It’s rare to come across a photographer whose marketing capabilities are as strong as their artistic vision. If you want to make the most of your photography business, you need to have the drive and skills to promote your brand and attract clients. Even if photography business marketing isn’t your favorite part of running your business, these tips will help you stand out from your competition.

Why Is Photography Business Marketing So Valuable? 

You can be the best photographer in the world, but if nobody knows you exist, you won’t be able to book any clients! Photography business marketing is essential to getting your name out there and making people want to work with you. Let’s take a closer look at why that is.

It Helps Generate Consistent Revenue 

Photography business marketing is your ticket to a steady workflow. While you’re focusing on your current projects, your marketing strategy will be working behind the scenes to attract the next batch.

If you don’t have a consistent workload, it’s probably not because your photography skills are lacking! Rather, you need to improve your marketing plans to reflect the work you’re doing and reach the appropriate audience. 

Your Photography Business Marketing Gets Your Name Out There and Helps You Stand Out 

Adequate photography business marketing will attract clients, but optimal photography business marketing helps you stand out from the crowd and attracts the best clients for your niche.

Ideally, you want your past clients spreading the word about you. You want impressive easy-to-share brand links and information across various platforms to reach your target audience.

The more buzz about your biz, the better!

You’ll Connect with Potential Clients Regardless of Location 

Perhaps the greatest advantage to nailing your photography business marketing online is the distance your name will go when you properly use search engine optimization (or SEO). The Internet knows no boundaries when it comes to strategic marketing, so you can expect your work to reach far and wide to attract new clients when you’ve added those powerful SEO keywords, image descriptions, and backlinks to your website.

SEO is what allows you to show up in Google’s search results (and on other search platforms). There are a number of strategies you can use to optimize your website, blog posts, and images for SEO. That way, you’ll show up on Google and reach way more members of your target audience, all based on what they’re actively searching for!

What’s more, your photography business marketing should showcase what solutions you can offer your potential clients. You’ll be able to disclose your exact specialty and problem-solving abilities long before you speak with your clients voice-to-voice.

5 Photography Business Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Now 

If you’re thinking your photography business marketing strategies need a boost, you’ve come to the right place. Have a look at five vibrant marketing tips to take your photography business to new heights.

Use Platforms Like LinkedIn To Connect With Your Audience

One surefire way to spice up your photography business marketing is to leverage the reach of social media platforms. Think about how much time you spend scrolling each day, from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram, Pinterest, and more. Now multiply that by the millions of users on each platform…that’s a lot of potential clients ready to see your work and hire you!

My favorite social media for photography business marketing? LinkedIn. It’s a great platform to connect with brands, creative directors, and agencies, but is way underutilized by photographers.

You can use LinkedIn in a few different ways as a photographer: 

• Post photography, videos, or personal anecdotes as you would on Instagram or Facebook
• Connect with your dream clients and start building relationships
• Find key contacts for pitching to publications or brands

As long as you’re keeping your bottom line top-of-mind, you have the freedom to create engaging social media content whenever you want! That’s one of the perks of being your own boss.

Create a Database of Current and Past Clients 

Your photography business marketing will be much easier if you take time to organize a database of clients. With a functional database, you have the ability to break your client list into categories and selectively market to each.

For example, you can create a separate bucket for clients that return annually so they get the first stab at your calendar. Create separate categories for big versus modest spenders. Do whatever makes sense for your business model!

Connect with Others In Your Industry 

You may think it’s best to stay away from your competition, but networking with others in the photography industry is a must. Take part in pop-up events to meet some new clients, or attend an in-person or online workshop and befriend a fellow photographer to swap tips or push overflow traffic towards each other.

On a smaller (but impactful) scale, you should also take the time to nurture relationships with your current or former clients. Invite them for coffee or take time to chat about items off of your task list, as you would with a friend! 

Building strong relationships with clients strengthens their trust in you. And trust is key to any successful business.

Promote Your Services Through Email

If you’re not leveraging email in your photography business marketing, you should be! Of course, social media and word-of-mouth are super convenient. But email marketing can be more personalized and win you more business in the long run!

Collect email addresses from each of your clients. It’s common to require an email address when potential clients sign up for certain promotional opportunities or updates. Plus, noting your clients email contacts during client onboarding is standard procedure.

Send monthly or quarterly newsletters to showcase your latest work, send case studies, or share your business offerings. Be sure to collect data from your emails to see how many of your them are opened and interacted with!

Send Out Prints of Your Work 

When you consider how many businesses thrive on online marketing alone, it’s easy to overlook offline marketing strategies. But many clients respond well to hardcopy images! You might even say that a picture in-hand is worth a thousand online.

Providing your target clients with printed imagery allows the opportunity to envision your work in their brochures, on their restaurant walls or menus, or in their publications! Online platforms definitely serve a tremendous role in photography business marketing, but off-screen campaigns are often what seals the deal.

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No matter what your photography business marketing looks like now, you can revamp your plans to make a great impact tomorrow! Use this post to guide your marketing strategies this quarter.