Building an email list is important to the success of your photography business.
Important is probably an understatement, itʼs paramount to your success. Building an email list is one of the most important tasks you should undertake. Itʼs crucial work, where progress is measured by the number of email subscribers you collect.
The only problem is, that number starts off incredibly small and oftentimes zero.
When you first launch your photography site or blog, you might only have one or two email subscribers (besides the four different email addresses you used to sign up yourself). This makes it difficult to get traction, but on a deeper level, itʼs also incredibly disheartening.
Get Subscribers To Your Photographer's Email List
Every time you create a new collection of photographs or write a piece of content for your blog, you know that very few people are going to read it—so subconsciously you may be holding back and not creating your best work. Consider this: if you knew that your next blog post would be read by ten thousand people, would you put any extra effort into your writing process this week?
When youʼre just getting started, momentum is critical. You need to collect a group of highly engaged email subscribers and get your first 100 subscribers right away.
100 isnʼt a magic number, but it is a good one. You could tell a group of ten people the same things youʼd write in a blog post, but itʼs rare you get an audience of 100 or more.
Yes, you need some kind of opt-in form on your website but your first 100 subscribers can come quickly if you get right to the work by picking up the phone to contact people the old-fashioned way.
With each conversation, you get a chance to refine the reason youʼre in buisness or the benefits you offer clients. You also learn what resonates with real people live (whether youʼre talking in-person, on the phone, or via text).
While itʼs important to attract your target clients, your first email subscribers donʼt have to be within your niche at all.
When youʼre building momentum, you should start by getting close friends or family to join your email list.
Even if theyʼre not your target customers, they likely know people who would benefit from your content and because they know, like, and trust you, theyʼll share your content when they get the chance. In fact, ask them to share your content.
This group of initial subscribers should be filled with people who want to see you succeed and will cheer you on (or hit share). After that, you should be contacting people you want as clients directly.
If youʼre entrenched in your photography business, you may have a list of clients, colleagues, or other contacts who would be interested in your content or service. If not, there are plenty of people out there— you just have to find them and contact them, where they already live online.
Hereʼs how to try this yourself: Make a list of 10 people who you know would be interested in the photography service and/or your photography, no matter what niche you are in.
Add to that list 10 people who you know are working in the same field of photography or following the topic you cover. Text, call, or email each of those people individually. Let them know what youʼre creating, and ask if they would like you to follow along with email updates. Once youʼve finished that list, repeat steps 1 - 3.
And soon, youʼll have the growing email list you need to succeed.
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