A place for you to learn, get inspired, and keep up to date with all things SmugMug and photography
For much of the world (apologies to our UK and Eastern Europe friends) Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and this year we’ve put together a toolkit and some ideas you can use to promote your photography on your SmugMug account, increase your sales, and deliver beautiful gifts to your customers and their families.
To start with, you’ll need to decide if you want to offer a sale, discount, or promotion for the holiday. We highly recommend it — many of our sellers who use coupons have seen great sales with them, especially around festive occasions.
If you’re cool with coupons, next you’ll choose what kind of promotion you’d like to run for Mother’s Day. Here’s a quick refresher of the kinds of discounts you can offer:
You can also apply restrictions to your coupons to fine-tune your promotion:
By combining coupon types and restrictions, you can create engaging sales like limited-time offers, bulk discounts, and buy-one-get-one deals. See our help page for a detailed breakdown.
Next up: prepping your product.
Whether you’ve got a collection of picture-perfect landscapes just waiting for a wall, or your portrait clients would love a snapshot of their special someone, two things will help you prepare for your sale: galleries and pricelists.
With galleries, you can organize the photos you want to promote and sell into easy-to-browse spaces for your customers. This could be one gallery of your best-selling photos, multiple themed galleries for various subjects or styles, or even a hand-picked collection of photos chosen just for Mother’s Day.
Once you have your photos chosen and sorted, you can use pricelists to make sure you’re ready to earn a profit, no matter which promotion you decide to run. Here’s a quickstart guide for pricelists, and here are some of our best selling items you might want to include:
To help promote your Mother’s Day sale, send an email to your subscribers and/or publish a post to your social media followers. Subject lines are an easy way to stand out in a crowded inbox, so don’t be afraid to get adventurous:
In your email, be sure to include your discount, showcase some of your best photos, and mention shipping deadlines so your customers can order their gifts in time for Mother’s Day!
As for social media, we recommend spreading the word wherever you can, and including some useful hashtags like #mothersday, #photography, #giftideas, or #photos when you do.
Here’s an email and Twitter-friendly social post we’ve put together as an example. Feel free to copy and paste these and tweak them to your heart’s content.
Subject Line:
Gorgeous prints and gifts for Mother’s Day, now XX% off!
Body copy:
Looking for a great gift for the mom in your life? You’re in luck — my entire photo collection, including these best-sellers, are available as top-quality prints, gifts, homegoods, and more.
[your most popular photos here]
Just follow the link below and start shopping. Apply coupon code [CODE] at checkout and you’ll get XX% off your order, but be sure to order soon so your gifts arrive in time.
[Hyperlink to your SmugMug Site] Find the perfect gift
Thanks as always for being a supporter, and happy Mother’s Day!
-[YOUR NAME]
[Use your own photo]
Looking for the perfect #gift for the mom in your life? Use coupon code [code] for XX% off top-quality photo prints, gifts, and more. Order soon for arrival by #MothersDay!
[Link to your SmugMug Site]
We’re always happy to help our sellers excel, so if you need a hand, don’t hesitate to search our Help Center.
Was this Seller Toolkit for Mother’s Day helpful? Is there anything else you would do to increase your sales? Leave a comment below, or start a conversation on Instagram or Facebook.
Although “marketing” might sound like jargon for a Business 101 class, marketing your photography business can be fun when you harness your creative powers to think outside the box. The best part is, there’s no shortage of strategies you can try. When a campaign takes off, it can bring customers to your studio, cause print sales to soar, and drive corporate clients to your lead pages.
Your strategies can be online, offline, in person, and a mix of everything in between. Many techniques are free and easy to learn, while some require a bit more skill and practice to master. Since every photography business is completely unique, with different offerings, clients, and objectives, there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution, but you can mix and match until you figure out what works for your specific photography business.
Here are 45+ ways you can market and advertise your photography business with explanations of each and tips on how to maximize effectiveness. The following advice will help bring customers to your studio, boost print sales, attract workshop attendees, sell custom editing presets, and more! Use the jump links below to skip to the section you’d like.
Harnessing the power of the internet and its endless marketing tools is the perfect way to build and grow your photography business. Many techniques don’t cost a thing, and the barriers to entry are only limited by your creativity. Luckily being a photographer means creativity is your strong suit!
1. SEO (search engine optimization) - This is the practice of optimizing your website and individual pages to show up for certain terms and phrases on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. It can put your brand in front of a user when they are looking for photographers, art to buy, and other services you offer. Marketing directly to potential clients who are already searching for a business like yours is a golden opportunity. The idea is to optimize SEO on your photography portfolio website, and as you learn more about SEO you can grow and scale your traffic through digital PR, content writing, and by following best practices. Each web host has unique ways of handling SEO, so check with your provider on how to include SEO on your site. Research appropriate terms that will drive traffic to your site, like “Chicago wedding photographer” or “food product photographer.”
2. Stock Photography & Art Marketplaces - Some sites let you list and sell your images in a streamlined way, where they handle the marketing and hosting, and you provide the content. Buyers come to these sites looking for everything from landscape artwork to photos of animals, holiday scenes, and people working in an office. By selling through these marketplaces, you will pay a fee and lose some margin, but you can build a fan base and supplement your income with sales until your own photography website and brand takes off.
