Commercial Photographer: Your Guide to Marketing, Creativity and Growth

Sunjay Singh is this weeks guest. He is in the sales and marketing world. He has a video agency which he runs with his co-founder, live media UK and a small marketing company which provdes marketing managers for small businesses called Lambardar marketing.   Marcus asks how it started. Sunjay says Will (co-founder) and him had never had “proper jobs”. Sunjay said when he was 14 or 15 his Dad walked in told him he had to photograph a wedding and then left. Sunjay had never taken a picture before in his life. His Dad had always enjoyed photography, But he ended up working at British Aerospace. But his Dad  always had a side hustle and was doing two jobs. So for a while he did wedding video and photography and Sanjay was the photographer. The weddings were British Asian weddings which were a minimum of 3 day events. He said there were so many people, often 50 to 60 people in a 2 bedroom house in Cardiff. Each wedding day could be 14 hours. He could leave one day at 1am and be back the next day at 5am. He says he got better very quickly as he was talking so many pictures in such a short space of time. They stopped doing British Indian weddings as the hours were so long and pay so low and moved onto British weddings.  But eventually he got fed up doing weddings, he had done too many. He was then getting more corporate work and they dropped weddings. But what that time gave him was a work ethic. Sunjay says if you want to get good at your craft, you have to do the reps. Do it again and again. It’s not just about working on one shot it’s about doing it again and again. If you are creative and not constantly developing your craft that is a dangerous place to be. Now Sunjay is running a video agency using videographers who work for him. He also uses photographers in his agency. Sam asks how Sunjay decided which photographers to work with. Sanjay says that anyway running a business needs to wear many hats and possibly masks. When you are speaking to Sanjay and talking about logistics, don’t be a creative, at that point you need to be a business person. He says if it helps, where a tie when you do your emails. Get into the mindset of being a business person. When you are on the shoot, be creative. But be the reliable business person at other times, especially when discussing logistics. The other thing Sanjay looks for is composure. He needs them to be confident and composed. If the photographer doesn’t turn up composed and confident then that is hopeless. The photographers needs to stay calm no matter what the shoot throws at you. Speed is another thing. Both getting the shot and getting the photographs back. Clients expect the photos back very quickly. They know it is digital and so expect the photographs very quickly. Yous presentation is also important. Sanjay has seen too many scruffy photographers. By being scruffy you are showing don’t care about aesthetics. You are signalling that you don’t care about aesthetics which gives the wrong message.   Sam asks how a photographer can go about getting agency work. Sanjay says there is no clear answer, but the key thing is relationship building and being in the right place in the right time. For example Sanjay meets lots of photographers, but he doesn’t have a shoot that week and the photographers never get in touch again. They need to stay in touch. Sanjay then says make a list of ten people you want to work with. Get in touch every month and then every other month arrange an in person meeting. Don’t chat work, or ask for work, just build a relationship and some of them will give you work.   Sanjay mentions a book The Creative Act, Rick Rubin. He says this is an amazing book. You can connect with Sunjay on LinekdIn To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode, click here Join the Shoot to the Top Facebook group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Anthony is going to be talking about photography apprentices. He has been a photographer for many years but was recently approached to create a photography apprenticeship. He says he has a learner who, four months in, is taking amazing photographs. Anthony explains what the apprenticeship looks like from the point of view of a photographer and apprentice. For the photographer, you have a full-time member of staff. The staff have training once per month online. They also get skills coach learning and that involves the photographer and the apprentice. From the apprenticeship point of view, you are with “ real photographers” and learning from them. Sam asks if you are a photographer why do you want an apprentice. Anthony says it is pointless if you don’t have work for them and can’t afford them. Perfect for those with studios or perhaps wedding photographers who need multiple people taking shots at each wedding. The apprentice needs to be paid at least the apprentice minimum wage, which is around £7.40 an hour. Even if you take new staff on they always need training, even if