How to market your photography by Elie Angles

TABLE of CONTENTS PART I

5 INTRO 5

Introduction

3 Questions to Answer Before You Start Marketing

Key Marketing Concepts

PART II

How to Create a Marketing Plan

12 THE INS & OUTS OF KEY MARKETING CHANNELS 12

Tackling Google & Building Your SEO

Get Social: 4 Tips That Can Help You Succeed on Every Platform

How to Blog Better

Three Easy Steps to Use Email Marketing to Your Advantage By Mira, Mad Mimi email newsletter coach

Conclusion & Resources

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PART I

Intro

very freelance photographer faces the very same conundrum—when you’re busy with clients, you’re likely not spending time marketing your business.This typically produces a feast or famine lifestyle that nobody enjoys. Hunt for new projects, then work like crazy, then hunt for new projects, again and again. It doesn’t take an advanced MBA to recognize that this is not a sustainable way to run a business. To help you out, inside this guide you’ll find a variety of online marketing strategies and tips that can help produce a steady pipeline of new prospects and keep existing clients coming back for more.

long term approach to optimizing your online presence, and building relationships across multiple online channels. This guide is your blueprint to finding the right online marketing mix for your business. Ready to get started?

You’ll find that these techniques are well suited for photography freelancers because they require minimal financial investment. (Don’t think you’re getting off so easy; they will certainly require a significant time investment, but we’ll discuss how to make smart decisions about where and how to spend that precious time.) Always keep in mind that your smart online marketing strategy starts and ends with two primary goals. 1) Creating multiple ways for people who need your services to find you and engage with you online. 2) Converting these people into paying clients. This guide addresses both goals with dozens of tactics to help get you started or advance the strategies you have in place today. The best part is this—with the proper attention, it really can all happen alongside making great images and pleasing your current clients. So, it’s time to make a big commitment to break the cycle that comes from being “too busy for marketing.” This will involve changing your workflow to include some upfront planning, ongoing testing and tweaking, and a

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART I

3 Questions to Answer Before You Start Marketing

e want to help you think through key areas to help market your business and reach more clients. Marketing your photography business is a process, which means there is no onestop-shop formula for success to “hit the jackpot.” But the good news is that if you plug away in a few major areas, you’ll start to solidify your brand, attract more eyeballs to your website, and be top-of-mind for potential buyers and clients. Here are three major questions you should address before you launch your marketing efforts. 1 Who is your audience?

Defining and understanding your audience is crucial to shaping your business, your products (yes, your photography is a “product”), your brand, and your marketing efforts as whole. Without clearly defining who you’re targeting, you can’t clearly define why you’re reaching out to certain folks over others. As a result, your marketing will lack focus (at best) and look sloppy and out of sync (at worst). For example, if you’re a polar and environmental photographer, your audience isn’t women’s lifestyle and fashion editors. This may seem obvious, but being able to clearly articulate who you’re targeting (and not targeting) will help you strategically focus your services and marketing efforts to appeal to the right group.

Defining and understanding your audience is crucial to shaping your business.

What may not be as obvious is the case of the photographer who has multiple specialties, as many (if not most) do these days. You may do editorial work during the week but shoot weddings on the weekends for that extra bump in income. What then? Well, you’ll still want to clearly define each audience for each specialty you have—and you’ll want to have a marketing strategy suited for each as well. A onesize-fits-all approach may cause confusion or a feeling among prospective clients that you’re really not the “expert” at any one thing—or at least at the thing they care most about. In short, they won’t find you relevant for their needs. Says one art director from an advertising agency, “Photographers make mistakes when they don’t clearly position themselves in their outreach. I need to know what type of photographer they are and their style. If it looks like they are all over the place, I can’t be confident that they can do my job well.” Truly understanding your target market also gives you several advantages. Most importantly, you know what appeals to them. 2 What is Your Unique Selling Point?

As you get a hold on your audience’s needs, this will help you identify your unique selling point—or what your business offers that helps you stand out from the pack and to keep you top of mind. Differentiating your brand and your services from your competitors can be the ultimate key to effective marketing and getting new business through the door.

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So, first you need to make a determination: What is it that you offer your target customers? Can you clearly state this? Is your unique offering based on a specialty (e.g. underwater photography) or certain access (e.g. US military) or skill (e.g. lighting)? Or, is your unique offering based on the service delivered or tangible product the customer will be purchasing (e.g. boudoir portrait sessions or photo-wrapped Mini Coopers)? A good first step to determine your unique selling point is to survey your competition and determine whether they have service offerings that you could replicate and then improve upon. Next, if you sell products, analyze what has sold for you in the past year. Can you pinpoint why they sold well? What about those products was attractive to buyers? (If you’re not sure, it’s okay to ask!) Also, think about the clients or projects that have been particularly successful. What about these projects made them so? Focus in on these factors or traits and make them known to your clients and prospects. 3 Is your website as great as you are?

