Photography is a great, up-and-coming career path today. But as more people pick up their cameras and head outside, the competition for commissioned projects increases.
If you’re a budding photographer in New Zealand, you might be wondering how you can advertise your business and get noticed by paying customers. Well, keep reading (and implementing) the tips we’ve listed below. Who knows? You may become the next Mike Hollman or Jacki Key.
- Use an Instagram Business account to showcase your talent
The most visually-aesthetic social media platform today, Instagram is an excellent place to get yourself noticed by photography afficionados. The image-focused leanings of the platform make it ideal for budding photographers to showcase their portfolios and creativity.
Posts on Instagram are highly-shareable. You can also tag other New Zealand based photographers to get their attention. By engaging with their posts regularly, you can even get some of them to follow you in return, allowing you to expand your audience base quickly.
- Advertise your services on Google
Google is the most-used search engine in the world. Advertising your business using Google Ads and creating a Google My Business page, can help you be found by people actively looking for photography services. You can even request your existing customers to leave their feedback/rating on your Google page. When prospects browse the net for photography services, they’ll be able to read your reviews, see your ads and contact you directly.
You can do the same on other search engines too, for better results.
- Collaborate with another up-and-coming photographer
One of the best ways to advertise your business and promote your skills, is to work with another established photographer. This doesn’t have to be someone based in New Zealand. If you find a photographer from halfway across the world, whose work complements yours, contact them for a collaboration. Usually, such collaborations aren’t monetary-based, but involve both parties actively campaigning for the other photographer on their personal social media accounts.
If you have a few hundred thousand followers, you can even contact camera manufacturers like Nikon to spotlight you, as part of their campaign to promote a new camera.
- Submit your photographs to photography/travel publications
There are many publications from National Geographic to Aperture to Digital Camera World to Rotor Drone, to name a few, where you can publish your photographs.
When prospective customers see your work in these magazines, they’ll know whom to contact if they need a similar photography service for their next event. You may even be hired part/full time by one of these magazines because they liked your work.
- Give away free photos
Many of the world’s best photographers (like Paul Nicklen for example), share a few of their photos as free downloads. All you need to do is sign up to their newsletter and you’ll get their beautiful photos right in your inbox. Along with these weekly free photos, the photographers share information about their business/services and send seasonal offers/discount codes on their paid photographs. They pitch their photography courses and offer deals on photo-magazine subscriptions. They also include affiliate links to photography equipment, in their emails.
You can do that too. By offering free photos, you can build up your email list. As this list grows, this group of people can be a great market to promote your photography services to.
- Volunteer to take photographs for free at a local event
Photography services sell only when prospects see your talent and the quality of your work.
A volunteering photography opportunity at a local event can be a great way to showcase your talent. Based on the type of photography you specialize in, you can choose to cover a wide range of cultural, political and natural events.
Also read: How to get Online College Degree during this Pandemic COVID-19
Once your photographs are put up on the event site or on a billboard, there is a very high likelihood of your work being spotted by a potential customer.
- Put up flyers of your services in local public spaces
A direct way of promoting yourself is to put up flyers of your photography company in public places where people congregate. Libraries, church bulletin boards, university campus notice boards, gyms, shopping malls etc. make great places where large crowds can see your promotional material.
You can even print out business cards or brochures with a sample portfolio and place them in a high-footfall landmark. People can pick up these promotional materials and learn more about your services.
- Make yourself searchable through a website
Finally, one of the best ways to advertise your photography business, is to make yourself searchable online. You can either create a free website yourself using WordPress or Blogger. Or, you can hire a specialized web development company to build you a stunning, professional-quality site.
Once your site is ready, make it findable online by SEO-optimizing your content. Make sure you use the most-relevant search terms in your content. Check your links to ensure none of them are broken. Keep posting information-rich and entertaining blog posts about your travels and your experiences as a photographer. This is something people like to read about. Maintain a superb portfolio of your work on your site, where clients can see the quality of your work.
You can even set-up an e-store on your site where customers can directly schedule a photo shoot, share project specifications and make payment.
Remember to purchase Photographers’ Insurance before you offer photography services
A good photograph takes time, effort and ingenuity to capture. But your out-of-the-box ideas may lead to unanticipated and unintended mishaps. Such incidents could lead to damage to the client’s property, injury to a bystander, poor quality photographs or damage/theft of your equipment. Insurance for Photographers is a tailored package that provides financial protection and coverage to photographers and their equipment depending on the extras you pick.