You’ve started your photography business, but you just feel like you’re spinning your wheels. Your message doesn’t seem to be getting out there and you’re not sure why. I’m here to tell you the #1 marketing mistake photographers make, and why it’s important.
Ready?
#1 Mistake: Not defining your ideal client
If you don’t have a marketing background, this might not be something you even know you need to do. You just show your work to people and if they like it, they buy, right?
Nope.
The mistake a lot of photographers and other creatives make is that they throw their marketing out there wherever they can, and end up wasting a lot of effort. I’ve heard it called “spray & pray marketing.” You cast a wide net, hoping to catch anything you can. But it just ends up in a lot of lost energy when the majority of people you’re reaching just aren’t interested in what you’re selling.
The 80/20 Rule
You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 Rule. It basically says that 20% of your efforts will result in 80% of your results. And conversely, 80% of your effort only results in 20% of your results. So when you “spray and pray” with your marketing efforts, you end up spending way too much time on the 80% of effort that is only going to create 20% of the possible results.
So how do you focus on that 20% of the effort that gets the results?
By defining your market.
"The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim at it"
So if you want to aim at your target, the very first and most important step is figuring out who they are.
I’ll be honest, when I first started doing this exercise, I thought it was tough. And possibly pointless. I had no idea who my target market was. I had to guess.
And you know what? Guessing is fine. You don’t have to know everything at the beginning. You can guess at who you think your ideal client is. The picture will develop over time like a really slow polaroid. Slowly you’ll adapt and change this picture and it will become more and more accurate.
How to Define Your Ideal Client
You’re going to basically paint the picture of your ideal client. What’s their gender identification? How old are they? How educated are they? What do they wear, watch on television, and do for fun? How much money do they make? Are they married and do they have kids? How would you define their style and their personality?
Get as specific as you can. Whenever you’re not sure, try to picture your ideal photoshoot. Imagine you’ve come home and thought, “that went about as great as it possibly could.” Now try to get a mental image of it. What did the shoot look like? Was it in a park, a studio, on a city street? How was your client dressed? What did they drive to get there? What did you talk about?
Write down as much detail as you can.
Why does this matter? What Do I do with this information?
Defining your ideal client is important because now that you know who they are, you can define how to reach them. There are ways on Facebook and Instagram and even in person to target people by their age, interests, activities, and more.
The reason why all this matters is that when you know who your ideal client is, you can figure out where to find them, and possibly more important, where not to find them.
If you think your ideal client is on instagram but not Facebook, you’d be wasting your money on Facebook ads. If you know they don’t have kids, you won’t have much luck finding them in parenting groups.
This goes for every element of your picture of your ideal client. You’ll ask yourself questions about how each part of the picture helps you to figure out how to appeal to this person. For instance, if you know your ideal clients have a bohemian vibe, you won’t want your marketing efforts to show people dressed in business suits. If you know they love luxury, you won’t want to play up DIY elements. When people look for photography, they want to envision themselves in the picture. So when you know your ideal client’s style, you will want to show more work that appeals to that kind of person.
You can also target your advertising and marketing based on what you know they like. Online ads can be targeted toward people that like certain brands or have common interests. For instance, I get lots of referrals for family photography in local mom’s groups in my area. If I were going to advertise, I might focus my efforts on those groups.
Finding tools to help
I’ve got a guide to help you determine your ideal client avatar and know what to do with the information!
The How-To Guide
Includes worksheets to help you define your ideal client, and refine your message to resonate with them more than ever.
