We all know the phrase, "Keep it Simple, Stupid." There's no reason to go in-depth or overanalyze something when it can be done in a simple way. The same can be said about pricing your photography services. There's a few key things to take into account when you're thinking about pricing. While most of us have a standard rate we work off of, this can be interrupted by things like requested discounts, or when you have a larger job that requires more work. Have a Standard It's important to have a standard rate that you work off of. This … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Keep it Simple Pricing Strategies
Photography Marketing Column
Photography Marketing: What to Do When Potential Clients Don’t Respond
As a corporate photographer, I get e-mails from potential clients pretty regularly through my website. Most of these e-mails are requests for quotes or checking my availability. I try to respond to e-mails pretty quickly, and for the most part, the potential clients answer back. But there are always some that slip through the cracks. Why Don't Potential Clients Respond? There are three main reasons I've found that potential clients don't respond, even after reaching out to you directly. You're One in One Hundred In this case, they've … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: What to Do When Potential Clients Don’t Respond
Photography Marketing: Should You Give Away Photos?
Every photographer, one day or another, will be asked to give away photos. This is something that most photographers either have a strict policy about or decide on a case-by-case basis. While the idea of giving away your work might be a tricky one to accept, it's also something that might help you in your goal to become a full-time photographer. Let me explain. Why Would You Give Away Photos? I've written in the past about volunteering your services for non-profit groups to get your work out there — and this is no different. If you've … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Should You Give Away Photos?
Photography Marketing: Making Sure You’re GDPR Compliant
If you're like me, over the past week or so, you've received an absolute ton of e-mails from companies asking you to opt-in to receive their newsletters or to remind you of their privacy policy. On Friday, May 25, GDPR went into full effect — a regulation made to protect European citizens' data privacy. If you're solely a US-based business, with absolutely no interaction with European customers, you don't have anything to worry about. But if you have even one European customer — whether they just receive your e-mail newsletters or are a … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Making Sure You’re GDPR Compliant
Photography Marketing: Is Blogging Dead?
At this year's NAB Show, Chris Do, CEO, and Founder of Blind, controversially stated that vlogging is effectively dead. As social media continues to evolve, with the introduction of Cake.co and other networks, can the same be said for traditional blogging? Blogging has been around since the mid-90s and has been a staple of the internet world. Whether it's keeping up with your family's adventures to finding the latest and greatest recipes, blogs make up a big piece of the worldwide web. For photographers, blogging has been a way to get our … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Is Blogging Dead?
Photography Marketing: Strategize Your Instagram Hashtags with Focalmark
One of the biggest struggles I have in using Instagram is deciding what hashtags to use. I usually use some that are consistent with each post, specific to my camera make (Olympus), location and type of photography. But recently, I discovered a tool to make this a little easier — Focalmark. The app is available for free (with paid upgrades) for both iOS and Android devices. How it Works With Focalmark, you can copy up to 30 hashtags directly to Instagram or your phone's clipboard. Focalmark works by asking you three questions. First, it … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Strategize Your Instagram Hashtags with Focalmark
Photography Marketing: Easy, Creative Ways to Attract Clients
If you're just starting out in photography, one of the biggest challenges is finding your first few clients. While you can have a great social media presence and website, it doesn't mean anything if you can't find clients (and are trying to). So what are some good ways to get in front of people and attract clients? Shoot and Share This is one of the greatest things I did starting out. I attended public events in community spaces and took photographs. I took candids, posed photos and covered the event like I thought I should. If people … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Easy, Creative Ways to Attract Clients
Photography Marketing: Show Your Client That You’re Interested
You may have made the contact, and have the lead, but what good is it if you don't visibly show your potential client that you're interested in working with them? For most of us, we don't give things like body language and how we communicate a second thought. But it's important to take these things into consideration, especially when approaching a new client or presenting an up-sell. Start Your Day Off Right, and Be Ready Before you even drive to your meeting, it's important to take a few notes. Try to find out as much about the person as … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Show Your Client That You’re Interested
Photography Marketing: Make Sure You Have a Headshot Too!
As photographers, we often put the focus on our client's image, rather than our own. But having something as simple as a professional headshot shouldn't be something we only recommend for clients — after all, we're professionals too. A headshot is often the first impression someone has of you, so be sure to have a professional yet engaging portrait to show your network. Make it Clear and Professional Just like your clientele, you want your headshot to look professional. This means staying away from a busy background. I personally opted for … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Make Sure You Have a Headshot Too!
