Marketing on the spectrum

tearing up the rulebook that wasn't designed for you

Birds on wires, 2022

I recently came across a question in one of the photography groups I’m in about marketing on the spectrum. The anonymous poster shared that they tried to do ALL. THE. THINGS. to market their photography business: networking groups, door-to-door marketing, Instagram lives - you name it. They burned out, badly, resulting in them giving up photography altogether.

They were wondering: are there better ways to market your creative business, more suitable for neurodivergent folk?

I responded there, but this is actually a topic that could do with more of a deep dive than a Facebook comment allows. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, I’m still learning as I go and unravel what it means to be autistic and ADHD for me. Plus, what works for me might not work for you - it’s a spectrum for a reason. But maybe you will find a nugget on inspiration / wisdom here that will help.

First thing’s first: what do you actually want to do?

It’s easy to fall in to the trap of thinking that just because you enjoy something and/or are good at it, you need to immediately monetise it, and turn your soul-nourishing hobby into a business. Maybe it’s the right path for you or maybe it’s not - either way is okay. There is more than one way to be a photographer and an artist. You may decide to pursue only personal work and stay in the day job where you don’t have to market yourself - that is a valid choice, too.

(As a sidenote, marketing yourself / your art comes intertwined with feelings of rejection which can be hard for those of us with RSD - rejection sensitive dysphoria. I wrote a little bit about it in this piece.)

If you do decide that yes, you do want to run a photography (or any creative) business, I would encourage you to start with the numbers.

Yes, the dreaded numbers. Don’t we creatives just looove math?! *eyeroll*

But hear me out on this.

A lot of our marketing woes comes from thinking that we need to be in all the places, all the time, to get ten bazillion followers on Instagram, get in front of all the people in our neighbourhood, get all them brand new babies into our studios… More, faster, and some more, sell sell sell, rinse and repeat.

This couldn’t be further from the reality. And when you run your numbers, it becomes abundantly clear. Here’s an example (I’m using simple numbers and completely ignoring taxes to make math super simple because I can see you tuning out already).

So say you want to bring in £35k in salary. Your business expenses are £15k per year. Add that up, it makes £50k per year. Ouch. Big scary number.

Now let’s break that down. To make that £50k happen you could do 1000 photoshoots at £50 a pop (obviously not feasible). Or you could do 100 at £500 (still a big stretch but getting there). Or 10 at £5000 (possible but could be difficult/scary for some). Let’s say then 25 at £2000 - or any sort of combination thereabouts (the rest of it is part math, part art, part psychology, and a bit of magic thrown in - and there’s a course I teach about that).

(Ok the math part is over, exhale.)

It’s scary to think you need to book 100 clients every year - and therefore get in front of potentially thousands to make that happen. But 25? Sounds much more realistic. Not only in terms of marketing, but in terms of the actual shooting and client care. And if you zero on on who those clients are, and where you’re more likely to find them, your marketing efforts won’t need to be so all-consuming and aggressively salesy, and lead you to burnout. You can actually market slower, more authentically, in a way that suits your personality and brain wiring a lot better - and leave space for rest, reset and random “shiny things” to obsess over. Most importantly, it’ll allow you to keep enjoying what you do (because if you stop enjoying it, you can’t create your best work for your clients either, and you know it).

That’s why we start with the numbers, always.

Now what?

Now we look at the individual tactics and see how they fit in with your personality and unique strengths. We look at which things give you energy, and which ones zap it all out of you. We try things out. We go at a slower pace than perhaps we’d like (and accept that it’s okay and that’s how it has to be for the sake of our long-term longevity in this business AND in the creative profession).

Before we do though, let’s just get on the same page about what marketing actually is. It’s important to remember that marketing doesn’t equal selling (and the belief that it does trips so many creatives up). Selling is part of marketing, but only a small part. The rest of it is deeply rooted in the stories you tell and the relationships you build before you ever utter the words “buy this”.

With this in mind, let’s have a look at various marketing tools we have at our disposal and see how we can adjust them to suit our neurodivergent brains better.

Limbs, 2021

Let’s take networking.

I can imagine most autistics (or introverts for that matter) would shudder at the mere thought of joining a networking group. The word “networking” invokes feelings of inauthenticity, compulsory referrals, being up at an ungodly hour to eat breakfast with a bunch of loud-talking men in suits - or standing in a conference room engaging in soul-crushing small talk - and then spending the whole of the following day recovering from social hangover.

Yikes.

But can networking look different?

Perhaps it looks like joining a female-only (if you’re a woman, naturally) networking group that only meets once per month - and for lunch, not breakfast? Or perhaps it’s starting your own one, where you invite only other neurodivergent folk that you click with? Or perhaps it’s prioritising one-on-one connections with just a small handful of people, connections rooted in a common passion or interest, meeting for coffee once every few weeks or going for nature walks (or wild swims!) together? Or maybe it’s a regular cameras off Zoom call where you quietly work on your own thing, without having to even talk or be on video for hours (it’s amazing what body doubling like that can do for your productivity if you have ADHD - so win/win!). Or - it’s a strange one but go with me on this - speaking at an event might actually feel easier than being one of the attendees and having to network (you get to infodump about your favourite thing to a whole room of people and they will actually stay and LISTEN because they came to hear about this very thing).

Social media?

Well, some people like making reels and sharing glimpses into their everyday lives. That feeds their energy, and doesn’t feel like selling - more like sharing your passion.

If that’s not your thing, and social media affects your mental health… News flash: YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT!

Yes, you can literally not exist on socials at all, and focus your attention on your local community or a regular email newsletter. Be a proud luddite! Or, you can do it on your own terms - posting images but not appearing on video, or doing short sprints with lots of content before disappearing for several weeks and deleting the app off your phone.

Newsletters?

Those can break all the rules too. You can have a regular or a haphazard one. You can send one every week or once every six months. You can be formal and “newslettery” and follow a predictable script or you can be casual and write from your heart when inspiration strikes.

If you’re dyslexic and talking is easier than writing, you can record a YouTube video with updates and then feed it to one of the many transcribing tools (I tried Otter.ai and can recommended it) - and put both of those in. Or you can just trust that your audience is more like you and will also appreciate a quick video message over a long wall of formal text.

What else?

There are so many other ways you can market that doesn’t require “face time” - the thing that often eats up quite a lot of neurodivergent energy. Work on your website and geek out over your SEO so if works for you while you sleep. Start a Substack (hey!). Or a podcast. Print a bunch of flyers and distribute them to the local businesses (you can even pay someone to do that).

Try things and notice how they make you feel. Do more of the ones that invigorate you and less of everything else. Do go out of your comfort zone every now and again - you may be surprised that something you dreaded before actually lifts you up once you try it (I thought I hated public speaking - but now I really enjoy it, so long as I don’t overthink it!). And while you may have to eat the proverbial frog every now and again, you can plan around that, schedule your time accordingly and allow for recovery time after a draining activity.

Most of all, remember: you are a creative and that creativity can stretch beyond your photography / art / craft. You can be creative in how you approach business and marketing, too. And once you realise you don’t have to play by the old “rules” that were not designed for you in the first place, the sky is the limit.

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I find asking for help really hard. But here it goes: if you found this useful, please share this with a friend or two. It really helps spread the word about this little corner of the internet.