To start a photography blog, or to spend the time and resources elsewhere? Now that’s a pretty damn good question.
As a photographer, your time and energy are precious, limited resources. If you’re like many photogs out there, you probably take care of most of the business and marketing stuff yourself—on top of the photography, editing, client communications, and (hopefully) still having a spare moment to eat a snack and catch a nap now and then. Yeeesh.
It’s easy to toss marketing tasks to the wayside, but ultimately, your business ends up suffering. And when your business suffers, you end up missing out on even more sleep. And the cycle continues.
The key to marketing your photography business without burning out is to start with a strategy and select a few tactics that you can implement well and consistently.
And when it comes to how photographers should market their business, we almost always suggest starting a photography blog. It’s just such a helpful tactic across all genres of photography and for sooo many reasons. So let’s talk about it.
Why you should start a photography blog in 2023
Here are reasons why you should start a photography blog in 2023 (or continue investing in your existing blog, if you have one).
1. Build a photography portfolio
If you’re wondering how to make a photography portfolio, having a photography blog on your website is a great option.
It goes without saying that the photos you take will be a huge determinant of whether or not people choose to work with you. So it’s really important that people can easily find your best work.
There are several places where you can share your photos online—social media, Google Business Profile, Pinterest—but each of these platforms has limitations.
Not only do they limit the content you can post (especially for boudoir photographers), but on top of that, not all your target audience is in one place—which is why you have to diversify where your photos live and update them frequently.
Regularly sharing new photo blogs showcasing your work is an excellent way to continue building your online portfolio. Plus, it’s a great way to drive traffic to your website. Win-win-win, baby.
2. Foster relationships with vendors and clients
Have you ever been blogged about before? I haven’t. But I imagine it would feel pretty flattering (assuming they said nice stuff).
And if a business gave me or my business an awesome shoutout in a blog, I would probably be more likely to remember them and associate it with a positive experience. Which means I’m more likely to want to work with them again or recommend them to a friend.
You see where I’m going with this, right?
Sharing kind words about your clients in your blogs, and links out to vendors, venues, hair and makeup artists, or other businesses involved in the shoot is a great way to give others that warm and fuzzy feeling.
Bonus points if you share the blog with them in a personalized email and tag them when you share it on social media.
3. Showcase your expertise and build trust
Are you the most savvy adventure elopement photographer in your area?
Do you know all the best hidden gem wedding venues around?
Are you a pro at giving prompts to boost a client’s confidence during a boudoir shoot?
Do you have the coolest ideas for styling a product shoot that stands out?
Are you ready to start sharing your knowledge with other photographers?
Whatever it is that fires you up about photography, a blog is your chance to share it. Not only can you use your expertise to attract your ideal clients to your website (more on that later), but it builds trust and shows people why they should work with you.
You have something special to share with the world. Now is the time to do it!
4. Improve your search rankings by blogging for SEO
You might have heard other marketing geeks talk about SEO for photographers before. That’s because SEO (search engine optimization) kind of makes the digital marketing world go ‘round.
When considering the various marketing tactics for almost any business or industry, including photographers, SEO is like a big planet with its own gravitational pull. Almost everything else comes back to it, in one way or another.
What is this, Bill Nye? Enough with the space talk. This section is nerdy enough already.
First, what is SEO for photographers?
The super fast definition is that your SEO determines how likely it is that people will find your website and other platforms on search engines. The better your SEO, the better the chances of your website popping up in search results on platforms like Google.
Like all the other platforms, Google works off an algorithm. It’s also pretty heckin’ smart. It prefers websites that are updated with new information regularly, that offer something of value to users, and that follow SEO best practices (such as using keywords).
Blogs are a terrific way to improve your photography website’s SEO—especially evergreen blogs and photo blogs with SEO.
Why should you care about your photography website’s SEO?
Because it makes it way more likely that you will appear in search results when your potential clients are Googling terms relevant to your business. For example, when someone Googles “wedding photographers in [your city]”, you want to show up—right? Right.
Because the more people who find your business online, the more gigs you’ll book, the more choices you’ll have for the kind of shoots you want, the easier your life will be, and the more money you’ll make. Booyah.
5. Increase traffic to your photography website
Like we mentioned above, if you can increase traffic to your photography website, the likelihood of booking more photography gigs (and better gigs) also increases.
And studies have shown that businesses that blog have better marketing results, including 55% more website visitors and 97% more links to their website.
Starting a photography blog can help increase traffic to your website in several ways:
- By improving your photography website SEO (see above).
- By having content to share other places while linking back to the blog and encouraging folks to follow it (on social media, Google Business Profile, Pinterest, a newsletter, etc.).
