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Launching a business requires developing a marketing strategy. Photographers launching their own photography website benefit from promotion, since marketing your goods and services can grow your client base and increase your workload.
Marketing your photography business
Artists are often their own best advocates. After launching a photography website, try to expand your reach and gain new clients by implementing marketing activities.
Here are some key reasons why learning how to promote your business is a smart move for any photographer:
Business growth. Creative work often comes from referrals and word of mouth. However, if people don't know that you have a photography business—or are taking on new clients—they might not think to recommend you. Drawing attention to your website and previous work is a good way to open the door for future opportunities.
Learning about new opportunities. Certain kinds of marketing strategies give you the chance to interact closely with clients and customers. These conversations may give you ideas for new products or services. For example, maybe you'll discover client interest in shorter photoshoots tied to festive holidays. Other interactions may reveal that customers want to buy prints of your photos, which could open a new income stream.
Thought leadership. Chances are good that you'll learn many lessons about gear, technique, and business from working as a photographer. Sharing this knowledge by starting a blog on your website will position you as an expert in your field, leading to further opportunities.
Developing a photography website marketing strategy
Figuring out how to market your photography business is much like launching a blog or website marketing strategy. As a first step, you'll want to determine your promotional goals.
To help identify your goals, ask yourself questions like:
Am I looking to sell more prints?
Am I looking to build my photography business?
Am I looking to sign up more clients?
Next, you'll want to assess how much time you have for promotion and marketing. If you have a busy schedule, focusing on one or two strategies makes more sense than launching a larger plan.
Your photography website marketing strategy could include components such as:
Email marketing
Email marketing campaigns are a great way to promote goods and services. If you sell photo prints, use these emails to advertise sales or new additions to your store. Photographers who book shoots can use email to announce events or openings in their schedule.
Email newsletter
A newsletter is an invaluable tool for marketing, promotion, and growth. More personal and direct than a sales-oriented email, an email newsletter gives photographers the chance to share new work and be storytellers on an ongoing basis. Launching a newsletter has many things in common with getting started with email marketing. In fact, before you decide to launch a newsletter, it's helpful to revisit the process you went through developing your initial email marketing campaigns.
Social media
For photographers, image-heavy social media platforms are especially useful marketing channels. Share images that best represent your work, promote your services, and extend your brand. You can even integrate a booking button with Acuity Scheduling on social media, which prospective clients can use to book photoshoots with you directly from your profile.
Blogs
A blog isn't just a useful tool for writers. Photographers can use blog posts to share techniques, stories about photoshoots, reviews of gear, and other interesting and useful information related to their passions.
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a smart way to attract potential customers to your website. With this approach, you include keywords that represent your business throughout the text of your website. For example, you might use the keywords "wedding photographer" plus the city where you live on the site. That way, when someone is browsing online for a photographer to shoot their wedding, your website will pop up organically.
Branding
A photography website serves as an extension of your business branding. For example, wherever you include text, you might use minimal captions in a neutral color that doesn't detract from your photography.
Discovering the benefits of email marketing
Email marketing campaigns are one of the best ways to promote your photography website. These campaigns allow you to speak directly to your audience in a personal way and give background on your work. You can use email to give updates on client work, announce site updates and additions, and always remember to include a link to your online scheduler so your audience knows the best way to book with you.
Newsletters are particularly useful for photographers. As with a bulletin for a writing-oriented website, a newsletter for a photography business should provide content that's relevant and useful to your audience.
For example, wedding photographers might send out a newsletter featuring photos of a wedding along with details about the ceremony and reception, plus background information on how the couple met. Other types of photographers could include a striking photo and then write a few paragraphs about how they shot a particular image and why they like it.
Squarespace website templates make it easy to add places to gather email addresses for newsletter sign-ups. You might include website pop-ups or email forms. Acuity Scheduling allows clients to book appointments or consultations with you via an embedded appointment block on your website template. Your online scheduler can even be integrated into your social media accounts.
Learn more about connecting your social media to your photography website