ShineSparkL Marketing Education for Photographers: Top 10 posts of 2024
Looking ahead to a New Year! Photo courtesy of Talia Dezso Photography.
ShineSparkL, formerly Marketing and Business for Photographers, is now entering its 7th year, and I couldn’t be more proud of the ShineSparkL community. When I started things back in 2018, sick and on the heels of a health diagnosis, I didn’t have a huge vision but in the moment I was helping where I could with advice. With a 14- year career in marketing agency and another decade-plus in non-profit executive leadership, I didn’t even realize myself how much knowledge I carried that could help not only my fellow photographers, but me as well. I too struggled with some aspects of building a photography business because I hadn’t engaged with or transformed my own marketing and business knowledge into the small business/ solopreneur space. It was a learning experience for all!
I have written over 160 blog posts since inception and take great pride in this library of knowledge that I hope is helping photographers around the globe to improve their marketing knowledge and help their businesses succeed and thrive. I have had great fun being a writer, and helper and to be 100% honest, I sometimes go and re-read my own content to help anchor me back in what I too may have lost sight of and need to do to get my business back on track if I’ve derailed, or to the next level. I hope you, dear reader, have found education, inspiration and sparkle in these pages!
Here is my annual list of the top 10 blog posts, for 2024. This is determined by the ShineSparkLers who have visited the site. If you haven’t already taken a look, grab a coffee, tea, or beverage of choice, and read on for some inspiration to bring you into a new year.
Top Ten Post of 2024: Marketing education for Photographers
“Pay what you can” photo sessions: Yes, or No?
First place running 2 years in a row! Pay what you can remains a hot topic and an idea being entertained by many a new photographer. I am glad that my post is finding its way to the eager eyes of those photographers just starting out, so that I can help them evaluate this as a strategy. It’s risky and not a greatly sustainable way to approach initially finding clients, while presenting as a seemingly good way to drum up business.
Tips on running portfolio-building model calls
This post was number 3 last year and moved up a position. Portfolio building is an important piece of preparing ourselves to do business but if we don’t do it in a considered way, it risks us being taken advantage of by people who are looking simply for a free photoshoot. There is a major difference though! Model calls are a business activity with a specific goal, but people wanting personal photos have their own specific goal which may not be aligned with yours.
This was a new blog post in 2023 and it endured in the top 5 in 2024. Price is always such a huge issue for photographers and many are tempted to justify with their expenses in attempts to convert hearts and minds. But it does.not.work. You don’t spend at Starbucks because you’re supporting the cost of the coffee machine or cleaning supplies for the location you frequent. You spend at Starbucks because it makes you feel fancy, helps you relax and take time for yourself and any other number of lifestyle aspirational elements. Clients don’t need a lecture on how much it costs to run your business; they need to be inspired to want to work with you. So it needs to be about how they benefit. Treat them like royalty; give them a luxury experience and you’ll find it gets you farther than pointing out the price tag of your memory cards.
The Little Luxuries Handbook
Elevate and enhance your client experience! Take it one step further than an Excellence statement and start implementing luxury concepts into your business. One chapter is dedicated to Education Through Excellence and has more detail than the blog post!
The handbook contains low to no-cost ways to stand out from other photographers using psychological and design elements used in luxury markets.
Buzz in your Bizz: Neologisms for better marketing
This post surprised me a bit because I didn’t think the word “neologism” was too heavily searched. I guess I was wrong! A neologism is a coined term that makes it into common language and it can be buzzy and trendy and memorable, kind of like a radio or commercial jingle. A neologisms ups the creativity in our marketing which is often bereft of it because we reserve our creativity for the photography and end up with ads that sound flat and uninspiring like: Holiday Mini Session: $100, 15 minutes, 10 images. Gee, what fun. Neologisms perk things up, make things stand out, and make them sticky in our heads. How about Merry Pic-Mas, the holiday picture event not to be missed?
Why I no longer sell timed photography sessions (and why you should consider it too)
This is a new blog post from 2024. I would often comment about this in FB threads, where a photographer got stuck managing time for money: a client went over their 60 minute mark by 15 minutes and balked at at invoice for the incremental amount, or the photographer wrapped up earlier than the stated session and the client asked for a refund of minutes. I sell flat rate sessions instead, and take the focus off counting session minutes for money to focus on the greater purpose: to sell beautiful images.
Should photographers reduce prices in a sluggish economy?
Also new in 2024, I’m not surprised that this one made the top ten. The economy is a major preoccupation with everyone these days. When we fear a poor economy, our mind jumps to the first remedy we think of: lower prices. Surprisingly though, it may not be the right remedy. This blog shares an eye-opening story about the Cereal Wars of the Great Depression: Post versus Kellogg’s, to help point out why price may not be the right factor to consider in a slump and how strategic thinking is a better use of our time than just taking a zero off of the end of our price.
Prices on the website: Who are they really for?
4th last year, but still a respectable 7th this year. This one endures because photographers are so preoccupied with price and are eternally searching for what others do when it comes to that big decision: To display or not to display. And if they fall on my post, I hope it expands their thinking into the territory of price reveal strategy rather than an oversimplified question. The real question isn’t should I show prices on my website, it’s how would my client like their prices served up in a way that meets their needs? The only person who matters in your price reveal is the buyer. Ask a bunch of photographers and they will tell you their own personal preference and that’s totally irrelevant to you and your business (as is your own personal preference!)
Photography Model Call: For Beginner and Established Photographers.
The new2023 blog post moved up from 12th position into making the top ten in 2024. Pairing nicely with the portfolio-building post in the number 2 spot on this list, it goes into more detail about how I structured a model call and promotes my detailed How To guide that’s available in the ShineSparkL shop.
This is an OG post back from my first year in business: 2018. Not sure why it resurged in popularity but it does discuss an important topic: How to attract our ideal client and by doing so, repel non-ideal or poor-fit clients. When we first start our photography business we often feel we must serve everyone with a pulse, but we quickly find out that it may be better to narrow our audience. When was the last time you ate at a Chinese-Lebanese-Mexican-Italian-French-Indian restaurant? This post gives some solid examples to support the concept.
How to handle requests for RAW files
I think this one may have gained popularity due the Sepia Bride and the influx of requests that followed. While the Sepia Bride actually requested the RAW files, 99.9% of client requests for raw photos are not for the format but for the treatment. Raw as in untouched, straight from camera, without editing. I explain how we created this monster on our own, by stating we sell “edited” images. We want to embellish our offerings and make them sound professional, but in doing so, we have turned client attention to another product - the unedited. Click through to the post for a detailed explanation and how to respond.
Last year my word of the year was elevate and I believe that I was able to elevate this brand through consistent and easy-to-digest marketing education. As well through education on adding luxury touches to our business and client experience, in order to help photographers stand out in a saturated market. This year’s word for both ShinesSparkL and Lucy Baum Photography is creation. Different from creativity, creation is birthing new things into the world. For ShineSparkL it means the creation of blog posts containing information that can help as many as I can to succeed with marketing, and it also means creation of new SparkL School resources and courses. For Lucy Baum Photography, it means the creation of beautiful visual records for clients, in a noisy world that is highly inundated with mediocre and downright crappy imagery. Creation represents making images rather than just taking them, and elevating them (bringing in a hint of last year’s word!) to something that stands the test of time.
Visit this blog often. Shop and find some valuable tools and resources to solidify your business.
Wishing you all sparkle and shine into this beautiful new year!
~Lucy