web sites on their mobile devices and only 4.4% said they regularly use their mobile device for this purpose. 62.6% said they like to view a photographer portfolio on a website and only 7.7% preferred printed portfolios. However, another 21.1% indicated that they were happy to view portfolios in any format. Advertising agency buyers tend to prefer print, PDF and iPad formats slightly more than editorial buyers, but more than half the advertising buyers were still willing to look at websites.
One of the more surprising responses was that 66.5% said they like to see video alongside stills. This is certainly an indication of the growing need for video and how important it is for still photographers to also be able to demonstrate video skills.
When looking for photography to license 87% go to stock agencies and 55% sometimes use photographer’s websites, but 44% of buyers use consumer sites like Flickr. 55% of book publishers said they use sites like Flickr to find images.
The
eBook is packed with other information that photographers who want to license rights to their work should