If you are a full-time professional photographer or just starting out, having a marketing plan for your photography business is essential. Marketing your photography business can take up a lot of your time, and you need to be able to find the ideal clients, keep them coming back and referring you to others for more work.
We came up with a list of ideas for promoting and marketing your photography business online and offline. We cover everything from using social media, printed advertising, marketing marterials, SEO for your website, to how to get your work seen by potential clients.
Photography marketing can be done in a variety of ways and with different levels of success. This article will give you some great photography marketing activities that are easy to implement into your own business.
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Know Your Photography Market
You need to understand who your clients are, what they want from their photographs, and how you should be marketing your photography business to them. If you don’t have any idea where to start then take time to research your market. There are plenty of websites available online which provide information regarding demographics, trends, etc.
Also, consider asking friends or family for advice as well. Once you have an understanding of your target market it becomes easier to decide how best to reach them and come up with marketing plans for your photography business.
When you know who your potential customers are, you can start building a client database to get in touch with them.
Reach Clients With Digital Marketing
The most common way to do so is through email but there are other methods such as social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. These platforms allow people to share content quickly and easily. They also give businesses access to large groups of consumers all at once.
Growing your audience is possible through social media channels. However, you do not have ownership of them. They can change their methods at any time. It can happen in a way that is detrimental to your business.
Accounts can get banned for reasons beyond your control, so be sure to direct your clients beyond your social media platforms. Include your website URL and a contact email address on all your social media profiles so potential clients can reach you directly.
We will cover some ideas for online photography marketing in this article.
Top photography marketing ideas to reach online customers:
Build Your Client Email List
Email lists can be used to build a relationship with your customer. It is a good way to keep in touch with potential and current clients. An email list can help with your photography marketing in many ways. You can keep your clients informed of upcoming promotions and specials.
Here are a few providers that will help you grow your email list:
- MailerLite – Mailerlite’s drag & drop editor allows you to build professional and beautiful newsletters on your own. No HTML skills are needed. Grow your subscriber list with their landing pages, pop-ups, and embedded forms. Easy to use and filled with features.
- Constant Contact – Constant Contact offers modern, mobile-optimized templates with a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to create, customize, and send professional emails that work for any industry.
- Convert Kit – ConvertKit is email marketing software for creators. Easily customize embed forms for your website to turn readers into subscribers. Grow your business through attractive forms, trackable data, and simple but powerful automation.
Once you have set up your photography business with an email provider start promoting with these email tips:
- Create A Good Email Subject Line – Create A Good Email Subject Line – The subject line needs to communicate exactly what the email is about so that the recipient wants to open it.
- Write An Effective Message – After creating a good subject line write up a short message. Keep in mind the purpose of your email as you write it. Be brief and directly to the point. Paragraphs should be short and focused on one main idea. Don’t forget to include links to your website and portfolio!
- Send Out Emails And Follow Up Regularly – Once you send out your first batch of emails follow up regularly until you receive responses. Try not to bombard your contacts with too much mail unless they ask for it. Keep track of when each person responds and keep following up with those who haven’t responded yet.
Printed Advertising Marketing Materials
If you want to stand out from the crowd, make printed advertising materials. People still like to have printed promotional materials, plus it’s another way for them to remember your business. Postcards, business cards, and brochures give clients something tangible with the information they need about your business. Use your mailing list to send printed sales promotions to clients.
Try these printed marketing and advertising ideas to promote your photography business:
1. Distribute Flyers & Postcards for Promotions
Printed advertising materials give you a great chance to reach your audience with your latest sales promotion. If you want your business to be seen, try distributing flyers that promote any specials you are running.
Check and see if there are any local businesses that you can leave flyers or postcards with. You may want to consider partnering with them for future marketing programs that will be beneficial to both of you. It can be a great way to cross-promote your businesses and acquire new clients.
2. Make a Statement with Snail Mail
Sending out snail mail to potential clients is a good idea. You can off a special discount for receiving printed mail or send holiday greetings with specials for the season. Use your printed marketing campaigns to create an impression that online marketing can’t beat.
Mailing out printed material can be used in conjunction with digital marketing. It’s easy for clients to accidentally delete an email they were saving or to not open them at all. People can be overloaded with social media, and tend to scroll through things quickly and miss the special you are offering.
