3 Steps to a better photography business

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Ever experienced “Editing procrastination”?

You KNOW that session didn’t go as planned and now you are just DREADING the idea of looking at the images. 

Never mind editing them.

But editing procrastination might not be the most dangerous syndrome for a newborn photographer.

Pause for a moment and think your business.

Are you avoiding business or marketing tasks that you struggle with?

Maybe you avoid following up on enquiries because you just DON’T KNOW what to say, and you feel like you are bothering people?

… or you keep putting off planning any adverts, as your mind goes blank when thinking up content?

Is your pricing all over the place but you have no idea where to start to put it right?

You are not alone!

IN BUSINESS AND MARKETING… EVERYTHING IS “FIGUREOUTABLE”

It’s fulfilling and enjoyable to spend time doing things we excel at, and easy to avoid tasks we aren’t so great at.

People tend to be scared of what they are not good at, trying and failing can make them feel inadequate.

We bury our head in the sand and brush things under the carpet, but that feeling does not go away. It keeps us awake at night. It gets louder every time the problem manifests itself again (and believe me, it WILL happen).

The good news?

In business and marketing, everything is “figureoutable”.

The BETTER news is that figuring things out and improving will empower you and boost your confidence.

Yes, because it’s that feeling of “I don’t know what I am doing” that is keeping you stuck and making you wonder whether or not you are “good enough”.

PRACTICE WHAT YOU CAN’T PLAY

As a former piano tutor, I would tell my students “Practice what you CAN”T play’ and this translates very well to the business world.

A dear friend tells her children they only find some school work difficult because they haven’t learnt how to do it yet. She tells them it’s a sign they need more practice and ultimately that they need to ask for guidance from someone who DOES know how to do it.

It’s the same in business.

It doesn’t mean you are BAD at something if you struggle, only that you require some help. 

It’s a bit like having a toothache. It hurts a little bit, so you ignore it to avoid the dentist and save money, then in six months it’s 10 times as bad and will cost even more to get sorted.

Identifying your weaknesses and looking for ways to improve, seeking outside help from those who DO know, will get you on the right path. Far better than ignoring them, knowing full well they are going to come and bite you on the bum somewhere down the line. 

Whether that presents itself as poor bookings, client issues or simply stress you do not need.

Once things click into place, you’ll find yourself enjoying 100% of your business, rather than just 75% and the rewards will be immense.

Part of being a good business owner is not only being able to delegate, but also to identify strengths and weaknesses, and be able to act upon them. 

As “the owner”, you aren’t answerable to anyone but yourself, so it’s easy to slip into a habit of avoiding tasks you are weaker at and playing to your strengths.

Eventually, however, your strengths will suffer because of this – you need the whole choir singing in tune!

For instance, if it’s your marketing you are having issues with, it’s no good being the best photographer in the world if your marketing sucks! 

Without clients, there is no photography business. 

Or if your pricing is your nemesis you could be working your butt off, producing incredible results, but getting nowhere fast.

3 STEPS TO A BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

“Ok, I get it, so now what?”

No matter what you are struggling with, solving your problem requires 3 steps:

1 – Total clarity about the problem itself and what’s causing it

2 – A solid plan

3 – The ability to make decisions when things don’t work as planned: stick to the plan or adjust? This makes the BIGGEST difference.

Achieving all this on your own is hard.

Being too close to the problem can lead to you not being able to see the wood for the trees. Facing your issues head-on can be daunting, so don’t do it alone. Letting someone assist you with their metaphorical axe paves the way for smoother running business, instead of giving up and going back to old habits, which can be all TOO tempting. 

So before you immerse yourself and write the most sophisticated marketing plan the photography industry has ever seen… ASK FOR HELP. 

Sometimes some outside guidance and little tweaks can be your ‘light bulb’ moment and go a long way to improving your confidence, happiness and success in what you do.

Yes, it can be hard releasing your hold on the reins when your business is your baby, but similarly, your baby deserves you to be firing on all cylinders.

If you are ready to finally feel confident and in control of your business, this is the most important page you will visit today.

Book a free business and marketing coaching call using the button below and we’ll help you define exactly how to implement these 3 steps to a better photography business.

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Is Google trusting your site? SEO tips for Newborn Photographers

Long gone are the days when you could pop up on Google overnight, maybe stuffing your HTML with meaningless lists of keywords (yes, I am that old!).

