Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
You have the beginnings of a portfolio, you know the services you would like to offer and you are all kitted up and ready to go ... Now you just need some clients!
Unfortunately there is no secret quick solution to getting your name out there!
If you are thinking of this as a career, don't make the mistake in thinking this is a 1 day a week job with a bit of leisure time sat in front of a computer tweaking a few images in the week! If you are going to do this properly, you need to treat it like a proper job, ie you need to be working everyday! I'll come back to this a bit more in a later part ...
For now I can give a few tips on how you might find your self some clients!
Being as my main line of work these days is website design, I suspect its fairly obvious I might mention this first...
A Website
These days most peoples first port of call for finding a photographer is a website! As a web designer I could give you no end of tips on how to get your self a good website, but that's a different article that I haven't written yet ... for now i will show you mine.
It is out of date, and frankly i don't like it anymore but haven't the time to do anything about it!
Hamish Gill Wedding Photography
Its main merit is the fact that good or bad, it shows people the sort of images they are likely to get!
You offer an image based service, your website needs to show off your images!
Pages of text will go unread, a complicated menu with pages and pages of images will become overwhelming.
Pick maybe 30 of your best photos that show off your style at its best and make them the first thing the potential client sees!
If you want to display your prices on your website, go for it!
Don't forget contact details!!
Do not show people your availability, an empty calender will put people off as they will wonder why no one has booked you, a full one will mean people don't ring you if you are working on a particular date ... more on why you don't want that to happen later!
One major downside of my website is that it is based on flash. iPhones, iPads etc don't do flash...
Social networking
Along side a website you might look at promoting your self through social networking.
I could talk for hours on how best to use social networking to your benefit, once again that is a whole other tutorial ... One thing I will say is a facebook page wouldnt go amiss, nor would any other social media presence!
My tips on social media are as follows:
If you are going to do it you must keep it up to date, nothing on a facebook page or a single tweet from 2010 looks very bad!
At least one tweet (etc) a week minimum!
Facebook is a great place to have a secondary gallery.
make sure all social media presences link to your website and each other as well as were possible containing your contact details.
If you have a sense of humor, use it, if you don't, don't try!
And finally remember, you are the face of your company, any single thing you say can have a real affect on what work you get ... positive and negative!
A Blog
A blog is a good way to improve your search engine optomisation, especially if it is part of your website it's self! My advice is the same as for social networking, if your going to do it, keep it up to date! A blog that has no recent posts is worse than having no blog!
Look to integrate your social networking into your blog!
A good example of how to do this is how it is done here at RPF!
I'm going to put the following under a heading of Marketing.
All of this article is about marketing, but the following often have subscription charges.
As such you should set your self a marketing budget, make inquiries take lots of notes and decide once you have all the details which you feel will work best for you!
Adwords, Facebook adds etc
Pay per click advertising can be very effective, it is targeted and you only pay money when a potential client follows a link!
The downside is that it can get quite costly!
My advice is to set up a pay as you go type account ie. you put money in, it uses that money then stops!
Anything that just takes money from your bank account as and when it needs to could make you very poor very quick!
Think clever when it comes to key words!
"Wedding Photography" is not a sensible key phrase!
"Wedding Photographer Worcester" is much more sensible. (as long as you live in Worcester)
Monitor your analytics and work with your web designer! A good web designer will be able to advise, but good advice often costs money ... If you choose to go down this road a "Search Engine Optimization Strategy" devised in conjunction with your wed designer is a good idea!
People will ring you telling you they can get you to the top of Google! What they mean by this is that they can get you into the sponsored listings in Google! (the yellow shaded bit at the top).
You can so this your self with Google Adwords!
If someone rings telling you they are from Google, they are lying... You can have quite a lot of fun catching them out on this ... They are an "affiliate" they are tying to sell you a service you can do your self!
They might be able to offer it slightly cheaper ... But there will be a contract!
Business directories
There are stacks of directories from Yell.com to Free Index.
They offer a range of services from being in printed delivered to the door directories to online listings even how frequently you get mentioned on the telephone directory services!
Its a mine field, and it can get very expensive!
Some time and effort will give you a clue as to which ones might work!
My only advice is to be pretty savvy! If you are going to talk to sales people about being listed they will try and sell you all sorts of stuff!