If you don't consider your website as central to marketing your business, then it's time to start. come to a site that feels stale and out of date, you’re inclined to click out. To keep your own site fresh, you want to plan out a series of regular updates—refreshing a portfolio or gallery, a new blog post on your latest shoot, etc. Regularly updating your website can also help improve your ranking on major search engines, which rank sites with fresh content favorably. To have a competitive and highly functional website this year, here are a few items your site should have:

>>Clear contact information and “about” page >>Well organized portfolio sections or galleries >>E-commerce capabilities (if you sell prints or stock) >>File delivery (so you can send files to clients with your brand) >>Blog that is updated regularly (we recommend at least once a week) If you can map out and answer these three questions, you’re in great shape to establish your marketing plan and attract quality potential clients.

Website by Lindsay Adler

When it comes to marketing your photography, your website is your headquarters. It’s your greatest tool, your virtual business card, a reflection of your professionalism, and (should be) a way to easily connect with you or transact with clients who want to license your work or buy your prints and products. So as a first step, if you don’t consider your website as central to marketing your business, then it’s time to start. Think about your own experience online. As soon as you

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART I

Key Marketing Concepts

efore diving in to map out your strategy, there are a few key marketing concepts you should know. Let’s go through each.

MANAGING YOUR TIME Financial budgets can be very carefully allocated and easily tracked across a mix of marketing activities. Time, on the other hand, tends to be harder for many to budget and optimize. This gets even more complicated when you introduce tactics like social media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the cost of which is primarily your time, while the results may not be immediate. In fact, generally everyone arrives at a moment when they ask themselves “Is all this really worth my time?” There’s a way to find out. Two important business terms to get familiar with are Return on Investment (ROI) and Opportunity Cost. These are objective tools at your disposal to help you carve up the time you budget for marketing. To get the data you need, however, you must enforce a discipline of tracking your own time, monitoring the result of your efforts, and avoiding activities that may feel productive but are not (like bantering with friends on Twitter, for example).

It's not smart to keep doing one activity when you know another activity can produce more revenue.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) ROI is a term that marketers borrowed from the financial world. Financial analysts have always measured their investments to know exactly how investments are performing. Marketing, on the other hand, arrived late to the analytics party. Essentially, ROI in its simplest form translates to “bang for your buck.” The “investment” is what you put in, likely your marketing dollars or your time. The “return” is what you get out, which is hopefully revenue. (Sure, inspiration or satisfaction might be considered the return as well, but let’s stick to the hard stuff.) ROI is a valuable metric because it can help you examine every marketing activity and know the dollar amount that results from every dollar (or hour) you invest. This can also be expressed as a percentage. Once you establish the ROI across all of your marketing activities, you can start making decisions about where to spend more or less of your time.

OPPORTUNITY COST All businesses, especially freelancers, have to make tough decisions about where time and money are spent. The concept of opportunity cost provides an easy way to think about managing these decisions, especially when you’re faced with any number of attractive marketing opportunities. There’s a cost associated with not doing something, and that’s the revenue you would get out of that specific activity. So, you incur an “opportunity cost” by continuing to engage in any one activity while you’re passing up the revenue associated with doing something else. Without getting too academic, let’s just attack this

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head on—it’s not smart to keep doing one activity when you know another activity can produce more revenue. In practical terms, you probably market your freelance business on Facebook and Twitter. The time you invest here is time you’re not spending cold calling advertising agencies to book portfolio reviews. Hence, the opportunity cost is the revenue you’re passing up by focusing your time on social media instead of cold calling. If cold calling is more productive for your business, allocating your scarce time toward social media may just be a poor decision. On the other hand, if the investment in social media will create links that improve how clients find you, the payoff may come over a longer term. Investment (Time/Money) vs ROI (What you’re getting back)

Low ROI

High ROI

High Investment Low Investment

Think through your investments in terms of the output. High investment is ok if you get high output. Low investment with high ROI is the best. You want to avoid high investment, low ROI. As you invest your time and money into various marketing channels, be sure to keep track of how much you’re putting in, and what your return is from those efforts. You can think of return on levels including customer acquisition, brand awareness, lead generation, etc. As a busy photographer on a tight budget, your goal of course is to invest at little time and money as possible, but receive a high return (see chart above). There is no silver bullet for this unfortunately—you need to experiment and diligently track what works and what doesn’t.

CONVERSION: THE MOST CRITICAL CONCEPT If you want to be a savvy internet marketer, you need to start thinking in terms of conversion. Everywhere you exist online, you should have a desired goal—the behavior you hope to induce. For example, your website’s goal may be to drive visitors to purchase a print, for

example, inquire about your services, sign up for your newsletter, or any other possible step closer to generating revenue. Completing this goal is considered a “conversion.” A random visitor who becomes a paying customer represents one conversion. More conversions make you more successful. So, a metric to pay very close attention to is your “conversion rate.” Conversion rate represents the percentage of people who complete your desired goal. See formula: Conversion rate = Visitors who complete the goal/Total visitors In addition to knowing the overall conversion rate of your website, you should know the conversion rate for any given marketing effort. With the help of a tool like Google Analytics, you can even monitor the conversion rate of people who view specific content on your website, or come in from a specific source (e.g. Facebook).

