Whether you’re moving a business across the country, starting out fresh, or just need a little boost, we’ve got 10 great tried-and-true tips that deliver results.
A couple may seem old school, but in this digital vs. analog era, they’ll make you stand out like a handwritten note on luxurious paper.
We talked to four photographers around the country who’ve mastered the in-person, grass roots approach and found out their best advice based on their own results.
1. First, think locally.
When Jessica Haley moved her family from Manhattan out to the tiny town of Rye, New York, she quickly realized that vying to be listed online as a top wedding photographer for all of New York was a bit unrealistic.
“New York City is a massive market, so trying to be the first photographer to show up on Google was not happening,” she says. “But the other problem is that when you say New York, people think you’re ‘local’ from Cape Cod to Pennsylvania. The result is driving all over Long Island or to New Jersey, when I really want to just work in my backyard.”
To prevent becoming a slave to commutes (which could eat potentially two additional days around an event), Jessica narrowed her focus to her much smaller town, which boasted eight venues for high-end weddings, and cultivated relationships in her direct community.
“I branded my website to dominate my town, not New York,” she says. “You have to define what success is for you, your family and your business, not what looks cool on the Internet. If you look at New York City weddings, there are a billion vendors at every level and it’s hard to make those connections. It’s much easier to get your own community around you.”
2. Ask (politely) for online referrals.
Portrait photographer Susan Torregrossa of Winter Park, Florida, is a huge proponent of online referrals on sites like Yelp, Google+ and Citysearch because they provide instant credibility, since businesses can’t reward customers or provide incentives for good reviews.
When she’s wrapping up with her clients, Susan asks if they’re interested in leaving a review for her on one of the sites, keeping her request as low pressure as possible so her clients only leave reviews if they truly feel inspired to. Keep in mind that some sites run algorithms that dictate which reviews actually display, which you really have no control over, but the end result is for potential clients to search for an area photographer and see your name pop up with a healthy selection of positive reviews.
“Reviews on Google+ tend to show up on a lot of different sites too,” adds Susan. “It’s also super important to have a fantastic website, because that’s immediately where they’re going to go. And make sure you have lots of keywords through your site that search engines can grab.”
3. Get friendly with your chamber of commerce.
Both Susan and Jessica are big fans of their local chambers of commerce. For usually a small annual fee, you can join the local chamber and attend weekly meetings with other area business owners.
What this does for you is get your name in front of an audience that may not be seeking you out online. The icing on the cake is that you get a few uninterrupted minutes on the stump to hawk your wares. Susan typically starts out with corporate head shots (an obvious angle for the audience), but also segues over into her family work, and gets those wheels turning on a personal level.
Jessica also used her local chamber as a networking tool to connect with other women entrepreneurs. For her, it’s more indirect marketing, as she focuses solely on weddings, but merely being present and involved keeps her front of mind. She finds out about area events and opportunities to network further.
“It’s about getting the community around you in other areas,” says Jessica. “Most of the people I’m meeting are already married, but if somebody knows some- body getting engaged, they may think of me. Plus, I’m getting connected to other vendors in town and getting inspired outside of the photo world bubble.”
4. Join or start a creative Facebook group.
When Jessica moved to her new small town, she combed the Internet for any local meet-up groups or creative societies where she could simply network and get the lay of her new land. She found a private Facebook group of mothers in the area who were previously professionals in the city but started other businesses after having kids and moving to the ’burbs.
The group meets in person twice a month. When the group’s creator moved to Florida, Jessica took it over.
“I found this whole community of women I previously didn’t really know existed,” she says. Jessica also connected with her local chapter of the Rising Tide Society, a network of creatives with chapters in communities across the country that hosts monthly topic-based coffees for its members. “We always leave with our brains on fire,” she says.
“Plus, you meet people who can help your business and make strategic partnerships.” The important part is using the Internet to actually get face to face with other members of your community.
5. Partner with another business to host events.
Dallas/Ft. Worth photographer Kendra Swalls partnered up with a local boutique that would offer her clients a small discount when they mentioned they were shopping for their session. Kendra hung large senior fashion prints on the boutique’s walls and set up a counter display with business cards to reach other customers. Kendra and the shop owner play each other up on social media, and both have seen a boost in business as a result.
Kendra expanded the idea by hosting girls’ night out events, targeting moms for head shots, beauty sessions, or boudoir. Kendra pulls in a hair and makeup stylist and offers up wine, drinks and snacks, with gift bags and hair and makeup tips.
“There’s no pressure; it’s not an in-home sales party,” she says.
