Laine Apine Photography

So you might wonder, after getting all the equipment right and doing good in the creative field, maybe it is the right time to start building the customer base for your photography. Nowadays, the first way that comes in mind is online marketing. Yes, selling your photography services online.

For example, you are a portrait photographer/fashion photographer and want to advertise your photography online. You’ re wondering how to sell your photos online. You have got the photography equipment  the passion, the creative mindset, determination and information, all the information in the world – but where to start?

Let me draw up just a few simple and quick steps to give you some tips for planning and marketing your photography business.

Step 1

Sit down, take a cup of tea and breathe deeply  No, I’m not kidding. Before you start your own little photography marketing campaign, you need to figure out exactly who you are, what is what you want to sell and who is your targeted audience.

Step 2

How to sell? Do some deep market research. World wide web is indeed wide, so you need to stop and ask yourself whether  the quality of the sites is high enough for your photography advertising research. Not to mention, do not forget sneaking a peak at your competitors (it is of great importance!).

Step 3 

Note down (or print out) the most relevant information you have found and start organizing! After reading some articles and papers on online marketing, you will get the gist of what exactly you need to do and what you should avoid. Yes, there are some rules for successful photography advertising.

Step 4

At this point I am considering that you have made your own twitter account for your photography business, a Facebook fan page, a website and a blog or two. Please treat these social profiles as your kids – they need continuous attention! Update regularly, post about the upcoming photoshoots, photography projects, collaborations and plans. Don’t just automatically push your potential customers towards buying-buying-buying, people love and appreciate to see the personal and human side of the business too.

Step 5 

Search for photography directories and add your sites. This is mostly free and takes just a few minutes.

Step 6

Consider paid advertising. If you’re willing to invest some money in your business, consider paid traffic attractions (like Stumbleupon), GoogleAdWords or Facebook Ads. For the making of the adverts, please see documents with research about the right set-up for a successful advertisement. After you have invested  please follow the traffic, track your advertising methods  and see the changes in order to decide whether it is beneficial for your or not.

Step 7

Think about business cards. It is just a piece of hard paper with your info on it. Simple, huh? But handy. Imagine yourself being in a situation where you’re in a hurry and a potential customer asks for your contact info or website address and all you have is a dirty tissue in your hand.. Not so very presentable, isn’t it?

Step 8

Customer is king. Mantra, you say? Boring? Not true? Please kindly note that also you are a customer so many times a day (imagine tube, store, restaurant, copyshop, etc) and you like to be treated with respect and care, am I right? So why don’t you go that extra mile for your customers and show then how you care with not only your qualitative photography, but also with your attitude.

Step 9

Be professional and present yourself as you would present yourself to the Queen. Yeah, I could say ‘just be yourself!’, but that is what I usually do, so please don’t copy me. :)

I believe I did not discover America again, but I genuinely hope this was of any use at all and please feel free to share your personal experience with  advertising photography and opinion about the above.