Growing your photography business is about working smarter. There are hundreds — if not thousands — of ways to market your company. If you try to do too many things, you’ll end up doing all of them poorly.
Instead, it’s better to focus on only a couple of tactics at a time. Then, once you have those dialed in, add another tactic to the mix.
In this post, we’re outlining eight of the best ways to optimize your photography business.
Get clear on your ideal customer
Trying to be everything to everyone is a great way to end up appealing to no one. The sooner you realize this, the faster your business will grow.
One of the best ways to stand out is to niche down and get really clear on who your ideal customers are. Communicate that in your brand messaging (i.e., on your website, in social media, when talking to customers and prospects offline, etc).
This may seem counterintuitive, but the more you communicate who you are for, the more these people will find and want to work with you.
Here are a few examples of what niching down could look like:
- A photographer who only shoots photos and videos of vintage cars in Northern California
- A wedding photographer like Attila Iuhasz and Melbourne Wedding Photographer like Lavan Photo.
- A Florida-based photographer who specializes in taking photos of newborn babies within 50 miles of Orlando
- A Colorado photographer Leah Goetzel who specializes in taking senior and wedding photos.
Streamline your onboarding process
You only have one chance to make a first impression. Taking the time to create an amazing onboarding experience for new clients is important. Your onboarding process should make clients feel confident that hiring you was the right decision. This is also when you should collect all of the important details you need from them to do a great job.
One way to standardize this process is by emailing clients an onboarding questionnaire once they sign up. JotForm makes the process of creating online forms super simple with their drag-and-drop Form Builder.
Pro tip: Check out this guide on form design best practices.
Repurpose your photos and videos
If you do great work for clients, you should highlight that elsewhere. This can include repurposing your photos and videos on your portfolio, blog posts, and social media. Make sure you get permission to do this, either baked into the contract you have customers sign or by asking customers before you post anything.
Pro tip: Make sure to add alt texts to images on your website. This is not only great for making your site accessible, but it can also help you rank higher on social engines.
In addition, if you take photos and videos that your clients don’t use, consider selling them as prints, downloads or on stock video sites. This is a way to build another income stream.
Create local business listing pages and add online scheduling
If you run a local photography business, set up business listings on Google My Business, Yelp, etc. This will help increase your brand awareness and visibility. You can also set up an online scheduling software to keep your business open 24×7.
Collaborate with other businesses
Another way to increase visibility is to create a business marketing strategy and explore partnership opportunities. For example, if you specialize in wedding photography, you may want to team up with a salon. Then, you can sell a bundle where the two of you offer clients hair, makeup, and photography for one price. You can take help from many sales software available.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to buy affordable business insurance.
Also Read: Complete Guide to Photography Sales Tax
Be active in online communities
There are thousands of online photography communities, including Facebook groups, Quora, and online forums. They can be a great way to get your name out there, connect with fellow photographers, learn new tips, try to get featured in their social media and share what you’ve learned.
Be active and relevant on your own social media
Social media can be of great help when it comes to growing an audience and connecting with people. You can showcase your product and business values more than on any other medium if you do it right.
The best thing to do is to be mindful of the full power of social media platforms and choose the best medium for your business.
A new social media content study shows that posts with carrousels and albums attract more engagement than any other types of posts on Instagram and Facebook.
That’s great news if you want to showcase your talents and portfolio. Just select 3 or 4 photos for your post, add a short caption of under 10 words, and start building up a relevant audience.
Don’t forget to ensure that all of your media channels and especially your website are compliant with relevant laws such as CCPA and GDPR.
Ask for referrals from happy clients
Make it easy for happy clients to send you new business. Just remember that most people won’t send you referrals unless you ask. It’s a good idea to build this into your process at the end of a gig as well as through regular check-ins.
For example, when a gig wraps up, you can ask for a testimonial or for a review on Yelp or Google My Business. This also gives you an opportunity to mention your referral program.
Be proactive about seeking feedback
In order to truly optimize your business, you need to have a process for collecting feedback from prospects and customers. This means actively seeking it out and being willing to hear both the good and the bad. Trina Koster Photography, a team of wedding photographers in Guelph, always ask their clients for feedback and to ensure they’re providing the most value possible to each client.
While nobody likes negative feedback, it can be helpful. Try reframing it as a learning or growth opportunity instead of getting defensive.
Then take what you learn and use it to improve your business processes.
Bonus Tip:
A great addition to any photography business is augmented reality. Soundwave Art ™ makes it easy to add augmented reality to your services. Enhance your photography business and bring your client’s photos to life with the Soundwave Art ™ mobile app. Your clients will be able to scan their photos and see a video appear on top of their photos via their mobile devices.
***
Optimizing your photography business is all about working smarter. This includes getting clear on who your ideal customer is, staying in touch with current and past customers, and actively seeking feedback to improve.
Read More: Looking for a Photography Insurance? Checkout Netsurance
