Dream 100 Strategy for Photography Marketing

0:00Welcome. In this video, we are going to talk about the Dream 100 strategy for photographers and we're going to see how you can use integration marketing to get in front of your ideal client without spending a cent on Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or grinding away with SEO. This is one of the fastest ways you can grow a business. Let's jump right in.

0:20So what is the Dream 100? I think the easiest way to illustrate this is the brand new relationship between Verizon Wireless and Disney Plus.

0:32Basically, what Verizon Wireless has done along with Disney is they integrated Disney Plus's new service into their subscriber base.

0:44Just think about this problem for Disney. They have a brand new product they need to get it out to a bunch of people and they need to promote their new service. A new streaming service, The Mandalorian is on this, it's an amazing show by the way, and they want to get it out to as many people as possible.

1:00There's such a big company that they can actually get away with offering free trials and free subscriptions for a certain amount of time. But the problem is they need to get people to know about it, get on the pages to subscribe, get onto the app to subscribe.

1:15So what do they do? They basically went to Verizon and they offered people an entire one full free year. If you're a subscriber, you've probably got a bunch of text messages about this, you got letters in the mail and you got emails about this. I know I did.

1:31What's interesting about this is this isn't just a strategy that big companies can use. Because imagine if maybe they have to give an affiliate fee to Verizon for every person that signs up. But who cares, because if they get access, even if they get one percent of people to subscribe from Verizon, that's 1.5 million free subscribers just by doing this integration.

1:55So they're definitely willing to give a kickback because they're paying for the results after the person subscribes and not really before. What beats that? Nothing beats that. Imagine if every day you just had businesses that sent you business because you integrated with them, because you showed value to their clients, and you were able to get a bunch of new free consults, you are able to book clients, and preferably your ideal clients.

2:19For Disney, this turned out well because Verizon Wireless is the biggest platform in the US. I think it has the best network and it has customers that are not very price sensitive because their service is not cheap. So for people that have disposable income, where else can you go that's going to get you this kind of reach for free? The answer is almost nowhere.

2:38Maybe PR, but if it's as easy as getting people the links into their phones and just one click away from subscribing, I mean this is brilliant. So that's the whole purpose of this. It's using integration marketing specifically with this Dream 100 strategy so that we can build partnerships like this with other businesses. It can be local businesses, influencers, bloggers.

3:04The reason I know this works is number one I have tons of clients. If you don't know exactly what I am, I am the owner of Photography Profits. I'm a marketing agency for photographers. I work with very high-end studios, a lot of them in the $500,000 range and above, million-dollar studios.

3:20Of course, we love to spend on ads, we love building sales funnels, but this is just another strategy that goes into our toolbox that can bring us free leads. And of course, we have to keep the relationships and so on, but this absolutely works and it pays off over time.

3:35One really good example of this is I had a gentleman reach out to me and he built his entire business from one car dealership. Just think about that. This is a business that's been in business for over a decade. One car dealership.

3:51What was happening was once somebody came to the car dealer and bought a car, purchased a car, I think he even had some sort of deal where he only gave a voucher to people that purchased a certain type of car, like an SUV or midsize SUV.

4:06What would happen is the car dealer would give him the info, pass on the info of the buyer, and he was able to basically send, with the permission of the car dealership, a voucher for a free session or a discounted session. I'm pretty sure it was a free session. And it had the envelope from the dealership and it was forwarded as if the dealership had sent it personally, even though the photographer was simply getting the info.

4:31The photographer had letterheads and a sample letter that they agreed on, and he would send the free voucher. Almost all of his sessions came just from this. And of course, he did pretty well, and he wanted to grow his business.

4:47So what do you do if you're doing this and you want to grow? Do you add Google Ads? Do you add Facebook Ads? Do you add all these complicated things?

4:54Well, when I went through discovery with him, I basically asked because one thing I always do when I have new clients, I always ask what has worked for you in the past and what are we doing now? His response was basically that of the one car dealership. He asked this one and one of them said yes. So he was basically a hundred percent for every time he asked he got a yes. But he had only ever asked one car dealership.