THE INTERNET MARKETING FUNNEL Here’s a very important way to think about marketing your business. Imagine a big funnel. Every time someone engages with you (let’s say, visits your website), they’re entering the top of your funnel. Your conversion goal is for site visitors to inquire online about your services, or perhaps purchase something directly. Those who convert come out the bottom of the funnel. However, as visitors navigate around your website, people tend to drop off. For example, maybe they determine you’re not a fit for their needs, or don’t like your branding, or can’t find your email address. So, it should become very obvious that two primary factors can impact your success. The first is your conversion rate—how well you turn visitors into paying customers. Improving your conversion rate against your typical monthly website traffic creates more paying customers. The second is traffic. Improving the volume of traffic coming through your funnel (at the same conversion rate) will result in more paying customers too. Marketing efforts, however, typically involve multi-stage funnels. For example, you generate an email campaign, and a small group opens it, then a smaller group clicks through to your website, then a smaller group clicks the “buy” button, and a smaller group finishes the sale through credit card processing.The point is, your conversion rate gets whittled down with every additional step in the buying/engagement process. That’s why simultaneously increasing the funnel and improving conversion are of paramount importance in growing a business.

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Once you establish a baseline for traffic and conversion rate, you can start making smarter decisions about your marketing efforts. Such as how much traffic is necessary to hit your growth targets, and which marketing efforts deserve more resources and attention.

YOUR ONLINE FOOTPRINT Once upon a time, having only a website was sufficient to market your work. “Taking a business online” meant moving away from the brick and mortar world to establish a website, thus creating a foothold in the online world. When prospects wanted to know more about you and your services, they could visit your website expecting to find a typical explanation of your services, a list of clients, and some examples of your work. Times have changed. Now, the best way to enhance your online footprint is by establishing a presence across a multitude of web properties including your own website(s), social media platforms, community forums, trade organizations, blogs, etc. There are several smart reasons to build an online footprint, including the top reason: You’re more likely to get found. A more robust online presence creates multiple ways for prospects to find you. When more people can find you, you’re widening your funnel (whether they’re searching for you specifically, or your services) to capture more traffic. Because content is indexed highly efficiently by search engines, and links are frequently shared via social media, it is now likely that most prospects are not necessarily coming through “the front door”— your traditional website homepage. Rather, they’re finding you elsewhere online, or finding a specific piece of content that’s highly relevant to their needs. To take advantage of this, your online marketing strategy should explore relevant opportunities to create new profiles, descriptively keyworded so they help you get found on key terms, and these profiles should point back to your website (the center of your online marketing presence) where prospects may continue to engage with you.

MANAGE YOUR BRAND When gathering intelligence about a potential service provider like yourself, it is typical for prospects to perform a Google search. Having multiple profiles to support your own branding will enable prospects to “triangulate” the data and make a positive judgment about your credibility. For example, outdoor and adventure photographer Corey Rich has a unified online presence across multiple platforms, including his website, blog, Twitter profile,

Facebook Page, and Instagram Feed—all of which help an inquiring prospect get to know him better. Each channel adds to Corey’s credibility that he’s working photographer with a strong online presence and dedication to his work. Corey Rich www.coreyrich.com news.coreyrich.com www.twitter.com/coreyrich www.facebook.com/Corey.Rich.Productions www.instagram.com/coreyrichproductions

LOSE THE “FRONT DOOR” MENTALITY The reality is, the pathway that you’ve imagined potential clients will engage with you is probably very different than the actual pathway. For instance, life would be very simple if a corporate creative director received your email promotion, visited your website, clicked your “contact me” link, requested your portfolio, and hired you for a gig. But, sales cycles are rarely ever so neat and tidy. Managing your online footprint with multiple hooks gives prospects a way to engage with you wherever they feel most comfortable, in a way that provides either direct contact or relative anonymity. For example, that same creative director may not have an immediate need for your services, yet may be compelled to follow you on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or subscribe to your blog feed or newsletter. This gives them a way to stay engaged yet avoid the time commitment of a portfolio review and pitch from you until the opportunity is right for them. One word of caution about your online footprint—beyond creating the profile, you need to carefully monitor and maintain certain sites to ensure you create a visible “pulse.” This means managing the frequency of posts, answering questions, and updating links.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART I

How to Create a Marketing Plan

ven the word “marketing plan” can sound daunting, but don’t get tripped up on terminology. Still, if you expect to see an increase in clients/sales, you need to have a plan for specific marketing tactics that will drive this improvement. Our recommendation is to simply think about different marketing categories, and then list out activities that you could do in each. Your marketing plan shouldn’t be designed to treat each potential customer as if they were in the same state of readiness to hire you or buy something from you. For example, some people who walk into the Gap are just passing the time; a smaller percentage want to try on a pair of jeans; and an even smaller percentage walk into the store ready to buy. When you consider different activities in each category, think about how people in different parts of the “sales cycle” would react. You might do a low cost postcard campaign to blanket as many photo buyers and editors. And you might do a more expensive photo book to send to your top 10 to make a larger impression. You wouldn’t treat the customer who’s just looking for a place to sit down the same as the one who’s ready to buy a pair of jeans. Your marketing efforts should be nuanced.

