We’re gonna talk about ways that you can use creative marketing tips for Real Estate Photography Business. One of the most common questions in this field is: “How do get clients?”. Our answer is: “There’s no set formula on how to succeed in real estate photography. It will certainly take a great deal of dedication, persistence, and a whole bunch of sustainability to achieve”. Everyone’s journey is different. We urge you to think of creative ways to get yourself some exposure and connect with prospective clients. What would you do to get more clients from your Real Estate photography business or Architectural firm? You should want to have an online marketing plan and an offline marketing plan.
HAVING A STRONG OFFLINE PRESENCE CAN CONNECT WITH EVEN MORE PEOPLE
Having a business card
It’s old and antiquated, but Real Estate Agents still use business cards all the time. Sometimes they just get trashed but here’s another thing you can do is having two different types of business cards. The small version like every version and another one is the big version. The cool thing about the big version is having all of your pricing on the back of it. Price for your Post Processing: Real Estate Photo editing (photo retouching); Real Estate Video Editing; Virtual Staging, Floor Plan… When Real Estate Agents not get trashed quite as fast but usually it’ll get tucked inside their notebook. But a lot of times, they’ll hang on to it. Because they know that they can look back and see your pricing when they get a new client.
The useful way to market your real estate photography business is through the email
Find email address on the local Real Estate Agent websites
- You could just go on to the local Real Estate Agent websites and try and find email addresses. Sending a couple of those agents emails introducing yourself and saying who you are, your portfolio…it’s a good way to get your foot in the door to some of those real letters. So they start hearing your name.
Send out reminders and updates campaigns
- After a while build up a list of all of the real estate agents, maybe ones you’ve worked with, ones you haven’t worked with… This would be a few ways down the road. But you take those business cards, form an email list. After a while, you could literally get hundreds of emails for Real Estate Agents. Once you have that list established. You can send out reminders and updates every couple of weeks or at least once a month. Not only are you able to show what you have going on in your business. If you want to offer some new service, special services, some kind of deal or your new campaigns…, this is a great way not only to get your name out there but to keep yourself relevant.
Cold and warm email
- The next is a cold /warm email. If possible reach out to your local Board of Realtors and become an affiliate. This may cost some money but they’ll have some good perks. One of those perks should be a list of their members and their contact information. You use that list to email Real Estate Agents. You can include in your email that you’re an affiliate with the Board of Realtors. Technically this is a cold email but each person on that list not only knows that organization. But they are members as well which makes it kind of a warm email at the same time. Create a nice short email with links to your work. Start sending you may only get a few people to respond. But even if you can get one client out of that it will be well worth it
Snail mail
- Another way of marketing that may effective is good old-fashioned snail mail. Making up a flyer or a cool poster and putting it in the mail to some of your Real-Estate Agents. This may sound antiquated but there’s a little bit of reverse psychology here. People now are getting more inundated with emails. They’re quicker to just delete emails from people they don’t know to get rid of ads fast on email. But people get less actual mail now and they may actually open your letter because it would be odd.
Presentation at the real estate agent’s office
Presentation at the real estate agent’s office
The next marketing tip that you can try is to give a presentation at the real estate agent’s office. They will have sales meetings usually once a week or once a month. Some of the agencies allow vendors to come in and give a short presentation before their meeting. So that the Real-estate Agents can be up to date on what vendors. You have to be decent at giving a presentation and making it look professional. It’s a good way of getting your name out there.
Office Meeting
Another tip is Office Meeting. Probably something that has your pricing on it and builds a portfolio. Lots of Real Estate Agent Offices will allow Vendors to come and speak to their agents. Usually, you buy lunch, pay a fee and you can speak about your business handout. Collecting business cards and answer questions. If you prepare well for these and make a good first impression you can make some great contacts number.
Working with people that work with Real Estate Agents
- You can start going around to your local Real Estate Agent businesses. Go to their storefront, introduce yourself. Just say: “Could you take some of these cards, put them in the RE agents boxes”. That is a pretty effective way. If you’re nice and courteous, it’s just a good way to get your foot in the door.
