A useful guide to Growing/scaling your photography business [ 11 Nifty Tips to scale]

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How to grow Photography business

Scaling your photography business can mean a variety of things to a variety of people, such as transitioning from a part-time to a full-time endeavor, from a second shooter to a professional photographer, from building a team to accepting more photography jobs.

📈Checkout out our Latest and in-depth blog about 🌐The Ultimate Guide to start, grow and Make money in Photography Business

If you have landed on this page and you are yet to start a Photography Business check out this blog that can help you Start one.

Also, Read Checklist For Starting A Photography Business [Crucial To Your Business success]. Tips from Experts

However, it almost always boils down to quantifying whatever it is that you are doing at the moment and taking it to the next level – in whatever capacity that is described in your business plan.

Sometimes it will show up in the numbers of your revenue, and other times it will show up in the type of work that you start taking on as a result of it.

However, in order to expand your photography business, you will frequently need to take care of a long list of added responsibilities and action items.

It is possible that this will involve the implementation of new systems, the adoption of a new brand image, or the testing of a new marketing strategy.

Photographers are often tempted to turn their hobby into a profitable business by the desire to demonstrate their creativity or the desire to assist others in perpetuating something that is meaningful to them.

It is to your advantage to be knowledgeable about the various ways in which your photography company can be improved in order to gain a strong foothold in the competitive photography industry if you are currently operating a photography company or have plans to launch a photography startup in the near future.

Whatever it is, if you find that you are getting anxious about taking the next big step in your photography career, then this blog might be able to help you.

Related: All things about SEO

Is it the right time to scale your Photography Business

Even though you are the best judge of your situation and the right person to decide on the timing for scaling your business, taking into consideration the following points could provide you with a clearer picture as to why you want to move your business to the next level:

• You are looking to grow your customer base by adding new customers or broadening your appeal to a different demographic of potential buyers.
• You want to free up more of your time so that you can focus on other things, so you decide to delegate some of your responsibilities to another person or team.
• You have set a goal to raise the annual revenue that you bring in.
• You are interested in bringing something novel to your existing services.
• You have determined that the current procedures in your company need to be updated because they are not producing results that are satisfactory to you.

Here Are the Top 11 Tips For Growing Photography Business

1. Have a website that looks highly professional.

When you have an idea for a photography business and are ready to get it off the ground, you will need a website that is both appealing and impressive because your website will serve as your storefront.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to seek the advice of professional web designers, as they have access to a large number of original and inventive photo website design templates that are a better fit for your particular photographic style.

However, you can create a website yourself with many Website builders available. Read my I Blog on the 7 best website Builders for Photographers…that can motivate you to create one yourself.

Your website serves as a virtual showcase of your work, which your clients will visit in order to view examples of your previous work. It must contain examples of your previous work in addition to a page that discusses your history and previous experiences.

It is recommended that you include a detailed list of your prices. It will be helpful in regulating the expectations of customers and will discourage people from attempting to negotiate for a cheaper price. In addition, you are required to provide your contact information.

Your photography website is the most effective tool you have to spread the word about your business to people all over the world. In this day and age of widespread digitization, the vast majority of your customers will initially learn about your company and communicate with you via your website.

Pixpa.com a Website Builder Specially made for photographers gives you the ability to add your physical studio or office to Google Maps if you have that location.

You should mark your location on a map block that is located on a page titled “Contact.” For a more professional appearance, including information about your company in the footer of each page of your website.

Also Read: 7+ Best Website Builder for Photographers in 2023- Photographer & Creatives website builder review

2. Have a Photography Blog.

Your consumer and your community are exhibiting faith in your photography ability by inviting you into their lives and entrusting you with some very significant life events when you provide photography as a service.

Your work can be displayed in an ideal manner on a blog, which is an excellent instrument for influencing future clients.
It presents a golden opportunity for you to demonstrate the value that you can bring to a potential customer or client.

It provides them with an insight into your motives and what values you serve to your customers, both of which will be crucial to them when they make their selections.

Blogging has the potential to do wonders for your company in a number of different ways. The following is a list of some of the benefits that blogging can bring to your photography business:

• Drives more visitors to a website.
• Enhances Search Engine Optimization
• and raises people’s awareness of the brand.
• Increases the number of prospective leads generated from traffic.
• Contributes to the creation of links.
• generates content for the purpose of sharing on social media platforms.
• Your audience will be educated and informed if you do this.
• Builds up a knowledge repository.

Also Read: Content Ideas for Creatives

1. Maintaining a consistent blog can help your SEO inturn Grow your Business

Blogs serve a key purpose in SEO, which is to answer the questions that your target audience is asking. In addition to allowing you to document your thoughts and communicate your unique personality, blogs fulfill this function.

