How to Boost Your Photography Business: Top 5 Resources

Do you want to improve your marketing skills and boost your photography business? Here are just a few amazingly cheap resources you can benefit of to enhance your business performance.

Top 5 Resources to Boost Your Business Performance

We often associate marketing resources with complicated strategies and methods that can be developed and applied only by specialists who have a thorough knowledge in the field. There’s nothing more false, especially when it comes to individuals who build up a business driven by passion and determination.

Vintage Camera

Yes, we know you are the artist and your customer service skills might be limited to interacting with clients during photo sessions. But you will be amazed on how many low cost marketing strategies you can implement yourself. What you need to do:

1.      Get Expert Advice

Starting a photography business or a business of any kind is not so difficult as compared to building a great reputation. If you consider starting one or just improving your visibility and performance on the market, the easiest way to gain more skills is by asking for help.

In the US there are many nonprofit organizations dedicated to help you create a business plan or provide you with useful and innovative business ideas. All you need to do is search for one in your local area and give it a try. It is free, it is accessible and it might be very efficient.

The best resources you can access, though, are your fellow experienced photographers. Nothing beats practice. So, try to connect with local established photographers who can show you the tricks of running a successful business.

2.      Participate in Workshops

Another great and interactive resource is participating in workshops. You can sign up for workshops on general marketing topics, but let’s face it, they might be boring and bring more specialized information than you actually need.

What I would recommend is finding as many workshops and seminars led by professional photographers. These are essential for photographers in their first years of business as other professionals can share not only their knowledge and skills in the field, but also their marketing experience. Learn how to grow your business from experienced photographers. 

Keeping in touch with your professional community it is essential not only to get inspiration, but especially to keep yourself updated with everything moving in the industry.

3.      Attend Photographic Events

Attending photographic events is not a waste of time. It is called networking and it is a clever way to promote your services. It might be actually the perfect occasion to observe how things are done from the advertising point of view, and a great opportunity to make yourself known both by potential clients and partners.

If you haven’t already created a set of business cards, it is time to get some. Not only they make you look more professional, but they can also transmit much about you. ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is a phrase which does not apply at this point in your business development. Your cards should be as creative and promising as the services you provide. Be inventive and experiment with different formats for different occasions and audiences.

4.      Try E-learning

In this electronic age, learning is no longer just about registering to a school or university. There are numberless resources you can find online, from e-books to guides and courses, at the end of a click.

If you can teach yourself photography, you can learn anything about running your business just by, I dare say, googling it. 

5.      Invest in Technology

When I say technology, I refer not only to professional equipment and applications designed to help you provide top quality services, but also to resources created to ease advertising your business.

Online advertising is part of what I see as marketing resources worth investing in. This is a form of using the internet to deliver promotional messages to your clients.  There are many options you can choose. The most popular are email marketing, social media marketing and display marketing.

 It might sound complicated, but it is really efficient and in the long run it might prove the best resource when it comes to marketing your photography business as it allows you to be creative and close to your targeted-clients.   


Don’t get caught in too many plans, ideas and resources, but be consistent when you find the right path. Promoting your photography business should be at least half as exciting as taking shots. Experiment, improvise, try as many things as possible and learn from mistakes.

And don’t forget to have some fun on the way to success.  

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The #1 Thing On Your About Us Page That Prevents Your Photography Clients From Booking You

Yawn.

It’s another website that looks just like everyone else’s.

A few images on the home page.

A gallery of “best of” to show off the three fields of photography.

Music playing in the background.

And an About Us page that says absolutely nothing.

Do the above descriptions sound vaguely familiar?

Does your About Us page sound something like this?

Hi I’m John Doe with John Doe Photography, and I’ve been a photographer since 2001. Photography is my passion. After leaving a career in teaching, I turned to my one love, photography, and have never looked back. I specialize in weddings, babies, families, seniors, special events, and modeling portfolios. Please visit me at my studio or contact me at 555-1212.

If so, you have a problem. You have what I call the “About Us Curse”. And it’s the one thing that’s holding you back from connecting with your prospects on an entirely different level.

Want to know what the “About Us Curse” is? Let me tell you a story first.

There once was a bride who wanted something different for her wedding. She was a born party planner. At 16, she started working for a local event company to put her party planning skills to use. She worked as a party planner throughout college. Martha Stewart was her hero – she poured over every copy of Martha Stewart Weddings she could get her hands on.

Her wedding was at one of the most exclusive country clubs in town. She planned everything – custom invitations, a rehearsal dinner that put some weddings to shame, flowers everywhere, and details to make every guest feel like they were the most important guest in attendance.

With that much thought put into her planning, she didn’t want “snapshots” or a photographer that would provide her with a “best of” series. She wanted a photographer that “got” who she was and what she was doing.

So she poured over the Internet trying to find that photographer.

First photographer:

Hi I’m John Doe with John Doe Photography, and I’ve been a photographer since 2001. Photography is my passion. After leaving a career in teaching, I turned to my one love, photography, and have never looked back. I specialize in weddings, babies, families, seniors, special events, and modeling portfolios. Please visit me at my studio or contact me at 555-1212.

