Top Effective Photography Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business

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Top Effective Photography Marketing Ideas to Grow
Your Business

• Md. Ashik Pervez
• Professional Photographer

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Photography Marketing Ideas to Promote Your
Business
When you have a photography business, you will
spend a lot of your time marketing it. If you
type photography marketing ideas to a search
engine, youll get a lot of results, but most of
them are listing the same, outdated ideas. In an
era where online marketing is taking over, lots
of conservative ideas dont work effectively
anymore. Some still work (we call them The
Classics), but you also need to make sure your
effort involves online marketing as well, as
everyone relies on the Internet to find
information these days. Thats why we come up
with this comprehensive list of photography
marketing ideas. Weve curated this list to
include the absolutely essential things from the
classic list, but we also put a lot of fresh,
creative ideas to help you with marketing your
photography business online. From using social
media, optimising your website and getting your
work seen, weve covered it all.
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Photography Marketing Ideas for Online
Work on the SEO for your photography
website These days, everybody relies on the
Internet to do research, and this is why SEO is
important. Its a big topic to cover and theres
a lot to learn, but at the very least, you should
rank for local search. If youre a maternity
photographer living in York, for example, you
should rank for the keywords maternity
photographer in York or York maternity
photographer.
Name your photos and post titles with
Google-friendly descriptions As a part of your
SEO effort, you should name your photos and post
titles with phrases that can easily be picked up
by search engines. Instead of naming your photos
and article Jennifer and Matts Wedding, write
something descriptive that explains the wedding,
like A Bohemian Wedding at Poconos Pine Forest.
This is important to help search engines to find
your images and posts.
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Write a unique and personal About Us page What
sets you apart from the other photographers? You
can write about how you started, or why youre so
passionate about your work and capturing special
moments. Write a genuine and personal story that
people can relate to, something that makes you
stand out from other photographers.
Set up Google My Business for your photography
business Setting up your company on Google My
Business listing is important to increase your
online visibility for local search. You want to
make sure your business appears on Google search,
Local Finder, or even Google Maps. This guide can
help you to optimize Google My Business listing.
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Build an email list, and send regular
newsletters From the very beginning, build an
email list and send regular newsletters to the
subscribers. Its easier to advertise to people
who are already interested, i.e. people who are
on the list! What should be in the newsletter? It
can be updates about your business, special
discounts, blog posts, new sessions or packages,
etc.
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Create a list of local vendors in your industry
to post on your website Compile a list of the
local vendors in your area to help your clients.
If youre an event photographer, for example,
your list can include your favorite venues,
florists, event planners, and of course, yourself
as the photographer. Apart from helping
potential clients, creating this list can help
your website to get discovered and seen by a lot
of people. Share your links in local forums and
groups as well to widen the exposure.
Participate in photo contests The exposure your
work will get when winning a photo contest is an
amazing marketing opportunity you shouldnt miss.
Keep updated with contests that fit your line of
work and niche, and submit your best work that
shows your expertise, and can emotionally connect
with the viewers.
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Submit your work to relevant blogs in your
niche Many web directories have blogs that open
for submissions, as they need regular fresh
content. Find their submission page to learn
about the requirements, and submit your work to
their blogs for a feature.
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List your website on local business
directories Having your website listed in the
local business directories is important to
increase the exposure and the chance to be found
online, especially by potential clients in your
area. Try to list your website in as many
directories as possible. Heres a list of 50
Online Local Business Directories/Listings for
Local Marketing by Hub Spot which covers
important and relevant listings you cannot miss.
You can also use Yext to help you scan your
listings on various online services.
List your business on photography directories Not
only business directories, you can also list your
photography business in photography directories
to increase your exposure. You can try listing it
on 500px, The Photographer Directory, Photography
Directory Project, or find a specific directory
like Wedding Photo Love.
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Register as a vendor on relevant directories in
your industry So youve done photography and
local business listings, but theres one more
thing you can do register your business as a
vendor on specific directories for your industry.
Especially if youre in the wedding industry, the
Internet is full of web directories that many
brides-to-be use to find the perfect vendors.
Style Me Pretty, Junebug Weddings, Rock My
Wedding, Bridestory, and WeddingSutra are just
some of the many directories you can find. Tip
Focus on the local directories first before
branching out to regional, national, or even
international directories.
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• Write useful articles for your clients
• Clients will appreciate useful tips that come
  from experienced photographers, so create
  articles for your blog that will help them
  prepare and look their best for the photo
  session. Here are a few ideas on the topics you
  can write
• How to choose a wedding/maternity/newborn
  photographer (depending on your niche)
• What to do to prepare for a photo session
• Location recommendations give your clients the
  options so they can choose what works best for
  them

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Talk to your prospective clients in
videos Its easier to get peoples attention
with videos than any other form of content. With
videos, you can also show your personality to
your audience. What should be the content of the
videos? It can be the FAQs, tips to prepare for a
photo session for your clients, or anything that
will be interesting and useful for your clients.
Reach out to bloggers Collaborating with
bloggers is a good way to bring exposure to your
work, thanks to their abilities to reach a large
audience. Your potential clients can be those in
the blogosphere community and/or their followers.
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Collaborate with vloggers Are there any vloggers
whose videos you admire? You can approach them to
offer a free/discounted session in exchange for a
behind-the-scenes video, for example. Videos can
show what pictures cant, so working with
prominent vloggers can help people to have a
closer look of your work (maybe even a glimpse of
whats behind the scene) and the amazing results
you can deliver. Many vloggers have high
engagement with their followers and also a big
influence, so work with them as a part of your
marketing effort.
Use meetup to get event photography experience
and clients If youre a photographer
specializing in event photography, you can reach
out to a few local meetups and offer to document
the events. If youre a photographer who is just
starting out, this is a great chance to build
your portfolio and network. As you get more
experience, you can target sponsored or funded
meetups and offer your services at your usual
rate.
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Write guest posts for other vendors Having your
writing published on other websites can help in 2
ways its a channel for cross-marketing
(especially if you write for other vendors), and
more importantly, its a way to get backlinks you
need to improve your SEO. Writing guest posts
can be one of the ideas to market your
photography in the off-season.
Set up Google Alerts to get notifications when
your name/business is mentioned With Google
Alerts, you can choose a set of keywords. You
will get a notification when theres new content
published containing any of those keywords. You
might wonder, What does it have to do with
marketing? Heres how it can be
useful Monitor your name and your business
whenever theres a mention of these, check it out
and if its not linked to your website, send them
an email to ask them to link it. This can help
you get backlinks to your website, and also it
can be a door to opportunity for sales or
collaborations. You can also use this to monitor
your competitors and industry topics, so you can
keep updated with new trends.
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Conclusion So, those photography marketing ideas
for you to try! The most important thing is to be
observant, persistent, and patient. There will be
some ideas that work better than others, and some
of these take time before you see any results.