Advanced Marketing Strategies for Photographers

In an increasingly digital world, your photography clients are looking for you in new places — and you’ll need to keep up with emerging trends if you want to grow your business. To get more eyes on your portfolio, convert leads, and sell more to clients, you need to market your business in new and different ways.

In this blog, we’re diving deeper into advanced marketing strategies for photographers, and sharing tips on how to carry out these strategies with ShootProof.

Share great content on social media

If you’re already showcasing your photography work on social media, great. You’ve taken steps in the right direction. But there’s so much more that social media could do for you. Below, we’re sharing a few tips on how to gain more traction on your social platforms.

Audit your social media accounts

First, make sure you’re consistently showing up in the right places online. (Hint: That’s wherever your ideal clients hang out).

Then, see what kind of first impression you make on your target audience. Does your social media bio clearly state what you do and what photography services you offer? For example, if you prefer to do portrait photography for CEOs, your headline could include “Portrait Photographer for Executives.”

Don’t miss out on the power of having a strong call-to-action (CTA). Your bio CTAs should tell your followers how to work with you or learn more from you, depending on what they need. It could be to download a free photography session checklist, check out your portfolio, or even book a mini-session.

Develop your best social media content strategy

A stellar bio and cohesive brand presence will draw people in, but your social media content strategy will make them stick around. Your strategy is hitting its mark if people are virtually high-fiving your content. This looks like giving likes, comments, direct messages (DMs), and reaching out to purchase your products and services. 

Think about content topics that your audience wants and are connected to your offers. If you’re a wedding photographer, you could share engagement session tips, wedding planning ideas, and client love stories. If you’re a boudoir photographer, you might share advice on posing for your body type, what to wear, and how to feel confident before a shoot.

Consistency is key if you want to stay top of mind. Create a cohesive brand presence across platforms and prepare to post consistently – whether that’s multiple times a week on Instagram, weekly on Pinterest, or twice a month on YouTube.

Drive more engagement with your photography content

Do you know what photography marketing strategies are doing really well right now? Short-form video content! Riding the trending wave of Reels, TikToks, Stories, and Instagram Lives can help you skyrocket your growth on social media. Carousels and static posts still count, but capitalizing on these video features will help you reach more people fast. 

Just like with your bio, use CTAs in your video content to increase engagement with your content. Here are a few examples:

• Share links to your content outside of social media
• Ask for answers to a question in the comments
• Ask them to share their thoughts in the comments
• Tell them to DM you for a quick guide or more information 
• Use stickers and polls on stories to get more clicks
• Ask them to share or re-post to their network

Lean into SEO (search engine optimization) 

You know what’s going to increase your odds of booking a new client? When someone Googles “Minnesota newborn photographer” and boom, there you are — right at the top of that Google search results page. That’s the magic of optimizing your website to be found online, aka search engine optimization (SEO). 

To help more photography clients find you online, practice good SEO techniques like:

• Researching keywords. Keywords are what your clients are using to search for your type of products and services – like “newborn photography,” “CEO headshots,” “brand photography,” etc. Think about common searches and the questions people may ask to try and find your type of business. You can also use the Google “related search” bar at the bottom of search pages, or you can use tools like ChatGPT or AnswerThePublic.com for keyword ideas! 
• Optimizing for on-page SEO. Add those keywords everywhere that search engine bots will look for them, including the alt text of your images, and the meta title and description for each page. On your blog posts, add the relevant keyword into your title, the headers (H1s, H2s, etc), and where it naturally makes sense throughout your content.
• Optimizing for off-page SEO. Get everyone to show search engines how great your content is! Share on social media – and ask others to share – links to your blog posts with your most helpful or interesting content. Guest post or interview for trusted websites and link back to your website. Also, ask for customers to share reviews on your Google My Business listing and other trusted review websites. 

Strong SEO will take your photography website to the next level and drive more potential clients to book you.

Develop an email marketing strategy

Social media and SEO marketing will help people learn about your business. Email marketing can really take those relationships to the next level. Use email marketing to consistently connect with your subscribers. Share behind-the-scenes content and your latest projects with them, or offer promotional deals only available to your list. 

Photographers using ShootProof email campaigns have been able to capture more sales – up to 187% more sales to be exact. So what type of email campaigns can you set up with ShootProof?

• Custom date campaigns – Use these campaigns to trigger emails based on special dates, including holiday promotional sales or client birthday messages.
• Custom trigger-based email campaigns – Set emails to send based on a certain number of dates before a “trigger” date, such as an expiration date, gallery release date, or order due date.
• ShootProof email campaigns – Use ShootProof templates to create a series of marketing emails. Just choose your genre – corporate emails, newborn email campaigns, and more – and quickly set up your next email campaign.

If you want to increase bookings and drive more passive income while you sleep, ShootProof email marketing is the way to go.

Collaborate and network with others online

Marketing isn’t just an online effort for photographers! Extend your reach by borrowing other people’s audiences. You can collaborate with other brands, photographers, or influencers to create interesting content that both your audiences will love. Partner with others to cross-promote content, host a giveaway, or spread the word about your photography business.You can also set up coffee chats or hop into networking events to meet other creatives your clients tend to hire. Maybe you’ll connect with a brand strategist who often needs photographic work for their clients. Or you’ll meet a virtual assistant who would love a referral relationship for their creative clients.

Relying on human connections can be a simple and enjoyable way to market your business.

Give paid advertising a try

Organic marketing efforts are great for long-term growth. But paid ads can help you drive more traffic and sales immediately. Follow these quick tips to use paid advertising to get more customers:

• Decide on your goals. Are you increasing website traffic or driving more sales for a specific service or product? Knowing your goals is important for these next steps.
• Make a budget. How much are you willing (and can afford) to spend on advertising? This will vary depending on your goals and platforms, but pay attention to the cost of acquisition so you can make an informed decision about your advertising budget.
• Create compelling content. Look at your best-performing content. What can you learn about past content in order to create ad copy and content that will boost sales? 
• Follow the data. Are people clicking on your ads? Is your content getting people to click on where you want them to? Use A/B testing and tweak just a few things at a time to see what the data tells you about audience interest and engagement. 
• 

Track analytics to fine-tune your photography marketing strategy

Think of your analytics data as a treasure box full of valuable secrets about your target audience.

Your data can answer questions like, “Which content gets the most engagement?” Take note of what’s popular so you can make more of it, plus repurpose it across platforms and into different types of content. You could turn a popular blog post into a social media series, or turn a newsletter topic into a podcast episode or YouTube video.

Let’s say you notice people quickly bouncing off a page about your self-paced photography course, or bypassing newsletters on DIY photography content. It’s time to put on your detective hat to figure out what’s going on. Are they looking for different types of information? Is the messaging clear and compelling? You’ll only know once you investigate and tweak your approach to see what’ll happen.

Tracking your analytics will help you fine-tune your marketing strategies to create content your audience will love.

ShootProof can help supercharge your marketing strategy

Using these advanced marketing strategies for photographers will get clients lining up at your (virtual) door. Engaging social media content, helpful emails, and content related to your business and audience can encourage bookings, secure sales, and keep clients coming back for more.

With ShootProof, you can set up a portfolio website – or integrate your ShootProof portfolio with an existing website – to wow all of your site visitors and potential clients. Use invoicing features, customized galleries, and email marketing automations to make it easy to get paid while ensuring smooth client interactions.

Easy sales, stellar customer experiences, and passive streams of income? We can help make that dream a reality. Level up your photography business marketing strategies with ShootProof today.

Photographs by NICOLE WEEKS PHOTOGRAPHY