3. Social Media Paid Ads - Each social media platform offers advertising options. The important factor here is to know the demographic breakdown (age, sex, location, job, interests, etc.) of your ideal clients, so your work pops up in their feed without them having to go looking for it. Another way to use social media advertising is to post regularly and build a fanbase over time so you can stay top of mind and keep your images in front of the person until they’re ready to shop.
4. Organic Social Media - By using localized hashtags you can attract fans to your accounts. This includes #cityphotographers and #familyportraitphotographers and nicknames like #philly for Philadelphia and #htown for Houston. By building a fan base over time, you become the person they think of when they need to hire a professional photographer in a specific city or for a specific subject matter. Think about geographic hashtags as well as hobby and niche tags that fit your style and content.
5. Sponsoring Newsletters - By buying ad space or promotions inside of an organization’s existing newsletter, you get exposure to an audience that trusts the sender and reads their content. Think about your ideal client and what type of newsletters or blogs they might already subscribe to. It could be fashion designers that subscribe to a trends blog (they need product shots and lifestyle photography), or birdwatchers that belong to audubon societies and local clubs (they might collect bird art for their homes).
6. Directories - These are online listings of photographers organized by location and subject matter. Photography directories are a great way to get in front of people searching for photographers in their city or near them, and we have one here at SmugMug called ShutterScout that SmugMug Pro subscribers can list themselves on.
7. Digital PR - Much like traditional public relations (PR) , the internet offers a multitude of ways to gain exposure and bring customers to you. Digital PR is the marketing technique of being featured in a blog, on a social media account, online magazine article, or other places where the story links back to your website, which drives traffic to your portfolio and brings you leads. Unfortunately getting coverage for your photography business doesn’t just materialize out of thin air. You’ll have to pitch yourself to publications and social accounts, giving them good reasons why your story is interesting or unique to their audiences. It could be your background, your creative approach, or anything that makes you unique in the space, but think outside the box and get creative!
8. PPC (pay per click) Ads - These are short ads that appear at the top of search engines or on side banners, and when someone clicks on the link and visits your site, you pay a small fee. Each platform is different, where some let you define an audience, and others let you pick specific keywords and phrases like “Headshot photographers in Salt Lake City”.
9. Media Buying - This basically means buying ad space on the websites that your customers are visiting. When there is a community of customers you want to reach, make a list of the websites they regularly visit. You’ll see ads showing on the side, in the footer, and in between paragraphs. These can be purchased as a “media buy” through the ad network they use. They can be pricey, but well worth the investment if your client is a regular visitor to these sites.
10. Email Newsletters - You can build your own email list by having a blog with regular updates, a pop up with an offer enticing the person to subscribe (15% off your next portrait session!), or by writing a guest post for another successful blog or newsletter. (Beware of purchasing email lists; it usually doesn’t work). By sending regular emails to a subscriber that enjoys your work, you keep your brand in front of them—getting hired, making sales, and filling workshops when they’re ready to take action. Figure out a good pacing for these newsletters, where you’re not spamming your audience (which leads to an immediate unsubscribe) but you’re sending them often enough to stay top of mind. Once a month or every other month tends to be a good place to start your experiments.
11. Remarketing - Have you ever visited a website and now you see ads for the product or service on social media, in search engines, and everywhere you go online? These are remarketing ads that businesses use to show ads to people who showed interest in their product or service. This is a great way to continue marketing to a potential client who has already shown some interest in your work by visiting your portfolio or putting prints in a shopping cart.
12. Create an Online Course - If you host in-person workshops or teach photography skills like lighting and editing , consider creating an online course using videos, PDF handouts, quizzes, and instructional pages. There are several platforms that allow you to host the course on their site, and you get royalties as students on their platform take it. Online education has become really popular in recent years, and both amateur and professional photographers are always looking to level up. Another option would be to create and sell courses through your own website. The tradeoff is that you have to create and distribute everything yourself, which is a bigger technological undertaking, but you get to keep all of the profit.
13. Google My Business - Even if you don’t have a physical storefront, all businesses should be listed on Google My Business. It’s free and can help you get featured more prominently in search results. You can list your hours, services, and client reviews, which are one of the strongest forms of marketing these days!
14. Google Maps - In addition to having your website and Google Business Profile show up when someone searches for you, you can advertise your business on Google Maps to show potential customers how close they are to you. This is ideal if you have a brick-and-mortar location like a photo studio or print gallery.
15. Online Community Marketing - Look for large active groups of people in your target market on social media sites like Facebook, forums like Reddit, and photo-focused communities like Flickr. Begin participating as an active community member and when the need for a photographer arises, you have an “in” with the group. Wedding photographers could join groups for brides to be, while portrait photographers might look for school parent groups that will want senior portraits and family sessions. Event photographers might join groups for party planners or follow pages for popular local venues, and product photographers can look into small business owner, entrepreneur, and inventor groups.