Here are a few channels to consider:

>>Email Marketing: Newsletters, E-promos >>Direct Mail: Postcards, Books, Posters >>Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram >>Events: Trade Shows, Portfolio Reviews >>Inbound Tactics: SEO Optimization >>Lead Capture: Blog, Website >>Blogging: Opinion pieces, Gear reviews, behind-the-scenes DO THIS:

»» Create a list of current and future marketing activities. »» Create a rough estimate of time/money that you will expend on each.

»» Create a rough ROI (return on investment) that each initiative will bring.

»» Jettison high/low investment ROI projects. Plan

campaigns around high ROI projects. Remember to take into account that some efforts may take longer to see a “return” so make sure you’re balancing short and long term gain (e.g. efforts that build awareness vs. those that might bring in customers immediately).

Additionally, you need to remember one-time marketing efforts rarely pay off. You often need to experiment with multiple campaigns through multiple channels to get on people’s radars and convert them into customers. Increasing your “brand awareness” amongst your potential customers is arguably as important as converting a small percentage of them into paying customers.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART II

Tackling Google & Building Your SEO

Photo by Jim Goldstein

hat is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) exactly? In short, SEO is the process of affecting where your website organically ranks on major search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Photographers are often vexed by SEO because it seems like a moving target. Just when you think your website is ranking well, Google changes its algorithm

determining which SEO factors hold most influence in the rankings, and you lose half your traffic. The frustration might be warranted, but the fact of the matter is that everyone uses search engines to find services and products online. And no matter what you search for, some websites always comes up first, and subsequently gain a massive marketing benefit.

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Although there are many different factors that affect SEO, we like to think of two main categories that you can focus on to simplify things.

>>On-page content >>Building links to your website

In an information rich society, we are highly dependent on search engines to find what we are looking for whether it’s a local plumber, or a portrait photographer in Des Moines. You simply cannot drive enough traffic to your website by handing out business cards. The goal of SEO is unsolicited traffic—people looking for your products and services without knowing who you are. Hopefully, your website provider has automated much of the SEO techno-geek stuff for you. This might include:

>>unique page titles >>meta description >><h1> (aka. HTML headline tags) > IMG alt attributes >>microformats >>sitemaps >>optimized page load times

Although there are countless factors that affect where you rank on a search engine, here are two things among them that hold some of the greatest weight: 1. BACKLINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE is arguably the most important factor in increasing

your SEO. Each link represents an “endorsement” and the number of links partially influences how much of your website will be indexed by the search engines, and where you appear in search results. The process of “backlink” creation can seem like a very ambiguous task, but in fact, it’s quite simple. There are two ways to build links 1) do it yourself, or 2) get other people to link to your website.

Maintaining a blog and a strong presence on social media networks are some of the easiest ways to link to yourself. Each time you photograph something new, create a gallery on your website then write a blog entry which links to that gallery. Another tactic is to take advantage of profiles you can create with photography trade associations or community groups. Getting other people to link to you is a bit harder; you need to have something on your site that makes them want to link to you. Perhaps you’ve worked on a long-term photo project that has some relevance right now. You might pitch a gallery of images to vari-

ous photo blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Link aggregator sites like Stumbleupon, Digg, and Reddit can also be a great way to get a large number of people talking about your photography very quickly. 2. ON-PAGE CONTENT refers to the text that appears on your website. On many photographer websites, there is very limited text, which is a problem from an SEO perspective. As much as you might want your photography to “speak for itself,” you still need textual content to rank within search engines. If you are a New York portrait photographer, then “New York portrait photographer” should appear on your website. So should words and phrases that are similar in nature like “I specialize in corporate and editorial portraiture in the New York and Tri-state area.” Similarly, your images need captions and titles, and the more detail, the better. Obviously you want your images to be front and center, so use your “About” page or other pages to list the products you sell, awards you’ve won, workshops you give, etc. DO THIS:

»» Create a keyword “hitlist” of 20-50 words that you want your website to rank for.

Keywords are words and phrases that you think people might potentially search for to find your service. For example, if you’re a nature photographer based in Denver, Colorado, example keywords that you want your website to rank for might be, “Denver Nature Photography,” “Colorado Nature Photographer,” “Nature Photography” etc.

»» Use your keyword list to inform website copy. Google yourself and refine the keywords and phrases as your business and services or the language your specialty and industry uses changes.

»» Check these words against the Google Keyword Planner to determine whether they have appreciable search volume. Modify your list accordingly.

»» Search each term to determine your online competition. Use MajesticSEO to perform a backlink analysis to determine whether you can displace the competition.

»» Include as much metadata and description as you can to every image you publish online.

Be consistent with your tagging. If you choose to forgo all image descriptions, metadata and smart blog titles, it can negatively impact your chances of being found. (Metadata is information—data—stored within a digital image file). Not only does this help SEO, it can help protect your images from theft and misuse.