5:19So my question was why haven't we asked more? And the answer was I'm not really sure. So if you can build an entire profitable business off of this, then what would it hurt to make a list of your Dream 100 businesses that you would also like to set up other arrangements like this with?

5:35So that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to credit this to Chet Holmes. There have been tons of people that have written on this. Dana Patrick, somebody has written an entire book on it. I'll link it below. But this is a simple chapter from Chet Holmes' The Ultimate Sales Machine.

5:55Let's get into the steps to make this actually work. So what you're going to do is you're going to make a list of a hundred businesses. You're looking for people that have access to your ideal client. You're also looking for people that you can provide value to. You're able to either benefit their clients or they're able to benefit your clients. There are different ways you can use this.

6:20You're also looking for within this Dream 100, you're looking for a variety. So you're looking for people that are a little bit bigger than you, you're looking for people that are equal to you, and people that are way bigger than you. You got to set your sights pretty high.

6:33The reason for this is you're going to get immediate results with maybe the smaller people because maybe it's a one-man show, maybe there's no gatekeepers and they're just quicker to make decisions. But you're also going to make sure that you set some bigger fish and some bigger players because you're going to get bigger results from them even though it might take a little bit more time.

6:53If you just only build this off of just small players, you're not going to get the results you want or over the long haul. But if you only set really big players, you might have a really big delay when you actually start integrating with people.

7:07And you want to make sure you probably don't directly compete. So no direct competition. If you're a wedding photographer, of course, maybe you can find a wedding photographer that sends you clients whenever they're booked for that day. That helps as well. But for the most part, most people are not going to want to integrate or send you consistent leads if you're the direct competition.

7:31So just some ideas to keep in mind when you're building this list. There's no reason you shouldn't have a list of a hundred.

7:36Step two is you're going to subscribe and follow. So what you're going to do is you're going to make sure that you're drinking the Kool-Aid, that you become familiar with them, that you understand and connect with them.

7:50You need to know what content they're sending out to their email list. You need to know what they're doing on social media. You need to number one, either buy their product and be familiar with it or give them your product.

8:03Honestly, I could have put that in Step three, but if you're going to want people to integrate with you, you're going to have to be very familiar with them and their brand and their audience. And they're going to have to be very familiar with your product and your audience as well so that they feel comfortable.

8:16This is not an overnight thing. You're not just going to do this and then two days later have 400 businesses knocking on your door to promote you.

8:25And as you're doing this step two and step three, when you add value, this means you're commenting, you're following them, you're interacting in their communities, maybe you're leaving reviews for their products, you're sending them referrals. There's a bunch of things you can do. Referrals, reviews, comments, you're up in there, you're in their world and they kind of see you.

8:51You're adding as much value as possible. This is maybe through conversation as well. I really want you to actually build a relationship. I want you to basically have the intent to help them as much as possible and don't expect anything in return.

9:11You're going to get a lot of nos. For every maybe 100 people that you ask, you might get I don't know, you might get something like three to seven people that say yes.

9:22But the more relationships you build, the more people that you add value to, the more likely they're going to be to either work with you now or maybe even in the future. All your eggs don't need to hatch right now. You can be planting the seed for something in the future. Maybe there's nothing right now, but as long as you add value, you're going to be increasing your chances, especially in the long haul.

9:43And then the next thing you're going to do is you're going to actually organize and engage, and you're going to engage systematically. Number one, you absolutely have to have done the list. You have to be clear on who these people are.

9:54I want you to reach out on six different platforms. You're going to do this over at least four to six weeks.

10:02So that means once you start doing this and you start realizing, hey, this is my Dream 100. These are the people I absolutely love. I vibe with them and I know I can add value to them and I think they're interacting back with me, they're commenting back to me, they're kind of aware that I exist, I feel like I've built enough value. I'm just going to reach out directly on six different platforms.

10:21Maybe the first week it's Instagram. A couple days later it's Facebook Messenger. Maybe it's over email. Maybe you're calling them directly. You're texting them. It's LinkedIn. Whatever that platform is for you and best for your niche.

10:36One other pro tip, speaking of niches, is break down your list into four groups. Maybe it's twenty-five bloggers, twenty-five Instagram influencers, twenty-five local businesses, twenty-five et cetera.