Next:

Hi I’m Sally Smith with Sally Smith Photography, and I’ve been a photographer since 2005. Photography is my passion. After leaving a career in teaching, I turned to my one love, photography, and have never looked back. I specialize in weddings, babies, families, seniors, special events, and modeling portfolios. Please visit me at my studio or contact me at 555-1313.

Next:

Then she found something different.

She found a photographer that told a different story.The #1 Thing On Your About Us Page That Prevents Your Photography Clients From Booking You

She learned the photographer specialized in wedding photography. She learned they approached wedding photography differently – no packages with 250 images here. Instead, this husband and wife team took as many photographs as needed to tell the story. Most weddings had anywhere from 1500 to 2000 images, and were designed into a multi-volume set to tell the story of the day as it unfolded from an artistic viewpoint.

She learned how the husband and wife team found their way to a photography business. She learned why they were passionate about photography. She learned about their goals, dreams and future plans.

She read on and on, and soon thought of these photographers as friends. They were her photographers. And she hadn’t even contacted them yet.

Think that’s “just a story”? Think that can’t happen? Think again. That’s exactly how we found one of our biggest clients ever.

How did we do it?

By stretching waaayyyyyy beyond what most people put on their websites.

The #1 reason people fail with their websites is they think like everyone else.

They throw their “best of” images online, add a little bit of content, and leave it their for months or even years at a time with no thought to how its working.

Instead, the one thing that could change everything around is one simple task …

Adding content.

Yes, your About Us page shouldn’t be two or three paragraphs. It should be two or three PAGES of content. It should have image of you, video of you, slideshows of you, story after story about who you are and why you are doing what you are doing.

Yet if you’re like many people I speak with every week, you’re cringing right about now.

“I don’t have anything to say.”

“My story isn’t important.”

“I don’t want to bore them to death.”

Trust me, you won’t.

People want to know who they are doing business with. They want to know you are a person. They want to know your story. And the only way they can do that is if you tell them.

Still thinking “I can’t do that”? Maybe its time for a little help.

I’ve just released my About Us Action Guide. It’s an easy step by step program that walks you through your About Us creation process. No thinking about “what should I include?” or “I don’t know what to say”. I help you find the stories that are perfect to include in your About Us Page, help you put it all together, and finalize it to include on your website.

If you’ve ever thought “nobody reads my About Us page anyway”, think again. About Us Pages are the second most read page on your site. Why?  Because your prospects want to get to know you before they do business with you.

Content matters. What you say impacts how you connect with your future clients. If you haven’t changed your site in a while, or thought about exactly what you have to say, maybe now is the time.

It really can bring you in the best client of your life.

Check out my About Us Action Guide

The Power of a Testimonial

When you surf the Internet, what captures your attention?

If I’m out looking for a new product or service, for me its a great testimonial.

I may get excited about the product, love the benefits it has to offer, or relate to the different options it provides. But then I always turn to testimonials – what do other people have to say about it?

Now I surf a lot. And I’m often on sites where they are dedicated to selling, and have dozens of different testimonials trying to sway my purchase power. And for some products or services that works.

But for a photography studio, you don’t have to have a ton of them. One or two heart-felt messages, with a photograph of the client and their name is enough.

For a testimonial to work, it needs to be more than:

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Photography Studio Web sites – Add A Favorite Icon

Have you ever visited a web site and found an image next to the web site address? This little graphic is called a favorite icon and is very easy to add to any web site. All you need is a graphic that represents your studio and then visit this site to create your favicon. Square graphics work best for this type of application.

Photographer Website – 10 Reasons Why 10 Pages Aren’t Enough

Did you know the standard small business website has 10 pages of content, and will never grow beyond those 10 pages? Yet the number one way to reach your prospects and potential buyers is through content.

A standard 10 page website is a great place to start, but don’t stop there. It’s time to build, and create a site that attracts clients to you. Consider these 10 reasons to continue building on to your website.

1. Depth. People like investigating, and being able to discover more resources. Multiple pages allow people to drill in deeper to your site. Cover a topic in 500 to 1000 words per page; then offer your reader the chance to move to another page for even more information.

2. Resource. What makes your site valuable? People bookmark sites that have a variety of benefits and solutions. Think of how you can generate the desire to have people come back into your site again and again. Then add those pages to your site. Keep people coming back because you offer more than your competition.

3. Power. A powerful site lets people take action. What can you do to direct people to your pages that allow people to take action? Always start with your end in mind. Do you want them to sign up for a free report? Or do you want them to fill out a form for more information?

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5 Ways To Prepare Your Photography Website for 2007

1. Increase the content on your website
You can never have too much content on your site – or on the Internet that is linked to your site. Take a look at other high profile sites, and see what they are adding. Don’t stay within your industry; instead, watch what others in non-competing industries are doing. For instance, in one of my December magazines I noticed the magazine company released a new website to start the New Year off right. They added a variety of things to get their customers more involved. I’ll be using a lot of their ideas myself over the coming months.

2. Build an online community with a blog
If you don’t have a blog yet, there’s no better time than right now. It offers so many benefits: an easy way to communicate, a way to involve your clients and prospects, and the search engines love the content.

