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Five marketing tactics every photographer needs to know

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As photographers, we all know marketing is important. We regularly hear that it can make or break a business. Good marketing can help you stand out. We’ve all wondered how and why some photographers have hundreds of thousands of followers when others are struggling to even hit triple digits.

When you’ve got people talking about SEO and page ranking, the power of networking, Instagram vs a portfolio website and more, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. How are you supposed to narrow down where to start?

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Eight essential marketing strategies for more successful photography business

Why artists need to market themselves? So that, you the artist, wouldn’t starve to death.

No, but seriously. Otherwise, you risk ending up like Vincent Van Gogh who (in the words of Steven Pressfield) “produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.”

A lot of artists have this notion that they’re the creative person, and marketing belongs to the business world. Some even think it’s evil or dirty to promote themselves, and they don’t want to have anything to do with this” filthy” world.

The truth is, it’s your job to market yourself. You are the artist, and you know how to spread the word about your work. After all, you created it. You can’t rest after creating your art; you need to start marketing it.

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The basics of branding for filmmakers and other visual creatives

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When you say “branding” to most photographers and filmmakers, all they think about is how their logo looks. Branding, however, is so much more than a pretty logo. It’s what you want people to feel when they hear your name or see your work. Branding sets up a level of expectation to potential clients and customers. It’s what separates you from your competitors.

But how do you even begin to think about how you brand yourself and your work? This video from filmmaker Kris Truini helps to explain the basics with some tips to get you started. This is by no means a complete guide, but a good starting point to get you up and running. These tips will lead to more questions, but that’s a good thing. Questions make you think and push yourself. There are no shortcuts.

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5 Tips For Marketing Your Photography Business For Less Than $50

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Self-employement can be great, but one of the worst parts about being in business for yourself is…well, being in business for yourself.  So much more responsibility rests directly on you, and you almost literally hold the key to your success or failure.  You are salesman, accountant, receptionist, customer service representative, coffee fetcher…and, somewhere way down the list is the actual service you provide.

Many of us dislike or perhaps loath some of the other hats we must wear.  We’d rather be shooting the covers of magazines than spending time cold-calling, trying to land that next magazine cover shoot.  But, one area where many well-meaning and driven photographers lack expertise is in actually marketing their services and bringing in new clients.  Sure, there are plenty of divas who simply think if they shoot what they love that the masses will blaze a trail to their door, but most photographers are simply intimidated by the prospect of marketing or at a loss as to where they should begin.

And then, there’s always the cost factor.  Many of us don’t have large marketing budgets.  We can’t afford to launch TV campaigns the are synchronized with print and online advertising pushes and reach tens of thousands of people in a short time.  We are stingy with our money, not because of a dark, miserly side, but simply because we know the value of the money we earn and always seem to have a million other areas to which we could apply it.  However, marketing your photography business doesn’t have to cost a fortune.  Fashion and editorial photographer Jeff Rojas is based in New York City.  He has competition on every street corner and a budget that doesn’t come to close to rivaling the GDP of even the world’s poorest nations.  (I mean, which of us really does, right?)  So, with a little time and creativity, Jeff has done his best to maximize the budget that he does have.

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Internet Marketing For Photographers – Your Virtual Personality

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It’s pretty obvious that internet marketing is critically important to a photography business.

When I started my business, the argument was: Do you need a website?  At the time, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that a website would become only a small part of an overall photography business internet marketing strategy.

But, when was the last time that you checked your virtual personality?

In this article, I am going to review what I find when I search my own name and my business name – with at least one curveball thrown in.

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