Many photographers that I know have given up on email marketing because they expect results fast, almost instantly. And when they don’t see a magic bullet… they quit. And when other photographers see this, they never even start.
I don’t blame them. We have been so used to instant gratifications from Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms that some of us think email marketing is slow, un-sexy, and a loss-making channel.
But that is not true.
With email marketing, you own the list & audience rather than some platform owning your audience.
Some say email marketing is expensive. Is that really so?
SendX offers you access to all the email marketing features you will need as a photographer for as little as the cost of two coffees of your day.
But I am glad you are here, finally considering email marketing, to turn photography not just into your passion but also a profit-making business.
In this guide, we will give actionable strategies to build your list, ideas that will align with your business, and some of the tried, tested, and proven best practices to make sure you don’t get stuck.
You can do that too. Give your followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter an incentive to
get on your email list.
E.g. promise them behind the scenes of your photography, or deep-dive into your strategies or free workshops.
Here is an example of an email pop-up
It’s like a friendly hello when you meet someone for the first time. Don’t assume they know everything about you, so introduce yourself but at the same time, don’t overwhelm them with information. Thank them for joining your list. Then you can share:
As a photographer, you must have a library for templates you use with your clients while booking them or getting their feedback. You also have so many useful tips that you would have learned during your journey. Why not share it with your audience who might be budding photographers themselves?
You take them behind the scenes of your process, studio, workspace, and how you learn your craft. People are always fascinated with artists and their world and showing them a sneak-peek of yours will build authentic relationships.
Here is an example of an email sent by moment:
Every once in a while, ask your audience for feedback. Ask them what they like, don’t like and what they would like to hear from you. This will give you further ideas and actually serve you audience very well.
Once you have nurtured your relationship with the audience by giving them free content, advice, tips, etc, now it’s time to build a transactional relationship.
You can offer your course, a set of guides on photography or workshops. The best way to run a sales campaign is through a series of emails that will run for 4-8 days depending on your offer and price point. Most email marketing software will provide a feature to automate this series of emails.
Most people feel scared of email marketing because they feel it’s time-consuming. It’s not as quick as snapping a picture and putting it into your stories.
But, that’s only because they don’t understand the power of automation. With automated emails, you can just create your message once, put the rules about when, and to whom it should be sent. And the rest is taken care of, forever!
Here are some ideas on emails you can create once and let the system send automatically:
Segmentation means creating different categories of your subscribers and sending content tailored for those particular groups.
The criteria to categorize can vary depending on your strategy. You can segment based on purchase history, engagement level, demographics, or location.
If you have a segment of people who haven’t opened any of your emails in the past month, you can send a re-engagement campaign specific to this group. Similarly, you can send pre-launch content to your super-engaged audience (your most loyal fans) and get their feedback.
This will maintain good open and click-through rates because the content will be specific to people’s interests.
If your emails don’t reach the inbox, is there even any point in sending those emails?
So before you fuss over subject lines, which template to choose, etc., ensure that you have 90% + email deliverability. It is a ratio of emails that reached the inbox compared to the total number of emails sent.
How to stay out of the spam box?
You basically have to avoid showing the same behavior as a spammer. That means, avoiding:
This is definitely not an exhaustive list, so read more; you can check out this blog on email deliverability.
Email marketing can give you the golden information of who is opening your emails, what kind of emails get the most engagement, and why people unsubscribe. Find your hottest leads and drill down on their exact requirements.
Once you have key performance metrics, you will be able to track your goal, whether it is increasing subscribers, increasing engagement, or getting more leads. And once you track, you can improve and celebrate your success.
Building an email list from your website visitors, social media followers gives you a golden ticket to stay on top of the minds of these people.
The tips and ideas we shared above will be only helpful if you take the first step. So here’s some homework for you:
Sign up for an email marketing software, and just create your first email newsletter.
I would suggest signing up for SendX. Why?
You don't even have to commit anything before you are sure. You just have to give it a try with the 14-day free trial: no credit card or any long-form filling process involved. Sign up here.