16. Podcasting - Just like This Week in Photo, you can create a podcast to attract art fans, fellow photographers, and like-minded creatives This is a great way to let potential clients get to know you with no pressure on their end, and you can slowly build an audience with engaging and interesting content, which you can share across all your social platforms as bonus marketing. Eventually you might be able to attract sponsors and make some money with affiliate links for the products and services you mention. When figuring out what subjects to cover, think about what your clients might be interested in. Wedding photographers might offer tips on how to make the big day run smoothly, or easy posing suggestions for people who are uncomfortable in front of the camera. Bring on guests who are interested in reaching the same audience as you, and ideally they’ll cross-promote the content on their own channels.
17. Blogging - Perfect for photographers of all kinds, blogs drive business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! The key is to be consistent (i.e. posting regularly) and establish yourself as an authority on your subject. Whether you want to make a blog all about your photography practice (say, with tips for buying perfect prints or hiring the right photographer in your niche) or you’ve got a side passion that’s photography adjacent (like fashion, sports, or hiking), write what you know and help people learn along the way.
18. YouTube and video marketing - Similar to podcasting, creating a YouTube channel is a great way to reach audiences around the world 24/7/365. You can offer short how-to lessons on editing, posing, gear, and lighting, or you can interview fellow professionals in your space. Again, consider what your target clients might find interesting (and what you find interesting!) and tailor your content to those subjects. An always-popular topic is behind the scenes of certain shoots, so make sure to grab footage when you’re out and about shooting!
19. Streaming - As with YouTube, people love to learn and see professionals in action, like watching a photographer on location. Streaming offers a more candid experience for the viewer than the edited videos on other sites, so keep that in mind when deciding what to stream. Viewers might tune in to learn post-processing and the unique techniques that go into turning a digital image into a work of fine art, or want to see what goes on behind the scenes of a fashion shoot.
20. Reviews & Client Testimonials - Getting positive reviews and good client testimonials is the fastest way to build trust in your business. Anybody can put up a flashy website and have a good social media presence, but hearing from past clients about their wonderful experience working with you is way more effective. These reviews can be shared on your website, social media, and Google My Business profile, creating a word-of-mouth marketing campaign that’s powerful and effective.
While print ads and traditional offline marketing might sound old school, they can still be some of the most effective ways to market your photography business. There are numerous opportunities to reach your target clients when they’re going about their days IRL.
1. Flyers - Similar to online community groups, think about where your chosen audience is spending time outside of the house. You can hang flyers on community bulletin boards, place them on cars at related events, and hang them at local hangouts like coffee shops and offices. Focus on quality over quantity: 20 flyers in front of the right eyes is way more valuable than 200 flyers seen by people who will never hire your photography services.
2. Newspapers - Believe it or not, people do still read newspapers! Putting an ad in the local paper can help you reach a huge audience of local clients, but keep in mind the reader demographics. They may skew older or hold certain job titles, so keep that in mind when creating your ad.
3. Vendor Directories - Phone books are not as common these days, but industry associations and unions may offer vendor directories. See how you can be listed in the directory, which will provide automatic trust in your photography business by being linked with the organization through an official channel.
4. Brochure and Program Sponsorship - Theater shows, pageants, community events, religious institutions—they all have brochures, and many feature ad space. These could provide a unique opportunity to reach an audience with a shared connection to your photography business.
5. Bus Stops and Metro Lines - Having a captive audience is a great way to get your brand out there, and people commuting to and from work are looking for something to do. Having your ads displayed while they ride can bring awareness to your brand for bookings, workshops, portrait sessions, and print sales. For example, if you teach a course about iPhone photography, let them scan a QR code, purchase, and begin taking it on their commute.
6. Magazine ads - Most major metropolitan areas have a trusted local magazine—“Washingtonian” in DC, “Boston Magazine” in Boston, and so on. Many have themed editions like the best restaurants or best in weddings. Buying ad space in these specific issues can put you right in front of readers who are actively looking to hire your services. Another option is to try and get included in the editorial space, meaning you won’t pay for coverage. Maybe the magazine is putting together a “Best of” list or doing profiles on locals involved in the scene. Check past issues and reach out to the editors and writers to see how you can be included. One thing to know is that print magazines work many months in advance, so start on this as early as possible to increase your chances.
7. Direct mail - Think postcards, letters, and even small packages. Direct mail is a great way to build business with exactly the type of clients you want to go after. If your messaging is right and it reaches a mailbox at the right time, you could fill your appointment book. Think of seasonal and annual events where people book photography services. This can work well for commercial and editorial photographers too, by sending hard-copy mailers to the business address of art buyers and photo editors at the brands and publications they want to work for.
1. Markets - All around the world you can find shopping experiences for crafts, holidays, and weekend farmers markets where you can set up a booth for the day. Many of the event goers might not be ready to hire you or sign up for a workshop on the spot, but it can be a great opportunity to hand out a business card and collect their contact information to be added to your email list. You could set up a mini studio for a quick portrait session, then ship the print or have them pick it up at your studio, which creates another contact point. It’s a great way to build a fan list, make print sales, and drive brand awareness.
2. Charity events - People are passionate about causes, and supporting the same causes can build a level of trust like nothing else. This includes firefighters and first responders, animal rescues like ASPCA and Humane Society, cancer societies, and everything in between. By sponsoring their charity events or volunteering your photography services, you create an automatic connection with fellow supporters and can collect leads from people who share your interests.