Canva is a great resource if you need help with designing printed marketing materials. They have a wide selection of templates for flyers, postcards, business cards, and just about anything else you need for advertising in print. It’s one of my favorite resources for marketing any photography specials.
Use Social Media Sites To Market Your Business
Many photographers now rely heavily upon social networking sites to promote themselves. There are many influential social media platforms for visual imagery to market your photograph on.
Here are the social media platforms you should be marketing and advertising your photography business on:
1. Instagram – Instagram can work for you even without thousands of followers. Engagement with your followers is more important than the number of followers and likes an account gets.
To increase the number of viewers you get, you can use paid campaigns that target specific audiences. So, it is important to define who your audience is if you intend on using paid advertisements.
To improve your engagement and increase your chances of potential clients paying attention to your business, be sure you are commenting back to them. Make your comments meaningful.
2. Pinterest – Most people think of Pinterest as just another social media platform. What they don’t realize is that it’s a powerful search engine. It can put you in front of people who are interested in your business by increasing your visibility.
You need to know how to use pins on pinboards as part of your marketing plan. It is important that you understand that your pins are not for you. They are there to help your target audience.
If you specialize in newborn photography, all of your boards should be related to newborns. You can include tips for newborn photo sessions, clothing choices, best prop choices, or any inspirational boards for parents of newborns.
When you are posting a new pin to one of your boards, include descriptions so people understand what it is about, and be sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your post. Properly used hashtags are how people find you. Hashtag your location too. You want to attract clients specific to your location.
3. Facebook – Facebook is popular for connecting with friends and family, but if you’re looking to reach more customers it can also be quite useful. In order to do this, you should set up a business page to promote your photography business.
With a business page, you can promote specials, run contests, and of course show off your photography. It’s also a great way to network and also send potential customers to your website.
Many photographers use Facebook advertisements to market their photography business. It can be an effective way to target a specific audience. If you choose to use ads, make sure you keep an eye on your daily budget.
Now, you are probably wondering how in the world you will have time for all these social media platforms. Here are some tools that will save you some time and make marketing your photography much easier:
- Canva – Canva is a great graphic design platform that allows you to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, and other types of visual content. It has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop feature with professional layouts for a multitude of social media platforms, plus they also have a content scheduler so you can plan your posts in advance.
- Tailwind – You will love Tailwind’s Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook scheduling and analytics tools. Discover content, schedule posts, and monitor conversations, amplify reach, and analyze results. You are able to easily schedule a week or more of posts at different times where you will get the most traffic.
Create a Website for Your Photography Business
If you don’t have a website set up to market your photography business, you need to!
A website gives you control over your brand identity, helps build trust among your current client base, and provides information about pricing, services, and contact details. A well-designed site makes it easy for visitors to navigate through your portfolio and learn more about your style and approach.
It’s important to note that having a good website doesn’t mean you’ll automatically start getting bookings from every person who visits your site. But if you’re serious about growing your business, then building a strong online presence is essential.
Here are some things to consider when creating a website for your photography business:
1. Make Sure That The Site Is Mobile Friendly – This means that everything looks nice and works smoothly no matter which device someone uses to view your site.
2. Use Clear Calls to Action – CTAs help guide users towards completing tasks like booking appointments or purchasing products. Make sure there are clear calls to action throughout your site.
3. Include Contact Information – Include your email address, phone number, mailing address, and physical office address. Also add links to your social profiles such as LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
4. Add Photos And Videos Of Work – People enjoy seeing images of real-life shots taken by professionals. Adding photos and videos of your work shows prospective clients that you know exactly what you’re doing.
5. Have An About Page With Biographical Info – Have a short bio describing yourself and why you started your photography business. Add links to your social accounts and websites. Don’t Forget SEO – Search engines use algorithms to rank sites based on popularity and relevance. If people aren’t finding your site via search engine queries, chances are low that potential customers will find you either.
Get Started Today By Creating An Account With These Website Resources:
- HostGator – With HostGator web hosting you’ll get everything you need to get your website going. The Website Builder is drag-and-drop and the site includes many building tools and templates.