- Working with people that work with Real Estate Agents. Maybe roofers or plumbers or stagers or house inspector. You can get a hold of these people, work out kind of a deal where you can refer to each other. When you come in contact with a RE Agent, sometimes when they ask you to take pictures. They’ll be like do you know of any good stagers that I could have to stage this house. You could work with a stager and then they would refer you. You would refer them the same thing from several other types of businesses to get on their lists. When a realtor is building their vendor list. You would definitely be on that and they would hear your name from other vendors.
Sponsoring Events
Sponsoring Events can be kind of expensive. But even if you can get one client from Sponsoring A Realtor Event. You’ll make that money back in a hurry. Keller Williams is big in two training facilities and having sponsors. Come in and would look into KW bold in your area. See if you can get in as a lunch sponsor again. Prepare well and bring a lot of business cards to hand out. One way to collect agent business cards is to have some sort of a raffle. If they put their business card into a bucket. They’ll be entered to win a free photoshoot or a $20 Starbucks gift card. Be creative and be ready to mingle.
Going to open houses of Real Estate Agents
- Has been most effective and that is just going to open houses of Real Estate Agents almost every weekend. In some areas, there are open houses. You can go onto the real estate website of different businesses in your area. Let’s say Berkshire Hathaway, RE/MAX, Century 21, DBRE, Colliers International, Eastdil Secured or whoever. It is you can get on their website and they will show you open houses that are going in your area. You can make a list of those open houses and go and talk to Real Estate Agents one on one. This to be the easiest way to get business so what you should do it first of all. The time of Real Estate Agents is kind of valuable. You never know when that next person is gonna walk in the door. Then they’re gonna want to show that house to them at the open house. Usually, it’s hi your name is; try and get their name; try and get their business card. If you’ve got a couple of seconds and no one walks in. That you’re starting to ask questions about your pictures and your turnaround time. If they are the type that is looking for a real estate photographer or videography. We have found this to be the most effective way we’ve gotten calls six months or a year later after.
Join a Networking Group
Join a Networking Group. Meeting with a group or multiple groups every week has helped your business grow a lot. Networking takes time because people need to be able to trust you in order to refer you. Looking for a BNI chapter in your area or another networking group. You never know who you’re gonna meet at these meetings.
Offer to be a backup photographer
Offer to be a backup photographer. The biggest objection you’ll come across when trying to find new clients is they already have a photographer. That they use the simple response to this is that’s great. Feel free to use you as a backup people respect. That you’re not being pushy you’ll then be on their list if and when they need a backup.
Cold calling still works.
Sometimes you feel nervous to do it but it’s still a good marketing strategy for the right clientele. Just cold calling real estate agents. If wondering if they need photography assistance or refresh their photos that is up on Zillow.
THE ONLINE MARKETING PLAN IS GOING TO FEATURE THESE FOUR ELEMENTS: A WEBSITE; SEO; SOCIAL MEDIA AND DREAM CLIENTS.
We need to identify the audience we want to target because when you get this mix right you’ll be building connections with your dream clients. They’ll be seeing great content from you and your website will be converting visitors to clients. Let’s take a look how these four fit together and how you can optimize each one so you can build your business. If you were still actively shooting how would you get more clients for your photography business.
Website
Let’s start with a first-class website now. Your website is your conversion engine but it only works if we get people visiting. If we get traffic to your site. How do we get traffic? One way is to be found in the top three spots in a Google search for a photographer. If you rank in that top three then you’re going to get more visitors to your website.
Social media
Another way is to use your social media channels to share content. That your dream clients come across and then continue to follow you as you share more and more awesome content. You can also get more traffic to your website. By intentionally building connections with your dream clients will eventually visit your website. But only if you build enough trust with them first.
SEO & Dream clients
You need to optimize each of these four elements of your online marketing system. Because if one of them is weak then your marketing is going to be less efficient than it should be. For example, if you’re doing amazing things on Facebook or Instagram. You’re building these great connections but your website looks unprofessional then that can send the wrong message to those prospects. Or if you have an amazing website. That you’re not sharing much on social media. Then you aren’t building that know like trust factor with your dream clients. And you aren’t providing an opportunity for other dream clients to find you on your social media channels.
Let’s go through those four elements to see what you need to do to get the most out of them.
Website and how to want a website
First up is your website and how to want a website makes it seem like. If you don’t have the skills to create an amazing website yourself. Then invest in a professional website designer to help you give will be worth it.
