How to Build A Successful Photography Business in 3 Simple Steps

posted on:

March 12, 2019

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Most seasoned photographers will tell you that starting a successful photography business is hard work, but hard work does not mean you should shy away from building one.

When you have an abundance mentality, you know there is enough work for everyone. Everyone’s skill set, niche, client experience, and personality is different and there are people who will hire you over someone else because they resonate with your style.

Often times, photography is one of the first things people think about as a side hustle to grow.

I’ve heard of budding youngsters starting their photography business because they want to fund their first car. Or teachers becoming “summer photographers”  for supplemental income and then wanting to quit teaching and grow a full-scale small business.

No matter why you started or are thinking of starting your photography business, there are 3 simple steps to building a successful one and I’m going to jump right into them.

3 Simple Steps to a Successful Photography Business

  1. Build Your Brand
  2. Build Your Website
  3. Build Your Client Experience

Let’s dive into each one.

Step 1 | Why Building a Photography Brand Is Important

The first step in building your photography brand is identifying what type of work you want to specialize in and what you want to be known for. But, it goes so much further than that.

You’re also identifying your brand story, style and visuals, and messaging. If you haven’t built your brand foundation, you probably feel like you have no clue  what your brand story is, what your unique selling point is, the type of clients you want to serve, what visuals you need, what your style is, or how to make yourself stand out so you actually get paying clients.

Once you’ve done this, however, you’ll be in tune with the real you, know your style, know how to establish a brand that customers align with and want to follow, and make such an impression that you can set your ideal price in the market and get repeat business.

So, how do you actually break down the steps of building a brand? In my super affordable online photography summit—Stand Out to Booked Out—(which I’m going to share with you below) 5 experts in their field walk you through the finer points of building your brand. We’ll get to that in a second, but right this moment, you just need to jot down that your first step is going to be “brand building.”

Step 2 | Why Building a Photography Website Is Important

Your next step in building a mega-successful photography business is to build your online presence and portfolio on a platform that you control. Aka—not social media (although that’s important).

You need a home base. You need a place to send people that’s legitimate and shows you have your stuff together. You also need a place to house your content such as your blogs, so you can start building up clout and SEO for search engines plus engaging in content marketing to generate leads.

Before you have an amazingly branded home base, you’re going to feel slightly embarrassed or disorganized when people ask you where they can find you. You will also likely lose out to your competition who has a legitimate website that’s easy for clients to get to and properly showcases their skills and packages.

Once you have a proper website, however, it’s much easier to stand out, book the best clients who are willing to pay higher fees, and feel confident every time someone asks where they can find you or see your work.

In the Stand Out to Booked Out virtual summit, we cover all this, including:

  • How to design a website your clients simply can’t resist
  • What the heck SEO is and how to do it right
  • What to say and when it say it: How to write your website page copy so that it actually converts
  • How to use your blog as a marketing tool
  • And so much more.

Right now—simply jot down that step # 2 is to address all aspects of your website.

Step 3 | Why Building a Top-Notch Client Experience Is Important

Keeping it simple, the final BIG step is to create your client experience. You want to wow your clients, right? You want them to keep coming back and send ALL their friends and family members, correct?

Then, you have got to knock their socks off and serve them all the goodies and more.

I once heard the following example and it stuck with me…

Imagine a 5-star chef has created a divine 4-course meal. The food is of premium quality. It’s all organic and it’s laid out beautifully. Now, imagine the chef served you this meal on the top of a trash can lid. Would you want to it? Would you return?

Now, imagine he served it on fine china placed on a beautiful tablescape in a candlelit environment where classical music played in the background.

The product is the same, the chef is the same, but the experience is different and it’s going to impact whether you actually stay and eat and come back. Let alone rate the restaurant well and refer people.

You need to map out a client workflow, unpack what your experience is going to look like, and identify key touch points during that experience where you can truly serve and wow your clients.

If you don’t do this, you’re going to feel like you’re not giving your clients the best of yourself and you will wish you served them in a better, higher-end way (even if you’re not a high-end photographer for luxury peeps).

You’re also going to miss out on rave reviews and referrals because your experience is lacking.

In the Stand Out to Booked Out Virtual Summit—which you can watch anytime, from the comfort of your couch and PJs—for only $29, you’re going to learn:

  • How to design client and business workflows and systems that work for you
  • How to take people from inquiry to a raving fan
  • All the brand collateral you need for your photography business and why each one is important to elevating your client experience
  • How to get real and get attention so your client experience is authentic from the first encounter
  • And more….

Now—write down “build an amazing client experience” as your third step.

You now know the big picture steps to building a successful photography business and why they’re important.

Your next step is to start taking those steps and the best, most efficient and most affordable way I know that you can do that is by grabbing your copy of the Stand Out to Booked Out Virtual Brand Summit and getting started right away.

You can view the experts, see the content topics, and get all the details by clicking the link below. Remember, we show you how to do each one of these 3 steps for under $30 and you can get started on it the moment you purchase.

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