- Blue Host – Blue Host offers a powerful, proven platform that’s perfect for hosting your websites. It’s easy to launch your new WordPress website right from there. Blue Host is one of the top recommended WordPress providers by WordPress.org.
- WP Engine – With WP Engine & Format – Format is one of the best online portfolio platforms for sharing, promoting, and selling your work.
- Unbounce – Create landing pages with Unbounce. It is completely drag-and-drop, and fully customizable.
- Leadpages – Leadpages has over 200 professionally designed code-free, drag and drop templates to build landing pages and websites.
- SmugMug – SmugMug is the leader in creating stunning photo websites for photographers and photo enthusiasts, with an easy-to-use interface. A complete suite of commerce tools makes it easy to sell your work.
- Pixpa – Pixpa enables photographers to showcase, share, and sell their work online with style and simplicity.
- Webflow – Webflow is an affiliate program designed for influencers, educators, bloggers, and others.
- Strikingly – Strikingly is a website builder that allows users with little or no development experience to create mobile-optimized websites within minutes.
- Webydo – With Webydo you can create custom websites by dragging and dropping elements onto the design canvas. The Design Editor takes care of the code.​
- Designmodo – Create responsive, animated, static websites with Designmodo that are easy to set up and customize in minutes with ready-made designed and coded templates and themes.
- ShootProof – With ShootProof create stunning client galleries to showcase, share, and sell your work online. Fulfill your print orders with one of their lab partners or self-fulfill with any lab in the world.
Work On SEO For Your Photography Website
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This process involves making changes to your website so it ranks higher when someone searches online using specific keywords related to your niche.
There are two main ways to optimize your website: content optimization and link building. Content optimization focuses on creating quality content that’s easy to read and understand. Link building refers to getting other websites to link back to yours by providing them with valuable information.
Why is SEO important? Almost all of our online experiences begin with a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Safari. If you’re not showing up in those results, it means that potential clients will have a difficult time finding you. So, you can see why it’s an absolute must for photographers to use SEO on their websites.
Best SEO tips for photographers:
- Use relevant keywords.
- Optimize Post & Page Titles
- Optimize your HTML tags
- Make your website mobile-friendly
- Setup Google Analytics
- Optimize Images
- Add alt text to your images.
- Keep your content updated with relevant content
- Get exposure and backlinks
- Add Meta Description
- Use Categories and Tags
- Use Categories and Tags
- Use local SEO
- Develop a sitemap
- Install an SEO Plugin
SEO tools for photographers:
- SEM Rush – SEM Rush will take your SEO to the next level with the extensive features it offers in its SEO toolkit. Improve your marketing strategy and much more. Find which keywords your competitors are ranking for, who your top competitors are, what profitable products they are selling, discover what keywords you should be using for your blog post, and pages.
- Google Search Console – Google Search Console is a free service by Google. Search Console tools and reports help you measure your site’s traffic and performance The tools allow you to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s performance in Google Search results.
- Google My Business – Set up a business profile with Google for your website.
Word of Mouth Marketing
Have you ever seen something and had to tell your friends about it? Is there a time when you had a great experience at a restaurant and later on wrote about it on social media?
This is called word-of-mouth marketing. It’s an organic way of spreading information that uses components of viral marketing.
Word-of-mouth advertising refers to a form of direct and indirect communication between consumers who are likely to purchase the product in question. It occurs when one person tells another about their experience with a company or its products through face-to-face interaction, phone calls, emails, text messages, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, etc., creating what is often referred to as “word of mouth”. This type of advertising can be further classified into:
- Social Proof – When someone recommends something they have used themselves. For example, if you’re looking for a new camera, your friend might recommend her own because she likes it so much.
- Personal Recommendation – A testimonial from a real customer that has had positive experiences using a particular brand. These types of recommendations are more credible than those made by friends or family members.
- Endorsement – An advertisement where a celebrity promotes a certain product on television, radio, print media, online ads, billboards, etc.
The most effective forms of word-of-mouth advertising use both social proof and endorsements. The best kind of endorsement comes from customers who actually talk about how great the product was after trying it out. They also tend to provide specific details such as price, quality, size, color, features, pros/cons, etc
What Are Some Other Ways I Could Market My Photography?