Photography Marketing: The Value of a Professional Photographer
One of the biggest struggles I had when first starting my business was how to price my photography. And while there's no easy answer, there is a recipe for success that I've followed for the past few years. 1) Your Time + Your Costs There's more that goes into pricing your photography than just your time shooting. You have to remember preparation and setup, post-processing and client communication. Most clients don't like to see these items lined out on an invoice, but be sure to pack it into your overall hourly cost. In fact, the only item I … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: The Value of a Professional Photographer
Photography Marketing: The One Change I Made to Increase My Website Leads
When it comes to developing websites, there's one term that gets met with a lot of confusion — Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. Recently I decided to redesign my website, and instead of just uploading pretty pictures, I made sure that everything was optimized for search engines. The hope was that I would be better found as a corporate event photographer in my area. An Image-Driven Website Before my website redesign, I focused on my images and highlighting them as best as possible. For me, this meant having a five-image slideshow that would … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: The One Change I Made to Increase My Website Leads
Photography Marketing: Instagram Caves, New Posts to Appear First in Feed
You might have noticed a few changes to Instagram over the past week — and now it's official. Instagram has caved, and has decided to make newer posts more important to its users. I had received messages from several people about this over the past few days, and while I, too, had noticed some changes, Instagram made it official on Thursday, saying in a press release, "With these changes, your feed will feel more fresh, and you won't miss the moments you care about." What This Means Simply put, you're more likely to see new posts from the … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Instagram Caves, New Posts to Appear First in Feed
Photography Marketing: Marketing Videos that Don’t Suck
One of the things I've been playing around with lately is looking at different ways to market myself using my existing imagery. At WPPI, I happened to find a great way to do this with Animoto, a company that lets you create both marketing and slideshow videos for your business. You can customize them to your liking, using your own images and text, and then share on social media and elsewhere on the web. The videos that Animoto produces are not only easy to produce but engaging. The platform comes with a wide array of customizable templates … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Marketing Videos that Don’t Suck
Photography Marketing: Is Vero the Next Facebook or Instagram?
When I was out west for WPPI, I kept hearing about the latest and greatest social network, Vero. Despite the initial bugs, I immediately signed up, anxious to see whether Vero could be a helpful platform for photographers. There's been a lot of debate about Vero's CEO and his past, but so far, the platform is pretty impressive. What is Vero, and How is It Different? Despite having an uptick in popularity the last couple weeks, Vero isn't new — it's been around since 2015. It's positioned as a mobile-only platform that works on both iOS and … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Is Vero the Next Facebook or Instagram?
Photography Marketing: Embracing and Mentoring Fellow Photographers
A few weeks ago, I wrote about some out-of-the-box ideas to get your photography marketing going in what is typically the slower winter months. One of these ideas was mentoring an up-and-coming photographer, which I thought I'd expand upon. My Mentoring History When I dove into photography a few years back, I was lucky enough to have a mentor to help guide me along the journey. Our paths to starting out were similar — we both left full-time jobs for the aurora of being a creative. This mentor helped me start out my career and give me … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Embracing and Mentoring Fellow Photographers
Photography Marketing: Working With a Design Agency
Nearly all of my professional photography is done as the in-house photographer for Cull Group, Inc, the marketing, and design agency my husband and I own in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There are a few matters that might be helpful to understand for someone who wants to start working with an agency but isn’t sure what to expect. Be Prepared to Be Mobile When working with an agency, you probably won’t always be able to shoot out of your home or actual studio. I’ve had headshot sessions that were at the client’s location and large-scale sessions … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Working With a Design Agency
Photography Marketing: Cropping for Facebook with Luminar 2018
In December, I went through some of the most popular social networks and wrote about how to make your images pixel-perfect when exporting. There continues to be one social network that reigns supreme — Facebook. While it's fairly easy to crop and export for Facebook through Lightroom, it's even easier with the built-in crop tool in Luminar 2018. Working with the Luminar Crop Tool If you've cropped images in Photoshop, Lightroom or any other image processing software, you'll feel right at home when doing so in Luminar. Whether you export a … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Cropping for Facebook with Luminar 2018
Photography Marketing: Creative Ways to Expose Your Brand
Every year I have my ups and downs when it comes to my photography schedule. For me, typically the winters are less active in terms of business, while the fall picks up like crazy. During those slow times, I try to think a bit outside the box in terms of finding ways to get my name out there as a photographer. Support Your Existing Clients If your client has an upcoming event that they haven't contracted a photographer for, reach out. They might not be thinking about photography for the event, but here's your chance to offer your services. … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Creative Ways to Expose Your Brand
Photography Marketing: What to Do After Losing a Client
Last week, I found out that one of my long-term clients had decided to change directions, and go with a large firm that could suit their growing media needs. While I wasn't completely caught off-guard by this, it brought a three-year relationship to an end. It was difficult for the client too, in a sense, to let me go. Find Out Why and Don't Take it Personally Getting let go like this is usually no fault of our own. We have to be ready to deal with our client's evolving needs. In this instance, as I said, I had been working with the client … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: What to Do After Losing a Client
Photography Marketing: What’s Your Story?
As photographers, we're visual storytellers. But we often forget how to tell our own stories. It's important, not only for self-development and improvement, but also for marketing purposes, that we have a story. A pitch. An introduction. What Makes a Good Story? A good story is one that's memorable. We might not think our stories are anything special, but it's important to make them special to us. What we show passion for will ultimately be noticed by a perspective client. For me, my focus is on corporate events. My story entails showing … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: What’s Your Story?