Think of a blog as a landing page that addresses the concerns of a certain audience.

The content of your blog should therefore be centered on answering these concerns and providing solutions to these problems.

You should try to cover as many different areas in a single blog post as possible in order to create an organized blog post. Include links to the answers for queries that are either unimportant or require such a lengthy response that they draw attention away from the primary concern.

Keep in mind that the likelihood that people will enjoy reading your blog article increases in direct proportion to how relevant and helpful it is.

As a general rule, SEO blogs ought to include headers titled H1 and H2 that contain relevant keywords.

The primary blog topic should be included in the first sentence of your post. A relevant term should be included in at least one of the H2 tags (subheadings).

What should the appropriate keyword density be for my website’s blog?

However, the number of times a term can be used (also known as keyword density) should ideally remain between 1 and 3% of the total number of times it can be used, although this totally relies on the context.

2. Do the On-Page SEO right & SEO-Optimised Content

Use on-page SEO to attract and help search engines understand, recognize, and rank your content.

To Help Blog posts and pages gain visibility in search. We have created an on-site SEO checklist to help you through this process. 

You will never miss the chance to optimize your web pages or blog posts in this way.

Related: SEO for Blog posts

3. When it comes to On-page SEO, many different elements can influence how you classify.

 One advantage of on-page SEO is that you have more control over every aspect, so when you understand the basics and best practices, it’s easy to get right.

1. URL Structure
2. Title Tag & Description
3. Heading Structure
4. On-Page Content Optimisation
5. Add Imagery & Multimedia & Image SEO
6. Internal Linking
7. External Linking
8. Schema Markup
9. Page Load Speed
10. Mobile Friendliness

4. Keyword Research

The first step in SEO copywriting and a fundamental part of your SEO strategy is keyword research. 

You must find out what search terms your audience uses before creating the content of your website. 

You are using your keywords for your search terms. You can begin to write useful and high-quality content based on these keywords. Here, we will take you through the many keyword research steps.

We use a tool called Keysearch.co for all our Keyword Research and we also use SEMRUSH for all our other SEO activities and Data Analysis.

5. Finding the Appropriate Keywords

To differentiate themselves from the millions of other rivals that are striving for the same niche and presentation of material to the public, photographers and creatives need to develop skills related to search engine optimization (SEO).

Context is essential for websites that are image-heavy since it helps them stand out and achieve higher rankings in search engines.

As a result, you should adhere to the best practices for organic SEO, which are strategies that do not require you to pay Google for each click that is made on a link to your website.

Finding all of the keywords that are pertinent to your photography business is the first stage in search engine optimization for photographers.

When people are looking for anything online, they typically use terms like these, which they either input into a keypad or say into a voice search tool like Google’s.
The market environment, the demographics of your target audience, and the line of work that you are in all influence the appropriate keywords to choose.

A great resource for utilizing Google’s Keyword Planner to uncover photography-related SEO keywords, this article can be found here.

You are able to design and publish money pages by using the keywords that are the most frequently searched for in your particular sector.

These will provide you with the best return on your investment.

By using long-tail keywords, you can more specifically target your keyword research to the genre that you are working in.

Take, for instance, the phrase “travel photography in Kenya.” “Travel photography” is the most crucial term in this phrase, but “in Kenya” is an extremely useful piece of information that comes at the end.

Utilize the Keyword Planner to determine which terms are the most popular searches in your specific market. You also have the option of researching the keywords that your rivals are using.

Make sure that you employ broad search terms in addition to some unique words that truly define the persona of your brand.

Include keywords in the domain names, headers, and footers of each page of your site’s content, as well as the content that appears on the page itself.

You should also add keyword synonyms that reflect your brand, your specialized area, and the audience that you are trying to attract.

3. Define Your Service in Precise Terms- set Photography Pricing List

The majority of embryonic photographers make the error of failing to see themselves as experts in a specific contextual niche, which is the field in which they work.

Always keep in mind that prospective customers have a right to know what sort of photographer you are, what kind of photography style you employ, what kind of best mirrorless cameras you work with, and how well you can meet their individual requirements.

Make continual improvements in your Services
Your business will be built on a firm understanding of who you are and what you have to offer; but, having a firm belief in something and being able to think quickly on your feet are not incompatible.

For instance, if you are a wedding Photographer and just offer wedding day Photoshoots, you can add on additional shoots like couple shots with their pets or even couple shots with kids and so on.

