Lower Prices? More Reach? Better Message? Which levers should you pull to get more photography clients?
Lowering your prices is JUST ONE LEVER you can pull in your business to potentially get more clients.
As I was discussing with one PTP reader tonight, there are a LOT of levers you can push and pull to get more people to say yes to your services.
If you feel your prices are dialed in and NOT the reason most potential clients are saying no to working with you, the next thing you want to look at is reach.
How are you getting your art, message, and offer in front of your target market (your potential ideal clients within the market you serve)? How often are they seeing or hearing this marketing? How does your marketing differentiate you from your competitors, and uniquely excite YOUR target market?
For example, as a high school senior photographer, I can have student model reps who get free shoots then promote my packages to their classmates, I can sponsor school events and get banners and shoutouts, I can attend career days and meet potential clients and hand out business cards, I can make sure I have promo materials (flyers, business cards, digital or other displays, etc.) in every business and location in town where juniors and seniors hang out or shop or eat, I can partner with other businesses that serve seniors (such as flower shops and tuxedo rentals around homecoming time here in Texas) to do co-op promotional campaigns and packages, I can buy an ad in the newspaper's high school sports coverage to get in front of parents, I can run Google ads and Facebook+Instagram ads and TikTok ads and YouTube ads targeting high school juniors and seniors and their parents within a 60 mile radius, I can do sponsored free photo shoots as gifts for families who may not be able to afford senior photos, I can do themed event days for seniors like "Senior Beach Day Photo Shoot" and invite all seniors to come out for free snacks and games and photos on the beach at sunset, I can do the formal photos at the big prom dance, I can buy a contact list for parents of junior and senior kids and cold call family by family, etc. etc. etc.
I'm being exhaustive just to show, if you REALLY lock in on who your ideal clients are, what's important to them, who the decision makers are, and make big lists of where and how you can get your business in front of them over and over and over again, you can come up with dozens, even hundreds of ways to reach, engage, impress, and ask for the business of your ideal clients in your market.
Once you've got your marketing engine running, you then get to have fun collecting data on what works and what doesn't, how and why, then tweak those knobs and levers to increase conversion rates for every part of your campaign.
The goal is always to be 'booked solid' with a small waiting list. Once that waiting list gets a little too big, it's time to raise prices. Repeat: good marketing, get booked solid, raise prices. Repeat. Repeat. Until you reach the "just right" ratio of number of shoots and profit per shoot for you, or as high as your market(s) will bear with you.
What’s the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me and let me know. :)
James Michael
The Part Time Photographer
www.parttimephoto.com
Learn what works, then multiply by your uniqueness
One big topic that came up this week is how what we believe is important doesn’t often translate into what’s important to our market.
I’ll cut to the chase:
Learn ‘what works’ then multiply by your uniqueness.
The market is what it is, and something to keep in mind as you develop and promote your art and services, is that you are not your market. You’re deep in the weeds of the artistic journey, as a creative and as a businessperson. Almost everything you care about - or at least, what fills up your concern bucket - is not of concern to your potential clients.
Of course: you want to do your best work, give great service, bring something of value to the art and experience that clients can’t get elsewhere.
But here’s an exercise:
Write down 5 things about you and your services that you feel are completely unique and important. What are the five things you WISH your potential clients would use to compare you to your competition? (this is a golden exercise to suss out good marketing / social media / branding copy anyway)
Get into your potential clients’ heads… Write down 5 things THEY care about when they’re looking for a photographer in your market.
The basic checkboxes for the latter are most likely:
- Does this photographer serve my area?
- Does their portfolio look like what I want my photos to look like?
- If yes on both of these, can I afford them?
I’m willing to bet that most if not all of your personal “Top 5 Things About My Photography Business That Are Important” don’t actually align with what potential clients most care about. (Art / portfolio being the most likely common factor, since that’s the core product on offer and being sought out.)
Does that mean what’s important to you isn’t important at all?
