5 Reasons to Identify your Ideal Client
It’s amazing and wonderful just how many people take the plunge and decide to start up a photography business. Turning a hobby and a passion into a business can be so rewarding; and photography can be a very enjoyable, successful and profitable career choice.
When starting up, though, it’s important to identify your ideal client. Not doing this is a mistake many photographers make and it can slow down the progress of the business.
There are many reasons to identify your ideal client, not to mention the benefits to your business growth. Unfortunately fear gets in the way of most new photographers, the fear of niching and therefore missing out on work opportunities.
So the first thing to do is be fearless. Go at your photography business courageously and shoot the photography that really ignites you, and go after the clients you want to work for.
Let me give you some real reasons why your photography business needs you to bravely identify your ideal client, so that you can move forward towards success.
#1 Identifying your Ideal Client makes your life easier
Whether you’re great at street photography, portraits, landscapes and wildlife, your life in your business becomes easier when you identify your ideal client. It’s challenging enough knowing just what to post on social media and knowing what to say, but once you know your ideal client you get into a flow. You can post as if you’re talking directly to them and show them the creative work that they want to see.
I hear from so many photographers that they can’t stand the posting on social media part of the job, and when I coach them through stripping away the clutter and focussing on their ideal client, posting becomes much easier and the job becomes more enjoyable.
#2 You’ll be able to communicate your great work with consistency and clarity to the right people
Once your ideal client is identified, your communication will be consistent and clear. And you’ll be able to showcase your work to the right people.
Deciding the type of photography you want to do, helps you to figure out just who you’re going to shoot for. For example, if you decide it’s weddings you want to shoot, you’ll be communicating clearly to couples who are engaged, or brides or grooms. And you’ll be talking about weddings, weddings, weddings. Everything weddings, because that’s what your ideal client will be looking for.
You’ll be consistent in your communication because you won’t be hopping from genre to genre in your photography. Your images in your posts will be everything weddings, and your website will be a beacon displaying and talking about what your client wants to see and hear.
#3 You’ll do work you enjoy and work with the clients you want to work with
When you showcase yourself as a ‘shoot any and everything’ business, you’re likely to attract work that you either don’t enjoy, or work that’s outside of your skillset - and occasionally you might get the work you want. The temptation is often to take whatever work you can get, from fear of not getting any work.
Now would be a great time to figure out what type of photography really brings out the best in you? What photography are you best at? What photography showcases your skill and talent the best? When you figure that out, go after the clients who want that work, and you’ll start to attract the work you enjoy the most with the clients you want to work with.
#4 Your marketing is easy when you know who your Ideal Client is
The thought of marketing usually scares the people. It’s icky, it’s awkward and it’s too damn hard! Or is it? It doesn’t have to be that way. Your ideal client profile is what makes everything fall into place, and it makes the whole marketing piece so much easier.
When you know who your ideal client is, and you figure out where they hang out (for example on Facebook or Instagram, etc) you’ll be able to position yourself right in front of them, and speak directly to them in your communication. You won’t have to be a ‘salesperson’ and awkwardly ‘sell’ because you’ll showcase your great work to people who want to see it, and you’ll talk about the things your ideal client wants to hear.
Imagine being fearful of missing out on work opportunities, and showing off a whole mixture of different types of photography, how would you market that? Where would you start? Which piece of work would you communicate and to whom?
Now imagine you’re a family portrait photographer (for example), it then becomes clearer. You’ll position yourself where parents hang out (maybe on Facebook). You’ll showcase your beautiful family portraits and you’ll talk about family shoots, the importance of family and capturing family memories. See how easy that is? How easy it all falls into place without icky ‘selling’.
Every business needs marketing, and when it’s targeted in the right place to the right people, there’s every reason for success.
#5 You’ll be known for your niche
Why be known as a ‘photographer’ when you can be known as a wedding photographer, or portrait photographer, or landscape photographer, or headshot photographer.
Have you heard the saying (by Pat Flynn) that “The riches are in the niches…..”? It’s absolutely true. There is so much teaching and coaching around Ideal Client by coaches who have experienced the game-changer themselves, myself being one of them.
I remember being regarded as someone who takes photos….a pretty non-descriptive summary of me. When I decided to niche into weddings and then family portraits, it completely turned things around. I’m known for wedding photography and I’m known for family portraits. This is what my business is built around, and I don’t miss out on a thing. I’m still get other work shooting headshots, events and animals, but that’s not what I’m known for as I don’t showcase it.
When you become known for your niche, you become more attractive to that niche and you’re more likely to get the work you want.
Go ahead and make these little tweaks to your business. Don’t be afraid, be courageous and go after the clients you want and shoot the work you love.
If you want more guidance on setting up your photography business, especially profiling and identifying your ideal client, join my ClickStart® 4 Membership Programme. There’s lots of training waiting for you and a private Facebook Community, that will give you all the tools I used to create my own successful and profitable photography business.
If you want to find out if you’re in the right place and if you’re ready to kickstart and grow your photography business, why not book a Discovery Call with me and have a chat.
Love Dee x