“I took pictures, collected emails and posted a gallery online. I had about eight ladies and got a booking out of it and it really didn’t cost much.” This idea works regardless of genre, so brainstorm potential partners and give it a shot. Think a cake-tasting party for brides, a pre-season fashion show for senior girls, or even a “learn to use your camera” party for moms (one of Jessica’s ideas). The point is to gather potential clients, give them something useful, and get your name out there.
“If people feel connected to you as a person, they’re more likely to come back to you,” says Kendra.
6. Make your blog a local resource.
“I always like to tell people to become a local celebrity,” says Arizona-based photographer Amy Fraughton. “The people at school, in the park, at church and in the grocery stores — those are your customers. Stay close to home and set up your blog to support other local businesses.”
Amy suggests approaching businesses in your area that fall in line with your target clients, and saying you’d like to highlight them on your blog. Maybe it’s a coffee shop’s under-promoted story hour for kids or a weekly discount at a cute little bake shop. Or maybe it’s a quick list of the top five play parks in town. By regularly highlighting (Amy suggests twice a month) a local business or shop, you slowly establish yourself as a community resource and start driving traffic to the rest of your blog and site.
“Plus, when a business is featured on your blog, they’ll most likely post it on their social media and then you’ll have access to their audience as well,” she says.
Kendra employs a similar tactic, adding more informational posts into the mix to educate her potential clients as well as highlight wedding vendors in her area. “When I post a session, I get a decent amount of pageviews right away, but then once it’s shared, they fall off,” she says. “But posts that give people something, like one I did on why brides should hire wedding coordinators, received 10,000 views in the first two weeks. It’s been huge.”
7. Seek out charity auctions and events.
This one requires a little research and cold calling, but it usually pays off. Find a local community calendar and see what charity events are coming up. Most charities are thrilled to have volunteer services, so consider doing a little event photography and blow up social media afterward (make sure you get a photo credit for all of the charity’s posts). “It gives your clients a warm and fuzzy feeling to see that you’re out doing something for the community and it bumps up your credibility too,” says Amy.
Silent auctions are always happy to have donations, but you can also volunteer as the event photographer, even if it’s not your specialty. Susan recommends setting up a display that fully represents your brand and everything you do. “If I can, I’m going to be there with my camera strap that says ‘Studio T’ covering the event for their social media,” says Susan.
“I always look for higher-end events where people will be spending more money. These are the same people you would normally be advertising to.”
8. Welcome new businesses to town.
You can use a similar approach to work with high-end boutiques and retailers opening in your town, provided you can get enough advance notice to offer them free images for their promotional use and you get the exposure. Periodically perusing the paper’s business section or checking in with local events blogs can clue you in to what’s on the horizon.
Think new boutique hotels, restaurants, shops, galleries — any new business that would benefit by having a few promo pictures for their social media blasts. Even a national brand with an ad agency will most likely benefit from promo pics for the local social media.
“I had a friend move her business to Idaho and manage to get a gig shooting promo pictures for the new Anthropologie store in her town,” says Amy. “It gave her an instant cool reputation and she of course blasted it all over social media.”
Amy says she’s worked with food trucks at events in a similar capacity, exchanging food credit for promo images of them in action. It’s all part of the calculated build to get your name in the community and in front of clients over and over again.
You just have to get up the nerve to ask. “Dress up nice and go in when a manager is there and say ‘I’m working on building my business and I want to partner with you,’” says Amy. “Have a list of benefits for them in your head, say you’ve got a great Facebook page and you want to share. Be prepared for a no sometimes, not because of you or your work, but because of other restraints, but you’ll work your way to some yeses.”
9. Scratch their backs and they’ll scratch yours.
Think of ways to turn a paid session into a mutually beneficial arrangement. Amy once partnered with a real estate titling agency that wanted to build more relationships with real estate agents. “They brought me in to do their own head shots and then we negotiated a lower price to do two to three per person as an offer to the agents they wanted to reach, which they then email-blasted to 10,000 real estate agents,” she says.
In another real estate-related situation, Amy had a mortgage broker hire her for head shots, and then contracted to have her come in once a month for any real estate agents who might need new ones.
10. Facebook isn’t what it used to be.
Keep getting those email addresses. Now that Facebook has evolved to a point that makes it difficult to reach potential clients unless you pay for ads, Amy says good old email is still a strong way to go.
“The real key to working with social media is through email marketing,” she says. “Once you have clients’ emails, you can stay in front of them, be top of their mind and have total control. Even SEO companies have gone down because the algorithms have changed. What was a No. 1 search result on Google might now be number 20.”
Amy suggests gathering emails and building lists because how- ever the wind changes, email will be vital. Facebook used to be the place to get noticed, now it’s Periscope, and in the blink of an eye, it’ll be another outlet. But email addresses still go straight to the source — use them to tie together all your social media marketing.
