Promoting Your Photography Business- a Checklist

Do you have a new photography business and you’re clueless where and how to start promoting it? You wish it’s just as easy as placing your good photos online (or in your studio) but you realize marketing your photography biz is a tedious task. Learning the ropes of marketing could be much tougher than learning the ropes of photography. Here’s a short checklist to get you started.

Creative Business Cards

Because photography business is categorized as creative, there is a need to have creative business cards. People probably would not think our service is bad (or not that good) if we hand them boring business cards but they will automatically think we’re good if we have an impressive business card. It just means we’re 1. Creative (very important in this kind of business), and 2. A good company (since we give importance to the quality of our marketing). This little bit of extra will set us apart from the new ones who just joined the photo business bandwagon. Get creative ideas from these 100 really creative business cards.

Promotional USB Flash Drives

Although we don’t like it that much when they ask for soft copies of the photographs instead of the printed ones, we simply have no choice. Everyone wants to post their photos on facebook! So if there’s nothing we can do about it, let’s just make the most of it by using injecting a marketing strategy. We can place the digital photos in USB flash drives. We print our company name and logo on it and voila, it becomes a promotional tool. The advantage of USB flash drives over CD-ROMS is that USB flash drives can be used for storing other files. Well, CD-ROMs, too but people prefer using USB flash drives. So when our clients use them, it is likely that other people will see their flash drives. They’re effortlessly promoting our company. Here are USB music albums that will surely catch anyone’s eye.

Mailer Promo CDs

Sending promo CDs still works! Let’s not focus ALL our time and money in making the coolest website. Everyone is doing that nowadays. What they do not know is that people still want to see,feel,smell,and taste the real thing before they reach their pockets. A study conducted in 2010 reveals that consumers prefer direct mail use of CDs and DVDs. Another advantage is that people are not likely to throw away CDs that say, flyers or ordinary-looking business cards. Just don’t forget to put your business card in your mailer promo CD so they’ll have your number handy.

Good-looking Website

We already know the importance of a good website nowadays. Of course, we need it. Every business has a website. This is so old news, right? But I just want to stress-out the importance of a good looking website for photographers. It is very important that the website lay-out is not too cluttered. The simpler, the better. People should not have a hard time when they explore your site. Contacts should be in the homepage as well as links to twitter and facebook. Music could create a mood but is a bit tacky. People will just visit your site for your portfolio, contact information, prices, and bio. Do not put too much bling.

A good logo

A good-looking logo is a pre-requisite for a good-looking website and a good-looking facebook page but lots of photographers forget about it. Please take note that no matter how good your photos are, people still bother about how good your company is. There is a big difference. They want to know how you are as a company. In their heads they’re wondering “am I dealing with responsible people? Do they care about their reputation? Are they the types who are scared to get a bad review because they have a reputation to maintain?”

By having a logo, you answer their questions indirectly. A logo means you care enough to become a reputable company. That you care for your business’s image. And that you want your business to run for a long time.

Cute Giveaways for the Kids

Make your studio kid-friendly so that parents and kids would love to go there. If the kids behave well (or not) during the photoshoot, give them lollipops, chocolates, or bracelets with your company name printed on the packaging. If the kids love you, everyone will love you.

Referral Perks

Offer discounts and other incentives to current clients who refer new customers. The portrait photography business operates largely by word-of-mouth, and offering referral bonuses is one of the best ways to spread the word about your business and what it has to offer.

Different kinds of shots for portraits

Frame several of your best photographs to use as samples in your marketing campaign. Make sure you include several different kinds of shots, including both posed and candid photographs. Hang one set of those sample photographs in your studio for customers to see, and use a second set of photographs as you travel around to shows and special events.

If you got all of these, I assure you that you’ll get lots of phone calls and e-mails. Be sure you are prepared to handle lots of clients by calling your photographer friends in case you get swamped with projects. Good luck;-)

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