»» Remember that “inaction is action.” Be active with your blog and website updates so

that Google sees your content as fresh. Regularly update your website and social media platforms. By ignoring them you’re telling the search engines you’re not relevant—the opposite effect you’re looking for to help improve where you rank on Google.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART II

Get Social: 4 Tips That Can Help You Succeed on Every Social Media Platform

ver 1 billion people use Facebook. Twitter has over 600 million active registered users. Instagram has over 200 million active monthly users, and LinkedIn comes in at 300 million. Social media isn’t a fad—one could argue it is the glue that creates highly sticky user interaction on the web.

up with new Facebook strategies that get your clients sharing your images with other potential families and teens? And if you’re a commercial or editorial photographer, maybe you’re more interested in using LinkedIn and Twitter to keep former clients and prospects aware of your latest work.

Companies are amassing millions of users online with the ability to broadcast messages more frequently and more inexpensively than ever before. Celebrities are communicating with fans; news outlets are breaking stories, and photographers are finding that they can enter the social conversation by simply tagging wedding guests in a Facebook album before the guests can, or create a following on Instagram by sharing photos from a personal project.

Though every platform is different, there are four key “rules” to consider to help you successfully showcase your brand on each.

We’re not saying that every social media outlet will work for every photographer, but there’s enough real evidence to suggest that a strong social media campaign can translate into real marketing exposure and real revenue. The key point to remember is that your website is not a daily destination for your customers. On the other hand, hundreds of millions of people login to Facebook daily, so it's important that you go where your customers already are. The argument can be made that different specialities will use social media differently—that’s very true. So, going back to your understanding of your audience, it’s a good idea to determine how your audience uses social media to follow photographers and identify new talent. For instance, if you’re a portrait photographer, you’re probably focused on how you can best harness the social platforms to promote word of mouth. Can you come

1. BE A PERSON.

This is probably the most important rule of social media behavior in general. You want to operate as you would in the real world. This means you should refrain from constantly selling your services, use language that is approachable, and share content that is interesting. If you’re not sure what constitutes interesting content, ask yourself if you’d be inclined to like, share or comment on that post if you saw it on your own Feed. And remember that social media is not a one-way street. You are participating in a community, which means you need to respond and reach out to others (as you would do in an offline conversation). 2. GO BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Give a behind-the-scenes look at your shoots: the setup, the gear, yourself shooting on location or even a sneak peak of a personal project you're working on. This can give people an idea of how you work. Also think about giving a shout-out to the people you worked with that day. This shows you’re a team player and also encourages those you tag to follow and share your work. Fashion photographer Lara Jade does a great job at this. Check out examples on her Twitter page here.

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Lara Jade's Twitter 3. BE CONSISTENT

It’s important to have a consistent voice when you post. This means that the general tone, content and visuals are recognizable and don’t feel random. Regularly posting in this way will also let your audience know to expect content from you, which will improve engagement. 4. PICK THE RIGHT PHOTO.

Whether you’re sharing on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you should share a photo that strengthens your voice (which you’ve thought about and defined)—it adheres to your aesthetic by way of style or content, etc., and shows off work you love. We recommend sharing at least one photo per day. If you're having trouble choosing a photo, try to find one that evokes some type of emotion in yourself. Chances are it will also have an effect on others as well. Also, to help increase your visibility and reach on platforms, do this:

>>Like or follow pages or feeds from leading photo blogs, and other photographers you admire. Keep in mind that once you like or follow their accounts,

Instagram Photo by Travel Photographer Pei Ketron

their content will start to appear in your Feed. When you see a post that you think might interest your audience, share, retweet, or comment. >>Sign up for newsletters and subscribe to RSS feeds. Some examples include Pro Photo Daily or PDN. That way, you won’t miss posts from publications and industry thought leaders that are most important to you. A service like Feedly or Flipboard will also let you aggregate your favorite blogs in one spot so you can quickly skim for interesting news and updates and then share with your networks. >>Let people know you’ve shared their work. If you share content without using the share or retweet function (so, instead, by simply linking to an article, resource, or gallery), consider shooting that blogger an email or message to let them know that you’re helping spread their content. People appreciate when you help them share their news, and taking a quick moment to let them know may make them more likely to share your own content one day.

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Want some examples of photographers succeeding with social media? Check out a few that we love following on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: Facebook: Lisa Devlin John Keately Corey Rich Brooke Shaden Brian Smith Twitter: Zack Arias Eunique Jones Gibson Lucas Gilman Lara Jade Ken Kaminesky Melissa Lyttle Instagram: Brooke Dombrowski Tim Landis Brad Mangin Landon Nordeman Adrienne Pitts And be sure to check out our latest guides with resources and tips to help you amp up your social presence: The Photographer’s Guide to Facebook, The Photographer’s Guide to Twitter, and The Photographer’s Guide to Instagram.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART II

How to Blog Better

or a photographer, your blog is not just a place to dump links and post photos. Your blog is a marketing tool, and can be a very effective one at that. The captive online audience is vast, comprised of prospective clients, photographers looking to learn, gear enthusiasts, and many other consumers who are actively searching for services like yours. To maximize the flavor potential of your blog, you need to reach people with similar tastes. Connecting with the right audience starts with a targeted content strategy.

