Portfolio Building: What Is it And How Do I Do It?
You're ready! You've done your figures, you know how much you need to charge and now you want to set up your website but uh oh... you need more photos for your portfolio.
You don't have nearly enough to fill a portfolio and your website. You know that you need a good range of different subjects and poses but how to get them?
Enter portfolio building.
What is portfolio building? Basically it's a fancy way of saying that you are gathering photos to use in your portfolio and website.
Sounds great, right? But how exactly do you go about getting more photos? Where do you find these mythical clients?
If you’re like me when I started my business you have no previous clients to call upon and it's hard to attract new ones when you have no photos to show them what you can do.
It's a bit of a catch 22. You need clients to build your portfolio but you can't get clients to build your portfolio without showing them some pictures of what you can do.
Have no fear, here I’m going to suggest 5 ways you can find people to grow your portfolio.
Now remember the name of the game is to grow your portfolio. This is not about getting money, at least not yet. Don't get me wrong, if you swing some of these techniques right you may be able to pocket some money but remember the ultimate goal is photo's for your portfolio. Anything else is just a bonus.
Before You Start:
You need to determine what type of photography you want to do. Determine what you need in your portfolio and who your target market is.
Is your niche, family portraits? Boudoir? Pets? Headshots?
If it's headshots, do you want to do lifestyle headshots, professional business headshots or specialise in small business branding headshots?
By working out what niche you want to serve and who your ideal client is you’ll be better prepared to approach friends and family who either fit your ideal client avatar or know people who do.
Keeping with the headshots theme, you've decided that you want to focus on professional business people. You then need to decide whether you want to niche down further to only men, or only woman or both. If it's both then you know that you need a good range of both men and women in your portfolio.
You also know that since you are trying to attract successful businessmen and women that you'll want your portfolio headshots to be men and women professionally dressed in business suits and office attire.
It's no good doing headshots of actors wearing t-shirts when you are trying to attract business professionals.
You need to show what you want to attract.
You could even narrow that down further by age and focus on men and women in their late 20's to early fifties. These people would be the ideal age to fall into a professional category that needs headshots.
See how by determining what type of photography you want to do you can customise your portfolio to attract your ideal client?
And now that you’ve determined what you want to shoot and your ideal client avatar we can get into the nitty gritty details of how to find people to shoot for portfolio building.
First step -
1. Family and friends
This should be your first point of call. Now I don't mean that you should photograph every person that you've ever known and their dog. I want you to be strategic about this. Determine who from your family and friends best fits your ideal target and reach out to them.
It's been my experience that most people want to help and are willing to be guinea pigs in your portfolio quest.
And of course you should be giving them something too. They need to get something in return for helping you. I always like to give them some of the digital photos from the session.
This strategy is strictly a trade only.
You get models and experience and they get some updated photos.
Family and friends aren't your target market and trying to turn this into a money making opportunity for yourself is bound to end badly. They'll either feel ripped off or you'll feel taken advantage off because they expect so much for so little.
Best to just avoid that from the beginning and look at your friends and family sessions as more of a trade. You get what you want and in the process they help you and get photos they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
Now it may be that none of your immediate family and friends fit your ideal target and age range. If that’s the case then think about who else in your life does and reach out to them.
When I first started, I only had 1 person in my immediate friend network who fit my needs. So I started to think about other people I know that I maybe hadn't spoken to for a while. I went on Facebook and looked through my contacts and reached out to some who I thought would be a good fit.
These were people that I used to work with, friends from school that I hadn't seen in a decade and I even reached out to people that I knew through other people. I probably approached about 10 people and only one of them wasn't interested. Everyone else was excited at the possibility of getting some good photos of themselves.
Don't be so afraid of a no that you don't ask. There's no harm and at the worst they'll just say no or ignore you. At best you'll get someone who'd be perfect for your portfolio. And that's a win in my book.
2. The Model Call
Model calls are just what they sound like. You put a call out on social media, through family and friends, your local network etc for a specific look, age, type to photograph. You determine what you want to photograph and put out a specific call looking for that.