- By encouraging your clients, vendors, venues, etc. to share blogs they were mentioned in with their own networks.
- By targeting topics you think would interest your ideal clients, leading them to your website to learn more.
Still not convinced? Don’t worry, keep readin’.
6. Attract your ideal clients and get more photography leads
Getting more web traffic is great. But you don’t necessarily want just anyone visiting your website—you want leads. Those sweet, sweeeeet leads. That is, people who have the potential to actually book your photography services.
But why stop there?
Instead of just hoping to get potential leads to your website, why not aim to get your dream clients?
Your dream clients could also be called your ideal clients or your target audience.
If you aren’t sure who your ideal photography client is, try this exercise:
- Make a list of your favourite clients you’ve ever worked with.
- Write down why you enjoyed working with them.
- Write down traits they have in common with each other.
- Use this information to give you a better idea of what your ideal client looks like.
Once you have that information, ask yourself: What burning questions are my ideal clients asking? What information do they find valuable? How can I connect with them? What are they searching for online?
Now, you can use that to come up with blog ideas that will specifically draw in your ideal clients.
For example, let’s say you’re a wedding photographer and you want to work with a high-end clientele. You want to target couples with big budgets who care about the quality of their wedding photography over the cost, and who are planning more extravagant weddings in beautiful venues. In this case, you might write a blog about the most luxurious wedding venues in your area (while showing off any photos you’ve taken at those venues in the past).
In the same way, photography blogs can be used to help you tap into a new target market. For example, say you’re a wedding photographer who really wants to put more emphasis on your boudoir photography. You can start creating blogs catered more towards those types of sessions.
Or, if you’ve recently moved to a new city, you can begin creating blogs with those location keywords to start ranking in that area sooner.
7. Blogs work for you in the long run
Here’s something that makes blogging a lot different from tactics like posting on Instagram.
Once you create a blog, it doesn’t have an expiration date for when it stops helping your business. Especially if you create evergreen blog content.
In fact, when it comes to blogs that are optimized for search engines, the traffic typically builds over time.
So the work you put in now could continue bringing leads to your website…forever.
This is unlike social media, where most posts have a short window to be seen on your followers’ feeds.
There is a longevity to blogging that makes it a super valuable marketing tactic. Also, because they live on your website, you have total control over them—blogs are owned media, whereas social media is rented media.
That all being said, if you really want to make blogging work for you, it’s best to make sure you publish new blogs consistently and to update your popular blogs with new information occasionally.
8. Come up with ideas for content to share elsewhere (repurposable content)
One of the best things about starting a photography blog is that it gives you sooo much repurposable content to share elsewhere.
Running out of ideas for Instagram posts? Take a helpful tidbit from your blog and share it as a post or, better yet, turn it into a Reel.
Does coming up with ideas for TikTok give you the heebie-jeebies? Take some tips from your blog and turn it into a quick video.
Not sure what to share in your newsletter? A link to your latest blog, duh!
Keep forgetting to make new Google Business Profile updates? Add posting your new blogs to your workflow.
And in all these cases, you can also link back to your blog, driving traffic to your website. Gotta love when it all comes full circle.
9. Avoid social media burnout
Ooof, social media burnout for photographers is REAL.
This is something we hear so many photographers talking about lately. Bottom line, it’s harder than ever to grow on Instagram these days, and learning new platforms can be daunting and time consuming.
With constantly changing algorithms, new platforms popping up, comparison games, a buttload of negativity—social media can be a real time and energy suck.
We aren’t saying you shouldn’t be using it. Of course, social media is an excellent marketing tactic for several reasons. But you should be able to take some of the pressure off.
Not only do blogs give you ideas for content to share on social media, which can be super helpful, but blogging means you don’t have to rely on social media as your sole form of marketing.
Diversifying your marketing efforts means that it’s not the end of the world if you need to take a little social media break or if you’re not always up on the trends.
Social media should be fun. So instead of losing sleep over it, spend some resources on blogging and SEO efforts instead, and use social media to share your personality and build authentic connections. Find the joy in it again!
Blogging help for photographers
Okay, so you agree that you should start a photography blog…but now what?
Don’t worry, we wouldn’t leave you hangin’ like that!
Because it’s not just important that you blog—it’s also important that you blog properly and with a strategy in mind.
Here are some options for what you can do next:
- Read: How to make a photography blog that attracts your dream clients
- Outsource: Outsource your photography blogging to experts who actually give a damn about your business and hire us.
We hope you found this helpful and we can’t wait to read your photography blogs in 2023!
PS: Want more blogging tips for photographers? Follow us on Instagram and TikTok!
Kayleigh Zinger
Rockstar Content Creator
Pepper – Your Badass Business BFF Inc.
