The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Photography Business Using Instagram®
Instagram® is one of my favorite platforms to generate leads and convert clients in my photography business. The truth is, at first I used to struggle booking clients on Instagram®. I thought you needed to have a huge following (think 10k) to see any real results using the app. Since my following is quite smaller that the 10k mark, I almost didn’t give it a fair shot.
Then I realized Instagram® is like any other social media platform, And when you apply key marketing principles to your IG® strategy you can have a TON of success even with a relatively small following! In fact, in the past year and a half so many of my clients have come from Instagram®. I know that it's because Instagram is the perfect platform to help you convert clients because of how visual and video driven it is!
If you are struggling to use Instagram® for growing your business, don’t worry! I am here to help. I created this FREE blog post as the Ultimate Guide to Using Instagram® to Grow Your Photography business (and get more leads & bookings)— Keep reading below!
I’ve outlined how to grow your business on Instagram® in just 5 simple steps!
Step 1 to success on Instagram® is branding your profile page.
Why? Because your profile is the place people will go to check you out to see if they are interested in following you, and ultimately buying from you.
We all know first impressions are everything in business so we want to make sure our profile is making the best first impression possible.
Now this may seem obvious but you’d be AMAZED at how many times I work with students only to find their profile is missing some key elements like
A Clear Bio - does your bio state what you do/sell, and what makes you different? Does your bio also describe your ideal client?
Location - As a photographer, you are probably a local business, right? While I have had some amazing luck on IG® where clients have either flown out to work with me or better yet flown me out to work with them, the truth is the majority of my clients are local and they need to know where I am to know if they can hire me. And of course, they want to find this info swiftly before ever contacting me.
A Call to Action - do you tell people the exact next steps you want people to take to move off the app and into relationship with you? This could be a DM conversation, a visit to your website, a purchase, or signing up to your newsletter to name a few. We ultimately want PAYING CLIENTS not just more IG followers. So we need to have a plan for how we are going to take followers to clients and tell them the next clear action to take to start guiding them on that path.
A Visually Appealing Feed - while there’s some pushback of late to overly curated feeds, at the end of the day people are hiring you as a photographer for your aesthetic eye. If they go to your feed and it’s a hot mess of mismatched fonts, non-cohesive colors, imagery that’s way more personal looking than professional, they may not trust you enough to hire you. It is important to consider the look of your feed as you create posts and clean out your feed if it starts looking cluttered.
A Deeper Invitation To Learn More Your Biz - AKA Highlights - your Highlights are “evergreen” IG® Stories saved to your profile. Ideally these should tell some really important information about your business. Since your bio is limited to 150 characters, it can be hard to convey all you offer (various products, services or photo genres), social proof (think-- testimonials, media/pr features, awards, etc) and FAQ. Your highlights are a really great place to begin educating your followers more on what it is that makes your business so special and how you can meet their needs as a photographer. Not having highlights on your profile (or worse not having well thought through highlights) is a real missed opportunity when it comes to getting clients.
Now that you see the elements of a Branded Profile, I would invite you to audit your own profile.
Where are you missing the mark and how could you make a better first impression on potential followers turned clients?
If you want EVEN more in depth training on Instagram® be sure to check out my BRAND NEW course featured on ThePortraitMasters.com
Step 2 - Create Content That Converts
The next step to getting clients on Instagram® is to create content that converts.
Now the whole success of getting clients on Instagram® is simply two part cocktail. You need to create content that speaks directly to your ideal client, and then add in engagement, connection, conversation & community with those same ideal clients on the app. And voila! You have the perfect recipe for a steady stream of clients on Instagram®.
The problem is while the recipe is simple, execution can be harder. And that’s where most people fall flat.
We will cover the Community & Connection part in a bit, but for now let’s focus on Creating Content That Converts.
First of all there are many types of content on Instagram so let’s breakdown what it all means and how best to use the various corners of the app.
STORIES
On the top of your newsfeed there are circles which scroll right to left, this is the Stories Feed.
Stories are super important when it comes to converting followers into clients because they invite conversation directly to happen over DMs (aka a private chat). Stories also go away in 24 hours (unless saved as a highlight) so you can be a little more informal here and not be too overly curated. Because of this stories feel more personal, and can give viewers the sense they are getting a “behind the curtain” peek into your world.
The Stories Feed will bump most recent posts to the front of the “queue”. So the more often you post throughout the day the more views you are likely to get. It’s also important to know only your followers see your stories. So this is a great way to warm up your existing audience to prime them to buy from you, but it’s not a way to grow your audience.