It’s possible for an artist to challenge themselves creatively without compromising their core beliefs or point of view. Even when you’ve made it as a professional, you still have a lot of work to accomplish.

As opposed to taking things as they come, you should try something new and see what happens.

4. Maintain Your Presence In The Market All Through Week

The marketing aspect of running a photography business is one of the most challenging aspects. Consequently, the following are some methods that can be used to market your photography business:

When you leverage content marketing & social media marketing all you have to do is create a piece of content or material—a social media post, a video, or a blog post, for example—with the goal of solving a problem or providing an answer to a question that someone has.

You are constructing meanings and solutions revolving around whatever it is that you are the most knowledgeable about.

You are, in essence, producing content that is consistent, reliable, and informative in order to catch the attention of your client.

5. Creating Impactful Content for Your Website to Read

The individual bits of content that you create on the pages of your website are what search engines use to form opinions about the overall quality of your website.

It’s possible that as a photographer, you’ll find it simpler to display photographs rather than put together enticing words.

To write excellent copy for your website, though, you should stick to just a few easy guidelines that have been laid forth.

• Utilize optimal keyword use Page titles as well as the H1 and H2 headers.
• Keep your copy as simple as possible.
• Make an effort to use active voice in your content
• Talk one-on-one with one of your customers or clients.
• Try to be succinct and specific.
• Use your keywords.
• Share a tale with us.
• Make sure it can be read and scanned easily.
• The text or material on your website, as well as the page headers, should relate to one another.
• Make sure that your copy has been edited before you publish it.

6. Get your website listed in various directories that cater to businesses.

It is impossible to successfully manage a photography or design business without first submitting your information to several online directories.

A listing of this kind lends more credibility to your website.

One website that fits this description is photognow.com; on their site, you can find an easy-to-fill-out submission form that allows you to create and publish your own business listing.

It is recommended that you provide as much information as is humanly possible, including a website, images, opening hours, frequently asked questions (FAQs), tags, and keywords because all of this will aid in search results.

The evaluations and ratings that your company receives in a directory will be used by search engines like Google and Bing to refer to your company’s products and services.

Always keep in mind to include the most vital information in your company profile, and be consistent with your NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number):

• Name (legal name preferred for commercial enterprises)
• Location/City/Country
• Details about Who to Contact
• Business Type, e.g., commercial photographer, graphic designer, etc.
• Keywords and phrases for the local business search
• Value Proposition (Awards, Specialties, Education, Projects)

7. Build your own Team

1. Hire the services of a Second Photographer

If you frequently take on photography jobs that require you to be in multiple locations at the same time and juggle challenging timelines, or if you are planning to take on photography jobs that require you to be in multiple locations at the same time, having the assistance of a second shooter could make your job easier.

You have the option of employing a second photographer on a project-by-project basis or on an ongoing basis as a member of your photography team. This phase, like the one that came before it, is completely discretionary and dependent on the requirements of your company.

2. Hire a Photography Assistant

As a professional photographer, you may find that employing an assistant is of great assistance to you. Especially so if you are looking forwards to expanding your photography business and do not intend to waste any more time taking care of the logistics of the event day itself.

An assistant can provide assistance with a wide variety of responsibilities, including but not limited to the following: organizing equipment and gear bags, assisting with the setup of lighting, coordinating the comings and goings of the shoot day, and so on.

However, you should be aware that this step is not required and depends on the requirements of your company.

8. Boost your visibility with local search engine optimization.

Get on to Google My business…It is imperative that you include additional geo-tagged keywords in your material if you own a photography business in the local area.

Make sure that your photography business is set up on Google My Business.
It is essential to have a listing for your company on Google My Business if you want to boost your online visibility for local search engines.

You should check to see if people can find your company using Google search, the Local Finder, or even Google Maps. Using this advice to enhance your Google My Business listing is a great first step.

For instance, a Pet photographer would use phrases like “Pet photographer in NYC” or a wedding Photographer will use Phrases like “Best Wedding Photography in Sydney” while advertising their services.

Include inside the article links to websites such as Yelp and others that review local businesses. You should also include links in your contact information that go to Google Maps. Because of these additions, local firms will be able to target their audiences more effectively.

9. Outsource some of the work..

Put an end to the things you despise doing!

Stop claiming that you can’t afford to hire someone else to do it.

When you outsource the jobs on your “hate list,” you free up more time to focus on the work that you truly enjoy as well as the activities that contribute to your financial success.

When done correctly, outsourcing does not result in a financial loss. It is profitable for you. And you should do it before you can afford it because if you keep doing everything yourself you’ll never be able to afford it and you’ll never be able to do it before you can afford it.