Our blog post series “SEO tips for Newborn Photographers” will help you navigate the most recent changes in search engine’s algorithm and get your Newborn Sessions page seen!

E-A-T FOR NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHERS

Since the major Google algorithm update in August 2018 (called “the medic update”), the acronym “E-A-T” has become a superstar in the SEO universe.

Why? Well…

To rank well on Google, you need to nurture your brand by building its Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (exactly what E-A-T stands for)!

The core idea is that Google relies on a whole range of “trust signals” to evaluate the authority of a website’s content and its creator.

Unfortunately, we cannot control directly all of the trust elements considered by Google. We must therefore ensure that our studio’s website sends out as many “trust signals” as possible.

So, let’s dive right in!

TRUST PAGES 101: ABOUT PAGE

Google reviews not only your website’s E-A-T score… but yours, also!

When creating your About page try to use the following structure:

  1. A one sentence introduction that immediately connects you with the reader on a more personal level (remember… it’s never about YOU!). In simple terms: write something that makes you unique, and that people WILL remember.
  2. Add a few more details to create Trust and Authority (for example, are you a registered nurse? What other qualifications do you have?). But remember: this is not a resume! Avoid writing a list of awards you have won or associations you are part of. Instead, mention a few and explain to the reader why they should care about it.
  3. End the About page with links to your Social Media profiles… and don’t forget Linkedin.

CONTACT PAGE

I am always surprised when I browse someone’s website and I struggle to find their full contact details!

Local businesses in particular (and you are one of them), should include their full address, a contact number and other contact details.

Are you using a contact form? Don’t forget to also include your email address!

Possibly, at least your email and phone number should also be included on your header and footer.

If your website uses WordPress it is a good idea to use a WordPress SEO plugin like Rank Math to create structured data that can then be used by serch engines.

SEO tips for Newborn Photographers

POLICIES FOR YOUR STUDIO

We all know about GDPR and the need of a GDPR/Cookie banner… but do you really have all of the policies in place?

These “boring” pages are not only important for your SEO, they are also required for your website to be compliant with Facebook Ads and Google Ads policies. Not having them in place can even result in your advertising account being banned!

At the very least, you should have in place:

  • A Cookie Policy that explains what Cookies are, which ones you are using and how a visitor can opt-out
  • A Privacy Policy that includes your contact details
  • Website Terms

Companies like Harmony & Blue offer professional templates you can personalise and use.

If you are on the Grow Your Photography Studio programme instead… get in touch! We have templates we can share with you right away.

ADDENDUM: USE PUBLIC WHOIS

WHOIS (pronounced as “who is”) is a query protocol used to check information about the ownership of a domain name.

As a real business, make this information public for your studio’s website. No serious business has private WHOIS information but before you do this make sure the address is your business address and not your home address.

How do you know if your WHOIS is private or public?

The easiest way is to check using a WHOIS Lookup service such as https://whois.domaintools.com/ (free).

Wrapping up: SEO tips for Newborn Photographers (E-A-T)

There are many elements that Google takes into consideration when it comes to E-A-T, so every Newborn Photographer should ensure to work on the ones listed on this blog post as a start.

And as you keep working on your SEO remember: aim at creating quality content that resonates with your readers and creates trust!

Interested in getting more bookings and… clients who value what you do?

Start from the button below and book your free business and marketing coaching call.

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How To Exclude Your IP Address From Google Analytics

Ever worked on your brand new website, then opened Google Analytics and got all excited about the spike in the number of visitors?

Then moved to the Session Duration to realised there is a 20 seconds average visit?

If that’s the case, your next thought might have been “it’s probably because I opened the website 425,000 times in the last week while designing it”.

If that’s the case, there is an easy fix for this: excluding your own IP from Google Analytics.

Once you setup Google Analytics you should always exclude yours and all other IP addresses you don’t want polluting your data: any computers using the same Wi-Fi network should have the same IP address, but you will have a different IP at the studio and at home.

STEP 1 – WHAT IS YOUR IP?

Go to whatsmyip.org to find your IP address and do this for all Wi-Fi networks you want excluded from Google Analytics. Create a text or Excel files with this data, to ensure you have it stored.

It is important that you do the same thing for any other Wi-Fi networks as well as any phones/tablets. To see your phone’s IP when you are not using Wi-Fi, just disconnect Wi-Fi and go to whatsmyip.org to see a different IP address.

