Promote Thyself

Wednesday January 26th, 2011

Though we work hard to promote our photographers every day, there are a lot of things that you can do that will have a big impact on your success. Here are some basic promotional tips that every photographer should consider.

Branding. Take a moment to consider your brand. Branding is the personality you communicate to clients so they can quickly understand your interests, skills, experience and level of sophistication. It’s expressed through your graphic identity (your use of typography, color and design in all of your communications – including your company name, stationery, emailers, print mailers, website, blog and print portfolio); and your photographic identity (communicating the genre(s) you want to work in and the type of client(s) you want to work for – which you convey by the pictures you include, how many, in what groupings, what you call those groupings, and how you navigate through them). A good portfolio will say more about where you want to go than where you’ve been. Effective branding will show clients the best version of yourself and it will give them the confidence to hire you for assignments that are appropriate for you.

Marketing. Marketing entails building relationships with a relatively small number (fewer than a thousand) of people in your area of interest. You can use print mailers and emailers to send to prospective clients to let them see what you’ve been working on. You will need a basic computer database application to keep track of contact information and comments (to record a history of your experiences with them.) Your list may include wedding planners, event space managers, prominent florists, caterers or other vendors. Send them an email or post card a few times a year to remind  them that you’re still alive and kicking. If they’re special enough, email them to see if you could stop by briefly to say hello and show them your work. Have some promo cards handy to leave behind if it’s appropriate. Careful not to contact people too often or press too hard.

Advertising. You can reach brides most easily through advertising. Find out which print publications, web publications and blogs serve the readers you want to reach. Then, find out what options and pricing they offer for photographers. Experiment by starting small; that will allow you try out different things without blowing your budget on one big ad. Then do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t., Sourcebooks

Publicity. You can reach the broadest possible audience through publicity. Every publication is constantly looking for good material to present to their readers; if you have something interesting to contribute and it’s appropriate for a particular publication, they’ll want to know about it. Build a list of local, regional, and national wedding publications, as well as local general interest publications. Get a sense of which writers and editors at those publications handle which kinds of stories. Then, when you think you have something that might interest them, send them a few paragraphs that get right to the point, plus some supporting photographs.

Phone Calls, Meetings, Client Lists

There are only so many hours in a day. So each photographer will have to decide how to best allocate their overall promotional time/energy/money. Blogs and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube) can be a great way to raise your profile – if you’re so inclined.

Networking. After all, it is who you know! Everyone you meet is a potential advocate for you. Be friendly, normal and nice: these are the top three reasons why people will hire you. Never get caught without a business card and make sure there’s a picture on it. When you shoot a wedding, send files or prints out to the vendors that were there. They will return the favor by speaking highly of you. Get to know other wedding professionals in your area – photographers, wedding planners, vendors, venues, etc. Sooner or later they will all be asked, “Do you know a good photographer?” Refer work to them when you have the opportunity.

Blogging, Social Media, SEO. Many photographers report that the web traffic they get on their blog or Facebook page exceeds that of their main site. So there’s no question that it can be a valuable promotional tool. Initially, your post can provide your client with a preview of the final edit. But that’s just the beginning. Your client will send that link to their friends and family, and those folks will send it on to still others, stretching your promotional reach. Updating your blog frequently will not only show that you’re active and in demand, but just as important, it will provide you with an opportunity to improve your web search rankings. If properly tagged and keyworded, your blog post has huge potential to be seen by anyone interested in anything related to that shoot.

Proper image keywording and blog tagging is a vital part of this process. A keyword is any descriptive text that you embed in the image (go to File>File Info in Photoshop and you’ll find a box that says Keywords.) Tags are words that you include in the body of your blog. Including proper keywords in the file info of your photographs makes your blog pictures searchable by Google Images. Including proper tags on your blog will make that post searchable by a regular Google search. Including the names of the planners, florists, bands, videographers, venues and others associated with each wedding you shoot, will help make your blog post a relevant search result when people are searching on those companies. And of course, don’t forget to give yourself a plug too! You can see an example of this effect by searching “Crystal Tea Room Wedding” which will result in a link to one of Shea’s recent weddings.

Silver bullet. Sorry, there is no silver bullet! Promoting yourself is like shooting at a moving target. What works for some photographers will not work for others. Marketing and advertising vehicles go in and out of fashion. The constant is that just as you will have to continue to produce fresh photography in order to thrive, you will also have to continue to seek out fresh ways to promote it.

You can refer to our Resources page for a list of companies who help photographers with portfolio consultations, website templates, print portfolios, business cards, mailers and more. We can also advise you on every facet of your brand. Contact our director of photography Sean Stone to hear more about our Consulting services.