With Laura Esmond

MarketingTips-1
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You are with Laura Esmond, your portrait photographer educator, over the years I've watched so many photographers spend more time tweaking their logo and their website images or their pricing packages instead of focusing on the thing that will bring clients to the door. Marketing. Marketing is a revenue generating thing, and it really should be where you spend all of your time if you are not shooting or editing.If you've built your photography business, nailed the basics. Your branding is beautiful and it really represents you. You're just really happy with it. Your pricing is set. You've got your guides. All of those pieces are pulled together.

it's now time to turn your attention to marketing your business.

There are certain times in a business when marketing becomes really fundamental and needs to be your primary focus. The first time is the first three years. This is where you will spend the majority of your time.

Like I said, once those other things are put in place, you'll spend the majority of your time here. Hopefully at this point though, around three years, you'll start to see the fruit of your labor and you're building a referral business, which relies a little less on constant marketing pressure. You're still gonna be doing marketing, but maybe you won't feel the need to do quite as much.

You can pull back just a little bit, at least most people do, is what I find. Two other times marketing is important is one. When business, the economy slows down. I know a lot of that. A lot of us have felt that this year in 2025, things just feel a little bit slower.

This should be your trigger to really spend that downtime on marketing your business. And the other time is when you start to see clients age out or you notice you're not getting as many new clients. This happens to a lot of family portrait businesses, typically between seven to 10 years because the children get older and you get older.

So you're not around younger moms who are still growing families. So you're just kind of losing that base.

Once the fundamentals are in place, like I just discussed, you have your style, your offerings, your brand voice, your portfolio, your workflow. Maybe some things in there have to get tweaks, but for the most part you can respond to an inquiry. The biggest lever for growth is marketing,

So today I want to walk you through actionable steps you can implement to market your portrait, photography business, especially online and in your community. And I also want to share a few common mistakes that I see a lot of people fall into so that you can. At least be aware of them and hopefully avoid them.

Okay, let's dive in. Step number one, your online presence. I want you to start with your, uh, Google Business profile. Some people think that you just set it up, which you do, and I'm going to go over that real quick, but you also need to keep tweaking it and building on it so verify your profile ensure.

Your name and address and your phone number. All of those details are accurate. Your website, obviously, you want to make sure that you're in the right business categories, including the specialties. You want to make sure that you have written a friendly, clear description that tells what makes you different, how do you stand out and also make sure you mention your city in that description

Then make sure that you have uploaded strong, really fresh images. You're actually going to use your Google business profile a little bit like you use Instagram, and make sure that those images are fresh. You want to put in recent sessions you can do behind the scenes. if you have a studio, you can video your studio environment or just upload images of it.

And then also ask for reviews from happy clients. Make it easy to leave reviews and then make sure that you respond to them. That's really, important. One of the worst things you can do is not respond to reviews. Google Analytics it's just looking to make sure that you're active.

Kind of like the way the Instagram algorithm works. They want to have active people that they're gonna boost. Google does the same thing. You'll want to use Google posts also to share promotions, blog posts, events, keep active in there. These small things add up that active, well filled profiles convert better and get more visibility.

So this actually helps your SEO.

All right, let's move along.

Step number two, blogging and email marketing. Set up a rhythm with both of these things. If you can commit. Do a blog post weekly. If not, do at least every other week or twice a month, use tools like chat, GPT for topic brainstorming. I actually like to use the function where I can talk to chat GPT and I tell it.

Everything that I want to talk about, I used to use it for my portrait business where I would say, this is what I want to communicate to my clients. Help me flush this out and give me an outline. And then I would.

Build out the rest of it in my voice for the actual blog post. Then I can put it back into chat GPT and say, can you put some keyword rich things in here? And it will swap out some of my words so that I'm also utilizing SEO. So definitely use chat, GPT, Don't have it fully, write it for you, but you can definitely have it.

Fill in the gaps for you as well as do an outline and do all that SEO work,

You can then repurpose that blog content into an email newsletter. And by the way, even if you just have 10 people on your email, that's 10 people that you can reach out to and continue building a relationship with, and hopefully they will start to refer people. And that is how your snowball in your business grows.