they have a degree. An apprenticeship is an 18-month course and so usually the apprentice is trying to prove themselves over those 18 months so will always be working hard. At the end of 18 months, a photographer has a choice between moving the apprentice to being an employee or letting them go and moving on. Marcus asks what the difference is between an assistant and an apprentice. Anthony says it is basically the same, but there is a training framework and an end exam with the apprenticeship. Anthony says apprenticeships now are much better than they used to be for both the learner and photographer. Anthony works for the JGA group in his apprentice work. If you want to move forward with an apprentice contact the JGA group here. He says you can ask JGA to find an apprentice for you. But it often works better to find one yourself. His advice is to find a person who is passionate rather than qualified for this. The 18 months is a commitment. There are ways out if there is a major difficulty but the business really needs to commit for the full 8 months. Marcus asks how the apprenticeship works with portfolio building and if is there much cultural studies. Anthony says they have teamed up with the BIPP to help the apprentices build a portfolio. As part of the course, they must build a 20-photo portfolio. The portfolio also goes to the BIPP so that they can get an award there too. Anthony says the cultural studies are not structured as they would be in university, but they end up being discussed as part of the learning days. Sam asks what you should do if you want to become a photographer apprentice. He said to go to the government apprentice website you can find the documents available. You can also find employers that are looking for apprentices on indeed.com. It is key for a new apprentice to find an employer to work with on the apprenticeship. He says one of the simplest things you can do is pick up the phone and call a photographer. Marcus asks what photographers get paid once they have done an apprenticeship. Anthony says it varies. The apprentice minimum wage is £7.50 an hour. That is the minimum. Some are salaried at a higher rate. After 12 months an apprentice then needs to move up to the national minimum wage. Most photographers will then be paid £18 to £20k as a starting salary. Sam asks if the apprentices are taught how to run a business as that is so important for so many photographers.

This is the Christmas show. Sam is going to share three things you need to do in the new year while Marcus is going to make some predictions for the next year. Sam says the first thing to do is look at your marketing numbers for the year. Find out where your customers come from. Then look at the time (and this part will be an estimate) spent on different marketing activities. Then compare them. How much income has each marketing activity generated compared to the time you spent on it? Then evaluate. What marketing are you doing that is working and what do you need to stop doing? It will probably be following the 80/20 rule where 20% of your marketing activity generates 80% of your income. You just need to work out which 20% of your marketing activity that 20% is. Marcus suggests you could also do this with your camera equipment and work out what you use all of the time and might need a spare of and what you hardly ever use and so could possibly sell. The number two thing to focus on for Sam is to build your mailing list. This is vital. Lots of people you speak to might be interested in your work, but not now. This is a great way to stay in touch with those leads. We have lots of shows talking about how to build your email list and what to do with your email list including these: Email marketing part one Email marketing part two The third thing to focus on is LinkedIn. Both Jeff Brown and Gareth Wax have been on the show talking about LinkedIn recently. So Sam says to look at your LinkedIn profile over the new year. Listen to Jeff and Gareth’s shows and then review your profile. Review every part of it. Marcus is going with three predictions. He thinks that there will be an increase in the popularity of film (35mm) cameras. He thinks this will just be for personal use. Pentax is making a new film camera and new film manufacturers are appearing on the market. You can see our show about the film here . Marcus sees photography AI not catching on next year. He is referring to image creation. Marcus thinks that this will become unpopular. Sam counters this explaining that it will improve and so could grow. Marcus’s third prediction is that there are going to be fewer weddings next year. Marcus says there is a COVID knock-on in that people didn’t get together during COVID-19 and so there are now, a few years later, fewer weddings. Marcus thinks the photography market is going to get more challenging next year. He thinks that some photographers who started during COVID may quit leaving fewer photographers overall. Sam looks at the UK population data and says there are fewer people in the mid-20s age range which could affect weddings, and fewer babies being born, affecting newborn photography. But we can also use the data to see where the population bulges are and think what kind of photography they might need. There are peaks at 10, 11 12-year-olds another peak at 30 to 40-year-olds, but a dip in the mid-40s, and a bulge again at late 50s and early 60s. It would be good to also look at the local population near you. Marcus thinks there could be growth in some different areas, perhaps funeral photography. He also suggests divorce photography, but Sam isn’t sure about that one. Meet other listeners, guests Sam and Marcus at the Shoot to the Top Facebook page.   