Photography marketing: The ultimate guide to growing your business

Here’s the ultimate guide to growing your business with more photography marketing. Especially for you when you are at the phase where bookings are consistent and you have an actual photography business going on. Are you still at the beginning of your photography career? Enjoy this definitive guide to starting your photography business.

Booking high-end clients to grow your photography business

When you start to be at full capacity in your business there are two ways to grow the revenues in your business. Book clients at a higher fee or find a way to be able to book more clients by outsourcing certain parts of your business, or hiring associate photographers. Here are a couple of resources on how to book those high-end clients with specific photography marketing strategies! And before you say: “but in my town/region/country it’s different” first take a look at the articles below. As you’re reading them behind your computer or somewhere on your mobile phone, you will quickly discover that there are always clients out there willing to pay your fees.

I am assuming you are already in the stage that you have automated parts of your business before you consider outsourcing even more, but just in case you haven’t and you are still managing all your work with a combination of files, folders, and emails, here is a tip for you!

Start by organizing your workflow and you will quickly see where you can outsource and optimize to gain more time to book shoots. Download the free workflow chart below:

Sending gifts to your clients, vendors, as photography marketing

One way to stand out from the crowd is to surprise and delight your clients ànd your vendors with (big or small, size doesn’t matter) unexpected gifts. Building good relationships with vendors and clients will definitely help you grow your photography business. Sending an unexpected gift will always make people love you more. Here are some great resources that are packed with ideas. Get inspired and find a gift idea that matches you and your brand.

When you have the perfect gift and timing for the gift thought out, make sure to add the task of sending the gift to your workflow in your workflow system like ShootZilla.

How to become a well known or famous name in the photography business

[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”Don McCullin”]Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.[/pullquote]

Maybe you like being in the spotlights, maybe you don’t. If you do and you wonder how to get an audience, check out the articles below. The photography marketing strategy here is to be recognized as an expert in your field. The big key is not just the quality of your images, it’s also about connection. Get out there and tell people about yourself and your work, be vulnerable, connect and get a stage to reach more people.

Dealing with haters

As you grow your photography business, unfortunately, you may come across some ‘haters’. As you probably already know, you can’t please everybody. Even if the clients themselves loved your service, sometimes a groom’s distant relative or a bride’s close friend might not like what you did or the service you gave. And being a photographer it is hard to take any criticism not personal. But that’s exactly what you need to do if you want to keep going and provide your excellent service to more people.

Photography Marketing Strategy: Focus on Becoming a destination wedding photographer

[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”Steve McCurry”]My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.[/pullquote]

Love traveling and photography? Why not do both? Combine work with pleasure and book more destination shoots! Travel to different places doing something you love WHILE earning money from it. We have got some great articles to get you started.

Outsourcing to grow your photography business

Are you ready to scale your business? Take stock of what activities you do daily and which ones you can hand off to someone else. Especially focus on the 10-dollar tasks like culling and editing that people can do for you, or managing your calendar and appointments, bookkeeping, etc. So you can spend more time on 100 or even 1000-dollar per hour tasks like doing the actual photo shoots, creating a better in-person sales experience or creating a better photography marketing funnel for your business.

Start by organizing your workflow and you will quickly see where you can outsource and optimize to gain more time to book shoots. Download the free workflow chart below:

Winning awards

[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”Sam Abell”]Essentially what photography is is life lit up.[/pullquote]

Another way to do photography marketing, to challenge yourself and get more (high end) clients is by entering and winning photography competitions. Being able to show a badge on your website stating that you are an award-winning photographer adds instant credibility to your business. These days, there are so many competitions to choose from, there is complete abundance. Here are some articles which will help you choose the competitions that matter for you and that will give you tips on what images to select to enter the competition.

How to get published as a photographer

Another way to get more exposure is to get your images published. Getting published is a great photography marketing strategy, especially for wedding photographers. This all starts by knowing what kind of images are likely to get published and then on to the next step, get the magazines or blogs to notice you. Luckily, photographers have done this before so you can learn from their experiences. Hit the ground running with the articles below.

Keeping your work/life balance in check

When your photography business is doing great and your calendar starts to look fully booked you get to a point where organization becomes important. Especially when you find yourself working all the time and when you feel the constant pressure of delivering to your clients. Or when the amount of to do’s is getting out of hand and you don’t even know where to start anymore. That is exactly why we build ShootZilla, so be sure to take a look at that, or download the free workflow chart below.

After all, a successful photography business with successful photography marketing in place is only as successful as the person behind is feeling. When you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed out, you need a system to get your work/life balance to a healthy level.

Don’t freak out by the word system. A system can be as simple as using email templates so you don’t have to think about writing the same email over and over again.

Start by creating your workflow and you will quickly see how to organize your business for a better work/life balance. Download the free workflow chart below:

Continue learning as a photographer

All photographers I know are always learning. And why not. It’s fun to challenge yourself and keep your passion for photography & photography marketing alive by adding new skills to your toolbox. Here are some favorites for learning new skills and getting new insights.

Take a course at CreativeLive
Go deep and personal with the Foundation workshop
Attend an event and get inspired: WPPI (US), WayUpNorth (Europe), Fearless (everywhere), Clickinmoms (US), Field trip (US), Imaging USA, Nine dots gathering (UK), Inspire photo retreats (US), Shutterfest (US), Mystic seminars (US), Weddcamp (Eastern Europe), PEP Asia (India).
An even more complete list + how to decide which is the right conference for you

If you are still struggling to get clients consistently, make sure to check the other blog ‘The definitive guide to starting your photography business‘.

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The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Photography Business