How to Find a Consistent Photography Client Base

You know that great feeling. You complete a job and it’s ticked all your ideal photography client boxes: easy communication, shared values and approaches, great results and prompt payment.

If only you could replicate this week in, week out.

Finding a consistent client base for your photography business can be tough. But it’s crucial for success and sustainability, providing steady income and fuelling growth.

So how can you boost your booking rate? Read on to discover actionable tips.

1. Prepare For the Long-Haul

First up, a word of caution that won’t come as a surprise: building a successful photography business takes time.

To get consistent bookings requires a consistent approach. Whatever strategy you adopt, don’t expect miracles overnight. Attracting a steady flow of enquiries can take many months or years of regular effort. Embrace a range of client-friendly habits, big or small, and prepare for a cumulative effect rather than a quick fix.

2. Define Your Ideal Client

You may have an idea in your head of who your perfect client is. But have you really drilled down into what makes them tick?

Wedding photographer? The ideal client’s obvious, isn’t it? But to group everyone who’s ever got married into one homogeneous type is unwise.

One couple may be planning a laidback wedding in the middle of a field with a home-made buffet, a modest guest list and their mate’s band. While another could be meticulously mapping out an epic extravaganza with top-end caterers, hundreds of guests and a full orchestra on stage.

The scattergun approach is unlikely to work here.

Instead, consider not just who they are but why they’d book with you in particular. Read more here about the importance of these psychographics when seeking out clients.

Take the time to write some audience personas – fictional examples of the ideal people you want to work with. Narrowing down your target market like this will help to precisely tailor your offer.

This insight will not only help to track these people down, but also influences the way you need to communicate with them so they feel valued and understood. This will in turn strengthen your relationship, build loyalty and increase the chances of them making a booking.

3. Refine Your Brand and USP

Ideal client in place, you now need to make sure your brand appeals to them. Being super clear on your USP can help here. In a competitive market, ask yourself what makes your photography business stand out from the crowd.

Maybe your niche is portrait photography for solo entrepreneurs and freelancers with the knowledge of what works best for their industry? Maybe you’re a whizz at making people feel relaxed behind the camera? Or perhaps you have a studio in a convenient location with easy parking and a great coffee machine?

Whatever it is, let it take centre stage and appear consistently throughout your brand messaging. Focus on the benefits – rather than the features – your service brings to the specific people you want to reach.

For example, if you have a documentary photography style for weddings and events, highlight how your work unobtrusively captures natural emotions.

4. Develop A Strong Online Presence

Strong brand in place, make sure it’s visible to your potential clients. A professionally designed website is a must, showcasing your images alongside conveying how you work and why people should choose you. A healthy dash of SEO optimisation will also help to attract organic traffic.

Adding a regularly updated and insightful blog will not only help to build trust – “Hey! This photographer knows their stuff!” – but also keep the search engine algorithms happy as the content on your site is refreshed.

And then of course there’s social media. Another beast of a topic but here are a few quick tips:

Choose the platforms best suited to your photography business and focus on them. There’s no point in being everywhere and spreading yourself too thin.
Post consistently. This doesn’t need to be every day.
Pose questions to spark interaction. Invite followers to share their own photos or thoughts on yours.
Interact not only with comments on your own posts but with other relevant accounts. Making your name known can be time-consuming but is definitely worthwhile.
Show your personality so people know what it’ll be like to work with you.
Give followers value. Share behind-the-scenes insights and expert tips to showcase your skills.

5. Implement Targeted Marketing Strategies

Alongside this organic content, you can also allocate budget to targeted marketing campaigns.

Advertising on platforms like Facebook and Instagram can bolster your brand awareness efforts to reach the right people. An email marketing campaign can remind existing customers that you’re here and would love to work with them again. Tying this into an anniversary or other key date as part of a nurture workflow gives you a good reason to get back in touch. Or consider running a promotion to link with a season or occasion to drive positive responses.

6. Network and Collaborate

Alongside building and nurturing existing client relationships, keep focusing on getting your name out there to new ones.

Networking in-person locally or online in relevant groups can showcase your photography services to a huge range of potential clients.

Partnering with complementary businesses is also a wise strategy to cost-efficiently attract bookings. Cross-promotion, whether that’s running a competition together on socials or writing guest blog posts for each other, can spread your message to new eyes and ears.

For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, team up with a beautiful venue to showcase what you both offer. Or, as a portrait photographer, collaborate with a co-working space to reach small businesses.

7. Use Referrals and Testimonials

Your existing clients are a goldmine of potential power to get consistent bookings in the diary.

There’s the old-fashioned way – hoping/asking they share glowing reviews of your photography skills and customer service excellence with friends, family and colleagues to prompt an enquiry or three.

And, more proactively, gathering their feedback as part of a shoot’s communication workflow to incorporate into your own marketing. From posts on your social channels to pages on your website and within regular client communication, their testimonials will help to establish the trust and credibility needed to supercharge your brand.

Discover more here about how to get more word-of-mouth referrals.

8. Provide Excellent Customer Service

Last but certainly not least, none of these tips will work if you don’t provide fantastic customer service every step of the way.

A blog post all of its own, delivering a warm, personalised service is essential to foster client loyalty, inspire those testimonials and welcome enquiries into your inbox.