Make sure you don't miss a podcast by subscribing to the newsletter. The podcast then comes to your inbox every week along with hints and tips from Sam and Marcus and the chance to become a guest on the show.  Subscribe here

Gain exclusive insight into a 40-year Commercial Photography Career with veteran Mark Kensett. In this episode, Mark reveals the surprising marketing secret he learned over four decades and shares the single most valuable lesson he imparts through Mentorship for Photographers. You will learn the true privilege of working in this industry and how to protect your career by constantly keeping your work fresh.Listen to discover:• The Single Most Exciting Element: Find out what Mark believes is the greatest privilege of the job—a secret that unlocks maximum creative output and professional satisfaction.• The Strategic Marketing Tool: Learn the specific type of non-client work Mark advises every photographer to do, and why it is the most effective tool for Brand Photography Marketing.• The Key to Sustained Success: Hear the critical lesson in Mentorship for Photographers that Mark learned, helping you to stay relevant and retain clients for decades

Andy has worked with cameras for many years. Initially, he was in the CCTV industry. This role was about sales and account management. He worked long hours, and got well paid, but eventually got disillusioned with it and decided to be a commercial photography. He started out within a Google Maps niche. At the time google was recruiting photographers to do 360 virtual tours of the inside of businesses. This was very popular for several years. He also sold standard images to businesses while doing the virtual tour. He also used to upload images to stock photography. He doesn’t do this much any more, but still makes money from the images he has on there. He says the most mundane images are the ones that sell the best. Marcus mentions that we were chatting to Pete Coco about Spotify and how it’s effected the music industry, and we thought it was similar to how stock providers have effectaffecteded the photography industry. Andy now mainly does self-hosted virtual tours, so he hosts them not Google. That means they can be much more sophisticated. Andy says this week is quite specialist and the shoot is quite rapid and quite technical. But then most of the work is done in editing. Andy has been doing this for ten years now. Long enough that he keeps being asked back to existing clients to re-shoot. He does a lot of work with independent and boarding schools. Marcus asks how he markets himself. Before the pandemic, he did a lot of marketing, trade shows, emails, social etc. However, since then he has not needed to do much marketing. The amount of work he got shot up over the pandemic as schools needed to replace their school tours with something virtual. So during the pandemic, he had more work than he could manage. And due to that he has built up a relationship with many businesses that keep wanting him back. But he still does some marketing and outreach to ensure that he keeps getting some new business coming in. Marcus asks how he stays creative. Andy says that doing the shoot for the virtual tour isn’t creative. But the creative work is in the post-production. He also says he prefers conventional stills photography as it is more creative. Marcus asks Andy about AI and how he has been using it. Andy says AI is here and we may as well embrace it, it’s here to stay. He has played with the image creation side of AI. He has also been using things in photoshop like the generative AI fill. As an example, he sometimes has to remove items from a room for the tour and 9/10 AI does this well. But at the moment he says he thinks that the AI generative images is not something he can bring into his business. Sam asks if his corporate life helped him when he had to run his own business. He says it really helped with the sales and marketing side of things as he was doing this in his corporate role. He says many photographers find this hard so it has helped him. He says one approach is to show them what their competitors have and they do not have. Andy plans to carry on with the virtual tours for schools. He would prefer to do more stills and drone photography. But even his current clients do not know he offers this.

