How to market your photography business: Five unexpected ways

Photo credit: @zal3wa

You need to be discovered so that people can book you and I’m here to say that only posting sessions or ads to FB and IG (or only using those platforms) misses other opportunities. But if you’re new to marketing, it can seem like an uphill battle to know where else to go or what to do. So here is a gift from me to you. I give you five unexpected ways you can build a brand and presence, and the purpose really is to get your mind churning to create more ideas - we all can do this! It’s up to you to take these and work them to your best advantage.

1. The Talent Stack

Leverage other talents that you have and build them in layers to create a unique brand no one can copy. Become a resource of something useful that’s related but not actual photography. This requires you to do some reflection on what your talents are. Use that to create an angle that gets you known for photography:

Passionate about animal rescue? Take photos of the dogs but be creative - because lots of photographers work in this space. You can even layer another talent such as using your graphic design skills to make each pup a sign similar to baby or children’s signs (height, weight, favourite treat, etc.)

You bake? Every time you make a batch of beautiful cupcakes, take professional photos and create posts or a blog about your other superpower. Bonus if it’s a blog as if someone wants to see more, they get to your site where they start getting immersed in your content. Same with gardening, flower-arranging, pretty much any hobby can work here. Position always as it may relate to your work, like the challenges to photograph these items, how it makes you a better photographer, or how you have an offer to add a half-dozen cupcakes to their photo order and bring them to the session!

For me, I’ve worked over a decade in nonprofit. So I have photographed events and been featured as a sponsor. Being part of the nonprofit also builds community for me with a circle of people who then refer me.

2. “Professionalize personal work/ projects"

Create an alter-persona or a name a formal entity for personal work. Mine is Lucy, Noir. I have a dark side, which I used to think wasn’t good for my niches of photography, but have since changed my tune. I now have a category of my blog that is devoted to personal work. It shows dimension as a creative and professional, and creates something more formal to share creative projects under. Like a “division” which makes you perceived as more professional than say a hobbyist that takes random photos of people and flowers for example. Making that artistic division is helpful for marketing because it can feel more intentional so that people really regard you as a leader in the field. You may not actually do anything different in the backend; it’s simply about positioning and perception on the front end.

I also feature a section on Lucy, Noir in my About page, complete with an artist statement (shown). This instantly elevates and makes personal work very cohesive with a message to clients that I take my craft seriously and they can feel they are hiring someone who makes efforts to live in their art every day and will bring a high level of that talent to their session.

3. Kid/pet/other-spiration

We often get our start in photography by photographing our kids to use them for our portfolio, but especially if you are in the family space, you have endless marketing possibilities right in your own home! What your kids do, what’s important to them are all opportunities to create authority in that field or strengthen a brand voice. Is your oldest child a Lego fanatic and has prized work in display cases? Opportunity to photograph and comment on the precision, the concentration and what that child might grow up to do as a living - engineer, architect? Other child a wild mess but loads of charisma? Opportunity to use that to contrast different children’s personalities in fun ways. Document the ice cream treats that your whole family orders and use that to create a colourful, summery post on which flavour is best and put it to a poll/ vote!

Let’s face it. Most photographers will either post a photo with a comment about how beautiful their subjects are, and say something like ‘get in touch now!’ and that’s no fun, especially if it’s a similar variation each time. We are creatives in our photography, let’s get creative with other things - people love engaging and interesting content and in this example, they may start thinking about their own family’s ice cream preferences! When people become engaged, it starts the wheels of a soft sell. We get into the headspace that we need to give endless discounts and just advertise sessions, that we forget that a big part of selling is being exciting, interesting, intriguing.

This approach can work in many genres. Look at what’s closely around you and find a voice. I wrote a blog post about funny pets that steal the show at a session, inspired by the gigantic Saint Bernard who was in the basement when I arrived to the family session and poked his nose out of the cat door! I would catch pets doing these funny things, but instead of just one photo on FB from the session, I did a compilation which made for something interesting to share and to get people thinking about how their own pet might steal the show.

4. Develop a signature something

Fredrik Eklund, of Million Dollar Listing New York, has a signature kick. When he closes a big deal, he does a high kick that also shows off his colourful socks. You don’t have to have a kick, but what is something that is very YOU? When this element is paired with other activities like taking photos at the rescue, doing volunteer work or photographing sessions, it becomes memorable and energizes a brand. And what is memorable can get bookings!

I have a pair of red winter boots that I’ve had for many years. People always comment on them and I love how they are immediately noticed and now have become part of my professional style. I usually pair them with Happy Socks - although those are hard to get in Canada! I have a few pair from my travels in Europe.

What if you don’t know what can become a signature? Do a role-play. You are now Oprah, and you are going to make your list of favourite things. Is it a chocolate bar you’re addicted to, an ugly sweater, bell bottoms, giant earrings, super-detailed nail art? What about sports - I am a dancer and will occasionally reference jazz hands or the Carlton.

5. Get Confident then ride that wave

You know the feeling when you’re wearing an outfit you love and know looks good on you? When you’ve gotten your nails or hair or lashes done, or had some treatments to the spa? As the saying goes, you feel like a million bucks. That expression seems to have originated out of a literal meaning of wearing something expensive, but now extends to generally feeling good and positive. The importance here is that if we describe how we are feeling by an expression rooted in implications of financial success, it boosts our self-worth and sends the impostor running for the hills.

Create those conditions for yourself. Put on that amazing outfit, go get your hair done. Then, allow that feeling to help you out of your comfort zone to do something magical. Is it going to a cafe to work for an afternoon and striking a conversation up with the owner about a collaboration? Doing this for a session and feeling like a celebrity photographer and it ups your level of work? Don’t wait for some great circumstances such as waiting for your clients to comment about the gallery you just delivered, and create the conditions for you to actually pursue that million bucks!