Many of you undoubtedly agree that creating marketing and brand copy for our photography platforms and channels can be challenging! While I do fancy myself a wordsmith, come from a family who loves word play and write blog posts that are usually really long (but interesting, I hope!), I too have suffered through staring at a blank Instagram caption and being at a total loss of what to write.

M-AI write your copy for you?

Yes, I know that AI tools are now widely available to help with this, but with the technology still in its infancy, many still find an AI voice distant and cold from a human one. AI tools also may have trouble interpreting our brand and writing with our voice. But in the end, we always want to be in control of our language and our message, as we can make changes if we observe that these elements are not living up to how we wish our brand to be perceived. Cultivating our brand language skills will always be an asset to us in our business. So even if you start relying on AI tools, it’s still a benefit to be able to put a personal touch onto whatever is generated and to ensure all is in alignment with our brand identity before being released.

Seeking help from other industries

I’m a fan of looking to other industries and sectors for ideas and innovation in the many facets of business and marketing. For example if we wish to add luxury elements into our businesses, the luxury retail and hospitality sectors are a great place to glean marketing strategies and client experience ideas. I also seek out those who have success in other sectors, such as real estate. For example, high-achieving realtor Craig Proctor revolutionized certain aspects of lead generation in the somewhat stagnant traditional landscape of real estate and now runs his own coaching empire for realtors. His advice can be transferable in lead generation for photographers. And realty firm Fantastic Frank modernized luxury real-estate by being design-led, where buying property is akin to buying fine art. They can teach us about artistic and curated depiction of places and spaces that can help us with designing our own photography websites. We can borrow and adapt where we see others find success, because you never know what is transferable until you evaluate and/or try it. This cross-pollination can fuse ideas or elements to create innovation and spark new ideas and trends. It’s a healthy practice especially if you want to stand out in a saturated photography market.

Have you meditated recently?

I have. I’ve recently added guided meditation, affirmations and even short hypnosis videos into my daily practice that supports my Mindset Pillar. With a poor mindset, good business is really hard and like a muscle, a healthy and positive mindset must be reinforced daily in order to sustain change. I consume many marketing, success and personal growth books and videos, but with the added benefit of relaxation that usually comes with practices such as meditation, I support my Body Pillar as well with stress reduction, calmness and stillness.

As I listened to a video the other day, I found myself fascinated with the language these kinds of videos use. It’s meant to sound calm and soothing and delivers a positive and uplifting message. The word choices are beautiful and the phrasing poetic. They paint a picture with words, using metaphors like lush, green forests, beautiful beaches with waves lapping at the shore, sunsets where the sky is painted with colours of incredible vibrance, like an artist making brush strokes on a canvas of life. It’s vivid and engages our imagination in order to whisk us away from the toxic grind of our sabotaging voices to show us that we can live in a different interpretation of everything around us.

When I wrote the Little Luxuries Handbook for Photographers, I wrote an entire chapter on “The Luxury Lexicon.” I speak about this chapter in this blog post, referencing how we want to build a unique vocabulary of our craft. A vocabulary that goes beyond the run-of-the-mill of capturing memories and heavily reflects our brand values. Words, expressions and phrasing that paint that vivid picture of our photography brand and engages the emotions and imaginations of our ideal clients. But what if we don’t have a wellspring of beautiful words to draw from? Seek inspiration from places that do.

I did a search for a guided meditation video on attracting love, and came across this transcript:

“…In your mind's eye you gaze forward and you feel familiar presence or energy, a familiar shape coming into view in the far distance, [and] can't help but feel this sense of relief, and knowing that this is it, this is your person, that love is now being brought to you and you are both here within this light, this eternity of light, this light of love, this light of pure love…” (Source)

I listened to a short hypnosis session on creativity, and here is an excerpt:

“…It's interesting to think that the more you connect with your creative essence, the more empowered you become to express yourself fully and authentically. You can continue to nurture and cultivate this creative essence within you. You might find it easy to integrate these new-found creative resources into your daily life, transforming ordinary moments into extraordinary opportunities for growth and self-expression…” (Source)

And one more on a decisive mindset and shaping destiny:

“…Remember every decision big or small shapes the mosaic of our life with clarity, wisdom and confidence. We can craft this mosaic into a masterpiece of fulfillment, success and joy…” (Source)

I feel like just listening or reading to this kind of language puts me in a good mood! Whether you think it’s sliding into the realm of being cheesy or overly flowery, I believe that it achieves its intended effect of making our hearts and souls feel a little lighter and introduces a hint of joy and positivity into our daily lives, especially when we are stuck trying to figure out marketing for our photography business. If all your mindset is serving up is “I’m not good enough,” then how do you think captioning that wedding photo on IG will go? We certainly won’t be inspired to serve up any poetic language like sun rays like painted brush strokes broke through the clouds on Sarah and Greg’s day where the forecast for that day called for thunderstorms. The best wedding gift ever! We might instead default to something less inspiring like I photographed this beautiful couple on their wedding day! which is really just a description of what you did without setting an emotional and moving scene.

Get inspired to write copy, but don’t copy

AI will serve you up a generic text if you put in some prompts. A Youtube transcript can give you entire phrases like above, where to avoid plagiarism you could technically shift a few words here or there and repurpose. But this is NOT what I’m teaching you here. Get inspired by copy you see - either generated by a tool or through a source on the Internet, but don’t copy. The purpose of this exercise is to transfer some of the creativity that fuels your photography work into your copy-generating brain and strengthen it. If we can believe that creativity begets creativity, then seeking out and consuming inspirational copy will kickstart your own process. Before you know it, you may be creating copy like a champion!

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Take a stab at listening to some videos. Search guided meditation/ hypnosis/ affirmations/ positive thinking/ success for (insert whatever topic you want - freedom, clarity, entrepreneurship, attracting clients, confidence, self-esteem etc) and have a listen or a read. Treat this as an education for your mindset, as much as you might consume education for editing, camera settings, or business strategies. And you don’t have to limit to these kinds of videos either. Read romantic novels, pay close attention to dialogue when watching a show or a movie about love and relationships.

And a positive side effect of learning to write more engaging content, these videos may improve and fortify your mindset and body pillars!