3. Expos and conferences - There are no shortage of expositions and niche conferences, including bridal, pop culture, trade shows, electronics, and everything else under the sun. They are usually annual or twice a year, and they all need event photographers to capture the moment. Reach out to the organizers and pitch yourself to shoot the event. If you get hired and attend, you’ll be able to connect with hundreds of individuals and brands who are in your target audience. Be prepared to hand out business cards and collect everyone’s information so you can reach out to them after the expo. Another option would be to have your own booth where you can display your work and meet potential clients.
4. Gallery exhibitions - Build relationships with local galleries and stay in touch about being featured in their exhibitions. Keep in mind there are plenty of other artists also trying to get featured, so make sure to stand out above the rest in unique ways. Offer to shoot an event, provide headshots of the staff, or volunteer in a helpful capacity. The relationship should be give and take, not just take and take! If you do get into a show, make sure to market the exhibition on your own channels and bring in customers.
5. Volunteering - Think about providing a photo booth at a community event or teaching a course at the local elementary school. Not only will it show you support the community, it will also get you out there meeting and building goodwill with potential clients.
6. Speak at a Conference - As soon as someone sees you on stage, it provides automatic credibility that can otherwise take years to build. You’ll be seen as a trusted expert by the in-person audience, as well as anyone who sees a photo or video of you in that position. Find events that are connected to your type of photography business, and contact the organizers about speaking or presenting your body of knowledge. While it might take some time and effort to prove yourself as the right person to be on stage, this can fast-track you to positioning yourself as an expert, which makes clients want to hire you.
7. Join the local chamber of commerce - If you offer product and corporate photography, your local chamber of commerce has business owners that need your services. Attend meetings, participate in the community, and go to networking events to get out in front of these potential customers! You’ll meet clients, build trust, and show how you work with other local business owners. You could try doing a free headshot session or offering a discount to other chamber members to generate business.
8. Utilize local influencers - People trust the local movers and shakers in their area. Invite those individuals for a fun themed session to bring awareness to your studio and the photography services you offer. Make sure to provide the best images to the subjects so they share on their channels, with the request that they tag you and share your information in relation to the work. Consider submitting the images to local websites and publications if appropriate, or post in community groups that might find the images interesting.
9. Religious events - Do a free photo session at religious group events for their important days and ceremonies, making sure to respect the particulars of the religion and the particular day. These groups might want to bring awareness to holidays and celebrations and share it with the rest of the community. You can capture a few shots they can share on social media with their congregations and fans. When the head of the institution recommends you as the official photographer, you may fill your book with sessions for baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other celebrations.
10. Host an event - Having people come to you can work wonders for your business. When they’re in your studio or at your party, they’re exposed to your brand and your services while also having fun with friends and eating and drinking for free. Plus, events are easy to market through social media, posted flyers, and word of mouth.
The beauty of marketing is that it can be anything you can dream up! It doesn’t just have to be printing flyers and posting ads on websites. Your creativity can be exactly what brings new business to you, and there's no shortage of opportunities. The sky is the limit!
1. Cross promotions - Every business owner has complementary vendors, and working together to promote each other’s stores and studios benefits everyone. This includes your photography clients, because it makes it easier for them to find trusted providers. Consider doing a discount bundle for the group of vendors if the person uses multiple. Wedding photographers could partner with event venues and florists, and maternity photographers could partner with clothing and baby stores.
2. Sending Samples to Vendors - A great way to build exposure and business is to snap photos while you’re on location. If you’re doing real estate photography, get some stunning shots of the landscaping. At parties and other celebrations, capture the catering and floral arrangements. Now add your watermark and give digital and printed samples to the vendors for them to use. You’ll be exposed to their potential customers, and they might become your customer for a refreshed lookbook or website update.
3. Placing Art in Venues - Restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, doctor’s offices, etc.— they all need decorations. Why not offer them artwork for their walls and in exchange they can give out your business card? In some cases you can let customers buy the wall prints directly from the venue and do a revenue share with them. The location doesn’t have to pay for high-quality decor and they make a bit of extra income.
4. Referral programs - If you have happy customers, always ask for referrals! By incentivizing them to share on social media and through email, you’ll be creating a word-of-mouth campaign that builds immediate trust with their friends and family. This is the original (and still the most effective) marketing strategy!
5. Loyalty programs - To get repeat customers, offer a loyalty program that rewards them for hiring you multiple times. If they purchase nine prints, they get the tenth one free. Or include a magnet or small token of your appreciation with every purchase. You can do the same thing with signing up for courses, booking sessions, and pretty much any service or product you might offer
6. Become a Subject Matter Expert - Pitch your local news to be a subject matter expert on photography. They have experts for kids toys, business and operations, and everything else you can imagine, so why not photography? With so many opportunities for sharing and seeing images in modern society, creating better images is always going to be a relevant topic. As a photographer you can share posing tips and theme trends for holiday portraits, providing insights only a pro like yourself would know.
