← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
3 Tips to Stand Out From a Saturated Photography Market
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I get it. The photography industry is saturated with thousands of photographers. How could there possibly be room for you to succeed? I chose to do this topic today because of my conversations that I've been having with some photographers and they are frustrated with their lack of bookings. They don't understand why people will not pay their prices. And I'm guessing if you hit play on this episode, you're probably feeling this way too. So today I'm going to dive in to three tips to help you stand out from a saturated photography market. And friend, I promise you there is room for you in this industry. Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mama to two, and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast, we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience, and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here. Just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in. So let's talk about this idea of saturation. What even is saturation? When you say, oh, the photography market is saturated, what does that mean? You think it means that there are so many photographers, so much competition that there can't be any room for you to stand out. But I want to tell you that saturation, while, yes, it does mean that there are, you know, a lot of options. Right? We're not lacking. Right. Saturation doesn't mean that we're lacking in something. It really just goes to show that there is a demand for high quality, high service providers. And that's you. You're not doing this as just a side thing and you don't take yourself seriously. I know that you take yourself seriously. I know that you have big goals for your business or you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. So what do we do with this? There's so many photographers and we are struggling with visibility. What actually convinces or pushes our leads and they actually convert into clients. How do we do that? So there's three tips to help you stand out from everybody else and the first one, in my opinion, is the most important. This is the backbone to everything that you do and that's by providing, providing a high quality service and high quality images. So yes. While there are a lot of people who are calling themselves photographers, I've had my fair share of audits on random people's accounts and portfolios. And I am just here to say that high quality is not everywhere. Right? Not everybody can offer high quality. They don't even understand their camera. They don't know how to work it. And if you're at the very beginning of your business and you're in a learning phase, I'm not necessarily talking to you. I'm just talking to the fact that there are a lot of people that, like, they just don't care to learn. And they're not trying to learn. They just think that they can take photos and whatever quality they want, get paid for that and make some type of a living off of that, and probably not even a living. These people are most likely just doing this as a hobby and making some money. And I've got air quotes going on because you can't really make money when it costs you money to do something anyway, right? And so the first way that you can really show potential clients that you are serious and that you are a contender for them to invest in is by being high quality all the way around. Your images, the work you produce, the client experience you give, the way that you're talking to people, if you are, you know, putting out a professional Persona, people are going to notice. They're going to see that you are different than other photographers out there who are being super casual and even unprofessional. So first and foremost, if you don't have high quality service all the way around, including the work that you provide, you have got to change that first. My guess is that the majority of you are already able to check this off, or you are very close to checking number one off. And so I know that once you have that set, you have the backbone to already standing out with tip number one. Tip number two, this one's a big one, too. And this is the one that I think it just takes time to figure out. And that is your personal brand. You cannot just sound like everybody else. If there's so many people saying, hey, let me help preserve your memories for lifetime, everyone says that. And so if you're saying that you're not setting yourself apart, if you're shooting anything and everything, you are blending in, you are not standing out. So we need to work on building up a personal brand for you, one that is memorable, one that makes somebody feel some type of way, and a personal brand that can truly feel like a community for you. And your target audience. So what makes you you? Why are you in business? What specialty are you trying to be known for? Like, you want to be the go to for what? You have to be able to fill in that blank or you're never going to be able to develop a true brand for your business. A personal brand is not just, oh, let me act like an influencer and, oh, let me have these really pretty colors in my logo. That's not a personal brand. Those might be elements to having a personal brand, but you need to, you need to really figure out and build out all the way around in your business. What does this mean for you? So this is everything from how you communicate, the tones that you're using, the copy that you're choosing, the way that you show up and show your face. We can't hide behind a logo anymore. That is definitely 2010 strategy. People will not do business with people that they don't know. They have to be connected to you in some way to really want to do business with you. Your best clients, you will find, are very similar to you in some way or another. You might be a family photographer and you're also a mom, and so you're going to be working with a lot of moms and you guys are going to get each other's humor and understand the ups and downs of motherhood. And that's a connection point. You might be a high school senior photographer and have a teenager at home. And so you, you understand both worlds, right? You know what a senior is going through, you know what a teenager is going through. And so you're going to be able to connect to them and be able to speak more of their language and know how to market to them, just depending on your own, like, personal lifestyle? So that's one way to think of it. But overall, I want people to be able to see your work and come to your page or social media, read an email. I want to be able to take anything out of your business and be able to say, oh, my gosh, that sounds so much like your name, right? Like, that sounds exactly like Ashley. Oh, my goodness. This, this has to be Amanda's work because it's just got her, it's got her style and her brand all over it. So be thinking about this. How can I just show up as myself, infuse more of my personality, more of my values, more of who I am as a person? How can I implement more of that into my marketing and my business to really make people feel like we have connection points and like they are a part of a community here that is going to help you stand out so much and that is going to help you stay top of mind with people. The third and final tip I have for you today to help you stand out from a saturated photography market is doing things that other people won't do. Right? You've got to go all in with marketing. It's so easy for everybody to pick up their phone, make a post on social media and say they're marketing their business. But what are you willing to do that's different to help you stand out and actually be known? This is where the local marketing piece comes in. I'm a huge cheerleader for this, right? I want you to get outside of your four walls and off of social media and find other ways to market your business. Because if you can't go, you know, on your own two feet and start to meet people and put your business out there, you are leaving so much money on the table. The best way to meet people is to get in a room where people are actually standing. Not just scrolling, not just mindlessly, you know, looking at post. You want people who are at an event that you're at, maybe it is a charity event and you're there and you're meeting people and they're asking what you do and you're introducing your photography business, handing out business cards or connecting on each other's Instagram. That's a great way to meet more people. It's that foot traffic that you need in your business. So I'm telling you right now, okay, I'm telling you, the majority of photographers are not going to go further than throwing up a website and posting online. They're not going to because they are so afraid to put themselves out there and to do something different. So what does that mean for you? That means that you have to be willing to do the things nobody else will. You have to be willing to reach out to another business, to walk into their place of business and introduce yourself, buy their stuff, shop there, be a customer, be a consumer, meet them, business to business. Put, you know, ask for what you want, go to events, create your own event, join a networking group, join your chamber of commerce, do what other people will not do and watch your business grow. So let me recap these for you. The three tips to help you stand out in a saturated photography market. Number one is to be the high quality service provider. Remember, high quality all the way around. Just because you have amazing images does not mean you're going to be a go to. You also have to have the customer service to back that up, the client experience, all of that, all the way around. They need to give you five stars. Number two is to have a personal brand. Go build one for yourself. Start doing it today. Make people feel like they're a part of something. And number three, do the marketing other people won't do. Get off social media, get into the real world and put yourself out there and watch your business grow. Everything that I ever teach you and preach to you about on this podcast are things that I am doing myself. I'm never going to tell you to do something that I'm not willing to do myself. That would make me a horrible business coach. I don't want that to be you. Right. I want you to take these tips and I want you to apply them. And if you want even more tips, we're taking this so much deeper. In the boot camp happening on Tuesday. You have a couple of days left to come. Get signed up. Brooke jefferson.com/boot camp. This is for the three day fully booked boot camp. You're going to meet with me for about an hour a day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of next week and I'm going to help you. I'm just going to pour into your business next week and help you really grow your business so that you can start seeing the bookings you want to see on your calendar. Not just in busy season, but in other seasons too. So I'm so excited to serve you. I hope you found this episode helpful. I hope to see you in the boot camp. We're getting started in just a couple days and I cannot wait to see you there until our next episode. Have an amazing week.