For a long time, I was niched into the photography market and whilst having a niche is incredibly helpful when it comes to attracting and converting your ideal client, you need to actually put yourself out there and build a network in real life. 

NOT EVERYTHING YOU SAY ON SOCIAL MEDIA WILL BE HEARD

I know it’s easy to overlook the value of in-person networking when you have an editing pile a mile along and emails to answer. Surely it’s just quicker and easier to knock out a few Instagram stories?

Wrong! Relying on social media and paid ads just isn’t enough and I get reminded of this every time I make the effort to travel to meet people and network in person.

Social media is great, of course, but it’s important to remember that not everything you say will be heard. In fact, only about 10% of your social contacts will see your posts, unless they are highly engaged and make the effort to seek you out.

Having a real life conversation with someone allows you to be heard in a way that simply doesn’t happen on social media or via email. 

I love catching up with lots of industry friends throughout the year at conventions and shows and have been lucky enough to speak at The Photography Show in Birmingham. From this, I arranged two joint promotional partnerships and secured some new guest blogging opportunities. It’s just so much easier in person!​​​​​​​​

BE GENEROUS WITH YOUR TIME AND CONTENT

As well as being heard and establishing a stronger relationship with someone, taking the time to meet someone personally will also allow you to stand out from your competitors. 

I make sure that I speak at lots of smaller events and groups throughout the year and I try to connect with clients and work friends whenever I’m in their area. When I meet people, I make sure to ask how I can help them with content that could benefit their audience, before I ever ask for anything in return.

Then, when I do have something to promote, I have a network of contacts I can reach out to and ask them to share whatever it is I’m launching.

(By the way, if you’ve never read Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk, you should definitely read it. It covers this strategy thoroughly in terms of being generous with your time and content).

PUTTING YOURSELF OUT THERE

So, my question to you is…are you getting out there and building face-to-face relationships?

Now, I’m not necessarily talking about going to business networking events (although those can be really useful). I’m thinking about businesses in your supply chain –  people who share your audience, but who you aren’t competing with.

For example, if you’re a photographer, I’m talking about wedding venues, florists, make up artists and caterers.

We run into the same suppliers again and again, but when you’re shooting at a wedding or an event, you don’t often have time to network properly and give these talented small businesses the face time they deserve. When you overlook relationships like these, you miss a real opportunity to arrange mutually beneficial promotional activities.

BREAKING THE ICE IF YOU’RE AN INTROVERT

Introverts – if the thought of this makes you want to curl up in a ball, one of the best ice-breakers is also your secret weapon. I’m talking about your blog! It’s easy to get stuck in the rut of just blogging shoots and churning them out on auto pilot. If you feel that blogging is a ‘chore’ that you need to get through to keep on top of SEO or keep a client happy, then you’re seriously missing a trick. 

Readers engage more with posts that offer them helpful, unique content than the standard ‘Look at these lovely photos’ blog post. This is why wedding blogs and magazines are so successful – because the information they contain is highly relevant to the current problems the reader is trying to solve. 

This is your chance to position yourself as an expert, whilst giving yourself the perfect excuse to contact a supplier you admire and would like to work with more. 

Offering to interview other suppliers and to gift them a few images as well as promoting them via your blog is a wonderful way to network and will repay you many times over. If there is someone you get on with really well, think about proposing a ‘blog swap’, where you both get to showcase your expert content to a new audience on each other’s blog.

‘Round-up’ blog posts can be particularly successful and are a great way to get other suppliers on board. A good example of a round-up blog post would be ‘The Best Wedding Florists in Sussex’. And of course, being approached to feature in a ‘Best of’ blog post is highly flattering. 

Photography clients who I have worked with have had great success with this approach, building up a wonderful collection of highly relatable blog posts, which prospective clients can really connect with. 

CASE STUDY

For a great example of how to use your blog as a networking tool, check out how Oxford wedding photographer, Philippa James, approaches it. 

You can find her at https://philippajamesphotography.com/blog.

She rebranded the blog area within her website as ‘The Oxford Wedding Blog’ and set about interviewing venues and suppliers and creating the blog as a resource for couples planning to get married in the Oxford area. 

Two years into her new blogging routine, she’s become a sought-after guest at local networking events in the wedding industry, allowing her to transition from mostly shooting destination weddings to shooting weddings in her local area.

You’ll also find her on the first page of Google not just for ‘Oxford wedding photographer’ but for other more general search terms like ‘weddings in oxford’ – another significant benefit of taking the wedding expert approach.

GET VISIBLE FASTER

If you need to up your marketing game, I firmly believe you can make more progress in one day by networking in person, than in a month on social media. 

Not only will you build stronger relationships, you’re more likely to build longer-term relationships and those are the kind of relationships that money or time spent online can’t buy.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘You had to be there’. Think about making sure you’re the person that was there, building human connections and creating an avenue for new business opportunities.

If you’d like to join an inspiring online community, you can find out more about Melissa’s online membership, The Marketing Fix, at www.themarketingfix.co.