Everything they tell you is an exaggeration! There is no golden ticket to getting your self under the nose of potential clients ... Regardless of how sweet the sales people make it sound!
Local newspaper adds etc
Advertising in the local paper can be expensive and yield little results ...
Make the call, and work out if you feel it is worth it for you!
Features, "Corporate Calenders" and the like.
Marketing companies will contact you, they will talk about your add being put in front of "30,000" readers etc
Iv'e had people try and sell me a feature on a CD directory that was going to be put on the front of a Bride mag ... At enormous expense to me of course!
They will all tell you "You have been specially chosen to be the featured photographer in your area"... Its all bollocks of course! They just go through the local area until they find a taker!
They will flatter you! It's all sales patter, don't fall for it!
By all means let it be part of your marketing budget, but choose wisely and don't go over your marketing budget!
Wedding Fayres
I'm sure you are the charming type ... You want to be going into this business!
Wedding Fayres are great for meeting potential clients, they come to the Fayres to find you, if you aren't there they wont find you!
If you are going to do a Fayre, be prepared, be VERY prepared! You need examples of every service you offer!
Lots of photos, Printed, maybe in digital photo frames, maybe on an ipad that you can hand to people! Maybe even take your LCD tv!
Price lists to hand out, example prints to hand out etc etc
Best bet, just go to a fayre and see what your competition are doing there ... do it better and bigger!
Take back up, your partner, assistant, both and make sure they are well versed and the picture of charisma on the day!
Word of Mouth
The only sure fire guarantee to more work is word of mouth!
This will come in time, but why not try and move things along a little quicker?
Talk to local wedding planners, schmooze local wedding planners!
Same goes for dress shops, cake shops, wedding venues etc
Make friends with people in the industry... Just don't make a nuisance of your self!!
So that's the basics ... summarising all of this part has been a chore! There is a never ending amount of info and stories i could regale you with! Catch me in the pub, buy me a pint and get me started and you will be there all night! It is all just advice from my experience, is it right? I have no idea... You will find out what works for you!
One last tip for you... Smile!
There is nothing worse than a grumpy wedding photographer! More on that in a letter part!
Back to Part 3 A Guide to wedding photography - Kit and Clothes
Part 5 coming soon!
Unfortunately there is no secret quick solution to getting your name out there!
If you are thinking of this as a career, don't make the mistake in thinking this is a 1 day a week job with a bit of leisure time sat in front of a computer tweaking a few images in the week! If you are going to do this properly, you need to treat it like a proper job, ie you need to be working everyday! I'll come back to this a bit more in a later part ...
For now I can give a few tips on how you might find your self some clients!
Being as my main line of work these days is website design, I suspect its fairly obvious I might mention this first...
A Website
These days most peoples first port of call for finding a photographer is a website! As a web designer I could give you no end of tips on how to get your self a good website, but that's a different article that I haven't written yet ... for now i will show you mine.
It is out of date, and frankly i don't like it anymore but haven't the time to do anything about it!
Hamish Gill Wedding Photography
Its main merit is the fact that good or bad, it shows people the sort of images they are likely to get!
You offer an image based service, your website needs to show off your images!
Pages of text will go unread, a complicated menu with pages and pages of images will become overwhelming.
Pick maybe 30 of your best photos that show off your style at its best and make them the first thing the potential client sees!
If you want to display your prices on your website, go for it!
Don't forget contact details!!
Do not show people your availability, an empty calender will put people off as they will wonder why no one has booked you, a full one will mean people don't ring you if you are working on a particular date ... more on why you don't want that to happen later!
One major downside of my website is that it is based on flash. iPhones, iPads etc don't do flash...
Social networking
Along side a website you might look at promoting your self through social networking.
I could talk for hours on how best to use social networking to your benefit, once again that is a whole other tutorial ... One thing I will say is a facebook page wouldnt go amiss, nor would any other social media presence!
My tips on social media are as follows:
If you are going to do it you must keep it up to date, nothing on a facebook page or a single tweet from 2010 looks very bad!
At least one tweet (etc) a week minimum!
Facebook is a great place to have a secondary gallery.
make sure all social media presences link to your website and each other as well as were possible containing your contact details.
If you have a sense of humor, use it, if you don't, don't try!
And finally remember, you are the face of your company, any single thing you say can have a real affect on what work you get ... positive and negative!
