Years ago to promote himself, a photographer went to advertise in the local newspaper on duty, as well as in the yellow pages. Likewise, he would distribute flyers, which he would post through the different portals of the houses in his city and in neighboring ones. In short, it meant a financial outlay without having started working.
Fortunately, it is today has changed. There are several ways to promote yourself with an initial budget of zero euros. But, keep in mind that there is also greater competition, since you are going to face a market in which clients have more professionals to choose from. Here are six free marketing techniques that you can use to promote yourself as a photographer.
Social networks
This way is the most obvious, but it is also the most competitive logo design services. In principle, social media marketing is free. But here is a continuous fight against the algorithms of the platform so that users see you. Most, if not all, networks deliberately block that user traffic from advertising with them and thus letting others find you.
The key is to get more followers or people who like and share your posts to attract new fans and, hopefully, new customers. Of course, you will have to plan and decide what you are going to publish and what not. Posts that show you working on a particular project often get an excellent response.
We recommend you join groups with a significant volume of members in which to share your work since they will be seen much more than if only in your profile. But above all, that you create a Google My Business account. It is free and they will find you faster, as long as you work it properly.
Blogs and guest blog
Blogging is another tool you can use to promote yourself. If you already include it on your own professional website, this will help increase site traffic. If you don’t have your own domain yet, there are platforms like WordPress.com and Blogger where you can publish for free. However, this is not advisable since you can lose everything you have published, if the platform decides to close.
As for what to post on a blog, it should focus on the work you do. Write about the last session you worked on, share your favorite techniques, etc. You must publish regularly and then share them in as many places as possible (social networks, forums, mailing lists …).
In the same way, you can request in a photography blog if you can make a publication as a guest. Thus, the traffic of that website will benefit you and your work or your name will be seen by a larger audience.
Create a distribution list
Encourage visitors to your website and social networks to subscribe to your newsletter or newsletter, where you will offer free information or tutorials. Once this list is sized appropriately, you can use it to keep readers up to date with your posts, offers, sessions, or whatever comes to your mind.
Online teaching
Create videos that teach how to edit an image, lighting techniques, how to use a camera. They should be videos related to your area of expertise and upload them to YouTube regularly and frequently. Also, if your channel is large enough, you can even monetize it, market it, and add a secondary income stream.
Search engine optimization
If you are a website owner, surely you have already heard about SEO and how you can do to position your website better in the results of visits from search engines like Google. In themselves, they are a series of techniques that make your website work much better and keywords that you have to put on the web to allow Google to find you when a user makes a query about a photography professional or photo studio in your location. In fact, Google Search Console helps a lot in this task of seeing if your website has some kind of error.
Small details
There are other little ways to promote yourself like including a professional signature to your emails. It can contain your studio logo, links to your website and social media profiles, as well as your phone number.
These are just a few of the many free things you can do to become known as a professional photographer. Do you already use any of these options?