- Start Blogging – Most photographers include a blog on their website. Photography blogs helps promote and market your brand and gives you more opportunities to connect with previous clients and potential clients. You can blog about recent photoshoots, and show off your work. Plus, if you have good content, your website will start to rank higher, and Google might even put your blog on the first page when someone searches for keywords related to your niche
- Join Online Communities – There are tons of communities out there who want to see great quality photographs. Joining those groups could lead to some amazing connections.
- Get Involved In Local Events – Whether it’s local events or national ones, getting involved in community events can really pay off. Not only do you meet lots of interesting people but you can also learn about different ways to market your services.
- Offer Free Services – Offering free services such as editing/retouching time, workshops, classes, etc., can give you exposure while helping others.
- Be Creative – Think outside the box and come up with unique ideas to attract attention. For example, offer something special for a limited amount of time or make sure to include a coupon code in every order.
- Give Away Something Special – Giving away items like prints, books, calendars, etc., can generate interest in your brand. It will also get potential clients excited about what you’re offering.
- Ask People About Their Needs – If you know how to use social media platforms well, ask customers on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn what kind of photography they need done. Then go ahead and provide exactly that service.
- Make Sure That All Of Your Photos Have Tags And Keywords – When uploading photos to various social networks, always add tags and keywords to each image. Doing this ensures that all of your images show up under relevant search terms.
- Add Images To Websites Or Email Signatures – Adding images to emails or websites can increase engagement rates. Also, adding images to email signatures shows professionalism and lets recipients know that you take pride in your craft.
- Post On Forums – Many forums allow members to post links to their own websites. By posting links to your site, you may gain new followers from forum visitors.
- Write Articles – Writing articles is another way to build authority around your business. Once again, writing high-quality pieces can boost SEO efforts.
- Host An Event – Hosting an event is a fun way to interact with your target audience. Hosting an event can bring together many people interested in similar things.
- Run Contests – Running contests is a simple yet effective method of generating leads. Just remember not to overpromise and deliver less than expected.
- Work With A Photographer Who Has The Same Niche As Yourself – Start Building Relationships With Other Photographers: One thing I learned early on was how important networking really is when trying to build my client base. It doesn’t matter what kind of relationship you start out with someone; just getting their name out there helps tremendously. The best relationships usually come from referrals so try to network with other photographers whenever possible.
- Join Professional Associations And Meetups – There are many professional associations available online where members share tips and tricks on various topics related to being a photographer. Some examples include Proffesional Photographers of America, the American Society Of Media Photographers, the National Press Photographer Association, International Photography Hall of Fame. Some organizations offer free membership which means you won’t pay anything upfront but instead receive benefits such as discounts on products and services offered by the organization itself. Another benefit is that they often host photography workshops or seminars where you can learn new skills and techniques.
- Register In Directories – You can register your business as a vendor in specific directories for your industry or provide a local business listing for local business directories so you increase your exposure and can be found by potential clients locally
- Attend Trade Shows – You can learn from others in the industry at conferences and photography shows. You have the chance to network withotherphotographers and vendors. Some of the photography shows you should consider attending include: WPPI, Imaging USA, and Photo Booth Expo. If you are unable to attend a trade show, find out if you are able to insert your printed marketing pieces that they distribute to the trade show attendees.
- Create Videos – Creating videos is a great way to showcase your work and educate viewers about your products and services. I like to use Animoto for marketing videos. It’s easy to use and they have a lot of templates to work with. You can check out our review of them HERE.
- Provide Tutorials – Providing tutorials can teach people how to edit certain types of pictures. They can also serve as helpful guides for beginners looking to improve their skills.
- Take Pictures At Interesting Locations – Taking pictures at places where most people don’t usually visit can expose your brand to a wider range of audiences.
- Client Testimonials – It’s a good idea to include the best client testimonials on your website and social media accounts. A customer testimonial is a recommendation from a satisfied client that assures the value of a product or service.Â
Conclusion
There are lots of opportunities to build your business no matter what form of marketing you choose. Whether you market and promote your photography business online, offline, or both. The photography industry is saturated with photographers, so if you want your business to flourish, you need to be creative and have a marketing plan that will make you stand out among the crowd.
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