STEP 2 – GOOGLE ANALYTICS

  1. Login to Google Analytics and select your profile
  2. Select the Admin menu
  3. Under Account select All Filters
  4. Click Add Filter
  5. Give the filter a name (can be anything, I use the IP address)
  6. Leave Filter Type as predefined
  7. It should read: Exclude + traffic from the IP addresses + that are equal to
  8. Enter your IP address

Here is a quick video that shows you exactly how to do this:

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“What Should I Write About?” – Blog Ideas for Newborn Photographers

We have discussed in previous posts how to use tools like Moz.com to find blog ideas to boost your SEO and, most of all, how to write content that answers actual questions your ideal clients have on their mind.

To make things easier for you, I have created a list of topics to get you started: pick the ones that fit well into your brand identity and get writing.

THE WHY

If there is one thing there is never too much of, that is… time (for me, the same applies to pizza but that’s another story).

So what you want to avoid is to spend hours writing blog posts that are not going to move your readers closer to you as a photographer and brand. Not to mention… you want them to move closer to booking a session with you!

While writing copy to sell is an art (and an actual job), there is one question you should ask yourself before you start typing: how do you need to make your reader feel in order for them to want to book a session with you?

Let me give you an example. If you have ever invested on a training or workshop, you probably remember all of the doubts you had before joining.

Is this really going to work for me?

Am I really going to use this course?

And if it was a mentoring or coaching programme, you probably wondered if the coach or mentor was really going to take care of you, answer your questions and help you every step of the way.

In the beginning, when all of these questions were unanswered, you were more than likely also unsure about the investment. So you probably asked other photographers for their experience with that training… or contacted the trainer (or her team) directly.

And if reading other people’s experience or talking to the trainer made you feel like “Yes! This is really going to make a difference and solve my problem!”… the investment immediately became WORTH IT.

The reason for this long ramble is one: don’t focus on writing content to get bookings, focus on writing content to make your readers feel welcome, safe and taken care of.

THE WHAT (AND HOW) – BLOG POST IDEAS

1 – Walk-through a Session with Me

Use this post to describe the experience from the moment your clients walks into your studio to the moment they leave. Remember! This is not a guide on “How to prepare for your session” or a post for photography experts! Explain the process in a simple way and use story-telling to show your clients your expertise. For example, think about the first pose you normally begin your session with: is there a specific reason for it? Getting the baby to settle and be in a deep(er) sleep? Talk about it!

2 – Colours and textures

Have you ever felt like all your prospects think about (and ask about) is price?
If so, I invite you to pause and list 10 good reasons why they SHOULD NOT be thinking about price. I ask for prices quite often when I am interested in a product (if I don’t it’s just because I already know the prices).

Now, we can talk for ages about how “ideal clients” would pay any price for your pictures, but the quicker we acknowledge that price is in your prospects’ minds the quicker we can solve this.

Step number one for moving the conversation from price to the actual session, is to talk about something your mamas know and understand… and that gives you a chance to use the “cute-factor”.

All of you have a beautiful portfolio of images, use them to talk about colours and textures… and the role they play on how photographs (and canvases!) look. At the same time, you can give mums a simple excercise they can do around colour choices: from listing down the main colours used in different rooms of their home, to what colours they think would complement their babies’ hair and eye colour and complexion best. Get their imagination to work!

3 – Tell someone’s story… but include a testimonial!

Very often I see blog posts about a specific session and baby.

However, sometimes those posts feel a bit “empty” from a reader’s point of view. Try writing this post as a story and talk about the baby, the mum and the session: go back to the first two blog post ideas… include some details on why specific colours and textures where chosen, and maybe add a little bit about the poses!

Document the process and don’t forget to include a testimonial from mum and dad! Chances are you have contacted them to ask if they were happy for you to write a blog post about their baby… use this opportunity to ask for feedback! If they have already left you a review, you might want to ask to add a little something they would like to share with other mums that are thinking about a session.

4 – Your Studio

So much money, time and efforts goes into creating a beautiful studio… you want to talk about it!

Explain why you have designed it in a specific way and highlight details related to safety. Of course, talk about the changing station (do you have one? Is it stocked up?), play area for siblings and so on.

Talking about the studio also means… props, blankets, backdrop and so on. You might want to dedicate a separate post to this, but it is always worth reminding your clients that you are using natural fibers (and organic, if that’s the case). Talking about this, you can elaborate a little abou how you source your props, headbands, flower crowns and so on.

