When you dive into Google search, you are immediately introduced to a virtual marketplace. The fancier the page, the more traffic it gets, and the better the conversion. People get attached to intuitive web designs, engaging blogs, and eye-catching titles. With such a vast amount of offered goods and services, the challenge is to promote yourself and stay competitive regardless of growing competition.
When you are in the photography industry, you are to present yourself on the virtual market where your social media profiles, portfolios, and blogs work for you to gain new clients. But is it something in particular that adds to your success, or do you need to cover it all to put yourself out there?
Below are practical tips for those just starting photography or those who’ve been in the market for quite some time but looking for other ways to promote their business.
Choose Your Niche and Develop in it
Image Source About Me page example
One of the useful tips for beginners is to identify your photography niche to stick to. Experiment with different things, see what excites you the most, and develop in that direction.
When you are working in a particular area, it will be easier for you to find your ideal consumers, tailor your services to their needs and come up with the right marketing strategy to promote your products. Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, identify the focus and get rid of the unnecessary stress of trying to become a fit for all. Besides, settling on a single niche, you will be developing faster, taking particular photography classes, and mastering your skills.
Once you have chosen the niche and identified your audience, you are ready to move forward toward attracting your potential consumers. You can then place ads on forums, thematic magazines and get featured on particular websites. While it might seem that you are narrowing your possibilities, it will pay off later on.
Craft Your Portfolio
Image Source A wedding photographer’s website
One of the most essential things for marketing your photography business is creating your portfolio or personal website. The latter serves as your brand image, showing your works, and helping you find your space to shine through the crowd.
With such a large amount of existing tools for crafting a website or a portfolio, you will not need a big budget and a lot of time to get going. Make sure you have an About Me page, a page for getting in touch with you for any queries, and a place where people can look at your recent works, and leave their reviews after working with you. If you already have a page with your portfolio elsewhere, but still want to craft a website, ensure to leave a link to your works and encourage people to check it out for a better understanding of what you do and offer.
While your website should be easy to navigate, it also needs to leave the right impression on your audience. Have a key landing page (you can create it with Unbounce) that explains to people who you are, why you are doing it, what’s your purpose, and where you find motivation. Let each and every photoshoot you showcase tell a little story. Small things make a big difference. People will be encouraged to create their own stories by choosing to work with you.
Run a Blog
Image Source Photography Blog
Another thing that might be time-consuming yet effective when it comes to marketing your photography business is blogging. First, content is beneficial for SEO, helping your website go up in search results and become more accessible to potential clients.
Second, it adds to your expertise. You can cover different topics related to photography, or give useful tips for beginners. Not only does it build trust, but it also adds value to your work.
Third, when it comes to getting an additional source of income, running a blog is the way to go. You can get blog monetization by putting ads on pages with high traffic, and creating beneficial partnerships with various suppliers. The latter results in solid commission and more opportunities for your growth.
While blogging is not an easy thing to do, it is definitely worth a shot. Post regularly, experiment with topics, and see what resonates with your audience. If you are not strong in writing, make it a picture-oriented one with less text or utilize tools like AI content generators. The latter provides you with human-sounding, original and pleasant to consume content, taking away all the hustle and bustle of crafting it yourself.
Embrace Social Media
Image Source An example of a photographer’s Pinterest account
For photographers, social media channels are serving as one of the most powerful places to attract consumers. If you learn how to use it to your advantage, you can get a steady flow of incoming clients without the need to invest in additional ads.
Instagram, for example, is by far the most popular place for photographers’ portfolios. When you know who your key audience is, you can build up your personal profile accordingly, post your recent photoshoots, and show people behind the scenes. You can as well include useful posts, introduce photoshop alternatives, or create a discussion with your followers to understand what excites them the most. Besides, you can utilize stories to make Q&A sessions with your audience or make use of reels to post fun content and drive traffic to your Instagram page.
The only drawback of running a social media page is the amount of time you need to spend to keep it alive and engaging. Some photographers prefer to keep it minimal and use Instagram only to get new consumers. However, if you want to grow professionally, build trust among consumers and attract more clients, it is better to cover it all.
Experiment with Email Marketing
Image Source Photographer “thank you” email
Email marketing is highly used by many businesses to keep in touch with new, existing, and potential clients and ensure they get timely updates. The photography business is no exception. Give people an opportunity to be the first ones to see your latest works or subscribe to your blog to receive new posts directly in their inbox once you upload them on the website.
Besides, with the growing popularity of personalized content, you get an opportunity to craft your emails, work on the right communication style, develop your personal tone of voice and make people feel thought of and appreciated every time they get a letter from you.
The key to success here is authenticity. With so many overly polished websites and emails, stay true to yourself and show people the most valuable work moments in your unique way, which can tell people a little more about you.
If you are a master in real estate photography, you can use email marketing to reach realtors and brokers in the area who are always on the lookout for professional and captivating real estate photos. They say, a picture can be worth a thousand words and in real estate, it can be worth a million dollars.
Network
Networking is a sort of team-building, encouraging collaboration and effective partnerships with other professionals. To grow your consumer base, you need to work with other people in the fields that are related to photography. Suppose, you are a specializing in wedding photography. You can then refer your consumers to bakers, wedding planners, and decorators that are there to ensure the total success of the day.
On another note, you can get in touch with local shops and businesses to suggest ways to collaborate. Show them the value you are able to offer and see where it goes. By networking, you can establish great partnerships and get more consumers on board.
Get featured
Image Source Photographer’s being featured on Junebug Weddings
For a photographer, it is utterly beneficial to get featured in a trustworthy magazine or a popular blog. People who come to you, as a result, will have more trust in your professional skills.
With featuring, sometimes editors find you and get in touch on their own. Yet other times, you need to make the first step, be proactive, and get yourself an opportunity to get featured.
Before submitting any pitch, make some research and ensure you are targeting the right source with the audience you can appeal to. Again, it is more about quality rather than the number of resources you can sell yourself to. Once you have a list of places where your publication will be relevant, check if they allow for outside publications and apply.
You can even go the extra mile, contact the editor, and schedule a call if possible. It is a part of networking as well. You can actually get yourself a new client and for you, the more contacts, the better.
Shall we conclude?
Nowadays, word of mouth on its own will not do the magic for you. To get successful as a photographer, you need to invest time and effort into marketing your business. Crafting a captivating portfolio and making sure you are active on various social media platforms do make a difference. Add to it a pinch of networking and a good scoop of email marketing, and you will see how much growth you will face.
While a highly competitive marketplace can seem intimidating, the more you work towards building your brand, the more fulfilling it will become, both financially and professionally.
