Posts may contain affiliate links.
It’s an exciting adventure to start a photography business. Knowing you can take a hobby and monetize it means that you can have a second income that could eventually come from something you love. If you want your new business to become something amazing, then knowing how to market it properly is important.
Effective marketing is what’s needed to attract clients. Without it, you’re going to find it difficult to move your business forward and capture some attention for what you do. You could be a portrait photographer or a business photographer, a family photographer or an event photographer – but without proper marketing, you can’t reach the success you could have otherwise. So, how can you do it effectively while making something of your business? Let’s take a look at fifteen top tips!
- Use SEO – and don’t skimp on learning how. SEO for photographers is not an easy thing to learn but by understanding keywords and how researching the right ones will help your business, you’ll be able to ensure people can find you online. When you optimize your website appropriately for search engines, you’ll improve your visibility on big websites like Google. Not only that, but you want to make sure that your SEO best practices are applied to your specific business type. Incorporating your SEO keywords into your website helps you to coexist with your social media pages, too. Being cohesive across the board with your keywords helps you to be found – which is what you want.
- Get yourself on social media. If you’re on socials for your personal use, you’ll have seen businesses pop up on your local pages and that’s what you want to be a part of. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are all great pages to help you to advertise your business but it’ll be Facebook that comes up trumps every single time. Focusing on creating fun, easy posts that generate conversations make all the difference. By engaging with your followers, you’ll have a better shot of selling your services, and that’s the goal to be successful locally as a photographer.
- Build a website. Your business website needs to be professional and should link your socials to it, too. Your website is your online storefront and you have to put your photographer’s portfolio front and centre so that people feel excited about hiring you. Your photos are your biggest selling point but another frustration to think about is that you want people to get their answers from your website in the first instance. That means putting your pricing on your website, your services and your contact information. Potential clients should get their answers from the moment they click to your website, and not have to dig through it to find out what they need.
- Keep a run of promotions happening. Attracting new clients is much easier when you can offer money-off coupons. Referral discounts, money off first sessions, and cheaper rates when bulk booking can all work to show off what you can do. Seasonal promotions are bound to sell well, especially if you can offer package experiences along the way. The only thing you should avoid here is not devaluing your work – you deserve to charge what you’re worth, plus your hourly rates and your petrol top-ups from driving to and from locations.
- Work on a mailing list. A great way to deposit those offers to your clients is to ask them for an email address when they book with you. From here, you can give them an email every week to talk through what you’re doing, offer insight into the industry, and even keep subscribers updated about different promotions. Once you’ve built that list up, sending regular newsletters helps to keep them updated about their services and promotions they’re able to access. Let’s not forget that email marketing is still a very big deal for most people.
- Ask for reviews. When you speak to your clients, ask them to leave a review on your website. You want people to talk about you positively and even when there are – if there are – negatives, you can at least answer those inquiries and be on top of making the right tweaks. Word-of-mouth marketing is just as important as social media and email marketing, so making sure you’re across this by asking for reviews can put you ahead of things. You can then leverage those reviews on your socials and your website and show off a little about what you can do.
- Partner with others. Are there local videographers near you? Why not partner with them for weddings and other special events? Networking with other businesses will help you to expand your reach, create opportunities to collaborate and benefit from systems that make sense for your business. Consider hosting joint events and giveaways so that you can gain exposure to their audience and they yours.
- Create a blog. If you have things to say about the industry, your experience, and what you want to achieve with your photography, start a blog. Starting your blog will help you to demonstrate your expertise, and you can share valuable tips and content with your audience. You have the chance to write about various topics and behind-the-scenes of your shoots. It’s a good chance for you to reach out there and show people that you know what you’re talking about.
- Don’t forget to offer referral programs. If you want people to refer your business elsewhere, you have to sweeten the deal. A referral incentive scheme ensures that your clients are satisfied and will continue to use your services. Referral programs can be super beneficial all round because people will continue to talk about you, and you end up with newer clients.
- Network where you can. There are always photography expos and group meet-ups, so you need to think about mingling with other photographers you can rub shoulders with. This allows you to share tips, swap ideas, and start collaborating. Networking can also give you the opportunities you need to share tips and tricks, locations and projects that you can collaborate on. Networking allows you to get out there and really push your business, and that makes all the difference!
- Attend local fairs. If you want to show off a little about what you can do, why not print some of your images and showcase them at local events and fairs? You’ll be able to set up booths at wedding expos, craft markets, and local fairs so that you can show your work and book some new clients. If you don’t get many bookings, you can still choose to get people added to your email list for the future instead.
- Advertise, advertise, advertise. While organic marketing like SEO really helps, you need to advertise! Investing in advertising on social media and pushing money into Google Ads really can change things for your business adventure. You get so much back to it when you run paid ads, learning how your performance is going to give you a good return on investment. Advertising on socials can let you reach people you wouldn’t have reached before!
- Think about your pricing strategy. Pricing is vital as a part of your marketing strategy. The prices you charge should reflect your experience and skills, which can allow you to offer tiered pricing based on the services offered. When you choose to tier your pricing with your packages, you can allow your clients to pick a package that both suits their budget, needs and give them the value that they expect, too.
- Implement video marketing. You can really showcase what you do as a photographer by implementing video marketing to your socials and website. You can create short video clips, aerial videos during shoots and add these to your social media. Video content is highly engaging and helps prospective clients to connect with you. Doing all this on a more personal level gives people the chance to see the energy you bring to a shoot! Implementing video to your website and socials gives you such a shot at making your business stand out and from there, you can reinvest into your camera equipment. When you do that, you have the opportunity to fly.
- Don’t stop. It’s vital that you keep going even when things don’t feel as fluid as they once did. There will be highs and lows when you are looking at your photography business, so don’t be afraid to lean into the lows as much as the highs. Learn from the lows and improve on the highs, and you’ll be good to go.
Marketing your photography business requires a range of strategies, creativity, and persistence. You want your business successful and now you have fifteen tips to help you to get there. The money you’ll make from your new business can be reinvested in sets, backgrounds, and equipment and you’ll be able to offer a bigger service when you do it.