There are many different roles for a photographer to take. If you’re looking to get more photography clients there are a few steps to take and questions to answer that will help you with your search. Even if you’re not in the photography industry, these steps will also open up your channels to get more clients.
Understand Your Audience
As I mentioned in the opening there are a lot of different roles when it comes to being a photographer. It could range from nightclubs to weddings to studios. Each of those photography clients would be looking for something different. If your speciality is in street photography and you don’t have a studio on hand, why would you approach a model looking for a studio shoot for their portfolio? Once you understand your clients you know what they’re looking for and what they value. Being professional and having top-notch equipment may be a selling point for some clients, whereas the style and process of the shoot may be the selling point for others.
Where do you get this understanding? Testimonials. Look at the testimonials of similar photographers and studios within your area and you can see who is talking. A negative review may have just been a bad fit. A positive testimonial that still wished for something more can give you an understanding of gaps in the market. You have to listen to gain an understanding. If you don’t have those testimonials yourself you can find plenty online.
Delivering Value Through Online Content – Showcase Your Credibility
When it comes to a creative service, “the right fit” seems to be said a lot. You want your style and ability to match your clients, which means demonstrating your work. Not just showcasing the final product, but showing how you’ve gone above anyone else to understand the outcome of the images you’re creating. Photography clients or any clients will be looking at the outcome. What have you done for them and how have you done it differently that makes you the person to go to.
How you’ve made the shooting schedule easy to understand and implement. Where you’ve used your ingenuity to overcome a problem. The relationships you’ve made through your work. All of this can be used to create content that attracts prospective clients and showcases your credibility.
Not sure how to create this content, check out our latest course.
Prospecting To Clients Through Social
Now you have an understanding of your audience and the content to amass an audience you can prospect. If you’re looking for prospective photography clients to come to you, you’ll be relying on referrals, word of mouth and your social channels. Without that initial client base, you can still prospect using social selling. Connecting with clients you want to work with, posting content that gets their attention and messaging them with a low-obligation, outcome-focused approach.
For example:
“Hey Dave, just thought I’d send over a message about your website imagery, I had a few ideas on how we can have them perform a little harder for your company. Up for a chat?”
You’ll nearly always need to talk face-to-face with your photography clients to truly understand what they’ll need from you. If you’re looking for new clients, the best place to generate them is through social media. This means you need to connect, engage and pull them into a face-to-face conversation. This can be done using the steps above. Understand your audience and your value, create content that speaks to them and then prospect to them.