← This Can't Be That Hard
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- [00:00]
Annemie Tonkin
If you've ever heard that old joke about, you know, two guys in the woods and they see a bear and the other. And the one guy sits down to put on a pair of sneakers and the. His friend says, what are you doing? We gotta get away from. We have to outrun the bear. And the guy says, well, I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you. That popped into my head today during this conversation that I had with Kate Work, who is not only a photographer, but also a trained writer. She has an undergraduate degree in writing and then works as a PR professional doing a ton of professional copywriting and is now doing a lot of blog writing for other photographers. And we were talking about, and you will hear this in the conversation, we're talking about how with all the photographers that are out there, blogging is still a relatively rare element in someone's photography business. It is kind of a heavy lift for a lot of photographers to sit down every week or every other week and crank out a high quality blog post. But those photographers who are doing that regularly have such a major advantage over their competition that it's like, why aren't more people doing this? Why aren't more people putting on their shoes to outrun their friend? And so I wanted to sort of start with that thought because if you are not currently blogging in your business or if you are periodically blogging and you're like, yeah, I should do this. I want today's conversation to serve as motivation. I love the approach that Kate takes to how to pick topics, how to approach things like SEO, and optimizing your blog posts. Spoiler alert. She says you don't actually need to know everything there is to know about how to do that, but the this approach is a very doable kind of a way to get started with blogging and then really make sure that your blogging has an impact on your visibility in the marketplace. So without further ado, I am going to introduce Kate in our conversation about blogging.
- [02:20]
Kate Work
Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. My name is Annemie Tonkin, and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it, and I can.
- [02:43]
Annemie Tonkin
Show you how Kate work. Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. How are you today?
- [02:51]
Kate Work
I'm great. I'm so happy to Be here. Thank you.
- [02:53]
Annemie Tonkin
The pleasure is mine. I am always excited to talk about the written word and how it is this perfect synergy with our photographs. And so I'm dying to jump into all of that. But this is your first time on this can't be that hard. I want you to take a minute and introduce yourself, let everybody know who you are and a little bit about what you do.
- [03:17]
Kate Work
Awesome. Well, first time caller. First time caller.
- [03:22]
Annemie Tonkin
Long time, long time listener.
- [03:24]
Kate Work
Exactly, exactly. Is that showing my age?
- [03:27]
Annemie Tonkin
No. But if so, then you and I are right there together.
- [03:32]
Kate Work
I'm so excited to be here, but I truly, I have been a longtime listener. Really grateful to be here, so thank you. I'm Kate. I'm a branding and headshot lifestyle driven photographer. I'm based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, which is in Fairfield county outside of New York City. I've had my business for seven years. I'm also a career publicist and communications professional. So what you said already about like words and pictures and how they work together is sort of like my passion. So I'm really excited to be here to talk more about that.
- [04:04]
Annemie Tonkin
Amazing. Yeah. I have also always been a big believer in the combination of those two things and for years was an avid blog writer. That was like part of my daily sort of practice in my business at the beginning. And it's something that I attribute a lot of my sort of long term success to. Even though after a while I got away from that and I've said it before, it's like it's one of those where the seeds that you sow with that are very long, you know, those, those plant oak trees. So it's good. And I just love getting different people's perspectives. But what really jumped out at me when we were talking about having you on the show was this idea that, like, blogging has come a long way, certainly since I was doing it back in the like 2011, 2012 time frame. And it hasn't just come a long way in terms of what people are writing about everything else, but it's really sort of evolved in terms of its purpose and what it does for your business and how we should be thinking about it. And I felt like you had such fantastic ideas to share and ways to think about that I hadn't even really considered before. So I feel like this is going to be a really juicy conversation. Let's start with just sort of how this was something that you started in, in your own business and then we can take it from there.
