Prepare Your Photography Business for Greatness in 2024
Last updated on 04/03/2024
It is a new year, but this time of year often comes with seasonal slowness or downtime for many photographers worldwide.
That is why today, we want to share some advice to give you a leg up in the new year — a way to bring your photography business to a new level of greatness.
Education
First up is one of the more obvious things you can do when not photographing clients regularly. That is, to learn more about photography and business.
There are countless places and methods to learn.
These are just a few examples of places you can learn about photography, lighting, editing, business, social media, and so much more.
Any areas you can educate yourself on are things you can bring with you, so you are ready when the busy season comes.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the Imagen channel on YouTube, where we share educational content like this!
Your Instagram profile is a handheld portfolio of your work. It is a supplement to your website, acting like a business card (we will get back to your website later).
Consider treating your Instagram profile as a vital part of your photography business by optimizing it for success in the new year.
- Keep a consistent editing style across photos.
- Keep colors consistent across graphics like logos and quotes.
- Use more quotes from clients as social proof.
- Show behind the scenes footage of you in action
- Use relevant hashtags for each of your photos. Apps like SmartHash can help you research and test hashtags.
Don’t forget to follow us at @imagen.ai and use the hashtag #imagenai in your photos, so we can Like them and expand your reach.
Legal
Another essential task you should be thinking about year-round, but especially during seasonal downtime, is legal stuff.
Having a business means having contracts and accounting and all the less fun but essential things. Hopefully, you have the necessary legal documents in place, and if you do and need them refreshed or do not and need them created, here is what you can do.
Head over to our friends at TheLawTog and pick up the contracts you need. Then send them over to your attorney and accountants to have them modified for your area and specialties.
Workflows
Along the same lines are the systems, structures, and workflows that you might have in place for your photography business — things like your CRM or email marketing practices.
Here at Imagen, we are all about Workflows. So much so, we even have a podcast on the subject.
- Is your CRM working for you? Does it connect A to B and B to C? Does it help you with automation?
- Do you have a service in place to handle your bookings?
- What about a way to interact with your leads and clients?
There are tools out there to help improve these types of workflows. If you need something new, consider looking at:
Think about your culling process and editing workflow, think about your post-processing workflow, see how you can improve it, streamline it, and take more of the load off you.
Leads
I personally switched my photography business from Mailchimp to Flodesk. Imagen also uses Flodesk to email our subscribers. What do you have in place for lead nurturing?
But there are other tools and many CRMs (like Sprout Studio) that offer lead nurturing within their systems. One to look at is Sticky Email.
Look at what you’re using, audit it, and see if it’s best for you in the new year.
One thing that directly impacts getting leads is something called a lead magnet. Do you have one in place?
If you do, how is it performing?
- Is it attracting the right audience?
- Is it generating enough leads?
- Is it attracting quality leads?
- Are there any changes you can make to it?
- Is it printable?
- Is it clear enough?
If you do not have a lead magnet in place, consider creating one. Some common things might be:
- What to expect on your wedding day
- Local wedding guide
- What to wear during your family session
If you would like to learn more about lead magnets, lead generation, and nurturing, check out my course on the subject.
Culling Photos & Editing
The two most time-consuming parts of any photographer’s business are photo culling and batch photo editing. Many wedding photographers have long turnaround times of three to six months from the wedding day.
If you are typically overwhelmed with photo editing and have considered or are currently outsourcing your photo editing, consider Imagen, your unofficial employee.
That way, you can focus on other parts of your business, like finding and booking new clients, ordering prints, and designing and ordering albums.
Website
The last items we want to mention are related to your website. Earlier, we noted that your photography website is like your virtual business card.
While you are having some downtime, spend some of that time reviewing your website’s optimization on search engines.
We all know that word of mouth is the best form of generating business. Ranking in the top three results on Google or other search engines is like those sites recommending you above all else. By making it to a top search result, you will receive more clicks and, in turn, get more business.
If you are unfamiliar with search engine optimization, we recommend educating yourself on the basics at a minimum. This, of course, goes back to the beginning of this article. Or maybe consider working with a company specializing in SEO to audit your website and offer guidance. Companies like Fuel Your Photos that significantly understand SEO and the photography business could serve you well.
Finally, is a term that many photographers do not like hearing; Blogging.
If you do not blog or dread blogging, consider taking the time to create twelve blog articles—one for every month of the year.
You can create them a few hours and then schedule them far in advance to not have to think about them for the rest of the year.
If you would like to learn more about strategic blogging and its relation to lead generation, reference my course mentioned earlier in this article.
Closing
In this article, I was deep into some of the many things you should and could consider to prepare your photography business for greatness in the new year.
Please comment to share with the Imagen Community if you have other ideas in mind.
We look forward to learning with you as well!
