When someone mentions the word “photography blog” what do you think of?

Blogging has morphed over the past few years into an easy way to get content out to your prospects, and to have an easy way to connect up with people from anywhere in the world. But the one underlying problem I’m seeing with blogs is the lack of understanding. And usually it starts with the purpose. If you don’t understand its ultimate effect, it’s hard to use it properly.

1. Start with a purpose
Why are you online? Why are you even considering a photography blog? Hopefully you’ve said, “To market my business and bring in more clients”. If your goal is to reach out to new prospects and clients, you have to post in a way that attracts them. I was recently out on a site in which the owner blogged about many different things – but nothing directly related to attracting new business. If you’re a commercial photographer, you have to write about things of interest to your commercial clients. Same with weddings. Or portraits. You have to know why you are doing it, and carry it out every single day.

2. It’s not about you
Traditional marketing methods concentrate on selling what you do. Online marketing methods focus on giving a potential customer more information on what they are searching for, and put you as the expert to rely on based on that information. Marketing doesn’t work the same way it did even just a year ago. Times are changing, and so are the tools. A person doesn’t want to be sold to. Yet they love buying something they’ve fallen in love with. Customers are in control. They are educated, and they want the best value they can find. Value doesn’t equal cost – it equals getting what they desire. The key is using your blog to showcase the value, and making them fall in love with you over and over again until they take that step to use you as their photographer.

3. Share what you do with everyone
I worked with a photographer a while back who had a simple 4 page website, with very little on the site. [Read more…]