A photo is one of the most personal kinds of data a person can own. Unlike financial data, postal address, or date of birth, a picture doesn’t capture a fact. It captures the essence of a moment. It’s an emotional testimony that you cherish in the shape of photo albums, framed printouts, and customized items. So naturally, it should make sense for a photography business to embrace the personal aspect of their services.
Whether it’s about wedding photography or a family portrait on time for the Christmas greeting cards, your role as a photographer is to decrypt the emotion at the moment and ensure that it can live on through the image. But, surprisingly enough, too many photographers struggle when it comes to making their work more personal and meaningful to their clients. Indeed, according to Wordstream, the most popular keywords for this industry are ‘portrait’, ‘headshot’ and ‘photo studio’. However, most clients admit that they find it difficult to pick the right photographer for their project.
In short, polishing your SEO rankings isn’t quite enough. Instead, you need to create an emotional hook to attract new leads.
Ultimately your clients don’t understand the professional lingo
You can’t ignore the importance of good content. However, targeting the popular and most searched keywords about photography doesn’t appeal to your clients. Instead, you need to ditch the technical jargon and write blog content that your readers want to read. Thankfully, you can use the Keyword Planner tool in Google AdWords to get a better understanding of what your audience really wants to know about photographers.
A popular search phrase, for instance, is ‘how to choose a wedding photographer’, which implies that clients find it challenging to build a trust relationship with a photography business. Therefore, you need to address those fears by providing tips and information that are useful to them.
Understand the emotions in each experience
Planning a photography project is all about the experience that your client receives. Indeed, from the perspective of the person who hires your services, they want your images to reflect the emotion of the moment. Whether it’s a wedding ceremony or the first photos of a newborn baby, you have to recognize that the challenge is not technical. As you can read in this guideline set by PMAI, your role is to immortalize some of the most important days in a person’s life. Timing is crucial, as there is no room for errors. Additionally, you need to have a solid understanding of human nature to capture the right emotion at the right time.
Emotional Intelligence makes you a better photographer
Master the coffee shop meeting
Each client has a personal vision of what their photos will look like. However, as it can be difficult to communicate it in words, you need to get to know your clients personally. A coffee shop meeting provides a casual public space to understand each other. You can make the most of the meeting to discuss their interests, their preferences or even to get to find out more about the event – for a wedding photography project, you can ask about their dream ceremony.
In a world where businesses can personalize their communication and promotions, your photography business needs to evolve to address the need for personal services. It’s about tailoring your clients’ needs through your content, your services, and your planning.