So don't worry about how many people are on your email newsletter. Nobody knows. Nobody has any idea. It's only coming to them. So in that newsletter. consistency is important. If you can do a monthly that's a great starting point, then maybe you can scale to a twice monthly email newsletter.

you can share behind the scenes. what's new in your business, you can share some advice for specific session types. some client tips, or you could even do a profile on one of your favorite clients. Maybe they own a business and you want to share about that business.

So you're not always selling inside this newsletter, but you're nurturing that way. Then when you do sell they're more likely to open it and more likely to book. Couple other things that I like to include in here, which is kind of fun crafts for kids as well as recipes. These are things that moms always want and always need.

So being committed to sharing something twice a month or at least once a month. You are going to develop a relationship with your email list. Make sure also that you do have a place. In your, on your website for people to sign up for that email list, as well as in social media. Make sure that they know you have one, that they can stay in touch with you and make it really, easy.

Always, easy. Okay, let's move on to step three, social media. If you enjoy it, lean in. If not, don't force it, but just do what works for you. I think social media is one of these things that trips everybody up. We, get involved and we get really good for a month, and then we realize this actually doesn't feel that good.

I don't want to spend a lot of time here. How should I really balance this? Here's what I know is really important. Number one, you have to show up regularly for Instagram to understand your rhythm and start putting out your posts to people. So commit to two to three posts a week as a solid target.

Stories are really good for showing the real you going face to camera, maybe showing behind the scenes in a session or just sharing something fun that happened that day. So keep this about you, your family your routine, sharing funny things really whatever works for you and your brand.

Don't just show portfolio work. Share your day, the moments from your life. What inspires you, what challenges you can solve for your clients. People connect to people. Humans connect to other humans. So if you're only showing portfolio work, unless you're really well known in your industry, this works for those accounts, but it's not gonna work for smaller accounts who really just want to connect with you as a person.

The tools that I like to use that help schedule posts ahead of time, use later. And Planfully, especially for those of you who are like, I do not want to show up daily on Instagram. It's just not something that I can commit to. I don't enjoy being here, and personally I don't want to coach you to do something that you don't enjoy.

So you can use later plainly. And you can also schedule posts directly inside Instagram, which honestly is probably the most beneficial in terms of. What Instagram is going to prioritize. They've never said that, but it's just my guess. But if you really want to take control of what your feed is going to look like for the month, then batch that content into later or plainly plan a theme, or just make sure that the feed looks pretty.

But I, I'm honestly, I really believe that our feeds need to look more real nowadays and more authentic while still incorporating your brand. So balancing those two things is important. Go face to camera. Show behind the scenes, talk about sessions. You can do some prep tips. You can show what's in your bag and how you are prepping for a session or getting ready for a session.

You can share what to expect. Those are all things that are going to build trust with your community online. use social to drive people though. Back to your website, back to your blog, to your email list. So you're building owned media and not just likes. So as I said before, you want to make sure that you have on your website a spot where people can get onto your email list.

Make sure you're doing the same on social media so that people are getting into your email list and you can connect with them on an even deeper level. strategically though, here are a few housekeeping items and I am preaching to myself about this as well.

I still need to get a few of these things checked off of my list. Okay, here we go. First, I would create three pinned posts walking your client through your business. Your first pinned posts should be about you. It can be a real or a carousel post, whatever you choose, but it should definitely show your face and share a bit about your story.

You can share your family how you got into photography. Just make it deeply personal so they feel like they understand you a little bit and really connect with you as a mom, as somebody who loves running or loves yoga, right? So they start to understand a little bit about who you are.

The second should be your services. I prefer a Carousel post for this one, I just think they look really clean and really easy to understand. So each Carousel Square showcases a session type you love and want to be known. Most for the third should be love notes from your client. In my opinion, I mean, you could do a couple other things, but I really think that you should have testimonials here on this third one.

And I think now we can do what, 20 images, I think, in a carousel post. So set up 20, just let people swipe and swipe on all these really beautiful things that people had to say about working with you. And then put those also into an email. if you really get 20 of them that are really beautiful testimonials from your clients, maybe each one of those could go into the next 20 emails that you send out down at the bottom.

