A photographer’s ideal client does not necessarily coincide with all the professionals who work in the same discipline. A photographer’s buyer persona will be defined by a series of factors that will depend, on the one hand, on the type of client and, on the other, on the service offered by the photographer.

After so many years of helping to build photography businesses, we have noticed the (erroneous) tendency to try to “sell everyone” photography services on websites. This stems from the lack of a correct definition of a photographer’s ideal client in photographers’ strategies.

Keep in mind that even if you offer a very specific type of service, such as, for example, wedding photos in Barcelona. Not all couples who live in this city will be your ideal clients.

“A photographer’s ideal client is one who would be willing to buy his services (almost) at any price.”

Yes, the truth is that if you correctly define the buyer persona of a photographer, correctly display a series of information on your website (such as: how you work, how you differ from the rest and what you offer) and also provide a series of facilities to the client on your website, such as: private client galleries, sale of photographs, printing of photographs in professional formats, etc… Your photography business will flourish and will make you earn much more income.

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Here we are going to give you some guidelines so that you can identify your buyer persona or ideal client and in this way you can learn to direct your messages solely and exclusively to them in your online communications.

Why can’t everyone be a photographer’s ideal client?

For an online business to be focused on the ideal client of a photographer, it must transmit a personalised and individualised message. What do we mean by this? Very simple, following the previous example, if you are a wedding photographer in Barcelona, you have to internalise that not all brides in this city will meet the conditions to be your buyer persona.

For your photography business to work, you have to focus your content (text and photos) precisely to meet the needs of your ideal client. And for this, the first thing you have to do is to find out who exactly your ideal client is. The idea is that you define them perfectly so that the services you offer match what your potential client is looking for right now on the Internet.

Because the first thing that should be clear to you is that you can’t target everyone on your photography website. You may think (wrongly, of course) that if you target the whole audience, you will have more chances of closing more sessions. But the truth is that this is not how you get conversions.

This business idea is wrong and very common in photography websites. To help you understand it better we are going to give you an example that has nothing to do with photography.

Practical example

Imagine you need to renew your car this year and you’re on a tight budget. Without doing an exhaustive search beforehand, which car dealer would you go to first: BMW or Fiat?

These car dealers offer the same product (a car), but they have very well defined their respective buyers personae. In this way, what they achieve is that if a person needs to buy a car, he will know perfectly well which of these two dealers he has to go to according to his needs and possibilities.

The same idea should be used to define a photographer’s ideal client. When a visitor enters your website, they need to find out before leaving it whether you offer a premium service, a more affordable one for all budgets, or whether it is aimed at a very specific type of audience. And of course, what your service is like from start to finish.

We assure you that it is not necessary to show your rates so that the buyer persona of a photographer knows perfectly the type of product you are offering. Although it wouldn’t be bad to do it to make it clear in which price level you move. However, we know that displaying prices is a very personal decision that should not influence the quality of information you display on your website.

So what is a photographer’s ideal client?

The ideal client for a photographer is, as we mentioned at the beginning of this article, a person who is willing to buy your products or services at almost any price (unless the rates you set are much higher than what you offer).

A photographer’s ideal client is the kind of client who is a pleasure to work with. You don’t have any problems with them and when you give them the photographs of their sessions, they are pleasantly satisfied.

In short, a photographer’s buyer persona is the prototype client you would always want to work with.

When a photographer’s ideal client is not well defined and you focus on a wider audience, what usually happens is that you start getting clients who: constantly haggle with you, ask for some kind of gift or even are not very satisfied with your final product. From experience you will know that this type of customer is not good for you.

Benefits of knowing a photographer’s buyer persona for a photography business

We have just explained what happens when a photographer’s ideal client is not defined correctly, but what happens when a photographer’s ideal client is defined correctly?

As a general rule, the conversion rate* of the website will increase. We say “as a general rule” because it won’t do you any good to know your ideal customer perfectly if you don’t show them what they are looking for on the website.

* If you divide the number of visits to your website in a given period of time by the number of people who eventually contact you. That figure will be your conversion rate. Knowing it will help you to improve your photography business.

Facts to know about a photographer’s ideal client

Once it is clear that you can’t address everyone on your photography website, the next step is to study your ideal client in order to know with reliability and data what they are really looking for from you.

