The success of a photography business depends on a well-developed marketing strategy and branding methods. Many busy photographers don’t take the issue of marketing seriously. Although you cannot see the results of promoting campaigns immediately, you will receive many benefits down the road. Keep reading this article to learn simple and free photography marketing ideas to advertise your brand regardless of the photo genre you specialize in.

1. Identify Your Target Market

The first thing to take care of before starting to develop a photography marketing campaign is to determine your target audience. Defining your niche, you can use promoting strategies more successfully. For instance, if you provide product photography services, then your potential clients will be businesses that distribute particular products.

 We recommend you pay attention to the eCommerce market that is likely to be interested in your service. You can group your clients based on the following features:

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Interests
• Job profile
• Location, etc.

The characteristics for such segmentation solely depend on your potential clients. Take advantage of Google Analytics and various social media platforms to define your target audience.

2. Create an Appealing Photography Website

To inform people about your business is to create an appealing photography website. Be mindful of its design, as a poor-looking web page will scare off people instead of doing the opposite.

 

Here are the most important aspects you need to consider when building a photography website:

 

• The loading time shouldn’t exceed 2 seconds, especially if it is your online portfolio
• The pricing policy must be clearly defined
• Choose an eye-pleasing color scheme
• Devote time to arranging all website elements
• Make sure that the contact details are easy to access
• Buy an easy-to-find and catchy domain name. If possible, it should match your business name. Avoid names that are hard to spell and remember.

 

Update the content on your website regularly. Include related blogs and current offers so that clients will see some fresh info every time they visit your web page. Choose the Wix platform for creating your web page. There you can find free and paid options for designing a website from the ground up. The price of a paid subscription starts from $13/mo.

 3. Create a Customer Database

 Your clients are the most important asset in your business. Therefore you need to take into consideration their needs, preferences, and wishes when providing your photography services. To organize your business more efficiently, use a Client Management Software.

 My recommendation is to use our cloud CRM and which has an effective client database management system for companies of various sizes. You can group your customers into such categories:

 

• Potential clients
• Old clients who have visited your website long ago
• Clients dissatisfied with your services
• Users who are ready for co-partnering
• Charity partners and clients they can bring you

 

A database is one of the most effective ways for tracking your customers and managing your contacts. Moreover, if you have regular clients who haven’t used your business for some time, a database will prompt you to act and remind them about your services. Send your followers a letter with a holiday promotion or special deal for attracting their attention and inducing them to make an order.

 

4. Edit Your Photos Professionally

  

Effective photography marketing highly depends on the quality of images you post on your website or social media networks. Raw or poorly-edited pictures won’t attract clients. Such visuals can tarnish the reputation of your brand.

 

To stand out among the competitors, you must develop your business all the time. Thus, you need to use only professionally edited pictures. During a photo session, you may take hundreds of images and editing them all one by one can become a nightmare.

 

If you lack experience in image editing, or you don’t have enough time to do everything on your own, turn to professional editing services like FixThePhoto , or WeEdit.Photos . They provide high-quality retouching services and can perform image enhancement in just a quick way.

 

Besides, their pricing policy is quite affordable and you need to pay only $2.50 per picture. They can follow your style and take all your preferences into account when editing photos.

 

5. Create a Referral Program to Get New Clients

 

Another effective photography marketing idea is to ask for referrals. Positive reviews from your clients are great for advertising your business. You can ask your customer to recommend your photography services to a family member or friend.

 

Satisfied clients always like to describe their positive experiences. You can encourage them to talk about your business offering some bonuses, gift cards, or discounts. Another great option is to try to receive recommendations from other professional photographers or specialists who are involved in the photography business including model agencies, wedding coordinators, designers, etc.

 

To make your referral program more successful, you need a high-quality online and printed portfolio, as well as business cards, so that your clients can easily spread the word about your services.

 

We recommend using ReferralCandy, which is quite a functional referral tracking program. Paying just $49, you can reward new clients, get fully customizable branding, monitor your referral income and traffic, define your most active referrers and check their reviews about your business on social media platforms.

   

 

6. Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media networks are ideal for photography marketing. Opt for image-based social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Make sure that your social media profile has enough content and regular updates. We recommend making publications 3-4 times a week. Post examples of your work, customer reviews, extracts from your blog posts, and more to share the moments from your professional life with your audience.