Photography Marketing: Preparing for Facebook’s New News Feed Algorithm
Last week, Facebook announced plans to change its News Feed algorithm. As with any change that Facebook makes, this was met with some backlash from its users — even before it's been initiated. Usually, I'm one to wait things out, but with Facebook promising to make personal content more important than brand content, this will undoubtedly have a negative effect on brands across the platform. So, as photographers, how do we keep our Facebook pages relevant to this change? First, the Facts The news came from Mark Zuckerberg himself, writing … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Preparing for Facebook’s New News Feed Algorithm
Photography Marketing: Responding to Negativity on Social Media
This past summer, I had a first-time experience in dealing with negativity on social media. I had contacted someone via email that had used my photograph without asking, in an article that was bashing the client for whom I made the photograph. After reaching out to the infringer, I was attacked on Facebook for photographing for my client. The negativity piled up on that post by a few of his friends, so eventually, I addressed it. What came next was unexpected. It actually ended up benefiting me rather than the person who attacked … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Responding to Negativity on Social Media
Photography Marketing: Be Everywhere — But Only Where it Counts
With the marketing and social marketplace changing on what seems like a daily basis, it's easy to get overwhelmed and think you have to be active on every platform imaginable. It's great to have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, Flickr, Instagram, 500px, LinkedIn, MySpace (wait, MySpace?!?)... You get the idea. There are a ton of networks out there that can help achieve your marketing goals. But you should only be active on those networks that positively impact you and your business. A Case Study: Google Plus Back in … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Be Everywhere — But Only Where it Counts
Photography Marketing: Start 2018 Right with These Marketing Quick Tips
A new year brings new opportunities to make tweaks to your business as a whole. You might add new services, evaluate your pricing structure, revamp your website and more. There are tons of new marketing tips you can start using right away. I talked to a few different professionals to get their take on the new year with some marketing quick tips. James Maher, Street & Portrait Photographer (New York) "Everyone should start out by embracing their personal connections. Particularly for photography, everyone needs a photographer of … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Start 2018 Right with These Marketing Quick Tips
Photography Marketing: Upload Pixel-Perfect Images on Social Media
Let's face it — as photographers, we have to spend a ton of time on social media sharing our images. But depending on the platform, it's not as easy as just clicking the "Upload" button. Different social networks recommend different image sizes, in order to make your photos look as best as possible. While every social network compresses uploaded images somewhat, the amount your image is effected is often based on the size you upload at, as well as some additional factors, like compression and converting to different color … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Upload Pixel-Perfect Images on Social Media
Photography Marketing: Take Advantage of the Influx of Wedding Proposals
The time between Christmas and New Year's is the biggest time of year for wedding proposals. So, with Christmas upon us, now's the time to get ready and push packages to newly-engaged couples in your area. Here's a few tips to get you going: Prep Social Media in Advance With the holidays, you probably won't be 100% able to monitor and post to social media as you choose. So now's the time to start using a system like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule out your social media posts. Because you're going after weddings and engagements, try to post … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Take Advantage of the Influx of Wedding Proposals
Photography Marketing: Are Freelance Job Platforms Worth the Effort?
I'm often asked by new photographers if freelance job platforms — like Thumbtack, Upwork, etc. — are worth it. But it's not a simple yes or no question. Freelance job platforms have their place. They're a great option for photographers looking for new clients, but you have to go about it strategically. Don't Bend Over Backwards What I've found with most of these job platforms is that people are looking for services on the cheap. Whether it be photography or videography, you're not going to make the big bucks by scrolling through gigs on … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Are Freelance Job Platforms Worth the Effort?
Photography Marketing: Building an Email List
As photographers, we often think of email as a way to communicate with clients or potential clients. Really, email is a tool that can be utilized in several different ways, including marketing. Starting to build an email list is important as your business grows. And while I've discussed creating personalized emails for your current clients, sending out more generic, regularly-scheduled emails can help to boost your workload as well. Starting a List Every client I gain immediately goes into my CRM tool. There are several out there — … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Building an Email List
Photography Marketing: Developing a Style
I've written in the past about why you should have a photographic specialty. Simply put, you want to be known for being an expert in that particular type of photography. The same can be said for your photographic style. Having a consistent look and feel to your photos will make you stand out and become known for the way your images are delivered. It isn't just about post-processing — it starts when you first begin your photoshoot. But why is it important to have a consistent look and feel? Simply put, I want someone viewing my photos to know … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: Developing a Style
Photography Marketing: The Marketing Benefits to Personal Photography Projects
You probably hear a lot of photographers talk about embarking on a personal photography project. They might be in the midst of a slow time, or they might need to search for some new creativity. Regardless of the "why," personal photography projects are not only a great way to get creative and learn new techniques — they're also beneficial to your marketing as a photographer. Why Start a Personal Project? By deciding to do a personal project, you get an extra chance to get your photography shown to your audience. It lets you experiment with … [Read more...] about Photography Marketing: The Marketing Benefits to Personal Photography Projects
