photo by MachineHeadz via iStock
With all of the downtime the photography industry is seeing right now, we keep hearing that you’re looking for tips for improving your photography business from home.
Unfortunately, a lot of the photography business tips that are readily available online have to do with things you can do to make your business better in person. For instance, a lot of business tips for photographers suggest client meetings and in-person networking.
As we all know, these aren’t things you can do right now. So, all four of the tips for improving your photography business on this list are things you can do from home, right now.
Make It Easier to Communicate
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The absolute best thing to do while learning how to get more clients as a photographer is improve your interpersonal communication.
Studies have found that, as people operate more and more online, people also expect to hear from businesses they want to work with in a more timely fashion.
For instance, if you respond to prospective client emails within 4 hours of the time they sent that email, you would satisfy 89% of those clients.
But, more and more people now expect a response within the hour. In fact, 35% of baby boomers expect this.
If you’re running a photography business all by yourself, not only is this impractical, but it’s impossible.
That is, it was impossible up until the creation of Podium.
Podium is a new software that aims to be the “ultimate messaging platform.”
Podium takes every email, text, and social media message your business receives in a day and puts it onto a single platform so that you never need to jump from Yelp to your email to your Facebook for an hour again.
Podium helps you to respond to your clients in a more timely fashion, which means you are more likely to keep your existing clients and get new ones.
Podium also helps you to streamline things like invoicing and asking for good reviews so that you can spend more one-on-one time doing what you love to do… actually taking photos.
Podium is also free for you to try, so you can work on improving your photography business with a free trial today.
We all need the ability to streamline communication with clients while creating better communications at the same time. From my perspective, Podium is the best option for achieving that goal!
Find Ways to Get More Clients
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Improving your photography business may be as simple as learning to ask for more clients.
The most difficult thing I ever learned as an entrepreneur was being able to ask people for money. But, if you want to work for yourself, you have to get good at one of two things: asking a small number of people for a lot of money or asking a large number of people for a little money.
I found that asking a large number of people for a little money is much easier.
Chances are, you know a lot of people and have gained a lot of contacts through your business. Each one of these contacts, in turn, knows a lot of people. You just need to ask to be put into contact with them.
photo by jacoblund via iStock
There are a variety of ways to do this, too. For example, you can offer a promotion. I’m sure you’ve seen a ton of promotions online before, but the one that works best for me is asking past clients if they’d like to participate in a shoot with you for 20% off if they let you pick the location.
This way you get to be creative, you can bring more money in, and your clients get a sweet deal.
If you’re really interested in improving your photography business, you can also do a free giveaway.
photo by monkeybusinessimages via iStock
For instance, you can ask people to tag three friends in a post for a chance to win a free session with you.
Just remember that hosting giveaways should never affect your bottom line if your services are priced correctly.
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Editor's Tip: Another easy way to improve your business is to have the right camera bag for the job. You don't need a million bags in your possession, just a select few that are tailored to different shooting situations. I've been using HEX Brand bags for some time now, and appreciate their design, construction, and functionality. Since I'm fully mirrorless now, I utilize my HEX Ranger Sling Bag a lot for shoots big and small, near and far. If you want a stylish bag that's the height of both form and function, give HEX a good, long look!
Be More Active Online
photo by metamorworks via iStock
If I’m being honest, this is one of the practical photography business tips I’m worst at.
Being active online doesn’t just mean that you’re checking in on your Instagram at least once a day. It means you are actively creating new content for your followers and interacting with them through every channel available to you.
You should set aside at least an hour of your day, every day, to create content for your social media platforms, to create content for your email marketing campaigns, and to write blog posts on your website.
photo by miodrag ignjatovic via iStock
For me, it truly is less about the quantity of content and more about the quality of content. People can tell if you aren’t being genuine online and they will stop following you because of it.
But, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to forget about your online presence during busy seasons. Improving your photography business takes work.
Participate in Co-Marketing
photo by ljubaphoto via iStock
This is one of my favorite tips for improving your photography business because I’m an extrovert and I think it’s a blast learning about new businesses in your area.
But, in order to start a co-marketing campaign, the first thing you need to do is some online research.
Let’s say I’m a wedding photographer in Los Angeles. If I wanted to start a co-marketing campaign, the first thing I would need to do would be to find other Los Angeles-based businesses to reach out to.
photo by meatbull via iStock
I can do this through a variety of ways. The first would be to look up other wedding photographers I admired in my area. Co-marketing isn’t new, so you will be able to look through their social media platforms to see who they are partnering with.
Another way I could start researching would simply be to think about businesses in my industry that are adjacent to wedding photography. For instance, I could reach out to wedding planners, wedding florists, or caterers that work with weddings of the same size and scope that I do.
photo by vorDa via iStock
The next step would be to simply reach out to these other businesses. I always get a better response if I at least set up a phone call, rather than laying out my whole proposal over a direct message.
For photographers, a co-marketing campaign usually looks something like this: you give your photography to another business, and in turn that business links back to your website with a discount code for new potential clients.
Another fun idea for improving your photography business with co-marketing is to reach out to local nonprofits. Nonprofits are always in need of cheap or free services and by donating your time to one, you are showcasing the fact that your business is supportive of the community, while still getting in front of new potential clients.
Learn More:
- Things You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Business After Covid
- The Most Overlooked Success Tip for Photographers