Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Getting the Word Out

So, how do those buyers know that the Digital Railroad Marketplace even exists? They, of course, have a blog. They also are making outreach to photo editors with stories of fresh/unique content via their marketing resources which go out multiple times a month – their August Buyer Newsletter can be seen here. They also have a Buyer Benefits section of the site so that buyers know how the Marketplace can work for them.

In addition, their Railmail gets you “a quick overview of a recent selection of requests”, including:

• Caribbean Islands: Martinique and Trinidad/Tobago
• Las Vegas
• Pench India Tiger Reserve
• Editorial images: Cairo people and location
• Winter and Christmas images; contemporary and vintage (for French agency)
• Health Care: Adult in hospital bed with grieving family

…and so on.

This is a similar type of list I used to get from my agency which let me know where holes were in the library that I could fill, if my creativity so inspired me.

What hasn't, heretofore been known (atleast it's not been promoted as a marketing channel by them) is, for example, this search for the search term "/drr.net" yields some interesting results about their marketing strategy. They're investing in Google Adwords, not on specific Google page return results, but rather, on content-relevant pages. Definately stealth marketing of images. So, for example, on "Les Celebrites.fr", a French site about celebrities, their index for "Michelle Yeoh" contains Google Adwords for images of Michelle Yeoh at Cannes, as noted at right.

On this cached page of Liens de ma Ville, for "MAILLY LA VILLE" yields the results below:


On a much more public note is their sponsorship of the Aperture Users Professional Network Road Tour, which sold out in NYC a few weeks ago, has been to Boston, just wrapped here in DC, and is enroute to San Diego, For Lauderdale, LA, New Orleans, SF, Chicago, Dallas, and Seattle.

So, it is working? Check the client and photographer experiences for more on results.

Digital Railroad – All Aboard?
Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Overview
Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Getting the Word Out
Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Client Experience
Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Photographer Experience
Digital Railroad’s Marketplace - Summary

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.