Not at all! What’s important to you is a part of the alchemy that makes your art and business unique in your market.
But HOW you translate that uniqueness and value into what YOUR MARKET cares about is KEY.
Odds are, all of your marketing messages are from your perspective about what you feel is most important for potential clients to know. Without this practice of translating this into words, photos, and promotions that speak your clients’ language (what’s important to them), it’s VERY hard to get potential clients excited about working with YOU versus any other photographer.
This is why you will see over and over again photographers who are great marketers but arguably mediocre artists stay booked solid at rates you envy, while you stare at an empty calendar wondering what you’re doing wrong.
Being real, success as a small business - especially as a working artist - is like inventing the lightbulb: there are 999 ways to do it wrong for everyone single way to do it right.
But that’s a GOOD thing:
Every wall you hit is an opportunity to keep fighting where others turn and flee.
And the more times you hit a wall, then learn to overcome it, you’re getting into rarified air with more wisdom and less competition.
That perseverance, tempered by humility, self awareness, and love for your art and market, is a recipe for success.
Need help untangling the knot of that translation? Frustrated trying to do so alone? Drop me an e-mail and let’s visit. I read every e-mail, and will help however I can.
Photography, and inspiration in giving
We all go through dry spells - creativity, inspiration, motivation.
I hit that wall pretty hard in 2024, although in a backwards way from most folks. Instead of hitting a wall of distraction or distress taking me away from my creative work, I hit a wall as soft as a plush mattress: ease.
Day job work was going easy. Taking care of kids as they’ve gotten older, easier. Photography business running smooth, steady…pretty easy.
Run gently into ease often enough, and it can take your edge.
It definitely did for me. I allowed my creative coaching work to float, allowed my sales effort to slip, and just took it easy for a while. Not that there’s anything wrong with a healthy break, but as we all know - it can be easy for a break to turn into waking up one day asking, “Wait a minute… Did I forget I’m an artist?”
My art has developed far more into coaching than photography over the years, and in case you can’t tell from the value I try to give while asking what I hope is very little, my motivation is much more love for my fellow photographers and solopreneurs than padding my bank account.
Thus, two thoughts:
Has photography gotten too easy for you? Life? Either can cost you your edge, your hunger, your spark, your fire. Friction makes fire. If your art or business or life have gotten a little too smooth, maybe it’s time to add a firestarter like a bold goal, a worthy challenge, and some next steps to spark the blaze.
If not for you… If doing this creative business thing for yourself doesn’t seem to be enough to get you moving… Who could you help, if you would just try? Who is the high school senior or family who would be blessed by a generous, free photo shoot, and an encouraging word? Whose life could you make better with the resources your photography business could be generating, if you were trying? This question has turned my creative fire from ash to blaze this summer.
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? Drop me an e-mail and let me know. I read every e-mail, and will help however I can.
What's holding you back is your source of opportunity
[If you happen to be sick of my incessant philosophical waxing, scroll to the bottom of this message for some crunchy tactical treats!]
Not to be a dummy, but "if it were easy, everyone would be doing it."
Ask any photographer I've coached, I'm big on challenging comfort zones.
For 13 years I've asked folks, "What's the biggest challenge holding you back today?" And I've gotten hundreds of not thousands of answers to that question.
Some markets suck, straight up - there are towns and cities in America and around the world that are absolute black holes for reaching a full-time income as a professional photographer.
But...that's almost never the biggest obstacle for folks.
(My photography company, Outlaw Photography, has thrived in rural Texas towns from populations 900 to 1,850, though I've never been afraid to reach into the markets like San Antonio and Austin!)
What's holding you back is almost always the internal game.
"I'm not good enough... I'm not getting better fast enough... It's already too late... I don't have time / talent / camera gear / social media skills / sales skills... Everybody has a great camera on their phone today... I'm too old/young, too boring/nerdy, too introverted, too awkward, too YouNameIt."
Just a word of encouragement today: your obstacle is your opportunity.