ESTABLISHING YOUR BLOG’S BRAND Your portfolio site design, how you communicate with clients, your logos, your deliverables, your lighting technique, your field of photography – all of these elements define your personal brand. Your blog’s #1 purpose should be to extend this brand. For example, if you frequently work with corporate clients, your community would not respond well to profanity-laden rants. (In general, this is a bad idea). But take time to think about who your audience is and what tone and style of writing would resonate best with them.

You should always strive to create content that attracts and sustains the attention of this audience. Not only will this help focus the content strategy, but also the needs and practices of your targeted audience will inform how you blog. For example, when establishing her company, Major Multimedia, photographer and multimedia producer Lauren Major wanted to target the nonprofit and social good sector. Once she narrowed her target audience, she was able to research their online activity, and create content that would specifically appeal to the social good user. Photographers who run workshops will often cater the writing on their blog to other photographers. This helps establish them as “experts,” as well as speak directly to prospective attendees and students. A blog can also help photographers continue a dialogue with current and former clients, as well as attract potential new ones. Additionally, alternative and edgy UK wedding photographer Lisa Devlin has branded herself as the go-to photographer for all weddings off-the-beating path. She uses her blog to showcase the non-traditional thread

There are multiple points of entry for building a successful blog. Whether you choose the provocative route, the educational route, the anecdotal route, among many others, your strategic choices should reflect your brand.

TARGETING YOUR AUDIENCE

Your brand can also help identify your target audience. Like any marketing push, it will pay to know who the readers are.

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between her clients to help reinforce her expertise and niche in this space.

Here are a few tips to help tailor a system for your workflow.

The more targeted your marketing efforts, the more successful you will be at converting customers.

An effective content strategy relies on careful planning. If your blogging strategy is to wait for ideas first, you will likely end up with an inconsistent blog and a constant feeling of pressure to come up with new topics. If you blog every thought that pops into your head, you risk burying the quality content with the extraneous stuff—and confusing your audience.

GENERATING SALES Your blog can also function quite well as an indirect marketing tool for your brand, including directly translating into image sales or other revenue opportunities. If part of your business includes selling workshops, your blog content should target the consumer who might be interested in your specific workshop. Blog posts should emphasize your expertise in your field, and show who you are as a teacher and a photographer. For example, nature photographer Greg Basco of Deep Green Photography sells nature photography workshops in Costa Rica through his website. The “Behind the Lens” series on his blog shows images captured in the field, and explains the technique and story behind getting the shot. Greg’s tours now sell out quickly after being announced. You may also want to sell products through your website, or directly on your blog. The content should support why a consumer should buy this product from you, and even show the value of the product.

MANAGING YOUR BLOGGING WORKFLOW After you choose the best platform for you and identify your target audience, you may find yourself about to hit the “Now what?” panic button. If you do not have a plan for your workflow, a blog can quickly become a burden. But you can easily skip ahead of the whole overwhelming part of blogging by developing an effective workflow system.

1. ORGANIZE YOUR IDEAS

Start a spreadsheet, Google Doc, or journal devoted exclusively to ideas for potential blog posts. If you have a moment of inspiration, jot it down or type it up. You may never use half of the ideas, or may take one thought in a totally different direction, but keeping a list of thoughts will take the pressure off coming up with something to write about on the spot—and it will help you manage your workflow.

sure you have a plan for when you want to blog. It does not necessarily have to be a set number, either. The key is to be consistent so your followers can expect and look forward to your posts. If you’re a wedding photographer, your blogging strategy might involve doing a post after every wedding. Even if your blogging pattern follows gigs, having a set deadline will help you stay consistent (i.e. never wait more than 72 hours to publish a post about a job), and meet audience expectations. The best way to stay on top of your self-made blogging deadlines is to keep a calendar exclusively for your blog. It could contain upcoming shoots and personal events, or you could plan each month out specifically based on what you will be posting about on a given day. Looking at an upcoming calendar will help you manage the time you need to complete each desired blog post, and may also provide you with new or thematic inspiration.

2. CREATE TOPIC CATEGORIES

4. HAVE AN RSS FEED

Have an understanding of the areas that you want to cover on your blog. Think through questions like:

Your idea diary not cutting it for you? Keep an RSS feed, like Feedly, of photography blogs that inspire you, blogs of prospective clients, the musings of your competitors, and/or the Twitter feed of your favorite vendor. An RSS feed consolidates all of the sites and accounts your go-to for inspiration into one place, which will help cut down on time spent going between each site—and the distractions Internet surfing can bring.

>>Do you want to write at least one gear review a week? >>Do you want to feature an interview with an industry professional once a month? >>Do you want to have a video blog series?