The Main Newsfeed
The posts that post to your grid and show up in the main newsfeed of your followers. These types of posts are:
Single image posts
Multi image posts (aka carousel posts)
Reels (hottest feature which is a copycat of tiktok)
Videos (that aren’t reels)
Many of these types of content are primarily video based such as
Reels
Video
IG® Live (that you convert into a saved videos)
*Stories are also video based but they live in your stories feed.
Why does this matter?
While Instagram® used to be a primarily photographic platform, it is now a primarily video platform which is actually GREAT NEWS for photographers. Video is shown to be one of the best methods of marketing. And studies have shown that using video can boost your lead generation by 66% . It is also estimated that the average person will watch 100 minutes of video online every day this year! Wow!
So this means, your clients are out there spending a whopping 100 minutes a day watching videos. Why not be one of them?! Especially if you know that if a follower watches one of your videos they are much more likely to turn into a lead?!
The fact that IG® is so heavily video based is a massive opportunity to turn your IG® audience into clients. You should see video as a win.
But here’s the thing-- you have to actually create video content for this to work. This means posting on your stories, making reels, lives & video channel regularly.
And what I typically see from photographers is that they are great at posting imagery from their folio to their feed, but when it comes to creating powerful content that will actually convert clients they fall short.
So how often should you be posting on your IG®?
For Stories, aim for 3x a week.
For posts to your grid, aim for 3-5 high quality posts a week making sure to mix up the format between Reels, video, and single or multi image posts.
The most “bang for your buck” in content right now is in Reels, and that is because they have a longer shelf life than most other pieces of content. They also have incredible high reach and engagement. If I am short on time, I put my emphasis on creating Reels. That said, I still like to post other types of content because not everyone in my audience enjoys reels.
Ok, so now that we know the types of posts (and that many of them are video based), power of video, and how often to post… you may be wondering what else you need to know to create content that converts.
Where most people get stuck is WHAT to post about.
The good news is if you have a clear sense of your ideal client this won’t be as hard as you might be fearing.
You want to create posts that speak directly to your ideal clients-- specifically what are their aspirations, fears, excitements, struggles when it comes to booking you (or booking a photoshoot in general).
What do they need to know before they book? What are the common questions they ask you or what are the common objections they vocalize in the booking process? Base your posts around these concerns.
For Example— while you may want to post a light and airy photo and proclaim how beautiful your subject looked in natural light, the truth is that is probably not going to move more people to inquire with you. But if you make a post where you explain what to wear for your photoshoot, you will position yourself as an expert and dispel any stress a potential client might have about what to wear and if they will look good in their photos.
The key to creating content that converts is to
Speak with authority + confidence
Choose topics that are on your ideal client’s mind (aka the faqs and objections you hear all the time)
Make it enticing by having a hook (for example a number of steps to take, number of myths to debunk, ask a question in a polarizing way)
Provide education that will move your ideal client closer to being a yes to working with you
Always end with a Call to Action about how they can take the next step to either book or engage with you
Once you have brainstormed your topics that you want to talk about think about how you can expand them for longer form video content like IG® Lives and also think about how you can chunk your topic down to bite sized information for short form content like Reels (which is only a 60 second max video) or IG® Stories (which are 15 second clips).
You can keep spinning your core topics into new content by expanding it, narrowing it down into bite sized chunks, turning it into Stories, Reels, Videos or turning it into a carousel post. That’s actually the magic of Instagram®. You can recycle your content by posting it in the various corners of the app with a fresh spin each time.
You may be wondering if your followers will notice recycled content?
Do not fret on this! First of all, due to the algorithm and the fact that people might not check instagram® all day every day, your content won’t be seen by every follower you have. So sometimes we actually NEED to repeat our message multiple times before it can be noticed by our followers. So do not feel bad about recycling content. The main thing is that you are creating content that’s highly informative and engaging to your ideal client.
Another place a lot of photographers get stuck when creating content that converts is when it comes to writing the CAPTION.
This is the area of text that goes with whatever video, image or carousel you are posting.
When it comes to writing the caption make sure you start with a powerful first sentence (think of it as a headline) that hooks.
This is a great place to ask your topic question, or present your title (something like 5 Steps To Planning What to Wear For Your Photoshoot or 4 Things to Look For in a Wedding Photographer).
You also want to use lots of emojis in your text as it is proven people are more likely to read text in social media when it has emojis in it.
You also want to make sure you break up your text into paragraphs so it's easier to read.
