VERTICAL MARKETS MATCHER
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our Vertical Markets Matcher. We've developed this free tool to make it easy for any commercial or editorial photographer to identify the types of clients that match up with their interests, skills, and location. If you're doing your own organic client research, our VMM can help you focus your efforts so you can work more efficiently. If you like doing your own research and you don't mind getting a big head start, you can use it in combination with a subscription to our Premium Data for Photographers. If you're too busy to learn how to research clients, you can use it to facilitate a conversation with one of our marketing consultants who can then compile a list of clients for you. Even if you have an agent who does all of your marketing for you, our VMM can help you and your rep have a smarter conversation about how to promote you.
As you toggle through the following pages, the VMM will present you with a simple set of multiple choice questions. At the end, a document will pop out that will serve as a detailed to-do list of all the different types of clients you want to target, including the number of companies, the number of people at each company, their locations, their job titles, and any other notes that you think of along the way (it doesn't currently provide a list of actual clients, but it might in the future).
What are vertical markets and why should photographers care about them? A vertical market is made up of companies that offer goods and services to meet the needs of customers in a specific industry or niche market. The reason this information is valuable for photographers is that once you grow out of the “I'll work for anyone” stage of your career, it will be beneficial to think of clients not just in terms of what types of photography they use, but also exactly what industry they're in. As you gain skill and experience, you may find that as you specialize more, you'll have less competition and you'll be able to charge more for your photography. And from a marketing perspective, if you have experience working for one particular type of client, you are going to be more attractive to other clients in that niche because they can see right away that you understand their needs. For example, if you're a food photographer and you've successfully shot an LTO campaign for one QSR, it's a marketing no-brainer to show it to all the other QSRs. You can find a complete list of our vertical markets here.
Thanks and have fun with it! We welcome your comments, questions, suggestions, or complaints.
The Wonderful Machine Team
As you toggle through the following pages, the VMM will present you with a simple set of multiple choice questions. At the end, a document will pop out that will serve as a detailed to-do list of all the different types of clients you want to target, including the number of companies, the number of people at each company, their locations, their job titles, and any other notes that you think of along the way (it doesn't currently provide a list of actual clients, but it might in the future).
What are vertical markets and why should photographers care about them? A vertical market is made up of companies that offer goods and services to meet the needs of customers in a specific industry or niche market. The reason this information is valuable for photographers is that once you grow out of the “I'll work for anyone” stage of your career, it will be beneficial to think of clients not just in terms of what types of photography they use, but also exactly what industry they're in. As you gain skill and experience, you may find that as you specialize more, you'll have less competition and you'll be able to charge more for your photography. And from a marketing perspective, if you have experience working for one particular type of client, you are going to be more attractive to other clients in that niche because they can see right away that you understand their needs. For example, if you're a food photographer and you've successfully shot an LTO campaign for one QSR, it's a marketing no-brainer to show it to all the other QSRs. You can find a complete list of our vertical markets here.
Thanks and have fun with it! We welcome your comments, questions, suggestions, or complaints.
The Wonderful Machine Team