Learning photography and living from it is complicated. But when we add the sale of photographic services, the equation becomes even more complex.

Unfortunately, not all photographers are entrepreneurs or are born with the natural gift for sales. On the other hand, those who want to create a photography business need to develop this skill. Otherwise you will not have customers and, consequently, salary at the end of the month.

For those who are starting out, however, things get even more challenging. Besides not knowing how to sell or do marketing, you also don’t have much money to spend at first.

This financial difficulty, which every beginner faces, prevents him from hiring a consultant or an agency. Therefore, you need to do things with your own hands and seek to save as much as possible.

So how to sell low-cost photography services and grow the business? Here are some tips for publicizing your work as a photographer investing little or nothing. Learn how to attract new customers with no experience and money right now!

1 Create content for photography services

A photographer’s work requires being creative, so we need to show that creativity to customers. The best way to do this is to generate content for your potential customers and show them how you can help them.

A wedding photographer, for example, can gather some tips for the big day on his blog. Or who knows, make a video with the main questions of your customers for this very important date. Another alternative would be a guide to buffets and other similar services. There are many ideas!

Keep in mind that you don’t need to talk specifically about photography and camera. Your content should address topics that are interesting to your audience and not just to you.

To get to the best content themes, answer the following questions:

• What are the common questions of my clients that I can answer?
• How can I help them solve problems?
• What do they look for on the internet right now (it doesn’t have to be exactly about photography)?
• What should I do to position myself as an authority for them?

The more answers you get, the closer you are to attracting new customers and selling your photography services.

2 Be proactive!

Don’t have content ideas to publish? How about showing behind the scenes a day’s work and gaining free partnerships or outreach?

As a wedding photographer make some photos before the party, the preparations for the event, the decoration, cake and etc. Show behind-the-scenes footage of the party and photograph service providers as well.

In addition to feeding your content channels, you end up disclosing potential partners and they can reciprocate. Don’t forget to tag companies and professionals when posting photos on social networks. With this, you tend to increase the audience of your photos.

Also, if a photo of the Buffet gets very good, the owner of the restaurant may want to buy it or hire your services at other parties. Showing up proactive is the best way to foster new business and sell photography services.

On the other hand, if you publish frequent wedding images people will see you as authority in the subject. Some may know your work through your photos and be interested in partnering you.

As a last option, showing behind the scenes of your work contributes to novice photographers in the area. They may nod you for photo services or want to hire you as a teacher. Anyway, it’s a great chance to promote photography services and earn more.

3 Partner

Remember the service guide mentioned in the first tip? You will have much more success with it if you develop partnerships with each supplier.

Exchange referrals with other service providers working in the same niche as you. Leave your cards with them and get theirs too. Call them to assist in events you’ve managed and vice versa.

Promoting partnerships is one of the best ways to promote low-cost photography services. Sometimes this cost reaches zero.

Among the partnerships you can make are:

• Offer commissions to partners by referral;
• Exchange business cards;
• Put their data on your site and ask them to do the same for you;
• Post content on blogs from other service providers;
• Nominate people or companies you know without asking for anything in return;
• Value networking;
• Participate in events related to your photographic style;
• Join unions and organizations;
• Ask for directions to your old customers;
• Add banners or links on partner sites;

And so on.

4 Use digital marketing

There are many digital marketing strategies that a photographer can use. Generally, these campaigns cost much less than traditional efforts to sell photography services.

Because of this, take some of your time to get to know and apply strategies aimed at the Internet.

Some useful and low-cost tactics are:

• Create a website;
• Post content on your blog;
• Capture the email and/or phone number of potential customers;
• Join social networks;
• Interact with your audience;
• Invest in ads on Facebook, Google Adwords and the like;
• Send frequent newsletters and email messages to potential customers;
• Optimize your mobile site;
• Try to learn and apply search marketing;

Among others.

5 Start with free tools

Most of the digital marketing strategies mentioned above require tools. The good news is that you find free options for each of them.

Search the internet for free marketing tools and lower your costs at the beginning. Then you may want to professionalize the company, but start gradually and saving as much as possible.

Among the free marketing tools that exist, the most common are:

• Website or blog creators: Wix, WordPress.com and Blogger;
• Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr, Linkedin and others;
• Firing emails: e-goi, mdirector, mailchimp;

SEO tools and optimization: Google Analytics, Search Console, SemRush, Keywordtool.
And so on!

There are no excuses for not using these tips to sell more photography services, are there? So take advantage of the suggestions and increase your customer list right now by investing very little.

Have more suggestions on how to advertise photography services? Leave your comment below!