Share it to your client email list
If you’ve cultivated an email list already then Guides are a great piece of content to share, capitalizing on the effort you’ve already made! If you haven’t yet jumped across to email marketing, and have always wondered, “But what will I email to people without bugging them to book me?” Then why not start now by sharing a useful Guide?
Effective marketing shares content that clients find useful, and then occasionally asks for a sale. Guides are a great way to do this. A quick email, “Hey, I think you’d find this useful next time you’re planning to get product photos done!” with your branded shortlink to the Guide gives clients something they can read on a platform they are probably already on.
Share it as a QR code on your business card
You’ve just created a “What to expect when you book your photoshoot with me” article for your family photography clients. Where to share your Instagram Guide next? Why not turn it into a QR code for your business card? It’ll get people to your Instagram profile, but more usefully, give them a step-by-step of what working with you is like.
From the share button on your Guide, choose QR Code to have a custom QR code image generated for the Guide. You can change the color (choosing from Instagram’s standard palate you may recognize from their similar Profile QR code generator) and save the image. Drop it into your business card print software and done.
You could even use Moo’s Printfinity technology to create a whole suite of Guides for different purposes, all printed in one deck of cards. I have used this to create unique business cards for my wedding photography with a different romantic literary quote on every card, and to run a QR-based instant-win competition for my family photography clients.
Collaborate with others to prepare Guides to share together
Extending your reach with Collab posts is one way to work with other creatives. A Guide is another good collaboration with a longer shelf life. Work with a friend who would benefit from reaching your audience (and visa versa) to create a guide together. Select posts from each account, divide up the writing, then put it all together into one Guide. Each of you can share the direct link with potential clients.
One person will have to host the Guide in their account, but each photo in the Guide will show the account it comes from. Why not make a deal to work together on two complementary Guides — one for each account?
Share Guides for a workshop class by collecting students’ work together
If you work with photography students, you could use a Guide to showcase the work of everyone in one place. Choose a hashtag for your cohort’s work, and/or have them tag your account, to make it easier to find submissions, and then group them together in a Guide.
You could use this for:
- Showcasing student work to friends and family on a final project (like a virtual gallery show)
- Competition entries, judging and presentation of winning, long- and shortlisted photos
- Photo critiques, either by you or peer reviews
- Student photographer bios (a who’s who in our class, with a link to every person’s account pre-built in so they can follow each other)
It’s a great way to use a platform most students are probably already on.
Put a Call to Action at the top and bottom of your Instagram Guide
If you’re sharing the link to your Guides far and wide, this could be a potential client’s very first impression of you online. Make sure you consider that when writing your content. At the top of your Guide, visitors will see your Instagram account, so you could put a “Follow me!” Call to Action in one of the first paragraphs.
Instagram Guides come with Instagram’s Save feature built in, so encourage your audience to save the Guide to their bookmarks at the end of the post. If they can come back to it easily later, you’ll stay top of mind when they’re thinking about who to hire for their next photoshoot. Ask people to share the Guide with someone else, too!
Guides bring a new dimension to Instagram that you and your clients can benefit from
Guides are like blogging for Instagram. The ability to add paragraphs of text with your Instagram Guides is the real benefit of this post type because you can illustrate your thoughts, guidance, etc. with images from your own account and other accounts.
They have a pleasant simplicity to them, however: There’s no external linking allowed (just like the rest of Instagram captions), so it’s text and images only. This clear, clutter-free platform is a great way to cut through and speak to clients directly.
Where do you like to share Instagram Guides to? Share your ideas in the comments below.