Make a note of all the tasks that you despise performing, and then begin outsourcing them one at a time until you have eliminated all of them from your responsibilities.

After that, trust me you can relax and watch your revenues skyrocket as you gain more and more time to devote to marketing and providing exceptional service to your customers.

Below are some of the tasks most Photographers would like to Outsource..

1. Blogging & Social media content Creation
Blogging, as was just discussed, possesses the potential to be of great assistance to the expansion of your company. But we understand that not all photographers are writers, and even if they are, they might not have the flexibility to fit writing in their timeline.

Due to this, outsourcing the duty of blogging is the best thing to do in order to improve both search engine optimization and the image of the company.

2. Photo Editing
The editing process is an essential component of a photography business, but it also has the potential to consume a significant amount of your time.

If you outsource this process to specialists such as ShootDotEdit, who are capable of working on this matter in an effective and rapid manner, you can help free up your time to work on other key elements of your business, which could help you scale up.

In addition, delegating your work in a strategic manner can lead to improved time management as well as the development of profitable methods.

Technologies such as ImagenAI, a desktop application for photo editing, and AfterShoot, software for automated culling, are examples of tools that could help you increase the efficiency of your post-production work.

Also Read: 7+ The best photo editing courses for boosting your Business

3. Admin work

You can hire a VA and outsource all your admin work and you can concentrate on what you love the most ” Photography.”. Trust me this works wonders.

There are numerous advantages to using virtual assistants. Compared to full-time employees in your country, they can save you money while providing greater versatility in running your firm. In addition, there are a number of virtual assistant agencies that specialize in finding and hiring top-notch virtual assistants.

4. Album Artwork and Printing Services
Albums continue to be a significant source of revenue for photographers, even in this more digitalized era.

On the other hand, putting up an impressive album design and having copies printed may need a significant amount of your time and effort. On the other hand,

outsourcing them could let you tick everything off your list, make it work, and even earn a little bit of extra money while you relax. In addition to that, it removes another chore from your list of must-do items, streamlining your whole workflow.

10. Encourage people to visit your website by utilizing social media.

The use of social media in and of itself is a significant marketing tactic. Social networking sites are used by well over forty percent of the world's population. 

There are 90 percent millennials, 77 percent Gen Xers, and 48 percent baby boomers in this group. 

Regardless of the aims, you have for your portfolio, you are likely to find more than a few members of your target audience on social networks.

Make sure that at least one of the platforms you use gives you the ability to build an official page for your company, regardless of which platform you use.

Despite the fact that search engines do not directly rank the content of social media platforms for SEO purposes, social pages can build interest and engagement for your work, which in turn can drive visitors to your professional website.

Be sure to stake some kind of claim to your images’ copyright if you’re a photographer or an artist who uploads their work to social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Also Read: Social Media Marketing for Photographers: A Guide

If you want to safeguard your photographs, you should use a watercolor effect, or at least use the lowest possible resolution.

Pixpa makes it possible for you to immediately incorporate social media handles into your website.

You may also allow social media sharing right from your client galleries, update site modifications across Facebook and Google, and add Instagram snippets from your social stream. All of these features are available to you.

Also Read: Pinterest Marketing Strategy for Designers & Creatives to Get High Traffic to Your Blogs in 2023

1. Content is King! Regularly publish new content on Social media

According to a survey that was conducted and released by Statista, the average amount of time spent on social media each day by internet users all over the world was 145 minutes in 2019 and 2020.

According to the data presented here, a significant number of your prospective consumers are likely to be users of social media who devote a sizeable amount of their time to browsing through various social media platforms.

Therefore, developing a regular posting schedule can assist in increasing both your exposure and the percentage of users who engage with your content. It not only assists in building trust and increasing brand awareness, but it also broadens your reach to a new audience.

You may make everything run more smoothly by using one of the many social media management tools available to you, such as Sprout Social, Planoly, CoSchedule, or Feedly, amongst others.

2. Be familiar with social media platforms.. they are all Unique

It is crucial to educate yourself further on the platform that you have selected to work on before getting started on the social media marketing strategy that you have chosen to implement.

You have the option of marketing your business on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok Pinterest, Twitter, or YouTube; alternatively, you can choose to use any or all of these sites. There are many creative platforms like Artstation that can help you showcase your Photography work.

But before you start publishing content on Social media, you should make an effort to familiarise yourself with the site. Find out what kinds of content are now popular, what’s trending as well as what kinds of material are successful and which ones are not.

For instance, reels( FB) and shorts( Youtube ) are gaining Popularity and also Tiktok. So, make sure you create content relevant to these Platforms.