3. Track the life cycle of the people visiting your site
Do you know where people enter your site? Do you know where they leave? How much time do they spend on your site? If you can’t answer these questions (and more) make 2007 the year you start getting answers.

4. Ask your visitors to take action
Is your site a brochure site, or can your clients make contact with you? Involve your prospects and clients, and give them a reason to get in touch.

5. Optimize your site to begin to capture new clients
Optimizing your site isn’t a do-it-once option. It takes work month after month. Imagine handing out a brochure in January, and expecting it to work for you all year. It would never happen, right? The same is true for optimization. If you’ve had someone optimize your site once when you created it, how long has it been? The rest of the sites in your niche have continued to add and build. It’s time to grow your website, and become known in your niche.

Helping your photography business, how to start a photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Photography Websites – Top 5 SEO Myths

Top 5 SEO Myths

So, you’ve taken the time to develop a great website. You’ve gone to a professional, and have a site designed with all the bells and whistles.
 
Other people tell you they are getting leads all the time from online sources; yet your site has never generated even one lead. What’s going on?
 
If this sounds like you, you may be asking yourself questions about search engine optimization. How can you optimize your website, get it out into the search engines, and start bringing in the leads?
 
Before you run out and hire a company to help you, take a look at these top 5 myths.
 
Myth #1: Submit your site to the search engines weekly or monthly.
The search engines are built to find every site that is posted to the web. You may submit them once, but then you are good to go. The search engines are programmed to find every URL, and index it automatically.
 
Myth #2: I need to optimize my home page for every keyword in my industry
We’ve all seen the sites that list 100 keywords, trying to gain exposure in every area. A better way to optimize is to niche each page on your site to preferably one keyword or phrase.
 
Myth #3: I need to place my keywords multiple times in the content of my site
Your content is important. But Google looks at dozens of things when determining how to rank a website. You need to make sure you have all of the pieces to consistently rank in your key phrase.
 
Myth #4: SEO requires a long-term commitment
With SEO, there are many things you can do to get immediate results. SEO is a form of marketing. If you plan to stay in business year after year, you have to market your business year after year. The same goes with SEO. You can do things that have immediate effect, but will also give you long-term value.
 
Myth #5: SEO is too expensive
Actually, SEO is one of the most cost effective forms of marketing available to you. And the good thing with SEO is once you set it up and achieve results; you can continue to build from there. Many things you do today will impact you years into the future.
Helping your photography business, how to start a photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.

Identifying Color Choices for Photography Websites

Identifying Color Choices

Consider adding color to your website. When you first design your website, you usually choose a theme and build from there. The colors of your logo are a great place to start. But what if your just beginning, and you don’t really have official colors chosen? Great! Then you can begin to play around with different themes, and continue to work until a design and color combination looks pleasing to you.

Colors have so many different meanings. The best way to design is to choose colors that you are comfortable with. And choose colors that will appease your customers, and motivate them into buying from you.

Did you know men favor blue, and women favor red? A mix between the two – the color purple – is an excellent choice to solidify both. Green is a very strong, old world color. That’s why you see banks and financial companies use green. Primary colors are stronger than pastels. And children relate to purple more than any other color. Guess that’s why Barney is purple!

Consider your target audience when selecting your website colors. Who is your primary viewer? What do you want them to do on your website? Then build your color scheme around those desires. And add color throughout your site when you want your viewers to take action. Adding red to your site can be a great motivator.

Red

  • Energy * Strength * Danger * Determination * Power * Passion * Desire * Love
  • Red is a very passionate and extreme color. It should be used to highlight key points. It should be used to stimulate people into an action – such as a Buy Now button. 

Orange

  • Enthusiasm * Happiness * Creativity * Attraction * Success * Encouragement
  • Orange combines the energy of red, and the happiness of yellow. Orange has high visibility and can be used to attract attention to certain parts of your site. 

Yellow

  • Energy * Joy * Happiness * Intellect * Cheerfulness * Attention
  • Yellow attracts attention. It has a very warming effect. It is a lighthearted color, and can be used effectively for highlighting important points.

Green

  • Growth * Harmony * Freshness * Fertility * Safety * Nature * Stability * Endurance
  • Green is a color of safety and of stability. Green is a good color for money related sites. It is a good color for showing movement and directing people through a site, as green means go. 

Blue

  • Depth * Stability * Intelligence * Confidence * Faith * Truth * Loyalty * Trust
  • Blue is a masculine color, used to show precision and intellect. It is a calming color. 

Purple

  • Royalty * Power * Nobility * Luxury * Ambition * Wisdom * Dignity * Mystery
  • Purple is feminine, and is a preferred color of children. 

White

  • Light * Goodness * Purity * Innocence * Perfection * Safety * Cleanliness
  • White is associated with coolness and cleanliness, and can add a sense of simplicity to high tech subjects. 

Black

  • Formality * Power * Elegance * Death * Evil * Mystery * Elegance * Prestige
  • Black can give the perspective of strength and depth. Black is a difficult background color choice, but is very effective when displaying photographs.

Helping your photography business, how to start a photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.