5 marketing tips for photographers, with Steve Gerrard
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:00 As well as featuring as a guest speaker on our Photobook Month Tour in September and running successful photography workshops for photographers, Steve Gerrard is one of the UK’s most renowned wedding, portrait and music photographers. Here he shares his tips for pro photographers on getting better at marketing.
Share your work
That should actually be, share your best work. Let’s be honest, we all take some duff pictures. So be sure nobody sees them. Delete them. Bury them so that nobody sees them. Certainly don’t put them on your website.
Brand yourself
You want people to know what you’re all about, right? They’ll get a lot of that from your images for sure. Especially if you have a unique style. Even more so if you’re known for a certain picture. Everybody seems to associate me with the ‘traffic cone’ picture – that’s great as it’s kind of my calling card. But you also need to consider who your market is. If you’ve identified your market you need to make sure what you say and how your brand looks appeals to that market.
Get social
It sounds like a daft thing to say. But you need to be all over social media. This should take up quite a portion of your time. As you know, marketing is essential to the survival of any photography business and social media is one of the most effective ways to get your work seen. So get started by sharing your pictures on Facebook and Twitter, directing people to your Flickr feed if you need to.
Make books
Of course, this is a blog for a photobook company. But I really do love photobooks. We make them for our clients all the time and they love them. Books are also a great way to market yourself, be it showing off your stuff at a trade show or with a client consultation. You could also leave your books at venues where you might like to shoot – a wedding venue, for instance.
Shoot what you love
Finally, we started a thing called Birmingham Live – which is all about reviewing gigs in the Birmingham area. There’s no money in music photography really – at least not live music photography – so this has to be a labour of love. But people will see your passion because passion usually means good work. Good work travels well through the Internet and will ultimately make sure you’re seen.
Reader Comments (3)
Great tips. Social networking sites like Facebook and Google Plus can also be a great avenue to promote your photography.
Thanks for the tips!! This is a big help for amateur photographers like me. Keep up the good work!!
Appreciate the advice - as an amateur photographer I didn't appreciate the true value of social media.