Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
It’s a question on every photographer’s mind - how can I boost my photography sales?
Fortunately, there are a plethora of ways to do so, many of which involve very simple, easy, and affordable steps. Seriously...you don’t have to do a ton of extra work to earn more money as a photographer!
In this article, I outline a few photography promotion ideas that will help you increase photography sales.
Make It Easy to Purchase Prints
Photo by Soragrit Wongsa on Unsplash
This isn’t exactly what you may initially think. Making it easy for your buyer to purchase prints is essentially an issue with the layout of your website.
More often than not, it takes a potential buyer too many steps from the time they enter your website until the time they can pay for their prints.
An easy way to test how easy it is for a customer to purchase prints from you is to get on your external website and count the amount of clicks (each click is one step) it takes you before you are entering your credit card information.
Marketing for photographers 2019 suggests the optimal number of clicks is between 4 and 6.
So, if you count your steps up and find your website is not laid out as well as it could be, then you will find yourself searching, “How to promote photography business on social media.” And let’s face it, there are easier ways.
One way to optimize the layout of your website is through a plugin like Sell Media, which is designed to help store owners sell photos, videos and prints through the creation of galleries and membership plans.
It essentially forces potential buyers to view your prints whether they were looking for them or not, which can often lead to more print purchases.
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How To Get Photography Clients Fast: Give People Free Stuff
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
It’s tried and true and cheap. Customers love free things. The same goes for photography clients.
Whether you decide to throw in a free custom canvas with a $750 package purchase, or an hour of free editing with their next purchase, free items convince clients to come back.
Free items also convince clients to spend more. Whether it makes sense or not (and we know it doesn’t), you’re more willing to spend $200 to upgrade your flight if the upgrade also comes with extra miles you can spend on your next flight - even if the miles aren’t worth $200.
Nobody is going to sit down and do the math. “Free” prints, “free” shoots, and “free” editing time is cheaper for you than not making the sale.
Editor’s Tip: One of the best things you can do to boost your photography sales is to create partnerships with top-quality providers of services and products for the photography industry. Whether it’s arranging referrals between you and your local camera store or developing a relationship with an excellent printing company, making inroads with other businesses can help you get more business.
Keep in Mind the Different Formats Your Photo Might Be Used
The best photography promotion ideas include doing a little market research on your clients.
When your business is truly small, market research may mean personally asking those who purchase your photos what they are planning on doing with them.
As your business grows, you can send out an email to your subscriber list with a poll questioning why people purchased your photos and what they ended up doing with them.
As stated in this awesome YouTube video by Mango Street, clients purchase photos for all sorts of reasons. If, for example, you are a wedding photographer, you may need to think about a client that will want to purchase prints to send out as thank you notes.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
For this type of purchase, a photo like the one above may be best because it provides a lot of empty space where the client could insert some “thank you” typography above the tent.
Another example of a specific type of client you may need to shoot for is graphic designers. Graphic designers need a lot of flexibility in their photos, so shooting the same photo as both a horizontal and a vertical shot may raise the likelihood of satisfaction among this client group.
Quick Tip: Making more money as a photographer is possible without even taking more photos! Find out how in my photography business tutorial entitled “Ways to Make More Money as a Photographer Without Taking More Photos.”
Finally, How to Boost Photography Sales in Just One Step...
You need to have custom, affordable prints to get booked as a photographer.
Remember those prints you used when you first started your business, or photography as a hobby? Remember how cheap they were? And remember how you no longer have those prints?
Those are not the types of printing companies you want to use for your clients. While affordability is still a high priority for most clients, the best clients are willing to pay for quality.
I’ve gone through a ton of custom printing websites and the best one I’ve found is CanvasHQ.
The people behind CanvasHQ prioritize high-quality ingredients for their canvases and inks. While most prints I had made a decade ago and then hung in my garage/photography studio are fading already, CanvasHQ prints hold up to time and weather.
These guys so far as to guarantee your prints for a lifetime, which is a reassurance your clients will appreciate.
They also don’t stop with the ink or the canvas material, they carefully explain their process for choosing specific hardware over other specific hardware on their website.
This type of in-depth examination of a business’ practices is the type of thing that can allow you to rest assured that the company means it when they say that time and love goes into each print.
While you can opt for a custom prints designer that is cheaper, you can’t opt for a custom prints designer that is more thorough, or more time sensitive, as the CanvasHQ website has a countdown for exactly how long you can expect your prints to take if you order them today.
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