Making a living through photography isn’t easy, but you can give your photography business a big boost if you learn how to promote it properly. Here are seven ways to promote your photography business online.

Build an online portfolio

Find a strong online platform where you can showcase your work. It’s essential for anyone serious about photography to create a strong online portfolio. Find a website where you can show off your best work, outline your services, and have people contact you easily. Platforms, such as Wix, offer templates to showcase your work.

It’s important that you put some thought into curating your portfolio; don’t just dump all your work in it. You want to give potential clients a good sense of your style and niche. State of Writing has writing and formatting guides that will help you with your portfolio.

Create your own email signature

You’re probably sending quite a few emails out every day, and you’ve also probably not thought of them as a way to promote your photography. Get more clicks by creating an email signature that includes a link to your Facebook business page and any other platform where you promote your photography.

You will find adding this signature drives more traffic to your platforms while also shows off that you are a professional. Don’t forget to include your phone number and studio address, and watch out of superfluous information that clutters up your signature.

Upload to Instagram

Instagram is an important and useful tool that allows you to connect with a mass audience. Some professionals have mixed feelings about the platform because those using it don’t need real photography skills and experience, but it’s worth using for its huge user base alone.

Instagram feeds are also very easy to integrate into your website. Use ViaWriting and Australianhelp to write catchy captions for your Instagram posts.

Personal websites and blogs

No matter what size, any business should have a personal website. Your website is a great platform to host work you don’t include in your portfolio, and for clients interested in your services to reach you. Include a link back to your portfolio to make your site discoverable. You may want to include a blog as well. Though a blog can be time consuming, it will drive some traffic to your website, and is one more way to reach clients who otherwise may not have found you.

Your blog is one way for potential clients to get a sense of your style and who you are. Ukwritings and AcademAdvisor are helpful content writing and editing tools for you blog. Speaking of blogs, there are a lot of wedding and portrait blogs that feature photography. Try and get your work featured and then promote it so your clients can see it.

Choose the right photography website

When you’re choosing a website, keep in mind its potential for sharing and promotion. Look for someplace that has a large capacity for storing your photos. Different sites have different storage capacities, so it’s important to check. Is it a platform that makes it easy for you to share your work? Look for a platform that gives you options for sharing your stuff on Facebook, Instagram, Google +, etc. Check how easy it is to upload photos, edit them, and curate your collection.

Ensure the website you choose allows you to keep the high resolution quality of your photographs. Look for a platform that has a community where you can further promote your work inside and outside of the website.

Build an email list

Compile an email list of people who actually are interested in your work; don’t go and buy a random email list someone is trying to sell you. When it comes to photography, email lists are about quality, not quantity. You don’t need a huge list; what you need is a list of people who are interested in you and your work. Services such as Mailchimp provide automation to your email efforts and save you a ton of time. Use MyWritingWay and Academized to write accurate emails.

Create a contest or promotion

A contest every now and then can really boost your visibility. Contests are more about spreading the word than bringing in extra business.

According to Arlene Cornell, a Digital Marketer at Paper fellows, and the author of Revieweal blog:

“Photography promotions and contests aren’t appealing to your target market, who would rather wait until the contest is over and book their preferred date. But as long as you view contests for what they are, promotional events rather than extra business, then they are a good way to get some buzz”

Conclusion

You can give your photography business a big boost if you learn how to promote it properly online. If you build an online portfolio, create your own email signature, upload your work at sites such as Instagram, make the most of your personal website and blog, choose a good hosting website, build up a good email list, and use contests to promote your business, you will be successful at promoting your photography business online.