Just Keep in mind that different platforms each operate in their own unique way, and as a result, their marketing techniques will also vary.

Pinterest for Photography Business:

Sharing your photography work on your Pinterest Business account will help you greatly advance in your career and earn more followers, regardless of how much time you spend there for inspiration and planning.

After all, this is a social networking extension, albeit an unusual one.
Pinterest users create “Boards” for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to website development, interior design, wedding and event planning, cooking, and travel.

And it’s possible that many of these schemes involve the use of photographers.

Also Read: Pinterest for Artists and Creatives -10 Tips to Nail Pinterest strategy for Designers & Artists

11. Get acquainted with Social Media Ads Or Hire a FB Ad Agency

When done effectively, advertising can be a powerful tool for convincing people to utilize your services. And using social media is one of the best ways to test out this option.

So, the excitement surrounding social media advertisements is legitimate!

If you operate as a wedding photographer, you have a special chance to interact with prospective brides by using social media marketing to market your services.

If you’re unsure of how much you ought to spend on adverts, this guide can provide you with a ballpark figure.

By making an appealing offer, focusing on the aesthetic element, and modifying, you can try to increase the visibility of your adverts.

Also, bear in mind that the majority of users access social media via mobile devices; as a result, you should make sure that the ads you place on social media websites are responsive to mobile devices.

12. Participate in Trade Shows and Exhibitions- In a Nutshell Network

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of photography fairs and exhibitions all over the world, causing calendars to become cluttered with an extended list of potential photography vacations.

Attending photography fairs is beneficial for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the fact that these events are typically fantastic places to discover fresh inspiration and new ideas, in addition to connecting with additional people and professionals.

13. Build and Grow  your Email List

What outcomes can you anticipate when you stay in contact with a list of prospective subscribers who already like, trust, and know you?

The result is a diary that is totally filled.

Email and IM app marketing is anticipated to remain quite profitable even in 2023. All of the marketing professionals continue to advise business owners to give creating and maintaining a customer list a top priority.

But the vast majority of photographers still ignore it or wonder if it applies to their work.

Don’t be that person in the group taking pictures. Period!!

You should begin building a list of subscribers in 2023 who admire you and would never recommend or use the services of another photographer.

And keep in mind that a short list of people who are actively interested in what you have to say is considerably more effective than a long list of people who couldn’t care less about what you have to say.

Tip of the Day: SEO for Photographers

• Both on-page SEO (titles, tags, sitemaps, copy, and blogging) and off-page( Link Building) SEO should be given equal weight and importance (social media, backlinks).
• Make use of your site’s internal linking structure to encourage longer visits, hence reducing click-through rates and bounce rates.
• Utilize Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, and the plethora of other free online SEO audit tools on a consistent basis to conduct routine SEO audits of your website.
• To get the most out of your search engine optimization (SEO), it is important to include a few relevant keywords on each page of your website, even if the design of your website is intended to be simple and uncluttered.
• Maintain the addition of new blog pages, ensure that your photographs have meta tags, and check that all of your information is up-to-date and helpful. To better assist your audience, consider using frequently asked questions.
• Search engines are going to penalize websites for doing things like keyword stuffing, employing duplicate content, and using the same phrases everywhere.
• Make use of the 301 redirects: In the event that you have recently updated your website, some of your older pages, whose content you have since moved, may have built up some SEO juice over the course of time. You can redirect inquiries that were going to the old link to your new page, and the SEO value will be carried over.
• Make sure that the uptime of your hosting platform is more than 99.9% at all times.
• Research the search engine optimization strategies utilized by your main competitors, including the subjects and keywords they employ. Don’t imitate what others do, but take ideas from them to give your brand and specialty a voice.
• It is important to remember that changing an SEO strategy that is not producing results is not anything to be afraid of.

Wrapping Up!

It Is Not Necessary to Have Thousands of Followers in Order to Be Successful as a Photographer
You don’t need these technologies to build a successful photography company on social media, despite the fact that many other photographers have done so.

If you spend an inordinate amount of time on these sites without putting in significant effort elsewhere, you will do more harm than good.

Use your social media presence as an extension of the photography-related work you do elsewhere in the world rather than making social media your major emphasis.

You should think about improving your website, expanding your network, and trying new initiatives with other types of media.

Once you get the ball rolling with these things, the growth of both your social media accounts and your business will occur simultaneously.

If you’re an enthusiastic photographer who wants to turn that interest into a full-fledged company, you should read this marketing advice and strategies before you get started.

Follow these guidelines and you’ll be well on your way to being a well-known and respected professional photographer.

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