- [05:29]
Kate Work
I think it actually started. We have A mutual photographer friend and educator in common. Her name is Sabrina Gebhard. And so in 2020, I joined what was actually her first Mastermind. You know, 2020 was its own sort of interesting time. Sure, it was virtual, but it was my first experience of almost like in person, sort of education over a long period of time. And, you know, what would happen often is that, you know, fellow photographers, if they had any sort of about, like messaging or, you know, maybe they received like a difficult client email that they needed to respond to, or they weren't sure how to approach, like, the about section of their website or a certain caption for social media. Because I came from, and I come from this, you know, like, years of working in PR and communications, I was really, really gravitated towards, oh, I can help you. You know, I mean, writing and figuring out how to position oneself with words is just sort of part of my DNA. And so in doing that, I sort of worked with enough people, even very casually, you know, I can help you with that or just email that to me and, like, maybe I can finesse it a little bit for you and let me know what you think in doing that. I sort of got a little bit of a. Of a reputation for, you know, being able to help people with the writing thing. So after that mastermind ended, Sabrina actually was my client. She hired me to blog for her business. So that sort of kicked off this kind of, I would like, copywriting arm of what I do. And it's been. It's been like a journey ever since. So that was 2021, early 2021.
- [07:15]
Annemie Tonkin
So, yeah, I love that. Are you. Were you, I assume you were blogging for your own business prior to that?
- [07:22]
Kate Work
Not as much as you might think.
- [07:23]
Annemie Tonkin
Funny.
- [07:24]
Kate Work
Interesting. Yeah.
- [07:25]
Annemie Tonkin
I mean, but that. It's actually, I say that. I say, I assume I was giving you more credit than I give. I am. I am totally, you know, and anybody who's out there listening, thinking, like, oh, anomy's always got her ish together, it's not always the case. Sometimes it's easier to say, this is what one should be doing, rather than to actually get it done yourself. But being hired to do something is a really quick way to start actually doing it. And it is funny how when you see something start to work for somebody else, it's like, oh, I guess I could probably be doing that for my own business as well.
- [07:57]
Kate Work
Exactly, exactly.
- [07:59]
Annemie Tonkin
That's amazing. And I, of course, no one loves Sabrina, and I love the fact that she handpicked you out of you know, in her own little community to say, you really do have a way with words. And I could use this in my business. Talk to me a little bit because I'm always fascinated. Blogging is such a personal thing. It's such a, you know, you're really having to embody someone's not only perspective and sort of finer points of their business, but also of their voice, which can be a tricky thing. Do you mind sharing a little bit about how, especially with a brand new client and a brand new branch of your business, how you went about kind of figuring that out?
- [08:44]
Kate Work
Absolutely. So I think just to start off, one of the things about blogs that I think is blogging, and blogs in general is a sort of like written medium that I think is so cool, is that they don't have blogs, don't have the same sort of rules and regulations as, you know, an article in a, in a publication might, or, you know, or even like a PSA for radio. Right. It's, it's very much supposed to be your voice. It's supposed to be authentic. It's supposed to sound like how you speak. So for me, my approach is I want to assume your voice. I want to assume your brand voice. I want you to feel like when you read a draft that I've delivered to you, that it sounds like you, that it's, that feels authentic to you. Because the best kind of blogs are going to be authentic. So. And that's going to help connect you with those people in the community that want to work with you versus someone else that does what you do. So I sort of go about it in a variety of ways, but first and foremost, I sort of look to people's social media, watch their stories, how are they talking to the camera? Do they have highlights where they're speaking? Because again, I think about how do you talk to, how do you speak? That's blogging, right? You, again, you want to, you want your blogs to sound like you. Right. So that's, first and foremost, I'll just do a little Sherlock Holmesing of like the social media, like, okay, and, and with certain people, right, they have more of a footprint in terms of like, they've been podcast guests perhaps, or there's a YouTube channel, or they've done a local interview. And all of that stuff is amazing fodder. When I start to work with, I have a pretty detailed questionnaire and it sort of tells me what turns of phrase. I ask, like, what turns of phrase do you use often? What turns of phrase would you never use? And Also in onboarding someone, we do a zoom, a pretty detailed zoom meeting again, that's designed for me to like see and hear someone's cadence, how they speak, do they use their hands, what are they saying, are they prone to giggling or are they more serious? You know, all of these things are going to have an effect of the, of the copy and the blogging. So what I'd also say about that is that it's always a bit of a process, you know, like the first month I always say like we're going to probably do a little bit more tweaking than we will even month two and three and beyond. Because sometimes you don't really know what you might like or what you want to sound like until you see it in black and white. And so there's part of that editing process where some of that magic you can kind of like dust it off and find, oh yes, this sounds like me. This I wouldn't say so. You know, those are all the sort of ways that I initially sort of dig in to really learning someone's brand voice.
