You’ve reached the early adopter…don’t stop!

In his blog, Seth Godin this week wrote about Early Adopters and adapters. His post got me thinking about early adopters and the theory it’s based on. The term early adopter comes from a book that Geoffrey Moore wrote in the early 90′s during the early internet start-up phase – Crossing the Chasm. He developed the chart below to show the challenge it takes to get a new product to the masses.

image courtesy of Wikipedia

The book focused on what it takes to sell a technology to the masses, but it can be applied to any new business, new product, or new target client.

Apply this to your photography business

Your core question should be, “How do I get my product (photography) past the ones who loved me from the beginning to the public?” While Godin says to focus on the early adopter because they are the easiest to sell to, you can see from the above graph this leaves out the bulk of your potential clients.

A few years ago, Kia read a book that took Moore’s concept and applied it to any business (not just technology). The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing by George Silverman, laid out some strategies to reach the 4 different groups. She and her mom applied it to the high school senior business and then later when redesigning their children and family business.

Here is some of what she came away with:

Early adopters

These are the kids who think they may be able to do their senior portraits themselves. They are  super creative and will be excited about their portraits, but have more edgy ideas and thoughts. It’s not going to matter to them if they have known people who have done the same thing or gone to the same place. In fact they most likely would rather be the first of their group to do something.

To capture these kids, Kia found it really important to have new and exciting marketing each spring/early summer. Have new background and set options – not available to past year seniors. They want to see the images that you may not sell, but are great for drawing a crowd.

In the past couple of years we’ve seen photographers like Scott Crosby and Jen Basford capture these early adopters in their junior year through their model/ambassador programs. It’s been a way to get those early adopters in the door, try new ideas, and use them for marketing images.

Early and Late Majority

Moore has a definite separation between these two groups, but Kia grouped them together. You might even group your early adopter and early, early majority with the late, early majority with late majority.

This group need to know that it’s been done before by someone they know. This is why it is so important to have some of the early adopters within their social circle come to you. They need to easily understand what is happening and feel that the price is affordable.

Part of the reason that the senior model programs have been so successful is that the mass majority see their current peers in your advertising making the transition to using your studio much easier.

Laggards

In my mind, this is who Godin is referring to as adapters. They are going not walk into your studio, but be dragged in kicking and screaming by their mothers. Mom knows graduation is looming just weeks away, and the guy (usually it’s a guy who doesn’t want his pictures taken) knows he can’t stall any longer.

The key is to make this feel like it’s normal. “It’s no problem in getting your images back from graduation in just a few days.” Make it as simple and painless as possible.

Godin argues since it’s easier to sell to the early adopter simply focus on the them. That doesn’t really work for a business in the long-term. You have to focus on each category of potential client in each product that you roll out. So begin thinking about your target market in these terms, and how to reach the next group of client…don’t just stop with the early adopter.

What do you do to attract early adopters to your studio? How do you keep the mass majority and laggards from using your competition?

senior images courtesy of spa Event 2011 shooters Jeff Richardson, Brian DeMint and Kevin Kubota