10:50And you're going to reach out to them on those six different platforms. And depending on what group they are, maybe different groups do better on different platforms. Maybe the bloggers, maybe you interact with them a certain way on their blog, through social media, and then maybe you're emailing or submitting their website form.

11:06The key thing to this is you got to be consistent. You got to keep up on this. Don't expect to get results from the very first day.

11:15Here's an example. Imagine there's a local business. An easy example would be like a web agency, maybe it's a web designer or maybe it's a marketing agency. Web agency, web designer, same thing. Maybe it's a career coach.

11:33And maybe you're a branding photographer. What if every time they had to build a website, they know they need images, they just sent people to you to get their branding images? Because they come to you now, they're going to get a better website because the outcome is going to be way better when they know that they have somebody that they like their style, you're shooting for the website, you're shooting according to what the needs of the agency are and the person hiring them.

11:57Another one could be anything from let's say you're in real estate and you're doing real estate photography. And you're the photographer and you're going to go to a real estate agency.

12:12Of course, maybe you're not going to rely on the consumer, the person selling the house. So maybe you reach out and you drop by and you stop into these real estate offices and you offer a free shoot or a discount. And then maybe every single month from this one brokerage house, over this one agent, because obviously there are agents as well, every couple weeks they're sending you one, two, three houses.

12:33The better the agency, the more leads you're going to get. And tons of business, certain photography services run extremely well just like this. I have friends that do multiple six figures in real estate photography just doing this.

12:48If you're thinking, okay, I'm a portrait photographer, how do I do this? Because I'm looking more for their consumer, you can absolutely. If you're in newborn maternity, maybe you're reaching out to doulas. Maybe you're reaching out to birth coaches. Maybe you're reaching out to midwives.

13:06And maybe because these people hire them, maybe they get a gift voucher and they get a free service from you or they get a discounted service or a free consultation. And next thing you know, every time these people get booked, your name is being brought up. And maybe you set up the same thing the other way. Every time you get booked, you're sending people to them.

13:25This doesn't just work one way. You can definitely do it both ways and you can help each other both ways. Because even if you're in the spot where let's say you're the boudoir photographer, what will happen is maybe you have an issue with bookings cancelling.

13:44And maybe you find some sort of beauty salon or maybe some sort of lingerie store. And what happens is whenever they book you, maybe they get a voucher or some sort of discount or some sort of consult to come into one of these kind of Dream 100 style businesses. But you're referring them.

14:04And maybe one week before the session, they go and they can buy lingerie, they can go get their nails done, they can go get a facial, something like that. What's going to happen? Maybe your turnout rate is going to be a lot higher. You're going to have less cancellations because people are more invested now.

14:20They've spent more time going to the lingerie store, spent more money buying lingerie, they've spent money or spent time going to the beauty salon getting ready for your session. So they're going to have more gratitude towards you. You benefit because you're going to get better photos. Your clients are going to be better prepared.

14:40They're going to feel better. Maybe they have more confidence going into the shoot. Maybe they're just more invested now and they're actually going to show up more often. So it's not just always about money. Maybe sometimes you can integrate with other businesses and they can help you with other metrics inside your business that aren't always just measured by direct sales or bookings.

14:58So that's really it. The key to this is you just got to sit down and you got to make this list. You can jump over to the website. I've linked it as well. I'm going to have a resource in there for you in the blog. I'm going to have a download so you can make your list really easily.

15:13I might even have it as an Excel doc, depending on how confident I'm feeling about sharing the Excel doc, so that you can get started on this. It's super simple. There's no reason why you can't have a hundred.

15:26And if you can't, just make a list of twenty-five and start there. But that's it for this one. Hopefully this has inspired you and gotten the wheels moving towards, hey, how can I put this into my own business and get results and serve more people and help improve the experience of my own clients?

15:45So if you enjoy this video, make sure to share, do the whole subscription thing. I'd really appreciate it. Let me know. Give me some ideas. What do you think? What kind of businesses do you think you can integrate with? What are your first steps going to be now that you know this technique?

16:02Hopefully you have immense success with this. I'll see you in the next one.