- [11:37]
Hang on guys, I have a quick message for you. Let's talk marketing for a minute. If you need more clients or better clients, but you struggle with what to.
- [11:47]
Annemie Tonkin
Say, where to show up, or whether.
- [11:49]
Kate Work
Anything you're doing is actually working, I want you to come try out the Consistency Club. This isn't another course to watch. It's not another workbook to fill out. At its core, the Consistency Club is like having a marketing manager in your back pocket. Each month, my marketing director Dana and I create a set of email and social media templates designed specifically for photographers to help you create and nurture your clients and leads consistently without spending hours staring at a blank screen. And we've just added some powerful new features. New inside the Consistency Club we have a library of bite sized marketing training videos covering everything from creating an opt in to making a reel to writing a welcome sequence. We also have a built in data tracking system so you can very quickly and easily see what's working and what's not working in your marketing. And finally, specifically for our FLODESK users out there, we've just rolled out one click email templates that you can open and send from right inside your account. What we've created with the Consistency Club is simple, it's strategic and it starts at just $20 a month. Honestly, it's the best marketing money you can spend as a photographer. Head to thiscan'tiethard.comclub and join us today.
- [13:09]
Annemie Tonkin
I guess that's on one side of the coin is there's this desire for anything that's on your website, but certain something that's long form and supposed to be representative, what you want it to feel and sound like you and your brand. On the other hand, there are a lot of people out there who are like, blogging isn't for human consumption. This is just for Google. Like, we are creating content to appease the gods and make sure that we're getting ranked and all that sort of stuff. Where do you come down on the balance of that? Because I feel like if that's the only goal, then why bother trying to make something sound like someone? Why not just ask ChatGPT to like, spit out some sort of like blog garbage for us to post?
- [13:53]
Kate Work
Yeah, okay. This is a great question. And I think what's really funny is that when I started blogging, like, AI wasn't even a thing, which is wild because it wasn't that long ago.
- [14:03]
Annemie Tonkin
Right.
- [14:04]
Kate Work
And things change in a hurry. But this is a great question because you're sort of hitting a point that I really love to make. We, we all, I think, know that blogging is really good for SEO because the Google gods are looking for written content on our websites, which can be challenging for us as photographers because we have all the visual content to show and sometimes we happen to struggle a little bit more with the words. Right. But Google cannot push your business up in that, you know, in that search engine stuff unless you have copy and unless you're regularly refreshing that copy. So, like, first and foremost, absolutely. It's amazing for SEO and we all want to be doing it for that reason. But I also really love to focus with my clients on all of the ways that blogging is valuable that have nothing to do with SEO. And for those things to be valuable, you do have to be authentic, you do have to sound like yourself. You do have to share information that's unique to you and your business and you and your ideal clients. So what I would say, like, first and foremost, they provide such value to your clients because you're sharing, sharing information that you know they're going to ask for. You're doing it also in a way. You're communicating it to your clients in a way that has such clarity and you're doing it in less emails. I'll just give you a little bit of an example. If you have blogs that are about how to prepare for, you know, your family session, how to prepare for your branding session, when someone that you're working with or you're hoping to work with inevitably says what goes into the experience. How can I prepare for my session? What you can do is instead of writing this long email and reinventing the wheel every time you inevitably get asked this question, you can simply say so glad you asked. I'm linking right here to this blog on my website that tells you everything you need to know. And if you do have other questions, let's hop on a call and we'll talk about it. Or we can go through them here, you know, Xoxo. Sign off, Sign off. So again, you know, that's amazing because you're saving your clients time, you're saving yourself time and you're also sending people to your website, which is amazing for your for those analytics.
