Have you heard of ‘PR’ but are confused about how it could complement the marketing you’re already doing?
Are you actually wondering what is public relations and how it can help your photography business?
If so, then you’re in luck. Here I explain what you need to know about public relations and how you can use it to promote your photography business.
As you’ll also discover, there are many benefits to using PR strategies within your photography marketing.
If you aren’t yet seeking PR opportunities, you’re definitely missing a trick! PR can help you to build awareness of your work, your business and your photography services, as well as attract a wider audience, establish you as an expert and much more. Keep reading to find out how!
A definition: What is Public Relations (PR)?
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations says,
“Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.”
To put it another way, public relations is a form of marketing that aims to encourage those who are important to your business (such as your clients and prospective clients) to form a positive opinion of you.
It’s about putting your best foot forward, portraying a positive image and demonstrating your expertise – something you are probably already doing every day in your business.
Why should you use PR strategies in your photography marketing?
As a business owner, you naturally want people to regard you and your photography services in a positive light. Reputation is everything in business.
The great thing is that you can use PR strategies to get visible and to build a positive impression in the minds of potential customers.
Since people generally buy from those who they know, like and trust over and above complete strangers or unknown companies/brands, PR can play an important part in the sales process.
Yep. PR can help convert potential photography clients and buyers into customers. So, has that got you interested? I hope so!
How does PR help you to attract more photography clients?
So, digging a little deeper now, let’s talk about how PR helps to generate new leads for your photography business.
Over time, the positive reputation you build through PR can help you to attract clients and buyers as well as influence their purchasing decisions.
It comes down to the fact that PR can help build ‘know, like and trust’.
1. KNOW
Ultimately, the first step is that you need to get visible; to get on your potential client’s radar. The more they are aware of your photography – your services, products, art – the more likely they are to recall you when they are in the market for your services.
2. LIKE
Then, you need to manage your business and how you market and communicate in a way that forms a positive impression over time.
3. TRUST
If you’ve given them reasons to regard you positively, then the more likely they are to trust you. This will influence whether their decision to work with you or buy from you.
So, you see, a positive reputation that you build over time can prove incredibly valuable to your photography business, and PR is all about building this positive reputation.
Related reading: Five ways to become a go-to photographer in your niche
Other benefits of using PR to promote your photography business
As well as helping you to build awareness, likeability and trust, PR can help you also:
1. Educate or inform
Through PR, you can educate or inform others. You can share opinion articles, information and survey results to tell a story around a particular cause or issue that you are passionate about.
2. Position yourself
You can build up your reputation as a thought leader or expert within your niche through PR. For example, by securing numerous press mentions on a particular subject, you can position yourself as an authority.
3. Build credibility
By being featured by the media, for example, you are effectively being endorsed by the publication or media outlet. Since these are established and likely have a sizable following, and positive reputation of their own, this boosts your perceived credibility.
4. Attract people to you
PR can help you to attract new customers, prospects and fans. You could see a boost in your social media follower numbers, your email subscribers and online engagement with your content after being featured in the media.
Also, one piece of publicity can also lead to another. So, PR can help you to attract further media attention.
5. Create opportunities
Media coverage about your photography business can also potentially lead to exciting new opportunities. Simply as a result of being seen at the right place, at the right time, you could get noticed by potential business contacts and sponsors.
6. Boost your SEO
If you get featured on high authority domains such as news or industry websites, this can help boost your search rankings in Google. This alone is a huge benefit of PR.
7. Make more money!
Finally, I believe that PR will also help you sell more. It shouldn’t be relied upon to drive revenue, but in my experience, I know that an upsurge in sales for a product or service can be the result if it has benefited from the oxygen of publicity.
Is PR just media publicity?
No, media publicity is just one aspect of public relations.
There is so much more to PR than publicity, but publicity is likely to be the most relevant aspect of PR to you as a small business owner.
By getting featured in the media, you can secure valuable exposure that allows you to potentially reach a large number of people at once, and it’s completely free!
The audience you reach naturally depends on which media publications or programmes that you target. Whether you want to reach a large, international audience or have a very targeted, niche audience, there will be media outlets that can help you to reach the people who are important to your business.
How can you get started with public relations?
In my opinion, PR is a vastly underused form of marketing. I think that’s because many photographers don’t fully understand what it is, how it can help them, and how they can use PR to promote themselves.
Is this true for you? Do you stick to other marketing such as social media marketing, online advertising and content marketing rather than PR and media publicity?
It is certainly feasible for you to do your own PR and many small business owners do. My website has many PR blogs which I hope you’ll find helpful. You can also join my Facebook group ‘PR-Savvy Photographers’ to get tips, inspiration and PR opportunities, and subscribe to my freebie library which has PR templates and downloadable resources.
PR support for photographers
You can also choose to outsource PR activities to someone with expertise and experience.
All my clients are professional photographers. Typically, they enjoy the creative aspects of their business but don’t enjoy or have the time to manage all the promotional aspects.
If you’d like to know more about how I can help you get visible in the media and create marketing content that attracts your ideal clients, take a look at my publicity and content marketing services and then contact me if you’d like to know more.
I’ve 20 years of PR experience and have been working exclusively with professional photographers since 2015. I would be delighted to find out more about you and your photography and to see if we could be a good fit.
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