Jason Moriber, from the social marketing company Wise Elephant, and I were talking last week about how Google is effecting direct marketing. Basically, what both he and I have noticed is that for an emailer is sent out the open rate has been increasing, but the click through rate drastically decreasing. At about the same time that the emailer goes out, the web traffic on my site spikes up. Additionally, Jason has been noticing that people are doing multiple opens over long periods of time. Weird, right? Basically what is happening is that people may like the imagery, but don’t trust the marketing, so they are doing a Google search of the name to find out for themselves what the person is up to. Fascinating in a CSI sort of way. Well, the first thing I do is Google my name, and the first 3 pages of info is all about DHS, what I have done, where I am commenting, what awards I have won, etc. Which I guess is great from a marketing point of view, if a bit weird from a “This is Your Life” point of view. From what I can tell, this forensic thing is a fairly new phenomena. If anyone else out there is having this experience, or has any thoughts on it, I would very much like to hear from you. Thanks for your time.
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2 Responses to “Photographers: Marketing in the Google Age, or the forensics of emailing”
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About
David Harry Stewart is a photographer and director. He comes from a small town in western New York. He started taking pictures at the age of 8, first with a plastic Kodak 126, then a Polaroid Swinger. He did his first national ad campaign at age 23, then moved on to Paris to work for fashion magazines. Returning to New York he has a successful and award winning career, working for magazines like Interview, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, New York Magazine, Time and The New York Times Magazine. Agency work includes Saatchi, Deutsch, BBDO, Leo Burnett, and Ogilivy, for clients such as American Express, Nike, Coke, Corona and Bank of America. Awards include Communication Arts, The Art Directors Club, Photo District News, The Living Photograph Motion Awards, and American Photography. He splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
This is a very interesting topic for me. I’ve studied photography and worked as a freelancer since 2000, between 2003-2006, I had a bit freelance work, small but I was working. Anyone could easily Google me (that’s pretty much when I started to Google my own name), Mandi Castro, and could see that I was working and was really involved with art shows. From 2006 to the present I’ve since been married (name change) and helped my husband create another business and only till now have I been able to really focus back on my career. I Google, Mandi Chisholm, and well my Facebook pops up… I keep thinking if I had a catchy yet fitting domain name from the start in 2000, none of the “issues” may be coming up for me now to as to “who” I am.
And no, thank you.
Hi Mandi,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write your thoughtful comment. At the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, it is not too late. In fact a few months of dedication to putting your name out there will change your Google status. Keep commenting on blogs, put your name as a tag on everything on your web site, flicker, vimeo etc. The domain name helps, but the tags are good too. Get your work published in on line mags. Anything you can do to have your name mentioned online is a good thing. Except of course in a police blotter. Just kidding. I am sure you know all this and are on the case already.
Thanks again for your support, your comments are always welcome here.
David