The number one problem in professional photography today is, without a doubt, Photography
Marketing – Overwhelming failure to have and use a PROVEN photography marketing system for bringing high quality clients into the business on a regular, auto-pilot basis.
I know this, because I do so much personal, one-on-one Coaching & Consulting with pro-photographers all around the world.
Because most photographers don’t use a PROVEN marketing System, most end up being constantly concerned about money and worried about the future of their business. (And all that stress actually hurts the quality and caliber of the photography.)
Here’s five tips, tricks, and tools you can use for dramatically improving the effectiveness of your photography marketing.
1. First, realize that not everyone with a pulse is a good prospect for your photography business. It’s important to know exactly who your “target market” is. Here’ my photography target market:
- Female,
- is 25 to 55 years old,
- values photography,
- is a warm fuzzy person
- is willing to do business my way.
Once you know exactly who your target market is, it becomes infinitely easier to make the right decisions to reach that target market in an effective, economical way.
2. Use only PROVEN marketing campaigns. (If you are an Inner Circle member of mine, you have access to many PROVEN templates for marketing campaigns all done for you on the Online Vault – and for both online and off-line photography marketing.)
So many photographers mess this up. That’s because we are creative people, so we try to be creative with our marketing – but the problem is that when you do the marketing from scratch your self – that marketing has not been proven or tested, and most of the time it totally fails.
3. SCHEDULE your photography marketing time the same as you schedule your client appointment times. Marketing your photography business is way more important than meeting with a prospective client, because if your photography marketing isn’t working, you won’t have enough meetings with prospective clients in the first place.
4. Keep good records of what photography marketing works and what doesn’t. Now, I realize that we photographers are resistant to keeping good records – it’s just not in our nature. But in order to build a successful photography business you must keep good records of what marketing works and what marketing doesn’t work for you.
This can be as simple as keeping a hand written log of every original contact you have with a prospective photography client. Then at the end of each month you simply total up where each of your original contacts came, from to see what part of your marketing is working and what part of it is not working. (If you’re in Inner-Circle member of mine, you have access, on the online Vault, to our Original Contact Log so that you can simply download it and start using it immediately to record what marketing works and what marketing doesn’t work for you.)
5. Always do A/B split testing. This is where you test two slightly different marketing pieces (online & offline) or offers against each other to see which one works the best.
Even when you’re using proven marketing – that is proven to work – you still want to always do A/B split testing! Why? Because you will learn something! You will learn which of those two tests you did worked the best and you will use that the next time you do the marketing and test it against another slight change and see which one of those works better – see how you’re constantly getting better and better at photography marketing?
I realize that you and I did not go into the photography business to become experts at photography marketing – but if you want to build a consistent, profitable, growing photography business – you must become a real expert at photography marketing! The above five steps are crucial to your success with your photography marketing.
So what do you do next? Start by spending more time on this blog. Use the search bar to search for subjects & keywords that you are most interested in to help you build the photography business of your dreams. There’s a lot here, and there’s a LOT of money to be earned in photography today!
And for sure join my Inner Circle Photography Money-Making Group – let me give you the details , templates, tools and specifics of exactly how to build the photography business of your dreams and still have the free time to spend with your loved ones and build a lifestyle you have always wanted. It will be my honor to help you move toward your dreams! The photography business is a wonderful business to be in right now as long as you run the business in a proven, successful way! I’ll show you the way!
Click here for more information on my Inner Circle Photography Money-Making Group.
All the best,
Charles J. Lewis, M. Photog., Cr.