SEO
The second element is SEO. Because you want people to find you and come to you. When they’re looking for a photographer in your area and to rank well on Google. You’re going to want to have a lot of content on your website. That’s going to include written content in which a lot of photographers don’t do and think that’s a big problem. When you have a lot of written content. Then you maximize the number of opportunities for Google to display your site in the search results.
Blog posts
- One great way to do that is to be doing a lot of the blog posts. It seems maybe a little old school but doesn’t neglect your blog. Because if you were still shooting then you know it’s going to give you some big advantages. Extra blog content will help with it so SEO side of things. It adds more content to your website so visitors stay for longer. The longer they stay the better the charts are hiring you.
- If you’ve created your own blog posts that you’ve got your own content to share on social media. If you need some ideas for blog posts. Think of the kind of your potential clients would find fun interesting or educational. For example, what questions are your prospects asking when it comes to photography and choosing a photographer. What questions should they be asking you can probably. Think of twenty or thirty questions pretty easily so answer those questions in your blog posts. Whatever you do it’s done really well because the quality of your content reflects the quality of your service.
Social media
The third element in this online marketing plan is social media. If you’re seriously active on social then you will get more photography clients and active. You’d be sharing content every day where possible or at least twice a week on all the channels. Where want to have a strong presence. What type of content do: You’d be sharing your best images from photoshoots. Also be sharing videos are creative where you’d educating your potential clients. Blog posts are also great for social media quotes also work well. And you might also include some fun stuff from your personal life.
Building a connection
Connecting with dream clients
The final element in this plan is your dream clients and your goal. Here is to build a connection with as many dream clients as possible. And one way to do that is by actively connecting with your dream clients on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. And any other places where your dream clients are active. When it comes to connecting with people. You need to know where your clients are. You need to create the type of content they want to see from a photographer. And you need to get yourself in front of those clients with that content.
Connecting with agent
If you shot a property for an agent. You would ask that agent: “Can I put these on my Facebook page. I’ll tag you I’ll give you some free publicity”. And they always loved that. Saying in exchange for that would you like my page & follow my page”. You would post something maybe once a week three or four images that you did or whatever. Tagging the agent in there if they had a Facebook page and you’ll get some likes and things like.
Boost your posts
If you need to get your work in front of as many ancient agents as possible. You should spend some money and boost your posts to reach more people. You pay maybe five to ten dollars on it runner for one day and where you can specify the audience. All these real estate agents all over the place are all friending each other. They’re all friends either they like their business page or they personally friend each other on Facebook.
Get real estate agents to like your business page
- You need to get those real estate agents to like your business page. And it doesn’t take a lot of them because they’re all sort of connected on Facebook. There so that was the key for you. This market is fairly stable an equal number of buyers and sellers probably. Highly recommend you try that the financial investment. It is really very low as opposed to trying to put it in some magazine or a newspaper. Where most of the people aren’t even going to see it.
- Now Instagram and LinkedIn are great for this kind of thing. Because you can follow people and send them messages. That’s great but just make sure that what you do is helpful. And not pushy or sales so make sure you get that balance. You’ll target and who are capable of hiring you. Then it was doing that every week. Then you’d be quite confident of getting more photography clients over the next 12 months. Having said that the other thing you’d want is to have a strong offline marketing plan. So you can connect with even more dream clients.
Running an ad and discount on the first shoot
Do the first shoot for a free approach maybe is a mistake. But offering Real Estate Agent some sort of discount on their first shoot is valid. You can run an ad targeting them specifically. And include one of your favorite images from your portfolio to grab their attention. The ad can link to your website or have a button to message you directly. And the wording can say something about getting a discounted price on the first shoot that they book with you.
You’ll be dealing with not just the agents themselves, but their sellers and they will vary widely. They’re very stressed trying to sell their home. They can’t always be gone when you’re gonna show up on-site and shoot. So you’re gonna have a variety of things that you are up against. And you have to handle each situation with grace.
Creative Marketing Tips for Real Estate Photography; Real Estate AgentWithout vision, we succumb to average, and what we want is extraordinary. Don’t give up be persistent and the hard work will eventually pay off.
