Guide
How to market yourself as a photographer: 5 steps you can keep up
Updated
Marketing yourself as a photographer comes down to two things: short videos that make you familiar, and local channels that make you easy to find. Here is a plan that survives a busy season.
In short
- Marketing yourself as a photographer means short videos that make you familiar and local channels that make you easy to find.
- The videos that work are one photo and its story, the questions clients ask, and a before and after.
- You can film a month of videos in one hour, then post two a week.
- Fill in your Google Business Profile and ask for a review when you deliver a gallery.
- Email past clients once a season with a date they can book, and send vendors photos of their own work.
- Videos that keep a page alive
- 2 a week
- Filming, once a month, in one sitting
- 1 hour
- Longest clip one video needs
- 3 min
What is the difference between a portfolio and marketing?
Both matter, but they do different jobs.
- Your portfolio proves you can shoot. Only people already thinking of hiring you ever open it.
- Marketing puts you in front of people who are not looking for a photographer this week.
- A couple who watched your posts in spring often sends the inquiry in September.
- The aim is to be easy to find and familiar on the day they need you. Going viral is not the aim.
Step 1: Film videos of you talking
A slideshow of your best frames looks like everyone else's. You talking about one frame does not.
- Talk to your clients about their own shoot. Gear talk reaches other photographers, and they do not book family sessions.
- Clients do not know what your editing is worth until they have seen a before and after once.
Three video formats that work for photographers
| Format | What you talk about |
|---|---|
| One photo, one story | How a recent frame was made: where you stood, the light, what you said |
| Client questions | What to wear, how long a session takes, what happens if it rains |
| Before and after | The flat raw frame next to the delivered image |
Format: One photo, one story
- What you talk about
- How a recent frame was made: where you stood, the light, what you said
Format: Client questions
- What you talk about
- What to wear, how long a session takes, what happens if it rains
Format: Before and after
- What you talk about
- The flat raw frame next to the delivered image
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Step 2: Post twice a week, film once a month
Two short vertical videos a week keeps a page alive. Daily posting is a second job.
- Filming on the day you post is the plan that fails. It usually dies in week three, on a wedding weekend.
- Film in one sitting instead, for about an hour after a delivery day.
- Write down eight topics first, starting with the questions clients ask you.
- Film eight separate clips, one topic each, up to 3 minutes long. Each one becomes a video.
- Do not write a script. Write the first line only, then explain the rest like you would across a table.
A month of posts from one hour of filming
Eight clips at two posts a week covers four weeks.
List 8 topics
The questions clients ask you, first
Film 8 clips
One sitting, phone, window light
Edit each one
The step where plans usually stop
Post 2 a week
A month covered
Step 3: Fill your Google profile and collect reviews
Search for your service the way a stranger would. The map shows up before any website.
- Fill in every field, including your category, your service area and a starting price if you can.
- Add twenty strong images to the profile.
- Ask for a review when you deliver the gallery, because that is when a client loves the work most.
- A week later the moment has passed, and most people never get round to it.
Step 4: Get referrals and vendor partners
Referrals and partners reach people at the moment they choose a photographer.
- Add one sentence to every delivered gallery, saying referrals are how you book and you would love the introduction.
- Planners, venues, makeup artists and agents meet your clients before you do.
- Send them images of their own work from every shared job, free and within the week.
Step 5: Email past clients once a season
Two lines to forty people who already trust you, with a date in the email.
- Email each group once a season and no more often than that.
- Put a date they can book in the email, so it asks for one clear thing.
When to email which past clients
| Client type | When to email |
|---|---|
| Families | Before the holidays |
| Headshots | January |
| Graduates | Spring |
Client type: Families
- When to email
- Before the holidays
Client type: Headshots
- When to email
- January
Client type: Graduates
- When to email
- Spring
Skip the editing step
Most posting plans stop at the editing, at 10pm, in a phone app. You have three ways out.
- You can learn a mobile editor. It is free, but plan an evening a week.
- You can hire an editor and pay per clip.
- You can use Cutroom. Upload a clip of you talking, up to 3 minutes, and a finished 9:16 video with captions comes back in about a minute.
- Highlight a phrase and a clip of your work lands on exactly those words.
- Your first video is free within 7 days, on 600 credits, with no card. It carries a Cutroom mark across the middle.
- After that a video costs about 110 credits, which is under two dollars. Lite is $19.99 a month and removes the mark, and Basic is $39.99 a month for 2,500 credits, about 22 of these videos.
What one finished 30 second video costs
Credits, on any plan. Your first video is free within 7 days of signing up.
- Editing (transcript, first edit, clip search)100 credits
- Exporting 30 seconds10 credits
- One finished videoabout 110 credits
Questions people ask
- How often should a photographer post?
- Twice a week, kept up for months. That beats posting daily for three weeks. Pick the number you can keep through your busy season, then keep it.
- Do I have to show my face?
- For videos where you talk, yes. A client is choosing who will spend a morning with their family, so they want to see you first. If that feels like too much right now, start with before and after posts and add talking videos later.
- Should I post my prices?
- Post at least a starting price. It answers the first question every stranger has, and it filters out the inquiries you would turn down anyway.
- Which platform should I use?
- The one your clients use. For weddings, families and portraits that is usually Instagram first. A 9:16 video posts to Reels, TikTok and Shorts as it is, so one video covers all three.
- Where does Cutroom fit in this plan?
- At one step only: turning a clip of you talking into a finished, captioned vertical video. It does not write your plan or film it for you. Your first video is free within 7 days, no card.
Film once a month, post twice a week, keep your Google profile full. Your first video is free.