 

Post the link to your official website on your social media page to drive more traffic and gain more clients. It is also important to spend a minimum of 15 minutes per day to answer questions from the clients and interact with followers. To develop a functional word-of-mouth referral system you need to deal with the right people and conduct more photoshoots.

 

Visme Social Media Graphics Tool   is one of the most effective instruments for creating eye-pleasing publications as it offers ready-to-use templates for various social media platforms.

 

7. Run a Contest

Running a contest is a wonderful free photography marketing idea to extend your clientele base. The prize for a winner can be a giveaway of services or another award to your taste. When you provide your service for free, you can be sure that people who are interested in this offer actually need such services. In such a way you can determine your target audience. You can launch the following types of contests:

 

1.     Photo contests. Induce users to send their photos and display your shots in the process.

2.     Caption contests. Post your photos and ask users to caption them to win.

3.     Spot the difference. Alter your image a little bit and ask your followers to find the difference between the original and changed photo.

4.     Retweet, like, and share to win. Induce subscribers to retweet your photo to win a prize.

 

Keep in mind that your offers should correspond to the type of photography you specialize in. The contest should encourage people to order your services in the future. You can award a winner with a free print, photo album, or a free photo session.

 My recommendation is to use SweepWidget tool with more than 90 entry method types on over 30 social media pages. You can try a free plan or purchase a pro subscription for $29/mo.

8. Set Up a Google my Business Page

Set up a Google My Business Page to get at the top of Google search results in a particular region. Make your business appear in the list of most optimal choices for local residents by visiting the online Google Business Center and revealing your physical location.

 

Besides, this is a completely free option. The representatives of the service will send you a postcard to your physical address to verify your personality and your actual location. This process can take several days. Once all the details are validated, you need to complete your GMB profile.

 

The next step is to select a Category for your business taking into consideration the genres of photography you specialize in. Besides, you need to select the descriptive words that clients often use when searching for the necessary service. Provide a detailed description of your business and let clients know where you conduct photo sessions.

 

Encourage your clients to leave their reviews about you as a photographer on Google. Your task is to open Google My Business to see these comments. Comments all types of reviews. I also advise you to start using OneUp for scheduling posts on your Google My Business Page.

 

9. Start Blogging to Grow Your Brand

To develop an effective photography marketing strategy, you can start writing a blog. Blogging is one of the most effective ways for attracting visitors to your website and creating email lists for sending promo offers. As the main sections of your photography website will tell about the sales and conversions, the primary aim of your blog is to deliver the story of your business with some personal details.

 

Use this section of your site to dwell on your experience, because clients are interested not only in your photos. You can enumerate the reasons why you decided to become a photographer and why you are so excited to work with new people.

Moreover, describe the process of working with one client each week. Tell about the services you’ve delivered to a customer and get a testimonial. You can also prepare some video content to build stronger relationships with your audience. Use website builders for hosting your web page. My recommendation is Squarespace, which costs $12+ a month.

 

10. Create Email Listings

 

 

One of the most effective ways to keep in touch with your potential and current clients is to use an email. This approach is suitable both for beginning or professional photographers. To create email listings, use the info about your clients you’ve gathered earlier.

 

I also advise you to use a special email marketing software  to send promos and offers to your clients. When selecting an email provider, opt for the one that allows building a funnel. My choice is MailChimp. It allows establishing trustworthy relationships with clients in a straightforward manner.

 

However, if you are a freelance photographer, you should not bombard your subscribers with too many letters. Let them remember about you once or twice a week. The most important thing is the consistency and regularity of your emails.

 

11. Work on the SEO

 

One of the most efficient photography marketing ideas is to learn the principles of search engine optimization. Try to build an SEO-optimized website and blog for business promotion. You need to analyze the market and define keywords that will help your website appear at the top of Google search results. If a client is looking for something you have mentioned in your blog, then it is a great idea to post your blog on the first page.

 

To make your business success thanks to SEO, you can do it yourself or hire a SEO expert. You need to define the right keywords, create informative posts, internal and external links. External links should relate to some well-known companies in the photography field like Canon or Nikon. Internal links should direct users to other pages of your website like blogs, etc. I suggest using Ahrefs to search for keywords, decide on SEMRush for analytic reports of your domain, and choose SpyFu to examine the websites of your rivals.