It is great to have website up with online gallery, biography and contact, but
it is not enough in today's rapidly growing group of photographers. What are
we going to be talking about today? It's money Monday, marketing for photographers
episode no.5.
My name is Zdenka Darula. I work as a photographer for many, many, many years.
I'm a former model and few other things. What marketing companies highly suggest
to do in 2019 is blogging. It's been around for a long time. It's been very
popular in past years. It will be popular again this year and in many years to
come. I can already see some of you clenching teeth right now. I do that
sometimes too, because you might be thinking. Great, well I don't have a time
to do this. Now, I don't even know what to write. I don't
even know what to post there. It is just gonna take too much time. Well, there is a
strong reason you should be doing this, so just listen up. My own website is
www.zdenkadarula.com it has been set up as a blog and I have been posting blogs for
a number of years I think about the 10 by now.
And I have to say, I get so upset at myself if I don't post anything new for
a while. Why? Because I feel right away that I'm getting less contacts from new
people from new potential clients. They cannot find me organically as much
anymore, so yeah. It's very important to have the blog going. It's very important
to post often. It will affect the way people find you in Google and any other
search engines. Here is why blogging is so important, and if you haven't started
yet, you need to change that this year pronto. When I visit a very basic website.
You know, just homepage, online portfolio, about Us section and contact and I visit
the same website after a long time. You know maybe in a few weeks few months
half a year. And I see that nothing has changed, my reaction right away is. Is
this person still in business? What's going on?
Is he still even doing photography? It kind of looks like they made the website,
it's just hanging there, it kind of looks dead to me. On the other side, if I was at
a website which has lots of going on, It may be set up as a blog. There's
current offers and deals, some coupons and I see some recent dates, I have right
away more trust to that person. I know right away that if I email them, I will
most likely get a response back. Blogging gives you credibility, it shows that you
are working and that you are busy. You remind yourself that you are here and available.
And if you blog often, people will understand it as you are high in demand.
Let's look at the CEO or search engine optimization. It's pretty difficult to
show up in a first page of Google. It's very difficult for new websites. It is very
difficult for existing websites as well. Blogging will allow you to rank those
very long keywords really well. It is a permanent content online, which will
bring you new visitors and potentially new clients you guys want. Here's a great
example from my own experience I created a blog post about The Old Mill wedding
in Toronto. Old Mill as a venue where is happening a lot of weddings. It's a very
well-known venue in Toronto so obviously I did a little bit of writing about it I
posted a few photos and I made sure I'm using the keyword "The Old Mill wedding
in Toronto". Now over the years I got contacted by many, many people, getting
married at The Old Mill and they specifically told me, that they found my
website I found my content through this particular post. Blogging will help you to
get a little bit closer to your audience. They will see you a little bit more in a
personal way. They will get to know your personality and as we all know, people
prefer to work with people, rather than business. So more personal approach is
way better than business approach. Some of your clients will really love the
fact that you will post their photos on your website. They will feel special and
appreciated and there is a very good chance that
they will share it on social media as well. If you are going to include your
clients photos on your website, common sense... have a permission from those
or that client. Make sure you have a model release signed. What happened to me
in the past, I did photo shoot of a client. I had them sign a very large
model release, which is also part of the contract. Down the road, a few years later
I got a very nasty email asking me to remove all the images from my online
portfolio and other online portfolios which were part of my marketing system. I
pulled out the copy of contract, send it to them and obviously problem solved.
Other clients might refuse to be on your website and it is totally okay. A lot of
people are very private and you should respect that. You don't need to have
every single client of yours in your portfolio. You will be shooting down the
road, you will be shooting many, many years and you will be able to build the
portfolio anyways. Building trust with your clients will bring you a lot of
referrals in the future. I learned one thing, that every time I got that very
difficult, very picky client and if I did my job very well. I listen to the client
very well, I shot good photos which they really liked, I always got the most
referrals. I don't know it always worked for me that way. In your blog posts don't
be afraid to mention another vendors. They might give you referral in the
future. There's actually a higher chance to get a referral from them if you show
a little bit appreciation and if you give them credit. If you snap few extra
photos of those vendors maybe as they are working or behind the scenes and you
will give them the photos, there is a good chance they will post it on their
social media, on their website and they will credit you, which means more traffic
to your website. Bottom line, blogging is very important
on your website. Don't postpone it any longer. If you liked today's video
please give it thumbs up and subscribe for more future photography marketing
videos. If you have any questions or comments, especially about blogging or
about marketing in general or simply want to say hello, please do so in the
comment section below. And I will see you in the next one... Cau... Ahoj...