As photographers, our primary passion is capturing images. However, to thrive financially in photography, mastering the business aspects is crucial.
This involves client interactions, grasping marketing strategies and honing skills in website development and optimization. In today’s discussion, I will share three valuable insights gained from my experience as an Enterprise SEO Consultant for major firms like Allstate and Bill.com.
If you’re more of a visual learner, be sure to watch the video I made:
These tips have been instrumental in my dual career as an SEO consultant and photographer, playing a significant role in securing client trust and fostering loyal professional relationships:
3 photography business tips
Here are three tips you can apply to your own photography business:
1. Early delivery advantage.
Think about a time you ordered something eagerly awaited online, and it arrived not on the expected date, but surprisingly earlier. Recall that feeling of delight and surprise? This is the essence of the early delivery advantage. It stems from managing expectations and enhancing customer happiness.
The principle is simple: people’s actions are influenced by their anticipated results. If a client anticipates a certain delivery date but receives their product or service sooner, their expectations are not just met but surpassed. This leads to greater satisfaction and fosters a positive image of you and your business.
In my consulting work, we frequently leveraged this strategy.
My boss once told me, “What is offered as a surprise doesn’t have to be very much. It just has to be unexpected.”
If a report or audit I needed to complete would take me 7 days, I’d inform the client it would take 14 days. Completing it in 7 days and notifying the client of this ‘early’ completion enhanced their satisfaction and loyalty. This technique has been equally effective in my photography business.
For instance, if retouching photos for a client is expected to take a certain amount of time, estimate 3-5 days more and deliver earlier. Or, if a photo package you have limits the number of shots, take a few extra and offer them at no extra cost.
These are just a few examples of how small, unexpected positives can reinforce your clients’ choice of your service, build trust, and lead to positive referrals.
However, two important points about this approach:
- The product or service must be valuable and of high quality.
- Use this tactic sparingly throughout your client relationships. Overuse can lead clients to expect early deliveries as the norm.
2. Develop your one-liners.
The second valuable lesson for my photography business, learned from my consulting experience, is the importance of developing signature statements. This isn’t about crafting jokes; it’s about creating concise, impactful statements that effectively define your product and service for strategic market placement.
In my experience with large-scale companies, I observed their continuous refining of such statements. Everything they do — from sales, marketing, and accounting to HR — is anchored around their succinctly crafted statement.
You may wonder why a signature statement is crucial. The reason is simple: if you’re unclear about the value you provide, how can you expect potential clients to understand?
By creating a clear, concise statement, you communicate the essence of your photography business, your unique approach, and what clients can expect from you. This clarity not only aids in marketing and client communication but also helps potential clients easily grasp and remember what you offer.
Creating an effective one-liner for your photography business
To craft a compelling one-liner for your photography business, consider these three steps:
1. Determine your unique value proposition (UVP)
First, it’s essential to identify your Unique Value Proposition. Despite the marketing jargon, this is a crucial step. Begin by pinpointing the primary service or product you offer. Consider what aspects make your offering distinct — this could be your artistic approach, your style, or a specific advantage you offer that differentiates you from competitors.
2. Highlight the client’s benefit or outcome
Next, put yourself in your potential clients’ shoes. Contemplate what they are seeking or the issue they need resolved. Why would they choose your services to address this need? Identify this reason and emphasize the positive impact or benefits that clients will enjoy by choosing your services.
3. Synthesize these factors into a short, memorable phrase
The final step is to combine these elements into a concise, memorable sentence. A useful formula to follow is: [Your Service/Product] + [Unique Aspect] + [Client Benefit].
For example: “[Photography Service] + [Unique Approach] + [Emotional Benefit/Outcome for Client]”
Here are a couple examples in real-life:
For a Family Portrait Studio:
- What You Do: “Family Portrait Photography”
- Unique Aspect: “using natural light to create warm, candid moments”
- Client Benefit: “capturing your family’s love and bond in every photo”
- One-Liner: “Capturing Your Family’s Warmth in Candid Moments with Natural Light Photography”
Here’s my one-liner as a photographer focusing primarily on providing SEO and marketing tips:
- What I Do: “Provide SEO education and services for photographers”
- Unique Aspect: “Full-time experience as Enterprise SEO Consultant”
- Client Benefit: “Grow business and brand through SEO”
- One-Liner: “Providing Enterprise-Level SEO Expertise to Accelerate Photography Business & Brand Growth.”
Consider applying this formula to create your own one-liner. Begin with the service or product you provide, and then ponder a unique advantage you hold over your competitors. If you’re struggling to identify a unique benefit, use the following suggestions to help you brainstorm:
- Specialized Industry Knowledge
- Professional Background
- Personal Approach
- Innovative Techniques
- Comprehensive Services
- Educational Component
3. Enhancing visibility: Leveraging website impact
The third key insight for my photography business, gleaned from my consulting experience, centers on the significance of being discoverable and harnessing the potential of a website. A guiding principle I’ve maintained throughout my SEO consultancy is this: “You can have the best product or service in the world, but if no one can find it, is it really the best?”
This statement emphasizes the critical role of discoverability in today’s digital-centric world. But how does one achieve this visibility? There are numerous avenues: social media, paid advertising, speaking engagements, referrals, radio, TV, billboards, and existing platforms like Reddit, Quora, and Pinterest, as well as through search engine optimization (SEO).
I firmly believe that for photographers, a website serves as our primary digital hub. It’s where we can showcase our portfolio, detail our pricing, establish a personal brand, provide contact information, display our offerings, and publish thought leadership content.
While social media and other platforms can be lucrative for photographers, it’s important to remember that these profiles are controlled by external companies. Policies can change, leading to potential shadow banning, algorithm shifts, or even account removal, which can erase your hard-earned presence. A personal website, on the other hand, is your independent space online.
The most effective way to drive traffic to your website is through SEO. Approximately 70% of online experiences start with a search engine. Despite the rise and fall of various platforms, search engines like Google and Bing remain dominant. That’s why large companies invest heavily in SEO.
SEO essentially involves ranking for specific keywords and optimizing your website to improve its chances of ranking for those terms.
Why should you care about keywords as a photographer? Consider this example: if you’re a portrait photographer in Manhattan ranking #1 on Google for “portrait photographer in Manhattan” with a search volume of 100 per month, and knowing the top spot typically garners about 30% of clicks, that translates to around 30 potential clients finding your site organically each month. And that’s just from one keyword. Imagine the impact of ranking for multiple keywords.
There’s a lot of complexity and misconceptions surrounding SEO for photographers, which we aim to unravel and simplify. For now, just know that if you have a photography website, prioritizing SEO is crucial to stay ahead of your competition. For specific questions or inquiries, feel free to contact me directly via email or get a Free Photography SEO Audit from me.
Conclusion
These are the three key business insights for photography I’ve gained from working with million-dollar companies. I trust you’ve found something useful in this guide. Should you have any queries or thoughts about these tips, please feel free to leave a comment below! Also, if you plan to implement any of these strategies in your own photography venture, we’d love to hear about it in the comments section!