Where you feel like quitting is where most photographers want to quit. Why you want to quit is why most photographers do quit. And that's why you have to learn to love the obstacles you face, internal and external: because they're barriers others refuse to break through, mountains others fear to climb.
If you can fight past what's holding you back today, you can reach rare air, where there is less competition and even more opportunity (clients, creativity, cash!).
Do that enough times, and you can own your zip code as a professional photographer.
Do it more, and you can own your area code and beyond.
The opportunity is there. The universe will definitely test your resolve, how serious you are about making your dream come true.
Let me encourage you today to stand up, fight forward, and pass that test.
Scared? Self-defeating? Self-sabotaging?
E-mail me and let me know what you're feeling. We'll work together to get you the breakthrough you so desperately need. :)
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. You asked for tactics? I got tactics! When was the last time you called your past clients to check in with them? Ask about how they're enjoying their photos, if they need any extra prints, and if they've thought about their next photo shoot - fall is coming this month, leaves will be turning, pumpkin patches will be popping up, Halloween costumes are on sale now... Sounds like great opportunities for some discounted 'event' shoots, such as partnering with a local church pumpkin patch or school fall festival, to tease your clients back in front of your camera. Want to brainstorm ideas? E-mail me and let's talk. :)
It shouldn't have to be so hard, right?
Is photography grinding you down?
"Why does this have to be so hard?"
"Ugh I'm SO not excited to work on this..."
"I'm so tired of nothing getting better."
A pastor I'm studying with talks about a concept called convergence:
Where your talents and skills align with your passion. Where what you're good at aligns with what you're interested in; professionally, a convergence that leads to something people will pay you for. (I can't convince anyone to pay me to be mediocre at playing videogames...hmm...)
If your back were out of alignment, you'd feel pain, and do what it takes to get it right.
I want to set you free tonight.
I don't know who this is for, but it may be you.
You don't have to do it this way.
Let that sink in... It doesn't have to be this way. Chasing your dream shouldn't hurt all the time. It shouldn't be a grind.
I want you to let it go.
Let what go?
Let go of whatever you're stuck on. You've wrapped your thoughts, imagination, fears and anger around something... Something you think is absolutely essential.
You've convinced yourself.
I want to free you from the lie that's holding you back.
"BUT JAMES MICHAEL, my photography sucks! I can't get clients! They won't pay! My web site is a mess! I'm a has-been and an imposter! There's nothing I can do!"
I know. You've been telling me for 12 years.
I promise you... It's okay. I just need you to let it go.
Your art is good enough. Your skills are good enough. Your people are out there...you just need to connect with them, and help them. Help them get what they want...what you have to give. You can start simple, start small, start today (or at least this weekend). You can take steps toward where you dream of being.
It's that easy. (And that complicated.)
My encouragement: get clear on how you want this professional photography business to make YOU feel. What needs to happen to make YOU feel that way? What needs to change? What steps can help?
Does that make your path a little clearer?
Whether it does or doesn't, please, e-mail me and let me know where you're at in your journey, and what you're feeling about where you're at today.
I'm here to help.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
This one might hurt... If it does, I'm sorry, but it had to be said to me to get me unstuck, and I'm hoping it will help you do the same.
Let's take off our masks for a minute. Get real with me, raw, honest, vulnerable, no ego.
Are you really a professional photographer?
Or an information collector?
You know what I'm talking about...the fact that you're reading this blog right now might itself be a sign that you are more collector than photographer.
Pop quiz:
- Do you spend more time making photographs or reading about / watching videos about making photographs?
- Do you spend more time talking to potential clients or reading about what to say (sales & marketing) to potential clients?
- Do you spend more time talking to strangers about your business or talking to your friends about your business?
Eeeeeeeeeesh... I am 100% convicted by every one of these questions.
