If you’re a freelance photographer and you don’t have a marketing specialist to help with promoting your business, no worries. It doesn’t mean that you automatically fall behind those who have marketing budgets. In fact, it doesn’t mean anything except the fact that there’s an excellent opportunity to build a sense of trust with your audience.
Yes, marketing yourself as a freelance photographer is a journey by itself, as you need to show your potential clients who you truly are and why they should choose you. You’re an individual with unique life experience and a story to tell, so you can think of marketing as a journey of re-discovery and building authentic relationships with customers.
In this article, let me walk you through the steps you need to take to promote your personal brand and get ahead in your photography career.
1. Answer The Question: “What Makes Me Unique?”
You know very well that there’s no shortage of photographers out there. To get through the noise, you need to stand out, which is something a good personal branding strategy can help with.
Think like a marketer for a second. What are your unique traits, experiences, goals, style, interests, or other things that you could focus on in your marketing strategy?
Don’t tell about something that others tell you what to do or say. Share your story. Be authentic. Don’t sensor yourself.
A good point to start is to think about what drew you to photography in the first place. Try to remember what influenced you and how you started your way in the field. Incorporating a diverse range of skills, such as photography, video & CGI projects, can significantly enhance your portfolio and appeal to a wider range of clients.
Here’s some inspiration for you from Clare Martin Lapworth, a Melbourne-based photographer. Her short personal story is amazing and sets her apart in a very special way.
Credit: Claremartinlapworth.com.au
By doing all of this, you’re building the foundation for your personal brand as a photographer. Your experience, style, and goals would be the core of the brand, and we’re going to share them with your audience in a really sexy way.
Take a look at the following tips to make your portfolio unique:
- Create Your Own Business Website: It’s imperative that you create your own photography business website. This way, you can easily refer your prospects and clients to your website to get to know your services better and see examples of your works.
- Be Active on Social Media: The best way to promote your photography business portfolio is through social media, such as Instagram. Make use of photography hashtags in your photographer captions so that social media users can easily find your work.
2. Write A Personal Story
Now, it’s time to become a storyteller. Storytelling is one of the hottest strategies in marketing right now, so you have to do it (plus it’s really awesome). Simply explained, it means telling the story of your brand in the form of a story that people can understand and even relate to.
Here’s how we’re going to do this for your personal brand. Let me share this roadmap for you:
Strategy: Storytelling
Goal: Promotion of a Personal Brand as a Photographer
Story: The main point of the story:
- How I became a photographer
- Why I became a photographer
- What keeps me going
- What sparks my creativity
Format: a text for the website (“About Me” section etc.), preferably in the form of a simple personal essay
Basically, what you need to do is craft your personal story in a way that makes you unique, passionate, and, most importantly, human. People tend to connect with other people, not companies, so your story should be relatable, captivating, and honest.
Here’s the story of Kristen Nicole, an Australian photographer who says that the desire to capture more special moments from motherhood helped her to become a professional family photographer.
Credit: kristennicolephotography.com.au/aboutme
A truly sweet and relatable story, indeed. Try to be as concise as possible (Kristen’s text is about 200 words, for example) use simple-to-understand, natural language.
If your website is multilingual, be careful with translating your personal story in other languages. What sounds good in one language might not make a lot of sense in another. In fact, you can use an agency like TheWordPoint to choose a reliable translator who can do a great job.
3. Add Customer Testimonials To Your Portfolio
How about trying a new format for your portfolio page? You can add customer testimonials to portfolio items where possible to increase confidence in potential customers and gain some credibility.
Since 76 percent of online shoppers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family members and friends, doing so can really help your photography business.
Here’s how Hancer Photography shows off customer reviews along with example photos. A truly powerful and
Source: hancerphotography.com/testimonials
The Testimonials page on Hance Photography is basically a list of sections with a header photo and reviews written from customers. Simple and powerful.
While doing so is a great way to boost your portfolio, here’s how you can do it even better:
- Make sure to provide the link to the entire photo session where possible
- Make review easier to read by dividing them into smaller paragraphs of no more than three lines
- Write a quick recap of the session, e.g. nature of the photoshoot, what the clients wanted, the location of the photoshoot.
To get as many testimonials as possible, please ask your happy clients to write a few lines for you. It’s not a big deal for them but can make a big difference for you.
Here are some tips when adding customer testimonials to your portfolio:
- You can request your valued clients to shoot a photo or video of their testimonials to post on your website and social media profiles. Be sure to ask permission before doing so.
- Thank your customers and send them free photos or a postcard of your professionally taken photos as a form of marketing. Surely, it will encourage some of your customers to leave positive reviews or share your posts. It’s a great way to make your valued clients your brand ambassadors.
4. Write Awesome Blogs
Even though blogging isn’t exactly the first idea that comes to mind when thinking about promoting photography business, it actually helps with a few very important goals:
Demonstrates Your Professional Expertise
“Wait, but I’m kinda doing it with my portfolio, aren’t I?”
Well, of course, but this is different in the sense that you’re sharing actionable photography tips and techniques, as well as talk about your everyday work. It could do great things for your marketing because it shows that you know what you’re doing, so it increases the confidence of potential customers to contact you.
Rob Greer, a photographer, is a great example here because he blogs for both customers and photographers. For example, here’s a review of a camera his blog, which will be useful for both amateur and professional photographers.
Credit: Robgreer.com
Next, he also shares great tips for customers; for example, you can go to his blog to get advice on how to prepare for a photoshoot in different settings and locations.
Credit: Robgreer.com
Makes You More Relatable
A blog is another place where you can share your ideas, thoughts, and stories with people. You can talk about lots of things, not necessarily related to photography.
Here are some ideas:
- Talk topics that you feel strongly about, e.g. climate change, human rights, vegetarianism
- Show off your personality by writing posts in your own style
- Share some events from your professional life
- Talk about important events that influenced you as a person
- Talk about how great it feels to receive great testimonials from customers
Improves The Position Of Your Website In Google Results
If you’re looking to get higher in Google search results, then blogging is a must. By writing content, you’re making it easier for Google to understand, find, and display your website in results. A content-rich website is the kind of website that search engines love, so please find a few hours per week to write an article for your blog.
- Continue to Hone Your Skills
Like any other profession, photography entails lifelong experience and learning. If you want to boost your portfolio as a professional photographer, it’s vital to continue honing your skills. You can do this by checking out the following tips:
- Be Updated: Keep yourself abreast of the latest in photography so that your clients and prospects will find your abilities and photography business updated with the latest trends.
- Experiment: Don’t hesitate to innovate by experimenting with different angles, lighting, and the techniques of renowned photographers.
- Invest in the Latest Equipment: The world of photography is full of tight competition. For this reason, you want to always be the forefront of using the latest photography equipment. Check out website reviews on the latest photography technologies online to keep up to date.
Where To Begin?
As a photographer, you know that marketing is something you need to do almost every day. As an artist, you may feel like promotion isn’t really your thing, but if you approach this with a healthy dose of creativity and enthusiasm, chances are you’ll have a great time. Try to think of marketing as the best way to stand out and let everybody know who you are.
That’s the way the most successful photographers did it, and that’s how I’m recommending you, too. By using your uniqueness and love for your craft, you won’t have to be another salesy marketer. Hopefully, these tips gave you something to start with, and you make sure that your marketing is meaningful and organic, you’re going to go higher and higher.
BIO:
Erica Sunarjo is a content creator with more than five years of experience. Currently, Erica is a contributor at BestWritersOnline and is proud of her an uncanny ability to explain the most complex subject in simple terms.