7. Trade for Ad Space - Offer stores, bakeries, and coffee shops that share your customer base a photo session so they can get pro-level images in exchange for hanging flyers in their store window or putting an ad on their website for your photography business.
8. TV ads - These can be pricey on a national level, but local ads can work well and are surprisingly affordable. If there’s a couple of shows or a local news program your audience might watch, focus on these as busy seasons approach.
9. Movie theater ads - This ad spot normally runs on a monthly basis. If there is a movie playing that is relevant to your target audience, you can try advertising your services. Try to link your subject matter with the topic of the film. For example, if you do dance photography, a movie about a ballet school for kids would be a perfect fit. If you do sports photography, the next football drama will attract the exact clients you’re looking for.
10. Giveaways - Create a giveaway during slow times, whether it's a free session for local kids’ sports teams or a day of event photography for local community groups. You’ll get contact information of potential customers so they can buy prints and might book your services in the future.
Much like mastering the art of photography, mastering the art of marketing a photography business is more of an ongoing journey than a battle to be won. The good news is that it does get easier as you start to understand your target audience, what works, and what doesn’t. As technology evolves, so will the opportunities to market your work online, but don’t forget that the old fashioned print and in-person ways can still be the most effective. As your marketing skills develop, be as creative as you want and have fun with it! Potential clients will recognize the authenticity and connect with you as a person. Hopefully this guide inspires you to think outside the box and generate more ways to bring in customers and keep your business going!
Selling prints and photo-related products is a gamble because you have to put money into producing the goods without the guarantee that someone will purchase it. But don’t stress! There are ways to determine buyer behavior and figure out what people are looking for (or not) by doing a bit of research and tracking your sales.
Whether you’re a first-time print seller or a longtime fine artist whose photo sales have slumped, these tips will help you sell your art at markets, fairs, galleries, coffee shops, and any place that will display your work for sale. By relying on some of the creativity that made you an artist in the first place, you can boost local print sales and keep revenue coming in. Plus, some of these tips can be used for online sales too, doubling your opportunity for revenue.
Do a weekly stop by local galleries that showcase similar artists and see what gets sold and what replaces the sold pieces. Nothing predicts future buyer behavior better than past buyer behavior, as long as it’s relatively recent. Keep an eye out for:
By noting what’s moving off the walls, you can look at your own work and see if it matches the photo aesthetic that is currently being bought. Take note of the different galleries, their types of customers, what’s being sold there, and the details listed above. Talk to the curators and gallery employees to figure out what people are drawn to and what they’re saying about it to maximize your chances. Wherever you’re selling, talk to the manager about what they’re looking for in terms of style and subject. Their insights into what people are buying will be invaluable to your overall revenue. The truth is they want to get sales just as much as you, so they’re likely willing and eager to share this information with artists in their communities.
Keep in mind this isn’t about copying another artist’s work—it’s about curating the art you’re already making to increase your chances of sales. For example, if you’re a landscape photographer, you might find that moody, dramatic scenes with epic weather sell better in your area than sunny, blue sky vistas. If you’re a wildlife photographer, you might find that baby animals always do better as small postcard-size prints versus a large framed canvas. Perhaps the current demand is for historic cityscapes and you’re featuring modern city views.
Believe it or not, the price you put on your work affects how potential buyers view it, too. Your prices might be too low to make it “fine art” or they might be too high for the current buyer base in your region, especially if the economy is in a downturn. This is where comparing your prices to others’ work will help your pieces stay competitive and not seem out of place for the gallery location.
Part of an interior designer’s job is to keep up with popular color palettes, style demands, and aesthetics, so they’re a great go-to resource for what type of art people are hanging on their walls and putting in their houses. Real estate agents are also aware of these trends, as they’re staging houses for sale, talking with buyers, and walking through a LOT of different homes.
Offer to take your local interior designers and agents out for lunch to chat about these topics and glean as much information as you can about the local market. They’ll know what styles and colors buyers are looking for and excited about. You might even develop a good enough working relationship where they’ll recommend you to home buyers who are looking to decorate, or feature your work in staged homes and leave a business card out for anyone who likes what they see to stay in touch.
Again, it’s not about changing the work you make as an artist, but if colors are trending cool and most of your tones are warm, your shots could be stunning but they will clash with the most common decor. You may prize yourself on your avant garde artwork, but if local consumers are looking for rustic or classic, your pieces will likely sit on the shelf. If you can adjust your existing work to fit, consider experimenting and curating so it matches the current aesthetic trends. Style and tastes change regularly and it’s okay to have a period where your favorite work doesn’t match up, but there’s a good chance you have something that will fit what the customer wants. You just have to know what to look for!
If you exhibit at art fairs, community events, and in-person festivals, take notes on what the crowds are looking at, pointing at, and stopping for. It could be holiday-themed, specific animals that are popular, or similar color palettes. Don’t be afraid to ask these buyers and other artists why they purchased what they did, focusing on what specifically (color, subject matter, size, etc.) drew them in to buy the exact product they did. Of course you don’t want to be pushy or rude, but be friendly, come from a place of curiosity, and share any insights you might have from purchases made at your booth.
