Finding New Clients For Food Photographers
Finding new clients does not mean waiting for prospective clients to find you via Google search or Instagram. It means being proactive in both presenting your work to the random eyeballs (aka posting online) and actively reaching out to new potential clients.
So many photographers I work with leave finding new clients to chance.
Many just wait around for clients to find them and wonder why they are not getting any new work. They think that posting on social media is enough exposure for potential clients to find them.
That’s simply not the case.
I can tell you from my experience that relying solely on social media is not the most effective way to get the dream clients you’ll love working with.
Taking matters into your own hands gives the power back to you.
In this article, I want to address how you can find new clients yourself without waiting for them to find you.
Here’s a quick recap of the article:
- Re-visit what clients you want to work with
- Create a list of clients
- Use your network to spread the word
Re-visit what clients you want to work with
As our career as photographers progresses, so does the vision of our ideal clients.
For that reason, I suggest revisiting what an ideal client means to you as a food photographer every now and then. I do this once a year when I set goals for my business.
Not only will defining the niche and ideal client help you narrow down who you want to work with. It will also help you build a portfolio that will attract those clients.
Create a list of potential clients
As a food photographer, you can work with a multitude of different clients. For example:
- National or international magazines
- National or international cookbook publishers
- Local restaurants and bars
- Large or small food brands
- Branding and PR agencies
- Stock agencies
- Food bloggers and chefs
I like to keep lists of different types of clients so I can refer to a specific type of client, depending on what my goals are for the year or what clients I’d love to work more with at the given time.
Pro Tip: Keep your list at arms reach so you can add new potential clients on the go. For example, create an Instagram save folder for potential clients so you can quickly save them and move them to your lists later.
Keeping client lists will help you when you are ready to pitch so that you can focus solely on contacting them, which will streamline your pitching process.
Use your network to spread the word
We talked a bit about pitching.
Besides actively reaching out to potential clients, as creatives, we also benefit from the community. This may be a community of your friends and family or business communities.
Be prepared to speak about what you do and how you do it to anyone interested.
Don’t underestimate the power of networking and sharing your photography work with the people you know.
Share it in your personal space, online communities or attend networking events.
Just recently, I got to work with a client by being referred to them by one of my old contacts on Facebook. We haven’t even been in contact for a long time, but they referred me to someone they know.
Finding new clients actively is much less stressful
To conclude this article, being active in your client acquisition is the key to success as a food photographer.
Sure, posting on social media seems effective, but think about how much time and effort goes into that and how slim the chances are that a potential client will actually see your post.
Improve your pitching
When pitching, make sure you are well organized and have a schedule. If you need help with finding new clients and contacts, creating a schedule, and crafting emails, you can join the free 4-day Get Booked Workshop here.
