Strategic marketing for your online photography listings

Photographer Central plans come in two options: Single Listing or Multipack. While setting up the Single Listing is pretty intuitive, the Multipack subscription can be used in a number of strategic ways. Here, we go over the different ways you can use a Multipack subscription to reach even more clients.

Limit it to one genre per listing

This is one of the most obvious ways you can use a Multipack. If you work in multiple genres, use a listing to showcase each one. This will minimize any confusion for a client who comes to your profile. If someone is looking for a newborn photographer, but sees a mix of engagement, wedding, and event photographs, they might be more hesitant to send you an inquiry. By showcasing each genre in its own listing, it’ll make your work stand out that much more because a prospective client will trust that you’ve had a lot of experience shooting that particular category. 

Use a different city for each listing

Photographers who work in major metro areas are competing against a lot of other nearby professionals. If all of your portfolios are of the same caliber, a client will need another deciding factor, and it could be as simple as proximity. A photographer who’s close by may be easier to contact, especially if the client wants an in-person consultation on short notice. Make sure your business shows up in searches within your surrounding cities by using a different business address for each listing. As long as the service area is still accurate, there’s no reason why you can’t be based in multiple places!

Replicate your listing five times

If you only shoot one genre and you don’t work in multiple cities, strategies #1 and #2 might not apply to you. However, a Multipack can still be a great way for you to get additional exposure for your business. If you simply replicate your entire listing five times, you will have five chances of showing up in during a client’s search. Since we randomize each new search, this means you have five chances of showing up first on the list, which is a lot better than one chance. If a client doesn’t have time to look through a second page of search results, being on that first page will be key to being considered for the job.

Test how well your images resonate

With the way Photographer Central listings are set up, your first couple of images will always display first, both in search results and in full profile view. While you may think all of your images are the bee’s knees, clients may respond to them differently. Select a different set of images to feature first in each of your listings and see which one gets the most views/clicks. This could also help you decide which images to feature on your main website. 

Find out your neighborhood's average budget

For each of your active listings, you’re required to specify your price level—from one to four dollar signs. Since we can’t define exactly what that means for your particular business or city, we ask that you make the best possible guess. But if you’re unsure about which category is best for your business, you can select different price levels with each listing and see which listing is getting the most inquiries. While you may think that the listing with the lowest price level is going to draw the most attention, you might be wrong. Clients who have made the decision to hire a professional photographer are also likely to spend more because they know they can expect higher quality work and products with a bigger budget. Once you’re able to capture enough data, you can also use this valuable information to adjust your entire price list into a range that you know will work. 

Run multiple sales and special offers

As a professional listed on Photographer Central, you have access to the “Special Offer” feature where you can give new and old clients an exclusive discount or custom package. Each listing can only feature one active deal at any given time though. But with a Multipack subscription, you can be running up to five deals at any time, giving you an opportunity to see if one brings in more new business than another. This is also a great way to pinpoint the best deal and make it a yearly tradition that repeat clients can look forward to.