- There's more to being a photographer
than just taking awesome photos,
and as I'm sure you've noticed,
it's not always the best photographers
who build wildly profitable (rock 'n roll music)
and successful photography businesses,
so simply being a great photographer isn't enough.
You need great marketing too.
This is why in this video, we're gonna cover seven
of my best tips and strategies
to help you market your photography business,
get more clients, and grow.
Let's get to it.
Hey there, my name is Adam Erhart,
Modern Marketing Strategist, Marketing Agency Owner,
and well-below-average amateur photographer,
and welcome to the Modern Marketing Show,
where we help you grow your business
by making better marketing.
So, if you're interested in learning about
the latest and greatest marketing strategies,
tools, tips, tricks, and tactics,
well, you may want to consider subscribing.
Alright, let's talk marketing.
Specifically, how to market your photography business
to bring in new clients on autopilot,
and grow your business to whatever level you'd like.
The best photography businesses all
have one thing in common.
They prioritize marketing.
Whether it's running ads, updating their sites,
creating new content,
working on their social media strategy,
or doing outreach, they all understand the importance
of being out there, being visual,
and connecting with their target market.
They know, as unfair as it is,
that the best photographer doesn't always win.
Rather, the photographer with the best marketing tends to.
And so, they prioritize marketing
and make it a part, even a small part,
of their everyday lives.
Creating an irresistible offer is perhaps
the single and most important thing thing you can do
to grow your photography business.
In fact, they're so valuable
that you should probably have more than one
that you rotate through through different seasons
or parts of the year.
So, what exactly is an irresistible offer?
Well, it's kinda just what it sounds like.
It's an offer that's pretty much irresistible
and too hard for your perspective clients
to pass up on.
When you're trying to decide on an irresistible offer
to use for your business, you want your ideal clients
to think, "Yeah, I want that."
That's a good response.
The reason irresistible offers are so valuable
is because they act as an entry point
into your world and into your business.
It's for this reason that you want them
to be as low-risk and as high-perceived value
as humanly possible.
Some examples include free consultations,
or gifts, or freebies, or limited time promotions.
Keep in mind you don't need
to deeply discount or completely slash your prices.
In fact, in most cases, I really advise against that.
But, your irresistible offer does need
to be appealing and does need to resonate
with your ideal target market in a way
that gets them to take action.
Building on the irresistible offer is tip number three,
which is to make sure that you've got a process
in place to keep ascending your customer up
the customer value ladder.
Now, if you're not familiar with a customer ladder,
it can also be called a customer journey
or customer ascension, but essentially,
all it is is a well-thought-out series of steps
that you want your customer to graduate through.
The reason having a customer ladder
or a customer ascension or customer journey
is so important is because you're not gonna
be building a photography empire
on irresistible offers alone.
This is why you need to map out
the next step or next series of steps
someone can take with you after they've taken you up
on the irresistible offer.
Whatever the journey looks like,
it's important to remember
that there's always a small percentage of the market,
typically around 20%, who wants to spend more.
Alright, we're on to tip number four,
which is to go where your clients are.
This one's a biggie because this is usually
where people get confused
and start spreading themselves way too thin
across way too many different social media platforms.
The key here is to really keep things simple
and identify the one, maybe two,
at most three, different social media platforms
that your network is active and present on,
and then spend your time and energy there.
You also wanna use a concept I call full spectrum marketing,
which is essentially leveraging a search platform,
like Google or YouTube, where someone's actively searching
for a business like yours,
and a discovery platform, like Facebook or Instagram,
where you're able to go out there
and put your content in front
of your perspective, ideal target market.
In its most basic sense,
marketing's job is to bring in your customers
and make you more money,
which means if it's costing you more
than it's bringing back, it ain't working,
and you're getting a negative ROI
or return on investment.
Alternatively, if it's bringing you back more
than it's costing,
you're getting a positive return on investment,
or good ROI, and you wanna keep doing it.
But, the only way to know for sure
is to first determine what the average lifetime value
of one of your customers is.
As a rough example,
let's say that the average lifetime value
of one of your clients is $1,000.
Well, this means that you could spend up
to $500 on marketing to acquire a new customer
and you'd still be getting a two-to-one return.
On the flip side, let's say that you're spending $2,000
and it's only bringing you a $1,000 client.
Well then, clearly,
you know that your marketing here isn't working
and something needs to be changed.
Photography is a competitive industry,
which is why to stand out and be appreciated
for the true photographic genius you are,
you need to prove it to the market
by creating authority content.
The beauty here is, you already have a number
of visually-appealing, tiny marketing assets
that you can use, your photos.
Do your best to document, teach, show,
and demonstrate your expertise
by creating content and putting it out on blogs,
or podcasts, or videos.
By explaining and actively teaching
the difficult photographic concept,
you're proving that you're an expert
and proving you know what you're doing.
This leads to more authority, more credibility,
and more trust.
If you've been in business for any length of time,
then I'm sure you've heard the advice to niche down.
In most cases, this is pretty good advice,
but what if you wanna do both weddings and corporate,
or family and boudoir,
or headshots and sports?
Well, I've got good news, you can do this,
but there is a catch.
Every niche that you wanna pursue
is gonna require its own set of marking collateral,
meaning if you wanna do, say,
weddings and corporate, well,
each one is gonna have a very different target market,
so it's gonna require its own page,
its own set of ads, its own set of content,
maybe its own portfolio.
The reason you need to do this
is because it's pretty rare
that a wedding client might want corporate photos
or a corporate client might want wedding photos.
Sure, it can happen, but in most cases,
you're gonna be significantly better off
by separating the two and keeping each marketing
in its own lane.
We've covered a lot of various strategic stuff
in this video, but no tactical,
sexy, shiny-new tactics like an Instagram Story strategy
or a Facebook Ads hack,
and I don't wanna leave you like that.
This is why I wanna leave you
with one final bonus tip that I've seen time
and time again to have the best results across all
of my photography clients,
and that is running online ads.
We touched on this quickly in tip number four
when I mentioned full spectrum marketing,
but really, the best way to quickly,
predictably, and sustainably grow your business
is to leverage the power of online advertising.
Whether we're talking about Instagram ads
or Facebook ads, or YouTube ads or Google ads,
all of them give you the opportunity
and the ability to put your irresistible offer directly
in front of your ideal target market.
Now, granted, online ads do have a bit
of a learning curve,
but the rewards are well worth the effort.
Alright, so thanks so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed the episode.
If so, make sure to give it a thumbs up,
subscribe to the channel, (rock 'n roll music)
and leave me a comment in the comment section below.
Also, for more great marketing strategies,
tools, tips, tricks, and tactics,
make sure to head over to AdamErhart.com,
which is packed full of articles and videos,
and all sorts of content designed
to help you grow your business
and take your marketing to the next level.
So, thanks so much for watching,
and I'll catch you next time on
the Modern Marketing Show.