Are you an aspiring photographer who’s worried that he/she might not make it in the business? Don’t worry! For there’s no better than the present to be a photograph; thanks to myriad channels from where you can secure clients.
In this post, we look at different ways in which you can boost your outdoor photography career and portfolio by securing well-paying customers:
Curate Your Portfolio – Especially On Instagram!
There’s one thing that all successful photographers have one thing in common – they all have a solid Instagram presence. They get a ton of work through IG presence.
How? By showcasing all the right photographs.
Make sure to curate your IG feed thoughtfully. Ideally, you should stick with a ratio of 1:7 for casual versus professional shots.
Below are some tips through which you can get bookings through this leading social media platform –
- Old photos you captured for clients
- One photo every week shooting behind the scenes
- Any of the highest quality photographs you captured of your family, friends, nature, animals, surroundings, etc.
Collaborate With an Influencer
An influencer can be anyone with tens of thousands of followers. You can even collaborate with a brand and work out an arrangement to boost your portfolio.
Here’s a typical example of influencer marketing works:
Let’s say you capture excellent animal photos. And, there’s a dog on Instagram with a huge following. You can contact the account and offer to capture the photos for free. In exchange, all they have to do is mention your brand name in the description of the photos. The technique is simple yet effective.
Just make sure that you pick the influencer wisely. Make sure your target audience and the influencer target audiences are the same.
Influencer marketing has a ton of benefits to offer –
- Helps to increase your audience
- Get you more job
- Boots your portfolio
Set Up a Giveaway
This is another excellent trick up your sleeves to boost your presence/portfolio and land new clients
Giveaways are simple. Here’s how what you to do essentially –
Think of a prize you will be giving away. Make sure it’s interesting and inspiring enough to get people to participate. Yoru prize could be –
- Giving a chance to become a model for a day
- Free birthday photoshoot for children
- Free family photoshoot
- Self-portrait for free
Be sure to keep your audiences in mind while planning your giveaway.
Here’s how you can conduct the giveaway –
- Put out a post announcing the prize
- Set rules that clearly ask people to tag their friends in the post, like the post, and also follow your account
- Explain how the winner will be picked
After announcing the winner, be sure to put out another post as a follow-up on who the winner was and how the photoshoot went.
Set up a Blog
Blogging may sound intimidating at first. Especially if you’re not a techie at heart or don’t have a particular knack for writing.
But, it’s a highly effective method when it comes to securing quality leads. It helps you get in front of new people who will get to know what you do and how you do it.
The only thing you need to be careful about is covering trendy topics that would attract a larger pool of readers. Be helpful through your blogs and writing. Use it to show your artwork. Share camera tips and tricks that would help people capture better quality shots.
Blogging is an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority, build trust among the audience, and sound reliable.
Create a Referral Program to Land New Clients
If you’re short on clients, you must leverage the power of referrals. Referrals are so powerful, that when used right, they can give your business unprecedented and exponential growth. There’s nothing quite like the power of word-of-mouth publicity.
There are myriad ways in which you can devise a powerful referral program. You could always have enough clients to leave you a good review. In exchange for that, you can offer them a huge discount on their next photoshoot session.
Basically, you have to reward your customers for referring your services to their friends, family, colleagues -or anyone in their network.
And, while we’re on the subject, make sure to leave a thank you card to your friends and family who’re possibly doing free publicity on your behalf. Encouraging them and nudging them in the right direction could be the biggest source of referral for your business.
Make sure that you have a powerful online presence and a printed portfolio. Also, go for business cards that your customers can distribute. All of these are powerful referral tools that will come in handy at the right time.
Leverage Other Social Platforms
The truth is, the majority of your potential clients are probably spending most of their time on social media. We already talked about Instagram being THE most powerful marketing tool for photographers. That’s because it’s big on the visuals and photographs. However, there are many other budget friends platforms that you must not forget. When used right, they can bring in a ton of bookings and clientele.
Based on your niche and style, you should check out the following –
- TikTok
Bottom Line
These are some of the tried and tested ways for photographs to land new clients that have stood the test of time. Leverage them the right way to take your photography business to new heights.