I personally recommend typing your caption on your computer (either via your notes app or google docs), then open that same doc on your phone and copy and paste your caption into Instagram®. Not only will this save your thumbs from phone typing, but it will also make it easier to format your caption, AND you will likely put more thought into what you write if you do it with some pre planning on your computer.
Just to recap-- when it comes to creating content that converts you want to
Create content on all the different channels the app has to offer including Reels, Stories, & Video (non reels)
Lean heavily on video posts (like Reels, Stories, Lives) since these are more likely to convert followers into leads
Speak/write about topics that are on the mind of your ideal client (hint: think about the FAQs and objections that constantly come up with your actual clients and turn those issues into pieces of content)
Recycle content topics for different channels of Instagram® by expanding or shortening the depth of information shared (shorter for Reels and longer for Lives for example)
Be consistent with posting (aim for 3-x a week on Stories, and 3-5x a week to your feed varying between Reels, Single or Multi Image posts, and Lives. Remember it’s quality not quantity)
If you want EVEN more in depth training on Instagram® be sure to check out my BRAND NEW course featured on ThePortraitMasters.com
Step 3 - Get More Eyes On Your High Converting Content & Grow Your Audience
You may be wondering how to get more followers and more eyes on your content?
The cool thing with Reels (up to 60 second looping videos feature, similar to TikTok), is Instagram® is sharing these heavily via the explore tab and the dedicated Reels tab.
That means if you post a Reel, there is a high chance that people who aren’t following you will see it anyways and may decide to follow you. This is a huge benefit to posting Reels, and it’s currently the best type of post to use if you want to grow your following FAST.
Hashtags are the other way to ensure that your posts get discovered beyond just your followers.
Hashtags are the way Instagram® organizes content— similar to keywords on google. Instead of having a keyword search the way you search with google, Instagram® uses hashtags. People can search hashtags to find content that might be interesting or relevant to them. So you want to make sure you are using hashtags on your posts to your feed so you have a better chance of being discovered.
You should put your hashtags in the caption of your posts. While you can also put them in the first comment of your post, the comment needs to be up in 60 seconds after the post is published for the hashtags to work. This can be pretty hard, especially given how distracting our phones can be, so by putting your hashtags directly in the caption itself you are ensuring your hashtags will work for you.
Choosing the right hashtags is also key to getting your content noticed.
You can research & find hashtags by starting with keywords relevant to your post topic, your ideal client, and the visual descriptors of your post. Search these keywords in the search bar and scroll to see what hashtags come up. Choose hashtags of varying sizes -- meaning how many posts are on that hashtag. Smaller/more niche hashtags give you more opportunity to get discovered, but bigger hashtags will expose you to a broader audience.
Also make sure to check that your hashtags aren’t shadow banned (which means they are temporarily inactive due to content that violates Instagram® rules being prevalent on the hashtag). If you click on a hashtag and see a notification that says some posts are banned on this hashtag and the hashtag is temporarily inactive, that’s how you know it’s been shadow banned.
A shadow banned hashtag will look like this when you click on it (so make sure to check out the hashtags you plan to post before you use them)
To recap, to get the most eyes on your content & grow your following:
Rely heavily on Reels & good hashtag strategy
Do your research on hashtags by thinking about the key words related to your post topic, post visuals, and ideal client
Choose hashtags of varying sizes
Be sure not to use shadow banned hashtags
If you want EVEN more in depth training on Instagram® be sure to check out my BRAND NEW course featured on ThePortraitMasters.com
Step 4 - Create Community & Connection
Creating high quality content is super important to converting followers into clients but as I mentioned earlier, it’s NOT the ONLY piece of the puzzle. Building relationships & community is the other part of the getting clients on Instagram® cocktail.
The sad truth of the matter is most people who use Instagram spend most of their time scrolling, and much less of their time posting or engaging. Which is crazy because it’s posting and engaging that will get you clients. So if you want to be SMART and stop wasting time on the app, then you need to use all your time on the app hyper focused on posting and then engaging with your community.
One way to do this is to make sure that whenever someone comments on your posts, you write back in a thoughtful way as quickly as possible. Don’t just say thank you and leave it at that either. Try to engage back and create conversation. If someone leaves an emoji on post, you can say something like “thank you for the love! I’d love to hear what resonated with you in this post?” Encourage dialogue and make your followers feel like valued community members.
Similarly, go leave thoughtful (aka multi sentence, positive and relevant) comments on your followers posts. Show them that you care about them and don’t simply think of them as followers. Instead treat them like they are people you care about— because they are future clients!
It’s not enough to just like & comment either. If you really want to show your community love, share their posts (when it’s relevant to your audience and on brand to you). People love to feel cheered on-- and when you share someone else’s content, you are effectively cheering someone else on.
