Market Your Photography Business - How to Get More Clients

[Restomage]

I hope you all enjoy this article I wrote, I've had some people asking me lately if I had any marketing tips for a new photo business so I thought I'd do a write up. I'll include the first part of the article here and the rest on the link below so you can see the proper layout, photos, etc. Enjoy!



The photography industry is one of the hardest markets to tap into and make a successful career out of. Digital cameras have made it ridiculously easy for anyone to take photos and because of this there are far too many people who grab an SLR camera from Costco and call themselves photographers, yet they know very little about lighting and composition. And what’s even more frustrating is every hipster in America now can take a decent looking photo from their iPhone with Instagram and get thousands of followers. So how do you make a name for yourself and market your business? What’s the best way to get photography clients?


1) Be Amazing at Your Craft and Build Your Portfolio First!
Everyone has his or her own steps, strategies and means of marketing a photography business, but most professional photographers will agree that the first step to any successful photo career is to first become an exceptional photographer. You don’t necessarily need to become the next Joe McNally or Cliff Maunter, but you should get to the point where you can be comfortable enough with the quality of your work that you know clients will be extremely impressed with. Ask others to critique your work, but do not, I repeat, do not ask people you know (ex. friends, family, significant others) to evaluate your work. You need honest, blunt opinions; this is the only way you will become a better photographer. Learn from your mistakes and improve upon your successes. I strongly recommend that you find another professional who’s been in the industry for a long time to become a personal mentor; he or she can give you business advice and critique your work.

You may now ask, how do I build my portfolio if I don’t have clients? My advice is to try and assist other photographers in the industry and build your portfolio that way, even if it means working for free. My goal was to become a wedding and event photographer, so I started my career as an intern with the Orange Country Register and being the editor of my college newspaper. I put in hours and hours of slave labor and it all paid off because I made connections, learned how to take photos in a professional environment and honed my lighting and composition skills. Because of the credibility I earned shooting for one of the largest newspapers in the country, I was able to get my foot in the door with professional wedding photographers and asked to assist them. After about two years of “training” I was ready to start thinking about a career.

2) Specify Your Target Audience
At this point you should already know what category of photography you want to specialize in, however the next important step is to identify your target audience. Let’s say you want to become a portrait photographer. In order to be a successful portrait photographer, you cannot be broad with your photography (at least not early in your career), you need to have a focus. Are you going to be primarily a senior portrait photographer, corporate photographer, sports photographer, etc? Focusing on a specific category will help you dominate a particular market; you want to spend most of your marketing efforts in only a couple categories as opposed to “doing some marketing here and some there”, but we will talk a little more about this in step 5. It will also help to research the market, learn their purchasing habits and how much clients are paying for photography services in the area.

3) Build a Business Plan and IdentityContinue reading the rest of the article here...