Which is why my dear friend Steve Arensberg recently had the "come to Jesus" talk with me... That talk broke my pattern of mental masturbation (should I do this or that? what's the perfect next step? what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?) and got me to DO THE WORK and hit PUBLISH on my art, my new book, Freemium Photography.
One of my beta readers, Laci Reynolds, said this was one of the most powerful lines in the whole book:
"Your photography can’t change anything for the better - not your life, not your family, not your friends, not your community, not your market, not the world - if you never do anything with it."
This is why I ask the hard question of you today, my friend:
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
If you're the latter today, it's totally okay: the very first step is admitting you have a problem.
The next is to do something about it.
A powerful challenge: stop reading, stop watching videos, stop buying books and workbooks and courses - including mine... And don't consume one more word of 'information' until you are ready to implement and take action.
Read one word, one sentence, one chapter at a time, and then take action on it.
Watch one video at a time, then take action on it.
Read one blog post, or e-mail, then take action on it.
Stop the mental masturbation of consuming information and feeling like you've made progress because of it.
Proof is in the production, right?
What action have you produced, what change have you produced, what client- or market- or even self-facing improvement have you produced as a result of what you've just read or watched?
Sometimes that production is private: "I am making the personal rule right now that I will not consume one more e-mail, blog post, book, or video unless I'm ready to stop and take action on what I learn."
Sometimes that production is public: "I am calling Stacy right now to ask if I can interview her for a testimonial, and then I'm putting that testimonial with her photo on my web site and social media pages."
But there must be fruit for all the time you're spending in the garden.
If there's not yet, or very little to show for your time, that's 100% okay - there is no time like right now to change.
It can be scary. And confusing. And frustrating.
But you can do this.
I've done it. I've drifted and had to come back and make that change from consumption to creation and connection over and over again. To err is human, right?
Grace. Forgiveness. But, then, change.
Don't know how? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Ready to 'start over' and take action? Pick up a copy of my new book Freemium Photography, and work your way through chapter by chapter, taking notes and action every step of the way.
How do I keep people from printing my low-res photography files?
Well...
You can't.
Yes yes, you can bring to bear a few dozen technical measures (watermarking, disabling right-clicks, image tiling, image masking...) and put the most threatening language on your web site, contract, and license...
But you can't stop people from doing pretty much anything they want to do.
And when they do violate your rules, you can seek every venue from public shaming to legal letters to lawsuits to punish them for their transgression.
But...
Dang...
Call me a free-lovin' hippie, but that's a lot of negative vibes, maaaan.
Let's shift the conversation from prevention and punishment to enabling and encouragement.
Here's what's worked for me:
1. Give people what they want.
2. Give it to them at a price they can afford.
3. Give them the knowledge and understanding they need to see the value.
Here are some examples of what this may look like as your photography business grows:
Startup: In the early days as a professional photographer, the shortest path to success is the one with massive acceleration. So shoot for free, give people digital files, encourage them to print big and hang on the wall so they get the maximum social and emotional value out of their art. Do in-person proofing and 'sales' even if you're trading out the files for practice, portfolio pieces, and social capital (testimonials, introductions, etc.). This keeps proofs offline, encourages the purchase or appreciation, and gives you the opportunity to educate the client on how best to enjoy the art you've made together.
Intermediate: If you're digital-centric like me, learn to make a wide variety of great images fast, and sell digital packages full of photos your clients "can't live without." If you want to shift to print, start the process of evolving your art, the language around your work, your target market, and your sales sessions to focus on the experience and value of big prints.
Advanced: Level up your art until the demand is high among the more discerning clientele in your market. Sell digital files at wall art prices. Or sell wall art at wall art prices. Make fewer, better photos.
Keep in mind, clients aren't buying your photographs; they're buying the feelings your photographs enable for them, and the experience that's crafted to elicit and explore those feelings. The more you focus on the feelings of your work rather than the facts of it (size, discounts, paper, ink, session length, megapixels...), the faster you'll connect with your market and see the success you're hungry for.
Not sure how to do this? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com