Look at your product mix and see how it lines up with what’s selling at other vendors. A long exposure of fireworks from July 4th probably won’t sell in December, just as snow-covered trees and mountains won’t be flying off the shelves in midsummer. Consider the staging details of your booth and how it sets off your artwork (or distracts from it) and try to help potential customers imagine how it might look in their homes. You probably can’t bring in an entire room’s worth of furniture and decor, but bringing a few pieces here and there can really set your art apart.
By using these tips you should be able to tweak your current offerings so they match with what is being sold out in the world. Try to do some research every few months and check in with the gallery locations where art is being sold, as tastes and trends change regularly. Remember also that art is completely subjective and your work might just be the unique piece that’s different from everything else on the market and exactly what your customer is looking for! You can always take these learnings and modify your photography portfolio and see if you begin selling prints again through your own ecommerce site. And if you don’t have one yet, click here to try SmugMug free for 14 days.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but for experience businesses in today’s photo-obsessed society, pictures also mean happier customers and increased profits. Successful experience businesses – like escape rooms, ropes courses, arts and crafts studios, and whitewater rafting companies – are built on creating events that leave an impression on the participants.
The goal is to have customers walk away with lasting memories that they are excited to share with friends and family. When the business creates and sells high-quality imagery (print and/or digital), they can boost revenue in the short-term by selling prints or digital downloads. If profit per image sold is $10, selling 2 images to 8 groups in a day, that’s $160 in new profit per day.
Beyond that boost in revenue, when customers walk away from your business with awesome photos to share on social media, they’re acting as a walking spokesperson for your brand. Their followers will want to have the same experience and seek your business out. This can build into grassroots marketing campaign that is more powerful (and cost-effective) than anything else on the planet. Forbes reports that 76% of social media users have purchased something they saw on social media, with authenticity being the most important factor when a product or service was recommended. It doesn’t get much more authentic than seeing a photo of the individual enjoying your business in the moment!
The following article is a primer on how experience businesses can leverage photography to provide a top-notch customer experience and boost revenue in the short- and long-term.
Providing event photography leads to a better customer experience.
How many times have you been laughing with friends, living in the moment and loving life, when somebody says, “Hold on a second, let’s get a picture!” Then everyone has to wait until the person gets out their phone, sets up the shot (or finds a random stranger to take it), and keeps clicking until they’re satisfied. By then the moment’s over.
Or maybe you’re more familiar with the person who never puts their phone away. They are constantly taking pictures and practically see life through their screen. For experience businesses, both of those situations can be disruptive and ruin the magic that one is trying to create.
Providing event photography as a service allows participants to put their phones away, stay fully in the moment, and enjoy the experience. Knowing there’s someone capturing the amazing moments for them will help customers enjoy their time even more. Whitewater rafting businesses can position a photographer at the biggest rapid on a trip, capturing the surprised and excited faces of their patrons—or even the unlucky person or two who falls into the drink. An outdoor ropes course might have the perfect stopping point to gather everyone for a group photo high off the ground with an epic landscape backdrop.
Removing the stress of having to capture every moment and offering incredible photo packages adds up to an enhanced experience and boosted revenue. After all, that’s what your business is all about!
Selling photo packages creates an additional short-term revenue stream.
Once you’ve gotten customers in the door, photography provides another opportunity to create revenue. You can provide event photography as an optional add-on service and sell customized photo packages to participants.
Providing shareable content for customers is the strongest form of marketing.
“Pics or it didn’t happen” has become a mantra for a whole generation of social media-driven customers, and luckily for experience businesses, customers who post high-quality pictures are the best type of promotion.
Word of mouth marketing used to be limited to your customers’ friends and families, but thanks to the power of the internet, that network has expanded to include your customers’ followers and anyone who comes across their page. When you provide great images and videos that a customer is proud to show off, they become a walking spokesperson for your brand.
Photography isn’t just a superfluous add-on for experience businesses these days, it’s a powerful tool that boosts revenue, expands marketing efforts, and significantly improves the customer experience. Leveraging this new paradigm is crucial to the success of any experience business, and if you follow the guidance provided here, you’re guaranteed to see incredible results.
Whether you’re offering keepsakes to holiday portrait clients, or specialty items to art fans, we’ve taken the guesswork out of choosing which items to offer in your store beyond those gorgeous prints. How, you ask? With DATA.
We’ve taken the most commonly searched-for items and terms to help you pick and choose just what you’d like to feature this holiday season. Beef up your photography packages, list these items front and center in your shop, and feature them in customer gift guides or newsletters for a gift that will delight your customers and their families.
We know that photo magnets are always a big seller for portrait clients. But just how popular are they? By using Google data we can find out, down to the sizes people commonly search for. Here’s how many people search for photo magnets by month:
There are over 6,000 people every month searching for 8x10 photo magnets, so that’s an easy win right there. Try using a smaller size in your photo packages, and offer the more in-demand size to your clients as an upsell! Or you could offer discounts on orders including multiple sizes to capitalize on a diverse range of magnet options.
Another holiday classic, photo mugs are a popular search term. Here’s what they look like by the numbers:
The word "custom" here is sneaky: It could mean someone is looking to upload their own image to the coffee mug. As a photographer that’s not going to build your business. But if you primarily do retouching work, it could be an ideal offering!
