Being a full-time photographer can be fulfilling and exciting, but what good is your framing skill if you need to learn about your full potential? Taking breathtaking pictures encapsulating the moment’s essence is art, but so is marketing that expertise.
Stop selling yourself short and learn how to position yourself in the market to bag your ideal clients with these six tips for promoting your business.
Opt for online galleries
Ever wanted to throw your photos out into the digital void and hope someone notices? Online photography galleries and communities are like the digital version of shouting from the rooftops, except without the risk of getting arrested. Behance and Flikr are good starting points where you can showcase your work to the digital community and earn the praise and recognition you deserve.
To take a more targeted approach and target your niche, consider joining online communities (Facebook groups, Reddit, etc.) to engage your audience and generate new leads. Online galleries are another great option for showcasing your work and making extra cash. However, with galleries, you’ll need a particular aesthetic to make your pictures worth selling, so keep that in mind when signing up.
Begin a referral program
The only thing better than a happy client is a satisfied client who believes in your work and brings new clients to you. Imagine if every time someone gushed about your photos, they handed you a potential new booking; that’s the power of a referral program.
Think of how you can develop your existing clients to encourage them to bring new gigs for you. Maybe offer discounts on their next shoot, free prints, or a free album. Give your existing clients incentive to refer you to their friends and family, and see how your clientele grows. Offering a referral/discount code to loyal customers can be an intelligent way to grow your audience while strengthening your relationship with existing ones.
Set aside specific discount codes for different clients, which their circle can use to avail themselves of discounts on their next shoots while rewarding your recurring customers. Ensure you closely monitor the referral program and reward deserving clients promptly and fairly to ensure good rapport and trust with your clientele.
Start a photography blog
Sometimes, all you need to grow is to toot your own horn, and a blog can help you achieve precisely that/ Starting a blog might sound like extra work, but think of it as your digital soapbox where you get to share everything you know (and let’s be honest, you see a lot). Use blogs to communicate to the world how well-versed you are at your job; see it as a self-promotional activity, but don’t sound too cocky doing it.
Try sharing helpful tips and tricks readers can implement to get stunning photos and how to edit them. You can go one step further and discuss lighting and locations to provide extra information to your readers; you will have to offer something valuable in your blogs to encourage the audience to read them.
Create an Instagram profile
Instagram is your visual playground, where you can flaunt your work to an audience hooked on scrolling. No awkward small talk is required; post your gorgeous photos and let your feed do the talking. Curate a professional profile and share your portfolio and other business-related content there.
Include hashtags relevant to your content and niche, and incorporate trending audio in your reels for maximum exposure. Upload all your content: pictures, videos, BTS, and even links for free download. You can even upload a professional flyer highlighting all your services and charges.
Pro tip: Use PosterMyWall to design aesthetic flyers with their small business flyer templates.
Instagram is notorious for its algorithm, so create a posting schedule and stick to it to avoid getting shadow-banned. Keep your target audience engaged with high-quality content and constant interactions through comments, resharing, and live Q&A sessions; you want your profile to be smooth.
Share a photography guide
Freebies help you get a chance to give something valuable away to your audience and look like the photography guru you are. Offering free downloadable guides is a fantastic way to build trust with potential clients and position yourself as an expert. Not only do offering guides (like “How to Pick the Right Wedding Photographer” or “Poses for Shy Individuals”) give your audience super helpful tips, but they also make you look like the photography genius you are.
Plus, in exchange for the guide, you can ask people to sign up for your email list; you get access to those precious emails, and they get a handy resource to make their photos even better.
You can be the next Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz, but those skills might be locked in a dusty drawer if no one knows who you are. So, see marketing as the lens that helps people see your full potential; without it, your business might become out of focus. So, get out there and show the world what you’ve got!
