For most of us, when first starting our photography businesses, we aren’t too picky about exactly “who” our clients are. Rightfully so, in the beginning, we are focused primarily on building our portfolio, gaining experience and making some money to help offset the costs of our new and often growing collection of equipment. That’s totally fine, for a while – but at some point, you will want to focus on truly finding your own “brand” and only work with your ideal clients.
In this quick tutorial, I will share with you my number one way to help you work with more of your ideal clients.
The Anatomy of Your Ideal Client
Everyone’s ideal clients will be slightly different. You can define your ideal clients in a variety of ways such as age, hobbies, photo-style, and even occupation. Occupation? Well yes, because occupation often leads to a budget which also can be an important aspect considering your clients can’t be your “ideal client” if they can’t afford your services. So think back upon your favorite clients and jot down notes about them in these areas and you’ll start to get a feel for the specific types of clients who you love to work with so you can know how best to target them later.
Only Show, What YOU Want to Show!
“I don’t show any of those photos that don’t fall in line with my brand and my style.”
This is it. This is huge. This is the best way to target your ideal clients. Blogging is important, it shows your latest and your greatest work but even if you can’t stand blogging this idea of only showing what you want will still apply.
Let’s suppose you’re a wedding photographer whose primary photo style is all about catching moments and candids throughout the day. You clearly wouldn’t want to work for a client who is looking for a photographer to recreate 20 different posed photos they found on Pinterest, so on your website, blog or social media pages – only show photos that reflect your style. Period.
We all know that from time to time we will still get requests for photos that are simply not our style, but yet we still (mostly) take the photo request for our clients to ensure we have a happy client. However, when it comes time to blog the wedding, you can rest assured I don’t show any of those photos that don’t fall in line with my brand and my style. Maybe it’s a bridal party jumping shot or the groomsmen holding the bride or the perfect off-camera flash sunset kiss shot….it’s not my brand, not my style and my goal is to find more clients that love what my style is. So once again, I repeat, only show what YOU want to show! What this will do is organically filter away the “wrong” clients and more effectively target and bring in the “right” clients!
It might not happen overnight but I can assure you that it does work and with time you will be fine-tuning your individual brand and style so that more of your ideal clients are finding you and ready to sign on the dotted line!
If you want more business and marketing tips for photographers click right here!
Got a question? I got an answer so let me know!
Cole
https://youtu.be/MjK4LE-YAeo