Remember: you want your clients to feel “proud” about being able to give this experience to their family, in a beautiful studio with a professional newborn photographer!

5 – Why are your products so expensive?

Another big one, have you ever been asked why your canvases or albums or frames are so expensive? Ever felt attacked by that question?

While it is not your job to convince people that your products are worth the price, it is definitely your job to help clients make the right choice in terms of products… and you cannot achieve this without educating them!

Let’s talk canvases.

You know the difference between a cheap, flimsy, canvas and the ones you sell. EXPLAIN IT TO YOUR READERS!

Show them the difference in terms of wood, what the back of the canvas looks like, explain why they should care about a particular protective layer and so on…

This is also a great opportunity to get them thinking LONG TERM. How is that flimsy canvas going to look in 3 or 5 years? Would they really want a not great-looking piece of wall art in their living room? Showcasing a photo of their beautiful baby?

Surely not.

READY?

You now have 5 ideas to get you started, all you need is to pick one, find the right pictures and get writing.

Remember: the whole point of having a blog is to create trust and move your readers closer to your brand. The approach you use when writing is essential: you are helping people understand your world and to feel welcome in it. This will make it so much easier for you to remember your brand and value your expertise as a professional newborn photographer.

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Choose your “marketing battles” wisely – SEO for (Newborn) Photographers

Who would not love to rank on Google’s first page?

SEO can do magic for your marketing, but if you are thinking that SEO is “free”… think again.

As competition increases and Google becomes smarter and smarter (gone are the times when stuffing your page with keywords was all you needed), ranking well on search results for keywords that are driving enough traffic to your site takes TIME.

Now I don’t know about you, but having “too much free time” is certainly not one of my biggest worries. So how do you know if working on SEO right now, is going to impact your business significantly enough to drive enquiries and bookings? More importantly, how do you know that this will happen SOON?

Yes, in the long run it may well help. However, as we have already said, time is of the essence. Even though it’s important to work on elements of our business that will bear fruit ONE day, what about the immediate future?

Let’s look at some tactile questions that can help you get some REAL answers!

  1. Is this (what I choose to spend my time and energy on RIGHT NOW) actually going to have a significant enough impact on my business (AKA, will I see some type of return in the next 6-12 months)? If the answer is no, forget about it for now.
  2. How long is this project going to take if I do it myself?
  3. Is there a quicker way to achieve the same result by investing money instead of time?

Now if the answer to the first question is yes, and we know the answer to the other 2, there is another aspect to consider:

  1. Prioritise high impact projects. Revamping your logo is cool, but I promise it’s not going to fill up the pages of your diary.
  2. Invest money to speed up growth. Understand that marketing is a long term process, but no studio can survive for long if there is no momentum around it. If your business feels like a broken cart being dragged on the sand… if enquiries and bookings are dripping in slower than ever… it’s time to push.
  3. Only invest your time on projects that have high impact and you know will bring revenue in. You will never get your time back, don’t waste it to write 1000 posts to try and rank on a low volume keyword.

Now – I have said a lot above: To explain it in a more simplistic way, when you think about a key word, the way we instinctively judge it, is how relevant a particular keyword is to our business. But this is only one factor that should be considered. A keyword should be evaluated at the very least using 3 factors:

  • Volume of monthly searches
  • The difficulty for you to rank on these particular keywords
  • The organic click-through rate. ( Google is not only a list of results these days. When someone searches a keyword, there are PAID ads everywhere, or they may see a specific business with reviews or even a questions snippet ) How likely are they to click on the list of results? How likely are they to click on YOUR business featuring on that list?

So … What are low volume key words?

These are simply keywords that simply are not “searched” enough on Google to make a real impact on your business. Of course, you can still include these on your “favourite” keywords list, but you should probably prioritise keywords with a higher volume of searches first.

So… how do we ensure that we are spending time to improve our SEO on a keyword that is actually going to have a real impact on our business?

Guessing it’s certainly not an option, so let’s look at a tool that can give us all the answers we need (well… most of them): Moz.com Keyword Explorer.

STEP 1

Take your list of favourite keywords, or keywords you want to try and rank for. If you don’t have one… create it (in Excel format, possibly)!
Try to strike a balance between “obvious” keywords (“newborn photographer near me”) and others you can find thinking out of the box (“how to create first year album”)

STEP 2

Open Moz.com Keyword Explorer and search one keyword at a time.

