How to Land Your First Commercial Photography Client

When I started building my commercial photography business, I focused mainly on one thing: growing my Instagram account. Day after day, I posted photo after photo, hoping my dream clients would follow me, engage with my work and, ultimately, reach out to me to book me for a photography job.

But that didn’t happen.

And the more I posted, the more I started to think, maybe my photography isn’t good enough for brands. While I continued to try and use Instagram to grow my business, I started to research other methods to grow my commercial photography business. To my surprise, there were tons of lists out there recommending different ways to gain commercial photography clients - and a lot of them didn’t even mention social media.

With this new information in mind, I, nervously, started to focus less on using social media to promote my commercial photography business, and more on some relatively easy marketing tools and techniques that I could start implementing right away. Shortly afterwards, I landed my first client.

Network with Business Owners

As a commercial photographer with a background (and passion) for travel photography, I knew that I wanted to work with adventurous brands. So, when I first discovered there were other ways to market my business outside of posting on Instagram, I decided to try reaching out directly to adventurous brands in my area.

After not receiving replies to the vast majority of my messages, I finally got a reply from an adventure apparel company that was looking for some environmental portraits out in nature. I couldn’t believe it. After posting and posting on Instagram and not gaining any customers, reaching out to a few local businesses directly actually gained me a photography gig. My new client and I worked out the details, and then I planned my first “official” photoshoot.

Since then, I have reached out to several businesses. Some haven’t replied, but some have - and I’ve even landed more jobs through this method. What I have learned, however, is that your goal when reaching out to a potential client shouldn’t be to sell, sell, sell right away. You need to provide value first. Before reaching out to a potential customer, spend some time looking at their social media account, product photos and website, and see if you can actually add value for them. If so, let them know in your introductory email how you would be able to improve their photography, and how that would help their business.

And, if a potential customer doesn’t need your help at the moment but wants to stay in touch, that’s cool too. Remember, reaching out and connecting with potential customers doesn’t need to be all about making a fast sale. By building up your network, those potential clients may reach out to you sometime in the future when they actually need photos, or they may refer you to another business owner who is in need.

Build Referrals

After landing my first commercial photography client, I started to tell my friends and family about my commercial photography ambitions. The more people I told, the more opportunities started to pop up, leading to my second and third commercial photography clients.

Now, you don’t have to wait until you land your first commercial photography client to tell your friends and family about your new business. In fact, I wish I had done it sooner.

Your friends and family will, most likely, be supportive of your commercial photography ambitions - but they may also know people who could use your services. And, even though cold outreach can work for landing new clients, you’re honestly far more likely to get an initial meeting set up with a potential client when a friend or family member refers you to them. Why? Because your friend or family member already has a relationship with the potential client they’re referring you to, so there is likely a level of trust built up between them. Because of this, the potential client will likely be open to chatting with you - but then it’ll be up to you to showcase your value and close the deal.

Provide Value

As mentioned earlier, my original approach to landing commercial photography clients was to post my best images on Instagram. While showcasing your best work and building a strong portfolio is definitely part of landing clients, I eventually started to learn that providing value and helping to solve my potential clients’ problems, while still showcasing my photography work, was a much better strategy for landing commercial photography clients. To do that, I started to take writing my photography blog a lot more seriously.

I originally started my blog to share my travel stories. Once I started incorporating some photography how-to articles, however, I started to notice a shift. Not only were my page views and monthly visits increasing, but also my website inquiries started growing as well. So I started to write more photography articles, trying to provide solutions to my ideal clients’ photography problems, while also showcasing my own photography work in my write ups.

Now, it may seem counterintuitive to provide solutions to your clients’ photography problems for free when you want them to pay you to take the photos, but hear me out. In photography and honestly many other industries, all customers go on a sales journey from discovering that they have a problem that needs to be solved, researching how and who could solve it, and then ultimately making a purchase. From a commercial photography perspective, your potential clients may know that they need to take better social media photos, but they have no idea how.

By providing informative articles that educate your potential clients on how to take their own social media photos, what it’s like to work with a commercial photographer, and what typical social media photos cost in their area, potential clients will not only develop a better understanding of how they can solve their problem, but also start to see you as the go-to commercial photographer in their particular niche. Because of this, your potential customers may just reach out to you if they decide they do want to outsource their photography needs. So, don’t be afraid to offer a bit of knowledge and guidance. It may just land you your first commercial photography client.

Conclusion

Landing your first commercial photography client can be challenging, but, by implementing a few simple strategies, you can start making money from your photography fairly quickly. To start, try reaching out to local businesses in your niche to see if they are in the market for commercial photography. Next, start telling your friends and family about your new commercial photography business. They may be able to refer you to people in their network that could use your services. Lastly, provide value by solving your potential customers’ problems and educating them on the commercial photography process. With a bit of consistency, you’ll land your first commercial photography client in no time.