You don’t have to decide every area of interest before you start your blog, and based on your audience’s response the topics you write about may evolve. Having a few target areas in your pocket will help you focus your idea stream, and keep the blog clear and on brand. For inspiration, check out the next page for 7 ideas to help inspire you when writing blog posts. 3. MAKE A CALENDAR, AND STICK TO IT

Is it realistic for you to blog everyday? Probably not, and it might not be smart for you to do it either. Just make

5. MANAGE YOUR OWN EXPECTATIONS

If writing does not come easily to you and you cannot invest the resources into outsourcing the work, travel photographer Matt Brandon advises setting boundaries for yourself. Writing can easily consume your day, and setting unreasonable expectations as to what you can accomplish is setting yourself up to fail. Set goals you know you can meet. The great thing about blogs is they are totally malleable. If you dis-

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cover you love blogging and can ramp up your production, as long as it’s in-tune with your target audience—go for it! But if you try to do and say too much right out of the gate, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Building an audience can take time, so set up a sustainable workflow system for yourself that can support the process.

7 BLOG TOPICS TO INSPIRE YOU Here are 7 ideas off the bat to inspire you when planning out your blog posts. 1. TOP 10 LISTS

Top 10 list (or top 9, top 7, etc.) are highly clickable and easy to share – a list provides quick, easily understood context for exactly what the reader will find in your blog post. Added bonus: lists don’t need to be copy-heavy or heavily researched. Go ahead and give your own opinion on the 5 female photographers who changed the industry, and watch the hits roll in. 2. STIR THE POT

If you’re not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, bucking tradition or authority with a controversial statement is a great way to get the community buzzing. However, don’t just say something provocative for the sake of getting a rise out of people. It is better to put forth your opinion on a topic about which you genuinely have something to say, and back that statement up with facts and illustrative examples. Prepare yourself for a helping of haters, and make sure to respond to naysayers with the same intelligent clarity with which you crafted the article. 3. WRITE A REVIEW

Clearly there is no shortage of photography gear reviews on the Internet. That should not discourage you from writing one yourself. Many photographers carve

out a niche for themselves based on their reviews. It might be what you say, it might be how you say it, but if you write a great gear review, someone will definitely be reading. 4. COMPILE RESOURCES

Everyone loves to discover that all the information they need on a topic already exists in one place. If you don’t mind doing a little legwork, then try assembling a specific, relevant list of online resources. This may be a particularly useful option for photographers who do not consider themselves strong writers—a resource list is more about supporting the topic, and writing need not be heavily involved.

7. GO BEHIND-THE-SCENES

Behind-the-scenes content usually resonates well with an audience, especially photographers who love to learn the story behind an image. Practically any photo assignment you’ve done has the potential to become a behindthe-scenes blog.

5. CROWDSOURCE COMMENTARY

In a recent PhotoShelter blog post, we asked four major photo editors from Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Vogue Italia and Esquire.com how they're using Instagram to develop new talent. Their responses are here. As a photographer, consider sourcing your colleagues, posing a question to your readers, or blasting your social media platforms. No matter the route, you will end up with content created for you that also proves to your community that you value their opinion. 6. INTERVIEW PEOPLE SMARTER THAN YOU

The world is full of smart, interesting people with an experienced viewpoint. An interview with them can add depth to an issue and will likely bring new people to your blog that might not have found it otherwise. You could also email a photographer whose work you admire or a prospective client that you’d love to work with one day. As long as the interview is not a thinly veiled request for work, promoting them with an interview on your blog will at least get you on a few radars.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

PART II

Three Easy Steps to Use Email Marketing to Your Advantage By Mira, Mad Mimi email newsletter coach

hether you’re looking to sell more prints or book more photography sessions, email marketing is an efficient, low-cost way to build up your client base. As an email newsletter coach at Mad Mimi—a simple, lovely email service—I help lots of photographers reach a wider audience. While our collective superpower at Mad Mimi is email marketing (as nerdy as that is), many of us are aspiring photographers as well, so I’m thrilled to share these tips with you!

STEP ONE: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EMAIL MEDIUM USE A BONAFIDE EMAIL MARKETING PLATFORM. If you’re

a PhotoShop whiz, you may be tempted to build an email in that format—images and text included. But image-only emails tend to have worse reader engagement and inbox delivery rates. To ensure that your emails get delivered and opened, use a tool designed for creating marketing emails. Both people and inbox robots will be able to understand this format. Mad Mimi is a great option for photographers. Here are a few photographers using our service: Jennifer Clare Photography Dana Smith Photography Heather Evans Smith Photography

ALWAYS LINK. Include at least one link in each email you send. It’s easy to turn any text or image into a clickable link. Before you send, preview your email as your recipients will see it. Links “above the fold” of the screen perform better than links readers must scroll down to see. What to link to? Think about linking out to your website, a specific photography portfolio, a recent blog post, or even one of your social networks if you’re trying to grow your following.

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ALWAYS ENCOURAGE VISITS TO YOUR WEBSITE. Get folks out of the email and onto your site. That’s where they can have a richer viewing experience, learn more about your photography, and potentially make a purchase or email you to inquire about your services. The point of your email is to invite them to engage with you—hopefully on your site.

that in email, either. Be respectful of people’s inboxes, and be sure that you’re delivering relevant content to the right people. At Mad Mimi, we review your first email before it goes out and give you any technical tips or design feedback if needed. COLLECT SIGNUPS. Practice permission-based marketing, which means only sending

If you use Google Analytics to measure your web traffic, you may be able to see how many visits come from your email newsletters (this depends on your email platform; Mad Mimi integrates with Google Analytics).

to people who have opted in to receive your emails, whether by using a signup form on your site, signing up at an event, or making a purchase. Only send to people you’ve interacted with recently (say, the past 18 months). You don’t send your business card to your high school teachers—it’s essentially the same thing.

