Marketing For Photographers, How To Get Your Photography Websites Out There

You probably didn’t build your photography website just so it could sit there collecting dust.

You had the desire to share your work with the world. You wanted your photos to be seen.

If that’s the situation you’re in, you’ve come to the right place. You’re about to find out how to expose more people to your art.

Instagram And Pinterest Are Great Social Networks For Photographers

Two of the most visually-oriented social networks are Instagram and Pinterest, making them perfect targets for photographers.

Marketing With Instagram

Instagram is a mobile application and is best utilized on a smartphone, so take note.

At first, it was simply a place where people took selfies and shared them with the world. These days, there are plenty of polished graphics, images, and photos being shared on Instagram.

Growing your following on Instagram will increase engagement on the photos you share (likes and comments). It should also help to increase profile views. Be sure to fill out your profile in full, with a picture of yourself, a link to your website and a short bio. This can help increase visits to your website.

But the best way to use Instagram is as a brand-building tool. Each post should reflect your brand in some way, shape or form. As people come to recognize your brand, they will come to you for their specific photo needs.

Marketing With Pinterest

Pinterest is a popular network for “pinning” images to one’s pinboards. People create pinboards to organize images into categories that interest them, such as recipes, dream homes, summer fashion, and so on.

Though Pinterest’s popularity is growing among men, its primary demographic is women, and is one of the best social networks for making sales online.

One way to use Pinterest to promote your website is to share your photos to specific pinboards (you can set them up by category – portraits, landscape, boudoir, etc.). Ensure that each of your pins links back to your website.

Also, include Pinterest sharing buttons on your website to make it easy for your visitors to share their favorites to Pinterest.

Local SEO Can Get Your Photography Business Some Nice Traffic

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and can be a powerful way for you to drive traffic to your website over the long haul.

Though you probably aren’t opposed to attracting global traffic to your website, starting locally can help you get more targeted visitors. After all, if you’re going to be hired as a photographer, there’s a good chance you’re going to be serving a local market.

Most SEO strategies begin with keywords. Here are a few categories to be thinking about:

• Location. In addition to the town or city you live in, you should also use specific location names, such as those of parks, hotels, halls, or anywhere you’ve snapped photos locally.
• Your name. If your name is James Johnson, there are probably many people with the same name. But if you narrow it down by profession (photographer), and locality, there are probably fewer (maybe only you). Using your name on your website is a good idea.
• Your brand name. If your brand name is different from your name, then it should also be used liberally throughout your website.
• Names of models. The names of the models you use in your photos can help with your local SEO efforts too.

Here are several other steps you can take to put your business on the map:

• Add yourself to Google My Business.
• Include your name, address, phone number, and email address on your website, preferably on all pages.
• Add yourself to online directories like Yelp, Foursquare, Bizjournals, and so on.
• Build links to your website.
• Get online reviews from your clients.
• Ensure your website is mobile friendly.
• Build your presence on social media.

More Money Than Time? Use AdWords To Get Potential Leads To Your Website

SEO is great and all, but if you don’t have much time to add content to your site and keep optimizing it, it’s not going to drive meaningful business results for you.

When you advertise with Google, your ad will instantly appear towards the top of search results, so you won’t need to spend months building your website and content. Most SEO efforts require six to 12 months to take effect.

A better approach would be to put money into advertising. Advertising can generate a lot of traffic. You can set your own budget and easily track how many impressions and clicks your ads get.

But the key to your success will be to optimize your ad. Unfortunately, this is not a set-and-forget tactic. You’ll need to keep an eye on how your ad is performing and adjust your targeting based on the results you’re generating. You need to get into the minds of your audience and think about what they would be searching for if they needed a photographer.

If your first ad isn’t successful, don’t worry – it usually takes a few tries to connect with your audience. Turn off the losers and keep the winners. You will waste a bit of money at first, but that’s something everyone goes through as they look to take advantage of AdWords.

Additionally, keyword research is still an important process when you’re looking to place an ad. If you don’t want to spend time on this, and have a big budget to work with, consider hiring an ads manager.

Guest Posting For Photographers, Where Should You Start?

Earlier, I referenced building links as a viable way to optimize your website for search.

Guest posting is a great way to build links and credibility in your industry.

For instance, a well-placed guest post about how to get great pictures in low light conditions can spark a lot of conversation, drive traffic to your website, establish you as an expert, and boost your SEO.

Again, if you don’t have much time to create content for targeted websites, you might consider advertising instead. But otherwise, it’s important to recognize the value of guest posting, which is significant.

Here are three sites that accept guest posts:

• Digital Photography School: founded by Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger fame, Digital Photography School is a massively popular blog accepting guest posts for beginner, intermediate and advanced digital photographers looking for tips and tutorials.
• Steve’s Digicams: Steve’s Digicams is a massively popular digital camera website. The best part? They’re accepting guest posts from just about anyone, even if you’re not an established blogger or writer. Create quality articles, tutorials, inspiration or roundup pieces, and you might just land yourself a ton of exposure.
• Speckyboy Design Magazine: Speckyboy covers a wide range of topics including CSS, mobile design, fonts, graphics, web design, and of course photography. Browse the archive to determine the type of content they publish, and then pitch your idea to them.

There are plenty of other sites accepting guest posts, most of which are but a Google search away.

How To Promote Your Photography Business Conclusion

Focus on the right things and you will see results. Although there are many ways to market your website, don’t get carried away exploring too many ideas. Stick to the above tactics until you see results, and then incorporate other tactics into your strategy if it makes sense to do so.