- [16:23]
Annemie Tonkin
Well, and the sort of between the lines message there is. You're not the first person who's asked this question. Nope, I have a well formulated answer. So much so that I, you know, spent the time to sit down and write this all out. I have a system. I, you know, that I've got you is basically the subtext there. That is. And you know, I've been talking about this a lot recently. It's like we are constantly building or losing credit with our potential clients as we have these little touch points that either overtly or sort of between the lines tell them I'm trustworthy. I, I've got this for you. So I love the fact that even if you were to write that into a, an email template, you know, have this long email that you wrote back, it's not quite the same as being like, hey, no problem, go to this resource that I've created because this is something that I know all about.
- [17:25]
Kate Work
Amazing. Exactly. I love that you touched on that. It's such a way to build credibility and. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So why lose that opportunity and why lose the opportunity to build authentic credibility to show them who you are. You show people who you are and how you approach things like blogs and how you write an email and how you sign off on an email and how you speak to someone and how fast you respond. Right. So sure. You could you ask ChatGPT to write something for you? Absolutely. It's not going to sound like you. And why miss that opportunity to show clients who you are and how you're going to take care of them? It's yeah, for sure. So you also touched on something that I love about blogs and I think is so beneficial about blogs is that because they're long form content, meaning they're really one of the longest things we're going to ever write for our business. Right. If not the longest. Right. There's, there's really not even an area on our website that's going to have that much content or copy. Right. Because they're long form. I see them as sort of like the foundation from which we can pull information that can go into so many other parts of our business. We can pull little bits and pieces from blogs for emails, like you said. We can pull it for social media captions, we can pull it for our proposals that we send to our clients, even for reels, even for podcast opportunities and things like that. You're pulling these talking points out and you're not reinventing the wheel every time. So again, the value that it brings to you and your business is. It's really tenfold. You know, you're saving time, you're providing value, you're responding more quickly, you're getting things done more quickly. And none of that has anything to do with SEO. Right. SEO is great. We need it, we want it. But blogs can really be one of the hardest working pieces of your, like, marketing puzzle. And like you even said at the start, right, like some of the blogs that you have written years ago, they're still bringing you business. They don't stop working for you. So, yeah, you know, you have like a slow time or you're overwhelmed with other things. You kind of have to take a step back on marketing. We all have these moments in our businesses. Those plugs are still going to be doing what they do for you. And so there's a lot to be said about incorporating them into your strategy.
- [19:49]
Annemie Tonkin
Yeah, yeah. And it, I really do feel like when I started blogging, it was all about, let me share a session, let me tell you about this. And there, I mean, I liked to write, so I happened to put more copy in my blog posts than I think a lot of photographers at the time did.
- [20:06]
Kate Work
Yes.
- [20:06]
Annemie Tonkin
But there wasn't any SEO strategy. I'm not sure I would have been able to tell you what SEO stood for at that point.
- [20:12]
Kate Work
Right.
- [20:12]
Annemie Tonkin
It did exist, but it was sort of in its, it was less infancy.
- [20:17]
Kate Work
Yeah.
- [20:18]
Annemie Tonkin
But the fact that there was new content, there was sort of copy rich content that even though I wasn't being really specific about choosing keywords, I was trying to rank for anything else, it was authentic in that I was talking about family photography in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And over time Google was like, yep, she keeps showing up. People keep clicking on this. And so even now, because of that action back then, that, that has just Continued to give me that benefit. And I feel like whenever someone is saying, yeah, but I don't really know anything about how to do keyword research and all that, I'm like, that's frosting on the cake. Like, you don't actually need to know all that much about it if you are going about it in an authentic way.
- [21:04]
Kate Work
Absolutely. And what I would say too is there's pl. There's plugins like Yoast, which can actually review a draft of a blog that you've written and tell you how. How good is this in terms of, like, how good you can make your blog, what things can you do to improve it? So there's, like, ways that you can actually enhance what you're doing if you even want to go there. But I agree with you, there's so much to be said just for, like, starting. Right? Like, and no one's going to start at like a 10 out of 10.