Like magnets, mugs are a popular item you can benefit from featuring front-and-center in your store. They work nicely as upsell items in your photo packages, too.
The numbers don’t lie: People love their keepsakes. Here are a couple other options that came up in our research:
While these may seem like small potatoes in comparison with your first two options, we included the word “photo” in each of these for specificity. If we take that away, you get a bigger picture of the kinds of demand you can tailor your offerings toward:
Each of these photo gifts offers an opportunity to sell your photos, you’ve just gotta get creative with your messaging: “A photo mousepad is a great way to make sure your favorite vacation memories are always with you at the office.” “Playing cards featuring your photos make great stocking stuffers, and will always spark conversation around the card table!” etc.
By including some of these popular items in your store, or featuring them as add-ons during the checkout process, you can inspire your customers to go the extra mile—and make an extra sale in the process.
Happy selling!
As a creative professional, it can sometimes be a challenge to treat your work as a business. Taking photographs is a form of self-expression and a personal passion, and that can muddy the primary goal of making a living. In this article, we’ve set out a financial management roadmap, to help set you and your photography business up for success.
Pricing yourself as a photographer is challenging, whether you’ve been in the business for one year or twenty. Taking the time to ensure you're pricing your work appropriately and budgeting carefully is absolutely essential to your success.
But never fear! There are some simple considerations that can make your life a whole lot easier when it comes to pricing your services, or when to adjust your pricing. They are:
It may sound intimidating, but let's dive into each of these a little deeper.
A good place to go next when managing your business finances is your profit and loss statement, also known as an income statement, or P&L. You’ve done all the hard work above, so a P&L is just a helpful document to make sure you’re on track. Put simply, your P&L is your business’s revenue (often referred to as the top line), followed by your costs, or operating expenses (studio rent, payroll, travel expenses, gear rentals, insurance, etc). The difference between your total revenue and your total expenses (also known as the bottom line) is your net income, or profit.
The more you are able to update your P&L statement, the easier it will be. At the very least, we recommend doing this quarterly, especially if you are filing your taxes as a sole proprietor (because you’ll be filing every quarter). Without tracking your revenue and expenses, you won’t know if you’re making a profit, so it’s a crucial step in running a successful photography business.
In order to sustainably and accurately manage your finances, it is important to stay organized. There are endless ways to do this, but for simplicity’s sake, we picked our top three.
Managing the finances of your photography business is no easy task, and like the market itself, your finances are not fixed, they are in constant flux and so your pricing is something that will need to be adjusted and reevaluated periodically to reflect that. We are confident, though, that taking the above steps will get you started on your way to growing a successful photography business!
Being featured in the media—think local news, magazines, etc.—is one of the best things you can do to boost your brand. The increased reach of your photography brings customers to your doorstep, and strengthens your credibility in the process. And it’s easier than you think! In this article, we’ll discuss how to get your photos in the local spotlight.
Almost all local magazines, newspapers, and news stations have seasonal features. From special bridal editions, to holiday events, farmer’s markets, sports spectaculars, and more, each feature is an opportunity for photographers to find their niche.
To start, subscribe to the publications you’d love to be featured in, and keep track of themes they cover each year. Most publications have digital archives, which will make your job a LOT easier.
Keep an eye out for a theme where your photography would be a hit:
And keep in mind that every one of these is looking for subject matter experts, in addition to photographers!
Now comes the fun part: before you reach out to these media outlets, be sure you’ve got a pitch polished. First, put your subject-relevant photography front-and-center on your portfolio or website. Then start thinking of relevant skills you bring to the table to make working with you even more enticing for a media outlet. For example:
You can even supplement your expertise with blog posts that make clear you know the business, while also being helpful to visitors. Let’s use a fashion week as an example.
If you know color theory and fabric history, you can showcase fashion week photos and walk through the current trends and why they’re on top. Then you can share accessible ways to incorporate these trends into a shoot, plus give tips for getting the best shots for selfies, social media, and family memories.
This kind of content boosts your credibility AND your accessibility, making you the ideal person to work with a media outlet.
Now that your portfolio and pitch are polished, it’s time to reach out. Here are two strategies to get you started.
Strategy 1: The publications you know
You’ve already done the homework of finding publications who promote events around your photo expertise, so now it’s time to get in touch! Take that handy list of subscriptions you’ve got and start noting the names of the authors and the editorial team. If they list an email address, even better, but if not, no worries! Most publications have a general information contact to get you started.
Once you’ve got the contact info in hand, draft your email: Make clear who you are, why you’re writing, and what makes you the one for the job. Be sure to ask questions that show you’ve done your homework. Just like you appreciate someone who’s taken the time to look through your portfolio, writers and editors appreciate when you know their background.
Reference past themes you found interest in (and even authors by name, if you’ve found someone on staff with a solid publishing record on the topic), and get the details you’d need to participate in the future, like:
This gives you the ability to plan ahead, fine tune your pitch, and submit it when they need it so it does not go into a pile or miss the deadline. Timing is everything.
