& Booking More Clients

Consider this your “Fake-it-till-you-make-it” rule book for new photographers. It can be scary to start your professional career and start taking on clients. This post hold the 6 key things you can do to elevate your professional appearance, and start booking more clients right away! Hope you enjoy this beginner photographer’s guide!

Fake It Till You Make It

This is a quote I bet we all grew up hearing. Using the skills you have and the little bits of knowledge you pick up to your advantage will be your biggest tool as a beginner photographer.

We wont always know all the things, but having a handful of tips to help us appear more professional and book more clients will make you feel like the success you aim to be. Let this Beginner Photographer’s Guide be your secret weapon and take your business to the next level!

The Website

Your website is the first impression for your overall client experience. Making sure your website appears professional and gives your clients all the information they need to get started on booking your service is imperative.

There are tons of cheap and even a few free web hosts out there for you to look though. Choosing a webhost with a built in “builder” can be super helpful too. Showit, for instance, offers a web builder that is super user friendly, allows you to showcase your personality, and gives clients a way to contact you at the click of a button.

Having a professional website with a custom domain name not only elevates your professionalism, but it also streamlines the booking process and funnels clients right into your inbox. You can get a domain name for about $25/year and a simple google search will give you tons to choose from.

Gallery Delivery Host

Lots of beginner photographers start out using Google Dropbox, and other free file sharing services. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this method, it does feel a bit cheap and unprofessional.

Giving you clients access to an online gallery host will boost the experience from basic to luxury almost instantly. Imagine getting a branded email from your photographer with a link to your private gallery with all of your favorite images, and a shop link to purchase prints directly from your gallery.

All in all, a gallery host creates a better experience for the clients, and will help you sell more prints and book more session in the future. Though these hosts can get pricey I do have a code for Pic-TIme, which is who I currently use for gallery hosting. Pic-Time Code: LEBV6H

Social Media

Becoming a social media powerhouse will help so much when trying to appear more professional and book more clients.

Clients want to book a photographer who is booking lots of clients. This is a psychological thing about humans. We want things that other people want. So posting a lot on social media will help you look busy and will create a demand for your lens.

I know its easy to get in your own head and block yourself from creating content, because I also do this. It doesn’t so much matter what you are posting, but just that you are! So post often and consistently.

Everyone Is a Client

Learning to treat everyone that you work with as a client is such a helpful little tip! People will talk about what it is like to work with you, so if you want them to say good things, give them the full service.

This should be applied to laterally everyone. Other photographers, model couples, vendors, etc. If you go out of your way to create a client experience for everyone they will all talk about it to others, who will then book you. Trust me, it works.

This is especially important for model couples and people who work with you on styled shoots or content days! Making positives relationships with these people will be one of your biggest assets because growing as a photographer is so heavily reliant on word of mouth.

Create Content

No matter what your niche is, it is so important to always be creating work that you love. Work that inspires you. Looking professional requires you to have a cohesive look and a large portfolio for people to see your work. If you want to book couples, but all you have to showcase are all family sessions this isn’t helping you grow.

Styled Shoots help us create content that sells. We get to be in charge of the clothes and the style, and having models makes everything so elevated, but you can also do this with locals. I will often put out a listing in a local fb group looking for model couples when I am in need of some fresh content, or when I have something specific I’m trying to shoot.

Styled shoots are a great way to practice too, and as a beginner photographer we can use all the extra practice. You can also get in touch with local photographers and vendors to create content days. You will find a few fun friendly photographers who are open to shooting together, and you’ll build solid relationships this way. Remember: photographers often refer clients they can’t book to photographers they like!

Blog About It!

This is a big one, and so many photographers are missing out on this amazing opportunity. Blogging is great for a bunch of reasons but the main two are these: 1. Blogging boosts SEO so fast! 2. Blogging gives the illusion that YOU are an expert.

Everyone is looking for an authority on whatever it is they are looking for. So, if you want to book weddings in Arches National Park, you need to make yourself an authority on wedding in ANP! You do that by putting out high quality content on the subject! I’m telling you it works!

You can blog about anything too! I blog about all of my sessions, and anything I talk about. Here’s what I mean: If someone asks me a question about having a good photography website, after my chat with them, I’m going to blog about it. If someone asks me about getting married in a local chapel, I’m gonna blog about that chapel. After doing this for a while people will start to come to you about things.

Anything you don’t know about, you can google! You would be amazed at how simple and fast blogging can be. I wrote this whole Beginner Photographer’s Guide in about an hour, start to finish! So, trust me, blog about it.

Fake It

Some things aren’t fakable, but this is. Fake it till ya make it! Implement these little things and they will make a big impact on your professional appearance, and your bookings. I wanna hear all about it too, so come back here and tell me how these tips are working for you! And feel free to message me with any content ideas! I would love to write more to help you grow as a photographer and succeed in this crazy industry!

If you liked this Beginner Photographer’s Guide check out more articles like it on my blog!