Are you new to the photography world? Maybe your dream is to become a wedding photographer, or to specialize in family portraiture or newborn photography, but you have no clue where to begin. It can be frustrating figuring out those first steps. Here are 5 ways to promote your photography business.
1. Creating A Website
If you’ve just started toying with the idea of becoming a photographer, you likely don’t have your own website yet. Now is the time to start, and you can create one in WordPress, which is a user-friendly platform, and the best part is you can build your site for free. Like anything, there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s fun and creative, and you’ll quickly get the hang of it quickly.
I’m sure you’re super creative if you’re interested in photography. Creating and maintaining your own website will be an enjoyable venture for you. Keep reading to see why a website is so crucial to building your business.
2. Begin A Blog
Blogging is a proven method to drive traffic to your website. People are indispensable for your business so getting them to your site is your goal. More traffic leads to more clients, which leads to more money for you. A steady stream of clients is a must if you want to build your portfolio, your brand, and ultimately, your business. But how do you get potential customers to visit your website? You do this by blogging. A blog is simply an informational online journal of sorts where you provide useful content for those you are marketing too.
Your blog is housed on your website, and is where you’ll write creative content for your audience. If you’re a wedding photographer, your audience or market, would be brides and engaged couples. Baby photographers would market to new mothers and pregnant women who are anticipating getting their babies photographed. If your niche is headshots, business owners would be a great target market.
3. Create Blog Content
Now that you have your own website and blog, you’ll want to create content at least weekly. This sends a message to your future clients that you’re invested in them and your business. Producing quality information regularly is a vital step in helping your business grow. It’s also an awesome way to get potential customers to like, know, and trust you, which is essential, especially when you’re just starting out.
Content creation is not only informative, and a great service you can provide to your readers, but is also an effective way to engage and interact with them. Interaction helps people get to know you, greatly increasing your chances of getting hired.
Are you wondering what to blog about? Let these ideas spur your imagination. Wedding photographers could blog about venue options, how to find the the best wedding dress, how to design your own wedding ring, what to wear for engagement photos, travel destination ideas for a honeymoon. You get the picture. The ideas are endless. You’ll never run out of things to blog about.
4. Learn SEO Marketing
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and is a critical step when creating and sharing your content. Why? Because it increases your chances of getting found by the search engines, which will improve your rankings. Getting ranked on the first page of Google, Bing, or Yahoo will greatly boost the chances your articles will be read. The more people that find and read your content, the more potential clients you’ll have.
Optimizing each of your blog posts for SEO is an important step in having people find you. This can be done by following a set of rules, including finding great keywords for your articles. It’s not hard to learn SEO, you just need to learn it. It goes like this: you need a website for your blog, you need a blog in order to create content, and you need to optimize all your content for SEO so people can find you. Make sense?
5. The Power Of Social Media
Your website is up and running, your blog is bustling with weekly content, and you’re filling your posts with amazing keywords. The next step is to use the power of social media. Get Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn working for you, and don’t forget that YouTube and Pinterest are search engines in themselves, with millions of users worldwide.
Getting your brilliant posts in front of thousands of viewers is just smart business because it’s free marketing and exposure. If one of those viewers loves an article you’ve written, they’re much more likely to visit your website, and eventually hire you. Leveraging social media for your business just makes sense.
Where else can you take advantage of free advertising? Due to the vast amount of people using social media, there’s no better platform out there to market your business. This is especially important when you’re first starting out, and aren’t making money yet.
The Best Place To Learn Online
Now that you know the steps to grow your business, how do you get started? Here’s where it gets good. I learned the ins and outs of each of these steps following the training at Wealthy Affiliate. Don’t worry, this isn’t a sales pitch. You can join online for free, and learn all the skills you’ll need to build a website, create content, optimize SEO, and market your business on social media.
You’ll also learn affiliate marketing if you want to incorporate that into your blog. The certification course breaks down each concept into easy-to-implement steps that are easy to understand. I love the interactive community within Wealthy Affiliate where I can ask other business owners questions, and get them quickly answered.
I can’t stress the importance of community when you’re first beginning to build your business. Get support with technical issues on your website, bounce ideas off other members, and learn a variety of tips and tricks for success.
Get Started For Free
There’s no risk involved. You don’t even have to hand over your credit card to get started. Level one of the online certification course is completely free, but you can upgrade to receive additional benefits. A premium membership is just 49.00 a month, which includes state-of-the-art hosting for up to 50 websites. You won’t find that affordability anywhere else online.
With a free membership, you can create two websites for free, and you’ll also have access to Jaaxy, an online keyword research tool. Remember how important I said keyword research is? Click this link to get a taste for what the video courses are like.
Key Points
These five steps are a brilliant way to promote your budding photography business. Create your own website, fill your blog with unique and engaging content, learn SEO marketing, and share your posts with the world. Marketing your business online gives you access to millions of people. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this marvelous opportunity. Get started today and see your business flourish.
Are you a new photographer? What are you doing to promote your business? Let me know in the comments:)