If you comment, like & share someone’s posts with some consistency, they are likely to really notice you + want to get to know you better. So you should do this for your followers AND for people you follow who you’d like to become your client or who you’d like to collaborate with in business!
Comments, likes & shares aren’t the only way to engage your audience.
IG® Lives allow you to go on camera live and directly interact with viewers/followers in real time.
You can answer their questions live as they comment while watching and you can even bring guests on your live broadcasts too.
For example, if you are a brand photographer, you could do a Live on the importance of rebranding and open up hotseats where you bring a viewer on and audit their brand and share how your services could help them in their rebrand. Or you could do a live collaboratively with another business/ IG® account that is aligned with your business since your ideal clients might overlap. This is a great way to share your platform to lift up other businesses (and get exposure to another business’ followers). You could also do iives where you bring on your own clients and feature their stories and/or businesses and give them a spotlight so they can shine.
Stories are another fantastic way to create community because you can be more interactive with your audience.
Stories allow you to add interactive stickers that help you connect more with your audience. For example you can create a poll or you can ask a question of your audience and your audience can reply in the comment field of the sticker. This is a great way to crowdsource ideas, find out what your audience is struggling with and how you can help them, or do AMA (ask me anything (style posts). When you get your audience to interact with you on Stories you are actually conditioning them to engage with you regularly and the more engaged they are, the more likely they will be to buy from you.
Another thing I love about Stories is that whenever someone reacts or “comments” it essentially starts a DM thread with you.
DM’s are a more powerful way to communicate with people because it is private and therefore more personal.
DMs also allow you to send voice memos & private videos. So instead of just texting with someone on DM you can have them hear your voice or even make them a personalized video. This personalization really helps to build rapport and create a know-like-trust factor which is so important to making sales.
Because of the voice memo feature, you can have amazing sales conversations with potential clients right over DM.
Gone are the days where you had to schedule a phone sales conversation with a potential client.
Now if someone inquires with you on DM because of the voice memo feature you can have a phone-like conversation.
If you are good at sales over the phone, you will absolutely love DMs. They are a game changer. In fact, I often use DM me for more info as my Call To Action rather than pushing people to my website or link in bio. I do this because DMing is so easy for them since it keeps them on the app but I know that I can have a full on sales conversation using voice memo on DM.
To recap, in order to create community and connection on Instagram® be sure to:
Comment thoughtfully on the posts of your followers, accounts that you’ve identified could be an amazing client for you and of businesses that you’d like to collaborate with
Also reply to all the comments people leave on your posts in an engaging way so as to invite more conversation
Go Live regularly to engage with your audience, and bring on collaborators when you go Live
Make stories with stickers (like polls, questions & quizzes) to invite more interaction & engagement with viewers
Encourage DM conversations, especially sales conversations, and make them personal with voice memo or video
If you want EVEN more in depth training on Instagram® be sure to check out my BRAND NEW course featured on ThePortraitMasters.com
Step 5 - Ask For The Sale
This may seem obvious, but the last and most important thing you can do on your Instagram® is to regularly let your audience know that you do indeed have services for sale and let them know the next steps to booking with you.
It’s great to share your knowledge and expertise, and build community as well. But if you don’t let your community know regularly that you are open for business and what you have for sale, they might miss that crucial point.
Many photographers I work with stress about being seen as salesy or pushy. They feel like “well a month ago I mentioned I was open for booking, so doesn’t everyone know?!”
Remember that it often takes people at least 7 times to hear a sales pitch or marketing message before it sinks in.
The truth is people are paying attention to so many things on social media, they aren’t always fully engaged with your sales pitch. So it’s actually better to pitch on the regular (meaning about 1 sales pitch to every 3 non sales posts). The more you regularly pitch and ask for the sale, the more likely your followers are learning & remembering what it is you do & sell.
Sales is also largely about timing.
Meaning you have to be at the top of someone’s mind when they actually need the service you sell. So by showing up in someone’s feed regularly, and reminding them regularly of exactly what you sell means you are more likely to be at the top of their mind when they need that family portrait taken, or new headshot, or when their bff gets engaged and needs a wedding photographer.
So do not underestimate the importance of letting people know exactly what you have for sale and exactly how to go about buying it from you.
I hope you enjoyed my 5 step process to growing your business with Instagram®!
If this post was helpful for you please let me know in the comments.
And,If you want EVEN more in depth training on Instagram® be sure to check out my BRAND NEW course featured on ThePortraitMasters.com