If you’re a photographer pursuing a content marketing strategy, it’s important to learn as much as possible if you’re going to succeed.
Below are five indispensable tips for great content marketing that every photographer should know.
1) Maintain a Photo Blog (And Post Consistently)
If you’re a photographer, then maintaining a photo blog should be a no-brainer. A blog allows you to display your latest work, channeling fresh content for your site while catching your customers’ eyes. The most difficult aim that busy business owners have is posting consistently, but it’s essential if you’re planning to get the most out of your blog.
Engaging your audience constantly is one of the most effective ways to stay on the map with your content marketing. Perhaps you’re too busy to get a post out every day, but striving to publish something two or three times a week is a good goal to start with.
The most important thing to remember is that frequent engagement builds credibility for your brand. It has become increasingly difficult to gain people’s trust in a world where social interactions are so commonly conducted using a screen and keyboard, but they will put faith in you if you give them good enough reason to.
2) Speak Your Customers’ Language
Consider the demographics that your business serves and gear your marketing efforts toward them. How old are your customers? Where do they live? What are their values? Are they predominantly male or female?
For example, if you do weddings, then young couples are your target market. Step into their shoes and take note of what they care about based on who they are. At the same time a young bride is seeking a photographer, she’s also looking for the perfect dress, thinking about wedding day décor and finding a cake. So provide these young ladies with the things they want to see: post the best cake cuttings, macro table decorations and pre-ceremony bridal portraits that you’ve captured in the past.
Wording is important as well. Don’t speak in a stuffy tone when you’re marketing to young couples – word your promotional content in a way that exudes excited optimism. But if your focus is something like product photography, you should be exhibiting your marketing in a more professional, serious manner.
3) Stand Out
The key to garnering readers and re-shares is to get people interested in whatever you’ve made for them, so you need to make it interesting. Do things that no one else is doing. Focus on what’s unique about your photography business and show it to the world.
Creating unique analogies in your content can give new life to a tired topic or otherwise mundane reference. For example, talk about “the importance of turnaround time when editing for wedding clients” by relating it to “waiting for your expensive new package to arrive in the mail.” The key is to grab potential readers’ attention by using an analogy that the masses can relate to.
And if you’re having trouble generating ideas, try doing something humorous. Working humor into your content can be a smart way to appeal to people, resulting in more eyes on your material. Just ensure that it’s tasteful and lays the ground to illustrate your original ideas.
4) Give Them Free Resources to Walk Away With
Giving people a free resource they can walk away with is extremely valuable. Naturally, blog posts are meant to provide professional advice free of charge. But we’re talking about actually giving them something they can walk away with; something they can download and own.
Take inventory of your respective staff’s skills and think about what sort of free resources your target consumers would most enjoy. Get creative to give them something they want, and you’re bound to see that turn into thicker traffic to your site.
5) Share Your Content at the Right Times
Another way to broaden your reach is to consider when you share content. Believe it or not, the day of the week and time you share can make a big difference in both the viewer demographics and volume of users seeing your content.
The two biggest social networks to share content on are Facebook and Twitter. Web-surfing “busy hours” take place between 8:00am and 7:00pm, and research shows that Twitter shares are 30% more engaging during the busy hours.
On the other hand, Facebook is 17% more active in the nighttime hours following 8:00pm, so consider holding off until later to share your content here.
Have more need-to-know advice to add? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
Thank you for useful tips, Pat!