“Studying a photographer’s buyer persona is the only way to find out what clients are looking for from a professional photographer.”

To reach this conclusion, the first thing you need to do is to do some detailed research. Here, the most reliable source for defining your ideal customer may be those who have already been your customers.

• Conduct a short interview with your customers and, based on their answers, draw up a profile of your ideal customer with the data that is most frequently repeated.
• Investigate which media your potential customer uses (social networks, Internet, television, print media, etc.).
• Find out what exactly he expects from you.

So get pen and paper ready and start researching.

The buyer persona profile of a photographer

To make a correct profile of a photographer’s ideal client, the most logical thing to do is to base your research on the data of those who have already been clients. You can make a list to note down a series of data, for example:

• Age.
• Location.
• Sex.
• Socio-economic status.
• Etc.

If you select the most repeated data, you will get the profile of the ideal client of a particular photographer.

Let’s suppose that you are a children’s photographer with a studio in the city of Madrid and the data you obtain about your clients from this first investigation are:

• Age: between 25 and 45 years old.
• Location: Madrid.
• Sex: female.
• Socio-economic status: medium / high.

How can all this data be interpreted? From the information about your clients it can be deduced that most of the clients you receive are women who are about to become mothers or who have recently become mothers and who currently live in Madrid.

This does not mean that sometimes it will be the father, grandfather or aunt who buys your services, or that a client living in Toledo will hire you for a family session on a pleasure trip. But in 80% of the cases the profile of your ideal client will coincide with this.

Get to know the habits of your buyer persona

In addition to knowing an estimate of the above data, it is also interesting to know certain habits of your potential customer, for example:

• Where you spend the most time on the Internet (forums, social networks, etc.).
• Investigate whether, on the other hand, they still prefer to do their research through paper media such as magazines, newspapers or even “on the street” in the vicinity of their place of residence.

This way you will know which media you should use to promote your services.

One way to get this data is to ask the people who have contacted you again how they found out about you. For example, if they discovered you through Instagram, you can add shortcut buttons to this social network and even an Instagram photo gallery.

>> Learn how to integrate Instagram, WhatsApp and SMS galleries into your website

In addition, visitors to your photography website will be able to share your images through social networks. Because one thing is clear, there is no better advertising than what a potential client can do to another potential client.

What does your ideal customer expect from you?

Another piece of information you need to know perfectly is what your target audience really expects from you and your services.

Therefore, explaining in detail how you work, what your style is and what you offer on your services page, or even on a Langing page that you can share with a certain audience, will allow you to measure whether what you offer fits with what your clients demand at the moment.

>> Learn how to create Pages and Landings on your photography website

How to create a photographer’s buyer persona?

The most logical thing to consider from the beginning is that, if you offer different types of photo shoots, photography courses or any other related product, you will certainly have several types of ideal clients (one for each type of service you offer). You will certainly have several types of ideal clients (one for each type of service you offer).

Sometimes, identifying each of the buyer personas of a photographer will not be a quick and easy task. But if you spend a little time and dedication to research and create their profiles, and translate the results into your website, we assure you that you will be able to more easily attract those who will truly be your ideal clients.

>> Want to know how to boost your photography business with Arcadina?

“If your website is focused on your ideal customers, visits will turn into customers much faster.”

An online business focused on a photographer’s ideal customer

As you can see, knowing how to identify a photographer’s ideal client, defining them as precisely as possible and knowing how to show on your website exactly what they are looking for at the moment, will be fundamental to ensure that visits are transformed into clients.

On this occasion we are going to share with you the interview and opinion of the photographer Juan Carlos Albuera from Albuera Morales Fotografía.

>> “My website is an online showcase where I can display my work in an elegant, simple and affordable way”, Juan Carlos Albuera

And to end this very illustrative article, here’s our question: Before reading this article, did you ever consider that the ideal client of a competing photographer doesn’t necessarily have to be the same as yours? We’ll read you in the comments.

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Fulfil your dreams and develop your professional career with us. We offer you to create a photography website for free for 14 days so that you can try our platform without any commitment of permanence.

Arcadina is much more than a website, it is business solutions for photographers.

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