- [21:32]
Annemie Tonkin
Right.
- [21:32]
Kate Work
But if you're blogging, I would, I would also say if you want to, like, as a photographer, listening, if you want to, like, even do a little, like, very easy research on your own, like, competitive set in your own region, look and see who is blogging. There's not going to be a lot of other photographers who are blogging and you're just leaving a lot on the table. If you're not, could you keep going as you're doing? Absolutely. But you can also look at it as a differentiator. Right. It's going to set your business apart if you do it. And, yeah, like I said, the benefits are beyond even that SEO piece.
- [22:08]
Annemie Tonkin
So talk to me a little bit about the most, what you have found to be the most effective kinds of blog posts that photographers can write.
- [22:19]
Kate Work
Okay? So first and foremost, I always say start with your FAQs, your frequently asked questions. We all have them. We all have these questions that come through in almost every inquiry that we get. If you start with those and you kind of take your FAQs, let's say you have like between 5 and 10 questions that you get asked all the time, go through them bit by bit, one by one, and just slowly but surely you can write a blog about each one answering each one that to start with, is already going. It's, it's, it's. Again, it's going to have an impact that lasts a long time. Because these questions don't. They don't stop. Every new client that works with you is going to have these questions and you already know. You answer them all the time. You could say them in your sleep. So if you know how to answer them, you can put them into a blog. So first and foremost, FAQs go. You're going to have a bunch of content from that alone. But there's also like top topics for photographers that are always great. So the first one is how to prepare for your session. Whether you're family branding, headshot, newborn photographer, how to prepare for your session. You know, if you're, let's say you're like an in home lifestyle photographer, you know that you want to be talking to your clients about how to like meet in the surfaces in the, in their home. You want to be talking to them about letting natural light in. You want to be talking to them about the effect of weather. Even if you're inside, you want to be talking to them about like the types of outfits to wear. Right. Again, all things that like, you know, you have to convey for a successful session and you know your clients are going to ask. So this is a great topic. Everyone in any type of photography can use this and all of your clients can do what to wear. That's another question. I know, I even when the shoe is on the other foot, I'm always like, what do I wear?
- [24:17]
Annemie Tonkin
It is amazing how you're like, oh, this is easy to answer for you. For me it's a totally different question. Yeah.
- [24:24]
Kate Work
For me I'm in full on panic.
- [24:26]
Annemie Tonkin
Yeah.
- [24:26]
Kate Work
So you know, as a photographer you can provide so much value by writing a blog about it. Here's some things to think about. Right. Related where to shop for your, let's say your fall family photo session. If you're thinking about like you live in Chapel Hill, right. North Carolina. If you think about this type of a blog, what I would say to you if you were my client is think about, you know, the boutiques downtown, do they have an online presence? Can you link to them? I will say Google loves hyperlinks and they love hyperlinks that are in your same geographic region. So that's one of those elements that's going to like enhance that blog to make it even more successful and work even harder for you and your website. That's a great one to use. The top five reasons why you need a branding session. Right. So this is more of like one of those things where it's like if you're passionate about the type of photography you do, this is where you can sort of get on your proverbial soapbox and get people excited about why they need it and what's good about these sessions and Then the last one, I always say for photographers, particularly for your simple sales girlies, is like, how to use and display your images. It's a great opportunity to not only demonstrate how they're used, but also flow people back to your print store, to your online store. So all of these things are great, great to start. And I think all of us as photographers can write about all of these topics.
- [25:54]
Annemie Tonkin
Yeah, yeah. The last one, in terms of the way that I run my business and teach people in simple sales, you know, there is the perennial objection of like, oh, maybe I just want digital files, or you know, what if I don't want my print credit? So that right there would be an easy blog post for me to do is like, yeah, why I include print credit with each collection, but also pre selling someone on the idea of having done for them products where they don't actually have to then go design an album or figure out, you know, when and where and how they're going to have something framed before they potentially even reach out. Does a lot of the heavy lifting for me as a photographer and as a salesperson, And I know 99% of the people out there listening would like to reduce the amount of friction that they have when it comes to actually booking clients.