Strategy 2: The publications you *don’t* know
This may sound basic, but trust us: Go to Google and type “(Your City) + (Your Subject Expertise) + Photographers” and click on “News”. This will immediately give you a list of media companies talking about your topic of choice in the city you’re located. Then hone this list by “date” (under “tools”) and you’re left with a list of the most recent articles, published in your area, about your subject expertise.
Chances are you’ll find a lot of publications you already took care of in Strategy 1, but you’re likely to find some overlooked opportunities as well.
For both of these strategies, it can be useful to make a spreadsheet for ease of reference—and to make sure you’re not repeating any pitches too soon. Here’s an idea of how yours could look:
However you keep track, just be sure you’ve got a solid way to remember who you’ve already pitched to, when you pitched, and if you heard back from them. This way you can make sure you don’t double pitch or repeat yourself.
Being featured as an expert in the media is one of the best ways to build trust for your photography business and grow your customer base. And as a bonus: once you’re featured, why not start a “featured in” banner on your website with publisher logos? Show off those credentials. You earned them!
Backlinks are a link from someone else’s website to yours, and they’re one of the best ways to grow your photography business. Why? They’re a vital part of SEO (search engine optimization) that helps your business show up when local people are looking for photographers and prints. And backlinks do more for your business than just SEO.
Being featured on another website helps build your brand because it shows that another business trusts you enough to send people your way. But getting backlinks can be tricky, so we contacted photographer and SEO expert Adam Riemer to share some of the tips he uses with photography clients to get good quality backlinks.
Before we share the strategies, it’s important to note that not all backlinks are good for your business. If the backlink is something anyone could get (like a link from a social media profile or post) it won’t help you with SEO. It’s also a good idea to avoid reciprocal, link-for-link schemes and paying for backlinks. These could get your site penalized which can devastate your growth potential.
Penalized in Google terms means they take an action on your website so it can no longer show up in Google searches. More severe penalties will prevent you from showing up for your own brand name, lesser ones will make it so you only show up for your brand name and not phrases like “photographer near me” or “landscape wall art”. The penalties can be either algorithmic or manual with manual being the more severe.
You can find manual penalties by logging into Google search console. Algorithmic are only detectable by using the traffic reports inside search console. You’ll see a drop or no more traffic for your website for non-branded phrases. Branded phrases are your photography business’s name or your own name as the photographer. Non-branded are the larger ones that customers who haven’t learned about you yet use to find art, studio photographers, product and corporate photographers, workshops, and more.
When you build a backlink there are two rules of thumb to follow:
With these in mind, let's jump into building backlinks for photographers.
Local photography events tend to promote their lineups ahead of time, and if you’re on the list, this is a prime opportunity to reference your portfolio site and get a backlink. As a bonus, when popular photography and media websites reference your business, this signals to search engines that your site is also about photography, which can boost your appearance in search.
Besides the reward of sharing your hard-earned skillset with a new generation of photographers, teaching can help you generate valuable backlinks, too. Check your local high schools, universities, and community centers for opportunities to guest lecture. When you get included in course descriptions and syllabi, make sure to provide a link to your site. If you want to get even more links, try generating resources for your courses that are hosted on your site. As educational institutions provide links to these resources for ease of access, you’ll get a helpful boost to your site’s SEO in the process.
Like teaching, supporting charitable causes is its own reward. But as a photography business, you can also make sure you’re putting your business out there to be discovered. Look for opportunities to provide pro-bono photography services at local events, and when you do, be sure to provide links for the event’s sponsors, vendors, or contributing businesses pages.
Because you’re a photographer, you have a distinct advantage for many charitable events—people will want the photos you took during the event, especially if you volunteered at a photo booth! This can be a great way to establish contacts for future customers as well. Just request an email address so you can send people their photos directly.
If you have the opportunity to specify, ask the event organizer to link to your homepage off of your company name so that attendees can see all the photos you took. Every little bit of name recognition helps when it comes to SEO.
As journalists and bloggers create content, they’re looking for original artwork to accompany their articles. Offering images to news sites and industry blogs in exchange for citations and sources is a great way to get featured.
For example, if you’re a bird photographer, offer your images to audubon societies and bird bloggers in exchange for backlinks. This builds your brand, gives you exposure, and drives leads to your site. Who knows, you may sell some prints, too!
Pro Tip: Linking your SmugMug site directly from your photograph can boost your discoverability .
If you’re a wedding photographer, you see a LOT of behind the scenes action. From flower arrangements to food, to the DJ setting up these are opportunities to capture moments that show the hard work that goes into the entire production. If you have the time before or after your shoot, capture portfolio-worthy product and entertainment shots from other vendors.
Next, let these vendors know you got some spectacular shots of them at work, and provide a business card or QR code so they can visit your site. If they like your work, propose a trade: they get updated photography, you get a solid backlink, and everyone wins. And this applies to all types of photographers! Wherever you’re shooting next, keep an eye out for other businesses that could benefit from your photography skills, and show them what you can do for them.
As a photography business, you’re in a unique position to generate powerful backlinks for your business, boosting your SEO, raising your profile, and strengthening your brand. Hopefully with these strategies in mind, you’ll be top of the charts in no time.
