After almost 10 years as photographer, I have tried lots of things to grow my business. I have definitely had a LOT of failures but I have also had some success. If you are anything like me, you don’t mind putting in the work but you want to see results. And you want to see those results NOW.
I get it! There are so many things that we need to do in our businesses it can be hard to figure out what to focus on each week. Today I have 3 things that you can start working on now to grow your following and your business fast.
1. Plan. Everything.
Are you a planner or more of a figure it out as you go kinda person? No offense to the non-planners out there but I can absolutely promise you that if you can create some planning habits in your business, you will see a huge return on your time investment.
So, what kinds of things could you be planning?
Plan your work week schedule and be sure to build in some CEO time.
Plan your blog schedule and content. Why? Because blogging makes google and the SEO gods happy. And when they are happy, customers can find you on the internet.
Plan your social media content. Planning out social media takes the pressure off of having to create a post every day. It also makes your feed more consistent. And when you have a plan, you can be sure that you are marketing yourself in a way that reflects your brand and your business goals.
Plan out your newsletter content and frequency. Putting some time and energy into your newsletter is one of the biggest things you can do to get a return on your investment. Your newsletter list is the only way you can guarantee to get in front of your customers. The key is to plan out the content so that you aren’t just showing up 1x a year when you have a sale. You need to be communicating with your community monthly or at minimum, quarterly.
2. Know who you are speaking to.
Do you know who your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar) is? Do you know who you are marketing to? Or are you just talking to whoever will listen?
Not having a specific ICA defined causes a huge amount of frustration for many of the photographers that I mentor. But, once I help them walk through defining exactly who this person is, then writing blogs, social content and newsletters becomes infinitely easier.
The best part? When you are intentional about who you are speaking to, you will resonate with your ICA and therefore land more clients.
3. Think about how you can serve your followers
Yes, you should be serving your clients. What does that look like? Well, most photographers see this as having the right offerings and packages, helping prepare them for sessions and providing a quality end result.
All of those things definitely count but I want you to take a step farther. How can you serve them outside of your business? Can you support their business? Can you offer condolences when you see on Facebook that they lost a loved one? Can you give a new mom a list of resources of things you loved with your babies? Could you create a holiday gift guide? Or maybe compile a list of your favorite stuck at home playtime activities and send it to your newsletter list.
Every one of those items has nothing to do with your photography business. But it is a service to your clients. It does create connection. And that connection creates brand loyalty.
Bonus! 4. Share yourself.
There are SO many people out in the world and it is more evident than ever thanks to the internet and social media. Many photographers suffer from, “No one wants to hear about ME”.
And let me tell you right now that is just plain untrue. People DO want to hear from you AND the more you are willing to show up and share yourself, the more successful your business will be.
As photographers, WE are our brand.
YOU are the difference between you and any other brand that you are competing with. If you don’t share yourself, you have lost the opportunity to connect and bond with potential clients over similarities, and they will have no reason to choose you over any other photographer in your area.
Sharing yourself doesn’t have to be super deep and scary. It can be as simple as talking about your experience as a Mom, your favorite family tradition, your favorite place to vacation, your favorite Amazon finds of the month or any other tiny bit of information that gives a potential client a peek into what meeting you in real life would be like.
I created a freebie to help you dive into what to share on social media. You can read more about it and grab that freebie here.
I hope that after reading over this list you realize that taking small intentional steps in your business can make all the difference. If you want to dive into this farther, I offer both online and in-person mentoring and you can check that out in the shop .