And then also put them on your website. So make sure you're repurposing these things as opposed to feeling like you have to keep searching for more and more content. If you want to see this in action, you can go check out mine on Instagram. My Instagram account is Reese co portraits, R-E-E-S-E, like Reese Witherspoon, but not Reese Witherspoon, because I actually named my business after my first daughter.

Moving along here, a common mistake I see is not listing your location in your bio. So there have been some accounts that students reach out to me and I click on their account and I'm scrolling, trying to figure out where do they live and I've gotta dig in and find their actual website and then go find on their, and like, it's not even listed on their website.

Your location is so important. It's important on your website, on your social media, in the bio of your social media on your Google business profile. All of it, it must be listed. And now for story highlights, and this one is, this is the one that I really need to clean up still. So I am preaching to myself here.

Create a little journey for clients there. we always want to make things easy for all different types of clients. Some clients love feeds. Some clients love stories. So make sure your stories create a jour a journey for your clients. The ones I suggest having are the following highlights.

You want to have an about me? A work with me where you can share stories about maybe your experience and how they book with you et cetera. Anything that kind of fits into that category. And then client testimonials should be a highlight. And lastly, if you have special offers. So if you do Santa, that actually could be one individual highlight, I think, for Santa.

So any events that you do. Every single year, or if you're still kind of piecing those together, you could have just one story highlight where it just says events or seasonal offers, Inside of that highlight, you want to make sure that in those stories, they have a way to sign up for the wait list for those events.

Remember, we're always trying to capture that deeper relationship, and Instagram is like, I captured you for like a minute and a half. Right. on an actual post, when they're scrolling through a feed, they spend about maybe two and a half seconds on each post.

make sure that you have ways to pull them into a deeper relationship with you. Step four, talk about deeper relationships. Do not ignore your community and those real world partnerships that you can develop those real friendships. These can be very powerful. In fact, when I was growing my business, I spent the majority of my time here.

While others were growing social media followings, I just did not worry about social media. I don't know if I was just just too much outside the cusp of being a millennial and it just didn't catch on for me. But this paid off in a big way because that business grew incredibly fast. It does feel slower, but honestly, so is online marketing, so is SEO.

It all takes time to mature and community marketing. The one thing that I think, the one reason I think people don't really dig into it, you don't get the same dopamine hit that you get from posting online. You have to end up committing to something where you're not going to get that, like feel good dopamine hit, and that's hard.

But I promise you the person who spends time in their community will reap a huge reward. Here are a few tips to get you started and the exact simple steps that I took. First, identify local businesses that also serve your ideal clients. So these would be boutiques, maternity shops, baby stores, realtors, interior designers, florists, home decor, stores even accountants, and.

Female financial advisors. These women are amazing actually, and so connected. And they also have to grow a book of business that are probably very similar to the client that you are looking for. And then lastly, don't overlook schools and charities. this is what it means when people say.

Go be where your clients are hanging out. This is what that means. people said that to me a long time ago and I was like, I don't get it. What do you mean? Do I like go hang out at parties networking events? Sure. Yes. Do that too, but this is what it actually means. So don't just identify these places.

I want you to get this organized. Keep a list on a sheet, maybe a Google Doc with the names of the business, the names of the owners, and their emails. All of it. You can start to list out ideas for how you want to communicate or chat them up and kinda develop that friendship because then you are going to, step number two is you're going to approach them from a place of service.

Always, this is the most important thing to understand. How can you support them First?

I went into, I was introduced by a wonderful client of mine to a boutique owner. It was a women's clothing store, and definitely my clientele. I was really excited about this relationship and I started brainstorming ideas with her, but I was really just thinking about myself and how I was going to be able to connect with her client, and I accidentally said.

Let's throw you an event. I'll come and do X, Y, z. I don't even remember really what it was. It was probably take take some photos or offer a discount on a package or something along those lines, and you can do a sale, maybe 30% off. No wrong. If they want to do a sale, fine. Go 100% with just a heart of service. How can I serve you? So the first question is, I'm a photographer.

This is my client market. This is kind of who I'm searching for. This is what my clients are like. I really think that we share a lot of similarities. And I want to support your business. I want to get your business in front of my clients. What would be the best way for us to do that? Or is there another way that I can serve you?

