In 2015, a survey revealed that 92% of adults own a smartphone and 59% of them prefer mobiles over desktops or laptops.

Think about it: whether you’re out in public or sitting in a room with a group of friends, the one thing you are bound to do is check your phone every so often.

Since so many people are now accessing the internet through their phones – around 48.2% of all users – digital marketers have to polish and enhance their mobile marketing tactics to generate better ROI.

Mobile marketing can be especially handy for photographers – while 74% of marketers in other industries are trying to incorporate more visuals into their marketing strategies to increase brand recall, photographers already deal in pictures.

So, how can you use mobile marketing to your advantage to reach more clients?

Here are seven marketing strategies for photographers that can take your business to the next level.

Use SMS Marketing

Text-based marketing has been around for a while and with a response rate 209% higher than calls, email or social media messaging, it seems that it’s here to stay.

An added advantage that SMS marketing has over these other forms of communication is its lack of dependence on the internet. So whether your potential customer has access to the web or not, text messages can help you keep in contact with your audience.

But how can photographers use this medium?

A good idea is to send SMS surveys aimed at intriguing people with links to your photography profile. You can also use this medium to apprise your clients of any deals you’re offering on your services or on covering certain events.

The best way to use this type of marketing for photographers, however, is to move to Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). An off-shoot of SMS, it allows you to attach images to your text messages to lend a visual element to your messages.

With 95% of all mobile devices in the US being MMS compatible, this opens a huge market for businesses.

Use Instagram

Instagram is one of the leading social platforms for sharing graphic content and you can’t benefit from it if you still haven’t embraced mobile marketing.

Instagram boasts an active user base of 500 million people every day and 1 billion people in a month.

So, how can you use it as a marketing strategy for photographers?

Well first, you need to set up a business profile on the app and ensure that your ‘insta bio’ contains all the necessary information that your potential and returning customers will require. Also, make sure that you use industry-specific keywords for SEO – more on that later.

Once you’re established as a business, you can use your Instagram presence to upload your work to show people your skills and to promote the kind of events you cover.

You can even search hashtags and reach out to businesses that have upcoming corporate events, exhibitions, etc.

One thing that you will have to make sure is to reply to direct messages on a daily basis, as this can help you build a good relationship with your clients.

Optimize Your Website For Mobile

Consider this: You’ve been getting a lot of traffic thanks to good SMS marketing, but your website isn’t mobile friendly.

What does this mean for your business?

Well the first thing this entails is that Google might be getting ready to penalize you. With their new algorithm update – the mobile first policy – the search engine giant doesn’t rank you high on the SERPs if your website doesn’t cater to mobile users.

This also means that you are losing any and all customers coming to your website due to bad user experience – in fact, 61% of users bounce from websites that aren’t mobile user-friendly.

So here’s what you need to do for better retention and CRO:

• Build a website that works across all platforms, especially mobile
• Resize your photographs to make them mobile browser friendly
• Make sure they load faster to keep users from bouncing

If you want to check whether your website is mobile-friendly or not, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool.

Build Your Own App

Here’s an interesting statistic for you: mobile users spend 89% of their time using apps and only 11% on websites.

That in itself is enough proof to build an app for your business; the fact that apps are user-friendly and can be used by businesses to send notifications to consumers at all times, adds to their credibility as a good mobile marketing strategy.

In short, your business app can act as a 24/7 source for people to easily view your work, browse through your packages, check current events that you’re covering – and of course, hire your services.

Since you can set up an initial sign up a policy to gather customer information, you don’t have to resort to prompts or long forms again and again.

Offer Mobile Coupons

Who doesn’t like discounts? Whether you’re going to the grocery store or buying clothes, you can’t ignore the aisle that has a sale on it.

Mobile coupons have exactly the same effect: they incentivize people to buy your services at subsidized rates and unlike print-based coupons, they aren’t expensive to generate.

Just make sure that your coupons provide all the necessary information to the client, such as:

• Who they are for? (For example first time users)
• Which events can they be used for?
• How long are they valid for?

While a short coupon deadline can create a rush of people wanting to get your services, long term validity can keep bringing in customers over a longer period.

Use QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) codes have now become very common; from services like WhatsApp requiring you to scan to gain access to their web version to apps like Instagram using them to promote ads, QR codes are everywhere.

You can put them anywhere – on a billboard, small poster or even on T-shirts – and let people scan it and get quick access to your website, app or even Instagram profile.

Another really interesting way to use these codes is putting them on your calling card. Think about it, instead of typing out your email or web address – an unnecessary hassle – all a potential client needs to do is scan the code to access your portfolio and contact information.

And you know what the best part is? You can generate QR codes for free online, so this is definitely a mobile marketing strategy for photographers you don’t want to miss out on.

Follow Mobile SEO Practices

Here’s something most people don’t know: 87% of searches give different results for desktop and mobile.

This means that if you haven’t built your website using mobile SEO practices, you won’t show up on the Google search app.

Two key things to focus on when optimizing your website for the SERPs are:

• Focusing on local search
• Updating your titles and meta descriptions

There you go, some actionable campaign strategies that you can implement to generate more leads for your photography business.

Remember, text-based marketing will not only allow you to adopt a multi-channel strategy to increase your brand reach, but also help your business grow.

Want to learn more about text messaging automation? Contact us today.