A Blog
A blog is a good way to improve your search engine optomisation, especially if it is part of your website it's self! My advice is the same as for social networking, if your going to do it, keep it up to date! A blog that has no recent posts is worse than having no blog!
Look to integrate your social networking into your blog!
A good example of how to do this is how it is done here at RPF!
I'm going to put the following under a heading of Marketing.
All of this article is about marketing, but the following often have subscription charges.
As such you should set your self a marketing budget, make inquiries take lots of notes and decide once you have all the details which you feel will work best for you!
Adwords, Facebook adds etc
Pay per click advertising can be very effective, it is targeted and you only pay money when a potential client follows a link!
The downside is that it can get quite costly!
My advice is to set up a pay as you go type account ie. you put money in, it uses that money then stops!
Anything that just takes money from your bank account as and when it needs to could make you very poor very quick!
Think clever when it comes to key words!
"Wedding Photography" is not a sensible key phrase!
"Wedding Photographer Worcester" is much more sensible. (as long as you live in Worcester)
Monitor your analytics and work with your web designer! A good web designer will be able to advise, but good advice often costs money ... If you choose to go down this road a "Search Engine Optimization Strategy" devised in conjunction with your wed designer is a good idea!
People will ring you telling you they can get you to the top of Google! What they mean by this is that they can get you into the sponsored listings in Google! (the yellow shaded bit at the top).
You can so this your self with Google Adwords!
If someone rings telling you they are from Google, they are lying... You can have quite a lot of fun catching them out on this ... They are an "affiliate" they are tying to sell you a service you can do your self!
They might be able to offer it slightly cheaper ... But there will be a contract!
Business directories
There are stacks of directories from Yell.com to Free Index.
They offer a range of services from being in printed delivered to the door directories to online listings even how frequently you get mentioned on the telephone directory services!
Its a mine field, and it can get very expensive!
Some time and effort will give you a clue as to which ones might work!
My only advice is to be pretty savvy! If you are going to talk to sales people about being listed they will try and sell you all sorts of stuff!
Everything they tell you is an exaggeration! There is no golden ticket to getting your self under the nose of potential clients ... Regardless of how sweet the sales people make it sound!
Local newspaper adds etc
Advertising in the local paper can be expensive and yield little results ...
Make the call, and work out if you feel it is worth it for you!
Features, "Corporate Calenders" and the like.
Marketing companies will contact you, they will talk about your add being put in front of "30,000" readers etc
Iv'e had people try and sell me a feature on a CD directory that was going to be put on the front of a Bride mag ... At enormous expense to me of course!
They will all tell you "You have been specially chosen to be the featured photographer in your area"... Its all bollocks of course! They just go through the local area until they find a taker!
They will flatter you! It's all sales patter, don't fall for it!
By all means let it be part of your marketing budget, but choose wisely and don't go over your marketing budget!
Wedding Fayres
I'm sure you are the charming type ... You want to be going into this business!
Wedding Fayres are great for meeting potential clients, they come to the Fayres to find you, if you aren't there they wont find you!
If you are going to do a Fayre, be prepared, be VERY prepared! You need examples of every service you offer!
Lots of photos, Printed, maybe in digital photo frames, maybe on an ipad that you can hand to people! Maybe even take your LCD tv!
Price lists to hand out, example prints to hand out etc etc
Best bet, just go to a fayre and see what your competition are doing there ... do it better and bigger!
Take back up, your partner, assistant, both and make sure they are well versed and the picture of charisma on the day!
Word of Mouth
The only sure fire guarantee to more work is word of mouth!
This will come in time, but why not try and move things along a little quicker?
Talk to local wedding planners, schmooze local wedding planners!
Same goes for dress shops, cake shops, wedding venues etc
Make friends with people in the industry... Just don't make a nuisance of your self!!
So that's the basics ... summarising all of this part has been a chore! There is a never ending amount of info and stories i could regale you with! Catch me in the pub, buy me a pint and get me started and you will be there all night! It is all just advice from my experience, is it right? I have no idea... You will find out what works for you!
One last tip for you... Smile!
There is nothing worse than a grumpy wedding photographer! More on that in a letter part!
Back to Part 3 A Guide to wedding photography - Kit and Clothes
Part 5 coming soon!
