So you have all of the equipment, the knowledge, and the drive for a successful photography business. Now you’re wondering how to attract more customers. Here are 3 things you can start doing right now to get your calendar filled with appointments.
#1 Identify Your Target Market
It’s not enough to simply offer “photography services” anymore. You need to select a niche to market to and to work with. For example, you could offer photography services for weddings, professional headshots, or family portraits. Your marketing strategy would differ completely if you’re marketing to professionals in need of a headshot or a couple in need of a wedding photographer.
Picking to work in a niche you’re knowledgeable in and passionate about is the best strategy for marketing your photography business. It’ll be much easier to attract new clients when you know and understand who your idea customers are. For example, if you’re passionate and knowledgeable about weddings, it will be easier to market to engaged couples preparing for marriage.
Pro Tip 💡
Build a database to monitor and manage your customers and prospects. A customer relationship management software (CRM) like HubSpot allows businesses to track projects and store valuable information about prospects, vendors, and current or past customers. When business slows down, your CRM is a great place to visit to see who you can reach out to or target ads to again.
#2 Develop a Photography Portfolio
Now that you’ve identified your target market, you’ll want to develop a portfolio to show off the work you’ve done in your niche. This is an effective way of showing potential clients that you have the skills for the job.
If your niche is sports photography, your portfolio should reflect that. Your portfolio in this case would highlight your most impressive sports photos. If your niche is product photography, your portfolio might include product shots of MacBook Pros, iPods, and iPhones.
You might be wondering where to start with building a portfolio. There are many different ways that you can create one for yourself, including using social media sites like Instagram or creating a website.
A website is a perfect place to build a photography portfolio. A website gives you the freedom to update your portfolio anytime and highlight exactly the photos you want. While prospective customers are looking at the great work you do, they can easily navigate to other pages to learn more about you and book an appointment.
Websites are a great way to promote your photography business and display your work, but if you’re not a designer it can be hard to create one. Luckily, there are amazing website builders like Wix and Squarespace that make it easy to build a website.
Pro Tip 💡
A website allows you to collect contact information of interested prospects. Once you have your prospects’ emails, you can run email marketing campaigns. Email marketing campaigns are a great way to remain in the front of your prospects’ minds. You can read about more ways to build your email marketing list here!
#3 Market Your Photography Business on Instagram
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and especially Instagram, is a great place to book a lot of appointments for your photography business. Having a strong social media presence is incredibly important when trying to attract more clients.
The key to success on Instagram is to post regularly. The Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, suggested that posting to your feed twice per week and twice per day to your story is ideal for building a following. Not only will this help you gather followers, it’s a great way to show prospects that your business is active.
Pro Tip 💡
To save time on posting to Instagram, there are tools such as SocialBee and PromoRepublic that allow you to schedule posts ahead of time. It’s recommended to schedule your posts for the week ahead so that you don’t forget to post at the best times during the week.
It’s not enough to post content regularly, though. You still need to make sure you’re creating good content that your audience wants to interact with. All of your posts shouldn’t be focused on promoting your business. You should make sure that your content is providing value to your audience, so that they’ll look forward to your posts. For example, you can post about relevant and helpful blog posts and articles.
Once you’ve been posting to Instagram regularly, you can analyze which types of posts are performing the best. Perhaps posts with quick, digestible stats are performing better than posts with lots of text. You’ll want to post quick stats more often than wordy posts.
Instagram hashtags are a great way for users to find your content. Be sure to use the right hashtags in the right places. Instagram allows for 30 hashtags per post, but creators recommend using 3-5 relevant hashtags per post. If you’re stuck trying to find which hashtags to use on your post, think of these 5 main types of hashtags:
Location – Used for places, neighborhoods, cities, and countries
ex: #TimesSquare
Branded – Used for campaigns, events, or your brand
ex: #iPhoneography
Industry – To describe your niche
ex: #WeddingPlanners
Community – Used to target a specific group of people
ex: #WeddingPhotography
Descriptive – Used to describe the content of your actual post
ex: #WeddingPortrait
Pro Tip 💡
Use a hashtag suggestion tool such as Later’s Hashtag Suggestion Tool. When you’re running out of ideas for hashtags to use or you can’t identify the hashtags that work for you, Later can give you suggestions for hashtags that will help your posts get more reach.
Conclusion
By leveraging these 3 proven methods for getting photographers new clients, you’ll be able to fill up your calendar with new appointments! For more tips and tricks on digital marketing, visit our blog! Thanks for reading!