Type the word in and click “Analyze”. The result page will look something similar to the one below. As you can see, Moz is giving you the answer we were looking for!
1. Monthly Volume of Searches
2. How difficult it is to rank for that keyword
3. Organic Click Through Rate

STEP 3

On your list, next to each word enter the rating for those 3 paramenters… this will help you decide your SEO priorities.

As a bonus, for each keyword, Moz gives you a list of “Suggestions”: other related keywords that you might want to consider. Absolutely worth clicking on “See all suggestions” for each keyword on your list.

STEP 4

Now look at your list, exclude or put on the side keywords with a volume of searches too low to be worth the time investment, and for the others make a plan:

  1. Keywords with low difficulty, high Organic CTR – THESE ARE A PRIORITY FOR YOUR SEO STRATEGY
  2. High difficulty, high Organic CTR – YOU CAN WORK ON THESE, BUT BE AWARE THAT IT MIGHT TAKE A VERY LONG TIME TO SUCCEED… so results are going to be very slow
  3. Low difficulty, Low Organic CTR – HERE YOU SHOULD COMBINE SEO (to take advantage of the low difficulty) and some targeted PAID ADS. Remember? Organic CTR is the percentage of clicks that traditional, organic link among the search result will get. Low CTR means more people will click on Ads or other “snippets”.
  4. High difficulty, Low Organic CTR – THIS IS ADS TERRITORY! Going all organic (SEO) here is going to take A LONG TIME… and give you little results.

Note: As explained in a previous post, Moz can also help you find ideas for your blog posts!

Does this feel too complicated? Book a free coaching call with me and… let’s talk!

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Wondering what your next blog post should be about? Wonder no more.

Have you ever thought about writing more blog posts to help your organic reach but you just… DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT?

Apart from the usual “How to choose your newborn photographer”, “How to prepare your hospital bag” and posts dedicated to specific promotions OR sessions… WHAT SHOULD YOU TALK ABOUT?

Keyword Expoler – a free tool available at Moz.com – is EXACTLY what you are looking for.

Step 1 – Search for a keyword related to newborn photography

Access Keyword Explorer (by the way, there is a PRO plan that allows you to save lists of Keywords and do a bunch of other cool things) and search for a keyword from your SEO list. If you don’t have one, try something simple such as “baby photographer near me”. Make sure you select the right country from the drop down menu on the right of the search bar:

How to write a blog post for newborn photography

Step 2 – look at the list of suggestions

From the “Keyword Suggestions” section, select “See all suggestions”

STEP 3 – Look for questions from your clients

For your blog post to REALLY have a chance of having an impact on your SEO, you should not only ensure that it uses “the right keywords”… you should most of all ensures that it actually provides your audience with valuable content. Why?

Long gone are the days when Google was all about keywords! Today, Google ranks pages based on 200+ factors!

Says Google ” Beyond simple keyword matching, we use aggregated and anonymised interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries. We transform that data into signals that help our machine-learned systems better estimate relevance.”

So… nothing better than… answering ACTUAL QUESTIONS from your audience.

From the Suggested Keyword page, select “Display keyword suggestions that…” “Are questions” from the dropdown menu (highlighted in the picture below) and ensure to order the results for monthly searches (just to have a rough idea of the search volume”.

If you need help understanding how to integrate SEO in your marketing strategy… get in touch using the button below!

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The Ultimate Client Avatar Workbook for Newborn Photographers (Free Guide)

When it comes to costumer acquisition, retention and marketing in general… knowing WHO your ideal clients are, how to talk to them and where to find them is critical.

While many of
us have created an ideal client avatar (or customer persona), very few
know other tools that can help using that avatar in the real market.

This workbook
contains templates, quick tips and step by step processes to create your
ideal client avatar & deploy it in real marketing strategies!

Please enjoy and share this with photographers and friends!

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How to create 19 pieces of content in 2 hours (free guide)

When it comes to building a brand and expanding your business on social media, we all know how important it is to consistently have new content out.

This 39 pages guide is meant to inspire you and help you find new tactics to make the most of the content you create: whether you have been in business for a year or 10, being able to create new content with consistency will help you create more context for the audience you’re trying to reach… on the platforms that you’re distributing on.

The guide contains quick tips, step by step processes and a selection of tools to make your content creation as easy, quick and fun as possible.

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