Do you need photos of something? How can we work together?

Then you start to work on making it beneficial for both of you. but the place you want to start is light up. Those feel good electric responses in the brain for them that you actually want to serve them first. So maybe you do a joint event. You could do photos of their shop or their store.

You could do a headshot day of all of their employees, if they have any. You could do a blog swap. You could cross promote on social media accounts. You can provide gifts to their clients or host a client appreciation day for them.

So take a look at each one of those people that you identify. Start to talk to them and, figure out how you can work together. Another way to get into your community is co-host or sponsor local events that will benefit both of your clients. So whether you're, if you're doing it as a co-host, then you want to make sure it's benefiting both clients and attracting new clients for both of you.

If you're doing it alone, obviously you're just targeting your target market. We often did a motherhood event for expecting moms. We hosted story time for kids. We worked with a lactation consultant and co-hosted classes with her, and we also hosted headshot events for women's groups. The opportunities are endless, so you can cherry pick the ones that would fit your brand best, but I would say don't cherry pick.

Do. You'll learn as you're doing it. Maybe you have an event that doesn't bring in as much as you were really hoping it would. That's okay. You learned, and then you go do the next one. You will always do it better the next time, and once you get the swing of it, you'll find these events are so easy to plan and really great for brand recognition.

And then there's always networking. You want to be visible, you want to attend events, meet people, let them know what you do. Word of mouth still really matters. I like to start here by asking my clients what are some networking, things that you do, especially the working bombs that are working maybe in the design industry

And again, those financial advisors, they are looking for business and they're probably, again, they're looking for that business from the same type of ideal client you are. Potentially. So talk to them and find out what they're doing to grow their word of mouth business. Now, let me review just a few pitfalls that I see again and again. Number one, spending endless time tweaking foundation pieces instead of doing outreach and just showing up in your community. Two, letting your online presence stagnate out of date. Photos your wrong hours, incorrect services. So make sure that Google knows who you are, what you're doing, and that you are an active business.

Number three, not asking for reviews or not responding to them when they do post them to Google. So you're missing that social proof, so make sure that you're getting the reviews and make sure you respond to them. Number four, using social media in a reactive, unplanned way. Posting only when you have something big rather than regularly.

I, hear from so many people that they'll go hog wilded on Instagram and then they don't show up for a month because they just couldn't keep up with it, and then they come back and they apologize. How many times have you either done an apology post? I know I haven't shown up in a while.

Or you see somebody who does it so common? start showing up regularly, even if that means once a week for now, and then build up to twice a week and then build up to three times a week. Systems and habits take time to develop, so allow yourself the opportunity to create that habit by starting small and building.

Number five, trying to be everywhere. You don't have to dominate every social platform. It's better to do a few things. Well, and personally, I would focus on your current audience by keeping in touch with them through email. So I would really focus on building that email list. And then number six. Not tracking what works, which blog posts, emails, social strategies, partnerships, or events that you planned are actually bringing in clients.

Make sure you're tracking it. Without tracking. You'll keep doing this stuff that doesn't actually pay off. So if you leave this episode with anything, let it be this. Get out of the tweaking mindset and lean into marketing. Start to put that CEO hat on a daily, weekly basis, reminding yourself that you are running a business and you have to have marketing at the forefront of what you're doing.

Pick one online thing this week. Okay. Maybe optimize your Google business page or start that habit of blogging and emailing by creating all of your post ideas. And pick one community or partnership thing this month, Find one person that you want to connect with

I'd love to know, after implementing one marketing move, what changed for you? Reach out. Share your wins.

I really want to hear them, but do remember these things take time to grow. You're not going to get a dopamine hit from your Google business page, and you're not gonna get it. Very likely from creating a list of people you want to reach out to or even sending those few first few emails. In fact, you might even feel a little bit of fear.

Move through that fear. Ignore the fact that you're not getting a dopamine hit, and just be really proud of yourself for doing something that's very beneficial for your business in the long run. Until next time, keep creating beautiful sessions. Keep showing up and keep growing your business. Thanks for listening, and have a beautiful week.