- [26:46]
Kate Work
That's such a great point. Why is it hard for us to ask people to pay us? Right. Or why we're valuable? I love this, I love this idea of letting some of this stuff do the talking without having a potentially uncomfortable conversation or feel like you're selling someone hard on something or whatever it is. And I think to your point about products and how to use your images and where to buy them, and I think in general, you know, this applies to blogs, this applies to clients, this applies to a lot of things in life. We're all looking for ways to lighten our loads. Everyone is handling so much. Everyone is so busy. And I think sometimes as photographers, we're like, guilty of being like, oh, we're selling too hard, or we don't want to push or. But our clients need us to show them what we can do for them. If we don't, we're leaving things on the table. Right? So I love that point. I love that point.
- [27:43]
Annemie Tonkin
Well, and because photography is not a need for anyone, it's just a, you know, it's a luxury item, if you want to call it that, but it's a. It's always an optional purchase. And I think that, you know, we're not doing certainly ourselves any favors by not coming out clearly in favor of Hiring a photographer and then hiring us as a photographer. But we're also ultimately, I think most of us hopefully believe in the value and the importance of documenting your family or, you know, having great brand photos or whatever your particular niche is. We believe in the value of those things. And if someone is coming to us and we're like, yeah, I mean, you could hire me. We're not serving ourselves. And ultimately I believe we're not serving them either.
- [28:34]
Kate Work
Yep.
- [28:35]
Annemie Tonkin
If you are someone who is not as comfortable selling, you know, face to face, which is fair, you know, you could look at a blog post as an opportunity to like, no holds barred because it's no pressure. Someone is passively reading. They can opt out at any time. You can be as passionate as you are about the value of what you're doing in the context of a blog post.
- [29:00]
Kate Work
Yeah.
- [29:00]
Annemie Tonkin
And if someone, if that resonates for someone, that's just going to help cement you as the automatic.
- [29:06]
Kate Work
Love it. Love it.
- [29:08]
Annemie Tonkin
Well, Kate, this is, I feel like such a great set of reasons and ways to make blogging, you know, first and foremost on your marketing to do list. I know that this is a service that you offer, but is in extremely limited quantity. Talk a little bit about how people can follow you if they are interested in seeing more of your work and, or reach out to you to, to see if you have any availability.
- [29:34]
Kate Work
Oh, well, yes, it is limited, but that's really because like, you know, we sort of touched on. I really want to assume your voice. You know, I want to be almost an extension of your business rather than a vendor who's working for you far away and isn't quite connecting with your voice. No, I mean, my goal is always to really, really take that on for you so that you feel like the drafts and the blogs that you're getting are authentic and they're really easy to sort of turn around to. I would also mention I include a social media caption with every blog. So the point is that we use it in more than one place. I just love this idea that blogs are sort of like the hardest working parts of our marketing campaign. And I think that's just, you know, one way that that's demonstrated by also just posting them on social media as soon as you get them on your website so people know that you've got more content there. Not just Google, but to reach me, you can always follow me on social media. I'm a work photography. My website is kate work photography.com and yes, I'm based here in Connecticut outside of New York City, but I work with anyone anywhere, and I'd love to chat, so love that. Thank you.
- [30:47]
Annemie Tonkin
So good. Well, it was absolutely lovely getting to finally connect with you on here and and I will look forward to reconnecting again sometime soon.
- [30:56]
Kate Work
Same. Thank you so much.
- [30:57]
Annemie Tonkin
Have a great day.
- [30:58]
Kate Work
You too.
- [30:59]
Annemie Tonkin
That's it for this week's episode of.
- [31:01]
Kate Work
This Can't Be that Hard. I'll be back same time, same place next week.
- [31:05]
Annemie Tonkin
If you like the show, be sure.
- [31:06]
Kate Work
To check out thiscan'tbethard.com to explore all.
- [31:09]
Annemie Tonkin
The resources we have for photographers.
- [31:11]
Kate Work
And of course, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review of the show on itunes or Spotify. As always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.