Content marketing is one of the most powerful types of marketing in the Internet era. Photographers can become the best content marketers on the planet. People are bombarded by advertising every day through newspapers, magazines, web ads and television. As the population become more and more inundated with ads, it becomes harder and harder to reach people through advertising. As Seth Godin points out, we are just interrupting their day. No one appreciates interruption.
Get Content, Get Customers is a fantastic book on content marketing. Actually, it is the only one I’ve found that really addresses what content marketing is and how to leverage it in your own marketing. The main crux of content marketing is simple: provide useful content to your customer base and you’ll become the go-to person for your service. In Get Content, Get Customers, by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett, the authors point out that we need to see ourselves as publishers. We are in the business of publishing content to our customer base.
The Photographer’s Advantage
Photographers have a distinct advantage in a content marketing campaign. We have beautiful photos. Any decent publishing medium is at least 50% photography, if not more. Beautiful wedding, portrait and commercial photography means that at least 50% of your content is already done. Grab some photos, write a few paragraphs and you have great content.
One of my favorite blogs is by Orange County wedding photographer, Frank Salas. You can see Frank’s blog here. Frank is a very successful photographer, and takes the time to create story boards and photos for each of his clients.
© Frank Salas
Some people are daunted by trying to create one or more blog posts a week. It’s actually simpler than it sounds. Just think about your clients and their pain points. Brides are stuck making huge decisions costing thousands of dollars. If you’ve shot weddings for more than a year, you know more about weddings than any bride ever would. For portraits, it’s all about kids, clothes and location.
© Frank Salas
Take your content further
Here are some ideas for taking your content one step further:
• Review the flowers of a wedding for your florist.
• Do a top five florists post.
• Review the best wedding dresses of the year and where they were purchased.
• Do a post on the best time of the day for formals.
• Write up the best makeup to use to hide tears.
• Give tips on keeping your wedding dress clean on the wedding day.
• Do a review of your favorite DJs in the area.
• Do a post about the top five wedding locations in your area.
• Do a post about the funkiest wedding locations in your area.
• Write up tips on dressing kids for portraits.
• Write up the best place to get flu shots for kids in the fall.
• Write up your favorite kids clothing boutique.
• Blog on your favorite parks in the area.
This is a list that I made in just a few minutes. Start your own list. Once you get going, the ideas will keep coming. Just remember, content is king (or queen). Also, remember to follow these few important points from the Get Content, Get Customers book I referenced earlier – use the word BEST:
• Behavioral – With your content, have in mind what you want them to do. Click to your pricing page? Learn your branding?
• Essential – The content needs to be essential for them. It needs to make their life better in some way.
• Strategic – Your content needs to fit with your overall marketing strategy. Don’t write about corporate head shots if you don’t do them.
• Targeted – Make sure you are creating content for your target market. If you want to shoot expensive weddings don’t review David’s Bridal.
