Are you a photographer looking to boost your business? Digital marketing is a great way to reach potential customers and increase your visibility. Here are seven digital marketing ideas for photographers to help you get started.
1. Create a Website: Having a website is essential for any business, and it’s especially important for photographers. Your website should showcase your work, provide information about your services, and include contact information. Make sure to include high-quality images and keep your website up-to-date.
2. Utilize Social Media: Social media is a great way to reach potential customers and build relationships with them. Create accounts on the major social media platforms and post regularly. Share your work, engage with followers, and use hashtags to increase your reach.
3. Start a Blog: Blogging is a great way to showcase your work and provide valuable content to your readers. You can write about photography tips, share behind-the-scenes stories, and more.
4. Invest in Paid Advertising: Paid advertising can be a great way to reach potential customers. You can use platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to target specific audiences and increase your visibility.
5. Network with Other Photographers: Networking with other photographers can be a great way to build relationships and increase your visibility. Attend photography events, join photography groups, and collaborate with other photographers.
6. Offer Special Deals: Offering special deals and discounts can be a great way to attract new customers. You can offer discounts on prints, packages, or services.
7. Create a Newsletter: Creating a newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and keep them updated on your work. You can use a platform like MailChimp to create and send newsletters.
These are just a few digital marketing ideas for photographers. With the right strategy, you can reach potential customers and increase your visibility. Good luck!
Marketing is a sensitive and complicated topic for many photographers. Lots of them don’t even have any concrete digital marketing strategy and do some basic marketing from time to time when they really can’t avoid the fact that more promo will bring more clients. However, a thorough marketing strategy is crucial for financial stability of your photography business and a regular flow of clients.
If you are looking for an extra source of income as a photographer in times when many public events are limited, postponed, or even cancelled, you should consider working with stock photography platforms as part of your marketing strategy. As you upload your works to a stock website, you will be able to earn passive income on commissions, which is highly convenient for many photographers nowadays.
1. Be all over social media platforms
Even the most talented photographers with real artistic value can be overlooked among the high competition online. The first piece of marketing advice for any photographer is to invest their efforts into their social media. You need to make sure you are present and active on more than one platform, as it’s really hard to acquire new clients and maintain your professional image without them, especially if you are not a famous photographer.
While Instagram is a must, you shouldn’t overlook Facebook as it is a great place for photographers to network with their clients. Many people would search through Facebook and even among their friends list if they needed a photographer, so you wouldn’t want to miss out on that opportunity. Pay attention to other platforms depending on your needs and audience. Sure, Twitter isn’t an obvious choice of social media for photographers, but there are many professional photographers who got their clients through their posts on Twitter. You can even use Pinterest to boost your visibility as a photographer.
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2. Know your audience well
Most photographers know their niche and specialization, but when it comes to their specific target audience, many don’t see research as something necessary. Many photographers think that somehow their target audiences will come to them naturally, as they update their social media profiles and portfolio, but it’s not enough. You need to know your target audience very well and keep in mind the image of your ideal client. This will help you with your digital marketing efforts since you will be able to find new clients more easily and create promoted posts on social media platforms that will appeal to your audience.
3. Invest your time into SEO
If you have a website, you have a great opportunity to optimize it well enough to see a boost in organic traffic. Search engine optimization is an important tool to bring you more clients if you use it wisely. Aim at more specific keywords representing your photography niche since it’s hard to rank among the top 10 results with generic keywords. What’s more, it’s a good idea to use local keywords to optimize your website. Google tracks users’ location when they search for something, so include your region and area among your keywords if they have any connection to your work. However, note that your website is for humans, not artificial intelligence, so make sure your copy and titles are not a bunch of keywords.
4. Build a mailing list
Imagine your Instagram or Facebook account gets blocked for some reason. You won’t have your contacts and clients there for some time. That’s why you need alternative channels to keep in touch with your clients, among which are emails. It’s a good idea to add a subscription button on your website or blog so that those who are interested in your photography works can follow your updates.
You can build a list of contacts of your potential clients for email marketing, notifying them on your latest updates, news, discounts, working schedule, or plans to shoot in different locations apart from your usual area. Aim to have good copy with a friendly tone of voice to appeal to your potential clients, don’t spam with your newsletters and don’t write unnecessary long texts. It’s enough to have a bi-monthly or monthly newsletter with brief and important information.
5. Create an outstanding portfolio
Your social media platforms, blog, website, and even a page with your works on a microstock all can serve as a portfolio. It takes less than a few seconds to make the first impression, and it will be based on the particular channel people stumble upon. People will choose you over other photographers based on their impression of your portfolio, so make sure each of the platforms you promote in your marketing strategy represents your style and artistic identity. If you don’t have a website to properly organize your portfolio, use any portfolio website for photographers and artists that you find convenient.
It can feel daunting where to start when reaching out to these customers. Most businesses use digital marketing and have a social media presence.
6. Write guest articles to promote your business
Some photographers go more advanced in their marketing efforts and choose to promote themselves and their photography businesses through sharing their expertise. They search for themed blogs and media and write photography articles for them, sharing their particular field of interest or explaining some tips and tricks for beginners. It’s a good strategy since those who read the text will see your name and might visit your website or Instagram account if your article helped them. More traffic to your website can even help Google recognize your page as a business, placing you higher in search results. Apart from improving your visibility, such an approach also helps you build your professional image as a photographer.
7. Organize a giveaway on Instagram to boost engagement
Giveaways are a proven way to skyrocket your engagement on Instagram. If you think you don’t get enough engagement and responses despite all your marketing efforts, try running a giveaway for your followers on Instagram, as this is a great platform for such things. You can offer a free photo shoot or offer to edit images. While no one likes working for free, organizing a contest or giveaway does help spread the word about your photography business and helps you find more potential clients.
If you want to promote other platforms apart from Instagram, a giveaway is another way to do it. For instance, one of the requirements to win the prize can be following you on other social media platforms, subscribing to your blog or newsletters – it’s up to you! This way, you will be able to improve engagement throughout several marketing channels.
An afterthought
Marketing can be a tough thing for artistic people, but without it, you risk being unnoticed. You might have noticed yourself that very popular photographers and artists are not necessarily the ones with the most beautiful and creative works – they might just be very good at promoting themselves. You also might have seen hundreds and thousands of talented artists who are overlooked and don’t receive the attention they deserve.
To get the credit and attention for your works, you need to connect to your audience and appeal to them. You should remember that proper research and a thoughtful approach to your marketing strategy can really help you with your photography business, bring in new clients and help retain old ones.
