As a photographer, you just want to “push that button”. Take pictures. Have fun and be the creative that you dreamed of being when you picked up that camera in the first place. But being in business also mean you have to earn money. Otherwise being a photographer is just an expensive hobby. So you have to be able to “push other buttons”: the triggers that make clients find you, get to know you, and book you. There are tons of ways to do this, but I’m going to show a few of my favourites.
What am I going to dive into with this article? What are the 6 tips for magnetic lead gen?
- Tell Your (Authentic) Story
- Know Your Client
- Show Your Work & Boost Your SEO Results
- Keep Your Website SEO-worthy
- Spin a Content Web
- Be Consistent and it will pay off
1. Tell Your (Authentic) Story
People love doing business with REAL people. It’s not just all about the facts actually—it’s more about making an emotional connection with them on a subconscious level. People get triggered by someone’s services or offerings when these provide a solution to a pain point that they are looking to get solved or a pleasure they need fulfilling.
By telling stories, your stories, you will show those people that you actually understand what they are looking for and what you can help them with. So tell your stories, make them authentic, be you—whatever that looks like. You can use anecdotes, fun facts, transformational moments, insights, anything that you love talking about. That type of magnetic content will draw them to you. Because it’s really you. So, be you!
2. Know Your Clients
When talking to your clients and writing content for them, think of them as one of four types of buyers.
The Analytical Buyer: this buyer loves logical information. When talking to this client type, you should be precise and explain your work process. They love facts, testimonials, and an approach that is not too personal.
The Friendly Buyer: keywords “stability” and “cooperation”. This buyer type loves to please people and keep everyone happy. They are keen on building and maintaining good relationships. They hate changes. When you talk about your services, give them an overview and sum up the advantages. You also need to listen closely to them and reaffirm their needs.
The Leading Buyer: For this buyer type it’s all about respect and power. They need to feel in control of choices, and they want the facts, results in a nutshell. Provide them with options to give them the sense of being in control of what they buy from you. Focus on the bigger picture.
The Expressive Buyer: You can be funny and captivating while building a close relationship with this type of buyer. Expressive or creative buyers love to know whether your product/service will be beneficial for their image and their relationships. They are fond of storytelling and anecdotes. Keywords for this buyer type: recognition, approval.
So do your research: what does your client look like, hang out, eat out, how do they talk, what are their values, issues, problems/pain points? Talk to them, interview them and register how they talk and behave. Get inside their mind and start talking their language!
3. Show Your Work and boost your SEO results
Not every photographer loves to be visible in FRONT of the camera (you know, those dreaded Facebook Lives or Instagram reels? I know!), but there is a way to make your work speak up for you. By showing your most favourite, relevant, and attractive work on your website, in a portfolio, and on all social media channels where your ideal client loves to hang out, you get a great boost in your SEO. People are really visually oriented, so video also works amazingly! Want to crank it up even further? Make sure to rename all types of files before uploading them anywhere and use the long-tail keywords your clients would be googling for.
Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that buyers are more likely to use when they’re about to buy something or when they’re using voice search. They might look or feel a bit counter-intuitive, but they can be hugely valuable when used correctly. Managing long-tail keywords will build better potential lines of communication between your photography business and the customers who are already out there, actively shopping for what you provide.
4. Keep Your Website SEO-worthy
It doesn’t have to be very difficult, but your website needs to be of relevance to the indexing robots that crawl websites looking for new information and content. In order for the indexing robots to keep coming back to your website on a regular basis, you need to put out new content like blog posts on a fixed day and time each time you post. This will let the crawl bots know that your website has new content and that they need to come back to your website to index/register your new content. If have never had your website indexed or crawled? No worry, it’s never too late. You can put your website up for re-crawling by asking Google to do so.
You also need to use titles and descriptions for each page, so the bots can recognize the structure of your writing. Remember to make all your images/visuals do the work too, by adding in the right Alt text. When writing alt text, be sure to describe exactly what is shown in the image, but also try to include your business name, business location or a few keywords related to what it is that you do.
5. Spin a Content Web
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. I love keeping things simple as that is how I work and “vibe” best. As a photographer, you probably have tons of information and valuable things to say. But, we all develop blind spots when it comes to our work. So, to start with, make it simple for yourself and create 4 strong blog posts that will offer valuable information AND boost your website. Then split all content up into smaller parts. Use video snippets of 1-2 minutes, make shortlists, and share one item each week, just be creative! If you put up your content on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, medium.com, LinkedIn (these are all links to my channels by the way), and any other area that you want to hang out online. And you don’t have to be everywhere, just pick 2 to 3 channels to begin with and master those first before you branch out.
6. Be Consistent & It Will Pay Off
Like with blogging, posting, creating: give yourself a fixed moment each week or month to put in the work. Most photographers tend to slack on putting out content that will attract potential clients and generate CTA (Call To Action) moments, but it takes a few months for your content to start getting picked up and create results. So when you only work on content creation during slow times, you’re too late. You need to have a system in place that generates attention and draws people in to get to know/like/trust you and your personal brand before they book you.
You also need to reach out to potential clients on a regular basis with a newsletter for example. Remember: your money is in your list as you don’t “own the contacts/connections” on Facebook or Instagram. Quick tip on how you can build your email list? Think of a free piece of information that you can give to people (a so-called “freebie”) to get a free taste of what you have on offer. And make sure you follow up with them with an email sequence that is focused on VALUE only. Examples? Think of a PDF with tips, a short video training, useful templates, etc. You can find an example of one of my freebies for photographers here.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you need any help or have any questions or feedback/suggestions, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]
Yvonne van Dalen
Your Photography Success Coach
P.S. You can pin this image to your 📌 “Free Marketing Tips for Photographers” 📌 board on Pinterest for later reference!
You can pin the image above ☝️☝️☝️ to your 📌 “Free Marketing Tips for Photographers” 📌 board on Pinterest for later reference!
- 6 Magnetic Marketing Tips for More Photography Clients - February 16, 2021