For example: Model Call: Looking for professional men and women aged between 30 and 45 for headshots. Looking to photograph people for my portfolio and advertising material so you must be willing to sign a model release and contract stating I can use the images in this way. In return you will receive 3 complimentary digital images for your time. Please apply by...
You get to determine what look you want, what you want them to wear and the style of the photos. Remember these are for your portfolio so you have to make sure you get the photos that you need.
This is a trade of services. They get digital files in return for giving you what you need for your portfolio.
3. Free Session Giveaways
These are kind of like a model call in that you waive the session fee and give them something for free ie a 5x7" print or a 1 high res file or 3 social media files etc. It's up to you and what you think is fair.
But the difference between this and a model call is that you plant the seeds for the possibility that they can purchase more later. This is less of a trade and more like you are gifting them something and in return they can purchase more, if they want.
In this type of scenario you are getting your portfolio filled but you have less control over who you end up photographing if you leave it as a first come, first served giveaway.
But you are gaining the possibility of making some money. Just don't expect everyone to purchase because that's not realistic. Not everyone will want to buy what you have just because you took the photos.
A lot of people are happy to take the free stuff and walk away and you have to be aware and ok with that when you run something like this.
A good way to try to counter those just looking for a freebie is to require them to apply for a spot. You can create a questionnaire for them or require a phone consult before deciding whether they’ll be a good fit. These extra steps are good for weeding out those who are just looking for a freebie.
But remember, there are no guarantees. You should go into this knowing that could happen and be happy that you’ve gotten the photos you need for your portfolio.
4. Host a Competition
This option is a little less strategic in terms of achieving the look you want. But could get you more attention in terms of views, shares and entries as more people can enter. This way you would be getting your name out there as well as building a portfolio.
You could offer 5 -10 complimentary sessions that people could win, where the session fee is waived and they get some sort of product as a prize. Remember to keep your costs low but it has to be enticing to people that they want to enter.
You could go about the competition one of two ways:
1) Host the competition purely to get portfolio photos in which case you aren't concerned about earning any money and you can give away a session and digitals (once someone has the digitals they aren't coming back to you for prints or more products). I say have the digitals as the prize because they are high value enough to entice a person to enter but are a low cost in terms of COGS for you to produce.
OR
2) Host the competition to get photos for your portfolio and maybe make a little money too. In that case you need to have a prize that is appealing enough to enter but is a low cost to you and gives you the potential to upsell after the session.
If you do it this why you need to be upfront and clear about exactly what they are receiving AND that they can purchase more if they would like. You should also disclose your prices so that people know going in exactly what to expect if they do decide to purchase.
Be aware when doing this that not everyone will purchase. In fact, most probably won’t. Generally people who are entering a competition are looking for free stuff and are happy with what you have offered.
So you have to be ok with that.
There may be some who will spend a little bit more too but don't expect everyone to want to purchase.
When I did this, I hosted a competition on FB and created some ads to advertise it. Make sure to read Facebook's terms and condition before you go down this route though as violating them could result in them terminating your page and you don't want that.
Also check with your state's regulations on competitions as well. Here in Australia it's considered a form of gambling (especially a game of chance or skill) so make sure to look up whether you need to get a permit or any special licensing to run one (you do in NSW).
5. Discounted Portfolio Building Sessions
This is exactly what it sounds like. You discount your session fee and advertise to gain your portfolio clients. You can do this two ways:
1) Have a flat fee discount and only book a set amount of clients at that price. For example your session is usually $550 but for the next 10 people who book the session fee will be $250.
OR
2) Have a portfolio building sliding scale discount. For example: Your usual session fee is $150 but you have 10 spots available as a limited time portfolio building price. For the next 2 clients who book their session fee is $55, the two after that are $65, $75, $85, $95 and so on until all ten spots are filled. The longer they wait to book they more expensive it becomes until it reaches your limit.
You can set what price you want to start your discount at, how many people can book at each level and how many people you want in total before you charge your full prices.
If you like for these sessions, you can also discount your products as well but make sure you are priced profitably to be able to offer that discount without losing money. Remember the goal with this tactic is to get a portfolio but also to earn some cash too.
Let me know how you go in the comments.
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