Dreaming of a professional studio but only have a spare bedroom to work with? Marcus reveals the Small Studio Secrets he's learned from 20 years in commercial photography, showing you how to set up a professional, home-based studio that can easily handle headshots and small groups. This is crucial marketing for photographers advice, as a home studio instantly adds professionalism and speed to your service.This episode is packed with useful content, but we've pulled out the three essential takeaways that will most quickly boost your commercial photography business. Stop relying on luck; start implementing a clear planthat converts prospects into paying customers.The Flawless Background Hack: Why the traditional paper roll is your enemy in a small space, and the simple, low-cost painting solution that lets your subjects stand right up against the wall without any visible creases.The Secret Lighting Stand of the Film Industry: Discover the one piece of affordable equipment (it's not a light!) that instantly opens up professional overhead lighting possibilities, even with low ceilings.Lens Selection for Small Rooms: Stop struggling with group and full-length shots in a tiny studio. Learn the unconventional lens choice that gives you the perfect distance and focal length to capture commercial photography portraits in a crowded space.

Sam and Gillian Devine are running a workshop for Photographers to get more leads and customers from the website and email marketing. Join the event here Jeff Brown is known for many things but especially encouraging photographers to use LinkedIn. Jeff Has a new version of his LinkedIn book “The Photographers missing link”. The first version of the book was written in January 2022, and the size of the book has doubled since then. Jeff says that many of his opportunities come from LinkedIn as well as customers. Jeff says 41% of millionaires are on LinkedIn. The 26-34 age group is the biggest group on LinkedIn, so they a perfect age range for wedding and newborn photographers. 82% of B2B buyers prefer to buy from LinkedIn rather than doing a Google search. The average earnings are $82,000 a year. This is not Facebook marketplace with people wanting everything cut price. Only about 5% of people on LinkedIn post. Jeff says that LinkedIn is a comments based platform while Instagram is a vanity platform. He says constantly selling on Linkedin doesn’t work. He suggested mixing personal stories with business posts really helps with your engagement and helps your posts to be seen by more people. Jeff also says it’s comments that are important on LinkedIn, not likes. That is where relationships are built. Marcus like LinkedIn for posting images as there are no restrictions on what you display. Jeff says remember the image stops the scroll. A square image takes up more space than a portrait image so that works better. Above the image there is a snippet of the post that users see. Make sure that this is engaging and encourages people to stop and read your post. Jeff then starts to talk about LinkedIn newsletters. This is a great way to get content out to followers and helping you to stand out as a specialist in your field. He says he is also using his newsletters to help him create a book, so the content is dual use. The newsletter should not be about what you have done this week. It needs to have a specific focus. Sam asks how often to send newsletters; Jeff says that 2 weeks to a month is ideal. He said also that LinkedIn automatically recommends your newsletter to other LinkedIn users. Marcus asks Jeff about using LinkedIn’s AI to create or improve posts. Jeff tried this and was not impressed at all. It takes away the personal edge, it uses language you wouldn’t usually use. He also says AI comments are easy to spot and nothing to do with the original post. Jeff says know your target audience and get into their networks. Photographers often start out working for free to build their portfolio. Jeff says avoid working for free for those with no network and are starting out. Instead approach people with a large following who could easily afford the work. Then make an agreement about what they will do for the work (such as 5* reviews and social posts). Also make it very clear how much the work would normally be and make them do some work to get the free photos.   As a quick win Jeff says niche your LinkedIn profile and connect with your target audience. And of course, read Jeff’s new book. You can find Jeff on LinkedIn here. Join in the chat on the Shoot to the Top Facebook group here. And browse all our previous episodes and sign up to the newsletter here.

