Dominique Papa

Marketing Your Drone Business

Dominique Papa, Owner, Drone Over the Top, LLC

Life changes, careers change, and sometimes the skills you pick up along the way become the foundation for a business you never expected to build.

In this presentation, Dominique Papa shares her unconventional path from studying marine biology and photography, to working as a scuba diver and shark tour guide in Hawaii, to discovering drones and eventually building Drone Over the Top. Her story is also the foundation of how she approaches marketing. Dominique believes the drone is the tool, not the business. Marketing a drone company is not about constantly advertising what drone you fly or how good your camera is. It is about marketing yourself, understanding the industry you want to serve, solving a real problem, and giving people a reason to remember you.

Dominique will discuss how she found her niche by putting herself into the industries she wanted to work in rather than waiting for customers to find her. Her entrance into the amusement industry began at AIMS, where she quickly realized she wasn't entering a drone industry, she was entering a safety industry. By learning from inspectors, maintenance professionals, manufacturers, and safety professionals, she was able to better understand where drone technology could actually provide value. Her involvement in helping develop ASTM F24 language for drones and ROVs within the amusement industry further helped her build credibility, contribute to the safe adoption of the technology, and grow her business from within the industry rather than simply trying to sell to it.

Through her own experiences, Dominique will talk about personal branding, networking, conferences, LinkedIn, following up, building genuine relationships, finding mentors and partners, and being consistent about how you represent yourself and your company. At its core, Marketing Your Drone Business is about making people remember more than your drone. It is about making them remember you, what you stand for, the value you bring, and the way you made them feel working with you.

Dominique Papa is the founder and owner of Drone Over the Top LLC, a woman-owned drone services company specializing in remote visual inspections, photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and high-resolution data collection for complex structures. Her work has taken her into industries ranging from construction and commercial real estate to amusement parks and infrastructure, with a particular focus on using drones to make difficult-to-access inspections safer and more efficient.

Dominique's path into the drone industry was anything but traditional. She earned her degree in biology with a focus in marine science from Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire, along with a minor in photography. Her early career included working in Hawaii as a scuba diver and shark tour guide before her background in photography eventually led her to drones. After earning her FAA Part 107 certificate, she began building what would become Drone Over the Top. As her business evolved, Dominique learned that some of the biggest opportunities came from being willing to change direction. What started with photography and traditional drone services developed into a company focused on remote visual inspection technology and solving difficult access problems across multiple industries.

That evolution also shaped the way Dominique markets her business. Instead of focusing on the drone itself, she focuses on the person behind the technology, the problem being solved, and the relationships built along the way. She believes people do business with people they know, trust, and remember. Dominique has built much of her business through networking, conferences, direct outreach, LinkedIn, partnerships, and becoming actively involved in the industries she wants to serve. Her involvement with AIMS introduced her to the safety side of the amusement industry, while her work contributing to ASTM F24 efforts involving drones and ROVs has allowed her to participate in shaping how emerging technology can be safely incorporated into inspection practices.

Today, Dominique continues to grow Drone Over the Top while bringing together her background in science, photography, technology, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Her career may look very different from what she originally planned, but that is also one of the lessons behind her story: you don't always have to know exactly where you're going. You have to recognize opportunities, keep learning, and make sure people remember you when you get there.