4 Reasons You Need to Be Blogging as a photographer
One of the easiest things that every photographer should be doing more of is blogging. It provides so many benefits that will help your photography business grow in a MILLION different ways, and you are totally selling yourself short if you aren’t setting time aside to blog.
Now….let’s be honest. This likely isn’t the first time you’ve heard you need to be blogging…it might not even be the 100th!
That’s not the problem.
The problem is…
1. You think it’s too time consuming
2. You can’t think of anything to write/unique to say
3. No one looks at your blog anyways
If you’re using any of these excuses to neglect your blog…don’t you worry. At the end of this article, we’ll share how you can fix ALL of these problems listed above, but first, let’s talk about why it’s so dang important and why you can’t keep talking yourself out of it!
1. BLOGS ARE SEO FUEL
Whew. If I had a dollar for every-time someone asked me to “fix their SEO”…
I’ve got good and bad news for you. Bad news? The key to “fixing” your SEO is blogging. Good news? THE KEY TO FIXING YOUR SEO IS BLOGGING!!!
It’s one of the best ways to improve your SEO. Search Engines need content and blogging provides the content that will rank high on the sort of searches that potential clients will be doing! You have to give google content if you want it to like you, show google that you are a credible, active website who gives it’s readers regular, relevant content.
If you’re one of the few photographers that have blogged at a specific venue, you will show up highly in searches when people are googling that venue. Then they are on your website, looking at gorgeous photos from their wedding venue….by you! That puts them only one click away from your contact form, by the way.
2. Your Blog GIVES YOUR BIZ A HOME BASE
Blogging creates a home base for your work, your followers, your voice, your brand. Your blog gives you an Online space that isn’t controlled by any unbeatable algorithms, or competition with millions of other really talented creatives showing off their work (say, like Instagram.)
What you want is their undivided attention, and in today’s age that’s pretty hard to achieve, but on your website, they aren’t tempted to scroll onto the next photo taken by someone else.They are surrounded by your work, words, and and the more content you give them to click through the more of their attention you have, and the more likely they are to book you.
3. YOUR BLOG can EDUCATE YOUR CLIENTS
Blogging is the perfect opportunity to educate your clients!
Are there things you find yourself telling each client before their session/wedding? Things you wish your clients knew or emails you find yourself writing a million times? Maybe you’re consistently annoyed at the lack of cell phone etiquette at your client’s ceremonies, for example.
I wrote a very simple blog post on Unplugged Weddings so I can send it to our clients to educate them on how to inform their guests that they are having an unplugged wedding. This is something people ask me about ALL the time, so I made it into a blog post! By the time I send it to my clients, most of them have already read it.
4. YOUR BLOG STRENGTHENS YOUR BRAND
If you were hiring a photographer and saw that they hadn’t posted on their website in over a year, would you not question if they are even still an active business?
Having an active blog builds trust with your audience. The photographer that blogs often is usually seen as an expert in their area compared to those that may not share their work anywhere but social media. It gives potential clients LOADS of your work to look through, gain a better understanding of what a full wedding or session with you will look like.
You’ll increase your chances of getting booked when you meet with clients that have seen your blogs, because they are already totally familiar with your work and convinced by the time you ever meet them in person!
I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve shown up to and had people say, “Oh! I saw this wedding on your blog.” “I read about that on your blog, I DO want an Unplugged Wedding!!)
It also brings reoccurring readers and tight knit followers to your blog, giving them more to read, more to engage with, more to share with their friends!
AND for your future clients that have already booked you, it gives them somewhere to go to GET PUMPED while they are waiting around for their wedding day to arrive.
I went to our wedding photographers blog at least once a week when we were engaged to see what he was up to, and to low-key look at his photos and imagine how AWESOME our wedding photos would be! It’s an exciting, awesome feeling that you can give to your clients!
The Blog is the KEY to ranking high on Google, creating an algorithm-free place to showcase your most recent work, educating your clients and strengthening your brand. We aren’t saying you can’t make it work without blogging, but why would you want to make it harder on yourself?
How to make blogging worth your time…
If these 4 reasons above don’t create the motivation to overcome your barriers and start blogging, we’re launching a step-by-step course that will take you through all our methods from time-saving strategies and how to create awesome content, to building mega traffic to your blog! Click below to join the waitlist. You don’t want to miss this!