Sam is running a “Capture Clients Workshop” with Gillian Devine. Gillian and Sam will be focussing on email marketing and website design and how you can use these to get more clients and grow your business. There will be lots of practical advice that you will be able to take away at the end of the day. To book on click here.   David Harrison was a Commercial Photographer and is now moving towards making his passion, wildlife photography, part of his business.  David had an Uncle in South Africa when he was young. When he was 21 he got to visit South Africa and go to the Kruger park. On his first day he saw a lion by the side of the road. David has been back to Africa many times since then. David commercially has been working with a range of businesses doing all sorts of different work. But he now wants a change and he is still working out exactly how the wildlife photography will become part of his business. He is thinking about setting up retreats on safari in Africa. David says on safari you are always living in the moment, even if you can’t see any animals at that time. He says it is very relaxing and helps people live in the moment. Marcus says that you can capture wildlife photography here in the UK. David agrees and says that you can create a wildlife haven in your garden by simply setting up a bird feeder. You can extend that more by having a log nearby so the birds use the log as a perch near the feeders, which can make for great shots. It is also easy just to get out on any day and see what wildlife you found. It could simply be some trees and other plants.   Sam suggests spending time photographing birds on the feeder will help photographers develop their skills at photographing animals. David fully agrees with this and says we should fully practice all the photography we do. He says he isn’t surprised that those that win Wildlife photographer of the year spend a very long time with the wildlife. Marcus points out that one winner of this was an image of a fox taken in the UK. David explains that also with wildlife you need to work with what turns up, rather than what you planned. Wildlife doesn’t always do as you planned. Standing still and waiting is also good. Waiting and observing and then the great shots will often appear.   Marcus asks what it’s like to be on safari with David. He says it’s almost impossible to explain what it’s like to be on a safari vehicle in Africa first thing in the morning. The sunsets and sunrises are always amazing. There is then the experience of being out in the middle of no-where. There is also the not knowing what could be around the next corner. Then suddenly you see your first animal. Seeing the big cats it is so exciting in the wild. Sam says it’s also about the animals being so big and potentially so dangerous to you. Sam points out that there are many budgets for safari and it doesn’t have to be really expensive. David says that’s true and the price often adds extra “bells and whistles”. He says the wildlife doesn’t go to the luxury lodge’s vehicle first! To get the Shoot to the Top podcast delivered to your Mailing list in your inbox please click here You can chat to Sam Marcus and other listeners and guests at the Shoot to the Top Facebook group    

There is an event for photographers about using website and email strategies for business success. This is run by Sam and Gillian Devine on the 27th November 2024. You can get more details and book a free place by clicking here. Sam and Marcus say that some photographers websites have no writing at all, which is terrible for SEO and getting business. Some things to think about before writing your website are: Make sure you know your target audience – See this show for details. What your call to actions are –see this show for details. Plan your site – see this show for details. Once you have all of those things done you can start the writing. While you are writing think constantly about your ideal client. What are their problems, why are they coming to you? If your writing is too generic it doesn’t engage anyone. Be concise. We all know our businesses too well and can give far too much detail. Avoid this. Be clear and concise. Too many options causes confusion. When writing a page be very concise at the top of a page. So the first 5 sentences at the top of the page should cover everything needed for the page. But then further down the page go back to the different topics and dig into more detail. Then even further down the page circle back and give even more details about the same topics. You need to think about keywords. You can listen to the SEO shows here about keywords. It’s important to use the keyword / phrase enough on a page, but without going mad and including it in every sentence. Focus on feelings, outcomes and results. Don’t focus on the nuts and bolts of what is included in a package. Focus on what you will gain from working with you in a big picture way. How will they feel working with you? People buy with feelings and then justify their purchase with logic.Testimonials can help with this. Ask clients to mention feelings in testimonials. Remember that no one will browse your website for no reason. They are coming to your website because they have a problem and they are wondering if you can solve it for them. Sam does not recommend a testimonial pages. He recommends spreading testimonials across all of your pages, not all of them in one page. Know what you readers care about. About pages. Sam says please don’t tell the story of how you got a camera when you were 12 and fell in love with photography. Every photographers site says this. Remember that people care about themselves, and the problem they are trying to solve. So an about page works best if it’s about how you have helped people in the past with your photography. Some small snippets about your life is great, but that’s not the aim of the about page. Structuring your pages using bullet points, numbers lists, sub-headings really helps make it easy to follow. Marcus asks about the use of AI. Sam says AI is great for helping but not creating. So give it your writing and ask for ideas. But don’t use AI to create content. Repetition. People do not read your website like a book. They jump from place to place and so you need to repeat lots to ensure all visitors get your key messages.