Now I’m talking to photographers

How to write a positioning statement that attracts clients to your photography business

A while back, if you listened to any radio station in the DC area, you’d hear a catchy jingle with this slogan, “if you can’t we can!”

Pop quiz. What are they selling? I won’t tell you the name of the business.

Here’s the point. You can’t tell the name of the business, the product they offer, or the benefit they are promoting. It’s just word salad.

The best positioning slogans remind customers who you are and the benefit of using your service. The same works for photographers. Part of differentiating yourself from your competition is in your positioning statement.

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Photographers on Brand Live!

Next month starting a monthly free webinar program on personal branding for photographers. I will be teaching mini workshops, interviewing photographers who are doing personal branding well, and bringing on other experts to help you with different parts of your branding and marketing. And it will all be free.

I’ll be announcing that in the next few weeks, but if you want to be on the list to get notified when it goes live, just go to bhotographersonbrand.com/live.

Are you good enough to become a professional photographer?

Sarah never thought she was ready to go pro with her photography, and it seemed so obvious to me that she would be an amazing success. 

We worked together in a communications department, and Sarah provided photography and video support for us. She was amazing and people from all over the city would specifically request her for their projects. And despite her success, she never felt confident enough to go out on her own.

I get it. Sometimes it is hard to see these things when you are so close to them.

When I taught photography, many amazingly talented photographers would timidly ask me how they would know when they were ready to go pro.

Of course, the answer is largely subjective, but there are some general guidelines you can keep in mind. Here are three questions that might provide you clues.

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Should you use your personal name for your business?

I love naming things — business, products, campaigns. I get a thrill out of coming up with a name that is clever and communicates the value proposition. 

But when I decided to do a personal branding podcast, finding a name I liked stumped me. 

I went back and forth. Should I use my own name or come up with something more descriptive. I couldn’t find a descriptive name I liked, so I went with my own name. 

Have you ever wondered if there was any benefit or drawback to using your personal name as your brand?

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Now I’m talking to photographers

An update on the narrowing focus of this podcast and my other content.

I'm going to now start making content specifically for photographers. 

Now, here's why that helps you as a photographer, because I have the opportunity now to be a lot more specific in the problems I address. 

The cool thing is that everything I've done so far applies to photography and applies to photographers. And so now, in addition to that, we'll get to be more photographer specific. And when I say photographers, I'm going to be talking to professional photographers because I think you will be helped most by a personal branding approach.

Nothing else changes. I'll continue focusing on personal branding with all my lessons and tips, but I will give examples that are specific to professional photographers. 

So that's the update. It's more of a narrowing. Dare I use of photography frame of reference and say a narrowing of the aperture.

Join me here for more personal branding for professional photographers.

From fancy gallery to sales machine. How to outfit your website to sell

You have completed your website or Instagram complete with your best, award-winning images and sent it out to the world to crickets. Or maybe you got lots of likes and hearts but no leads.

Attaboys and attagirls are cool when people are admiring your images, but you got into this business to serve customers, to help others create memories, and to make a profit.

What’s missing from your website to help visitors make the transition from admirers to buyers? In this episode, I’ll take you through the key steps every website must have to go from a fancy gallery to a sales machine.

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Can your website pass the 10-second test? Download the 10-Second Website Checklist and find out!