STEP TWO: BE YOUR SHINY SELF

Many email marketing platforms (including Mad Mimi) offer customizable signup forms and integrate with top third-party form builders.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF MINIMALISM. Let your photography communicate on its own in your emails—just as you would in another medium. Showcase your photographs with lovely, wide image modules. Even one image alone can make a powerful impact. KEEP YOUR TEXT SHORT. Email can be a very intimate (and interactive) environment.

Don’t distract your recipients with too much content. Simple emails get shared. Make sure you can answer the question, “Why am I sending this email?” If your own answer is muddled or hidden in the text, you will struggle to engage.

SPEAK YOUR OWN STYLE. Design your emails to reflect the personality of your brand.

The colors, fonts, and layouts you use should reinforce the branding on your website and complement (rather than compete with) your photography.

MAXIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL REACH. Find new fans by maximizing the shareability of your

emails. Not into Twitter? So what! Some of your photography fans probably love it. So make it easy for your fans, friends, and family to share your emails on their favorite social networks. Many email platforms (including Mad Mimi) let you include social sharing buttons in your emails. These allow your fans to share your email with just one click. You can also include links to your own social profiles, making it easy for readers to click right to your business’ Facebook page, for instance.

STEP THREE: BE RESPECTFUL OF YOUR AUDIENCE THE GOLDEN RULE. You wouldn’t load your photography prints into a T-shirt cannon

and run up and down the street firing shots into people’s dining rooms. So don’t do

DON’T SEND TOO MANY EMAILS. Don’t send too few. The ideal frequency depends

on your audience. It’s worth thinking about why you are emailing your audience— might they hire you, have they hired you, do they just like your work? Unless you’ve segmented your list, your audience probably includes a variety of people, so keep that in mind when considering frequency. To find the best frequency for you, we recommend a combination of going with your gut and testing. You know your audience best. Make decisions based on that, but be willing to try new things. Most email platforms offer stats reporting to help you gauge the effectiveness of your emails. Check your stats and adjust accordingly!

GIVE SOMETHING AWAY. It’s just true: If you give people something for signing up, they feel better about handing over their email address. And you don’t JUST want their email address—you want their business. Offering a coupon for a print or specialized content at signup is a great way to give your newsletter added perceived value.

If you’re a bit more advanced, drip campaigns are a great way to deliver free (or paid) stuff to people who sign up. What’s a drip campaign? It’s a series of autoresponder emails. You can use drip campaigns to deliver downloadable freebies, welcome emails, and coupons. If you’re interested in sharing your expertise, you can even use them to deliver photography e-courses. Here are a few helpful blog posts on drip campaigns: 5 Tips for Creating a Stellar Welcome Email Campaign 6 (Incredible!) Woman-Powered Drip Campaigns 5 Tips for Gaining Subscribers with an Email Course 21 Autoresponder Ideas to Grow Your Business

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If you focus on these three steps, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be well on your way to increasing the reach of your photography business! The Mad Mimi team would be more than happy to answer any questions you have about getting started. Email us at support@madmimi.com.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

Conclusion & Resources

arketing does not have to be your worst enemy, but it does require you to carve out time and map out a gameplan. Once you have a few strategies in place - whether that be a workflow that includes posting to social networks, blogging regularly, or sending out a monthly newsletter - you will be more able to grow a strong presence online and establish awareness about your brand. And remember, before you start, know cold what you’re providing and exactly who and where your target audience is—both online and off. If you can confidently define your target market, then you will be in great shape to develop a strong marketing plan that can attract quality clients and grow your business better than ever before.

Resources:

GUIDE: The Photographer’s Guide to Facebook GUIDE: The Photographer’s Guide to Instagram GUIDE: The Photographer’s Guide to Twitter GUIDE: 11 Secrets to a Great Photography Website GUIDE: Creating a Successful Photography Portfolio GUIDE: 10 Branding Secrets for Photographers BLOG: Developing a Better Photography Brand BLOG: How This Photographer is Making Your Laugh BLOG: 10 Great Photographer Promos BLOG: Tackling Google: 3 Ways Photographers Can

Improve Their SEO

BLOG: Building a Photo Brand From the Ground Up:

Tips From Art Wolfe

BLOG: 4 Ways to Get More Work From Old Clients VIDEO: Tips & Strategies To Grow Your Audience Online VIDEO: Interview with Zack Arias: If I Had to Start

My Business Today VIDEO: 11 Essential Tips for Freelance Photographers TOOL: Google Analytics TOOL: Google Keyword Planner TOOL: Mad Mimi TOOL: Bit.ly

HOW TO MARKET YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

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