Contents:

- Update your store on a regular basis
- Enter competitions
- Tap into your niche
- Get published
- Collaborate

‍

As much as it's essential to keep the momentum going with the initial launch of your store, as discussed in Part 4 of this guide, it's also vital to keep growing your business in different ways to ensure its long-term sustainability. Here are some of the best ways to do that.

‍

Update your store on a regular basis

‍

Give visitors something new to look at each time they visit your site by adding new images regularly.

A constantly growing portfolio of images will strengthen your overall offering and give visitors and buyers a positive impression that you’re always busy taking new photos. You could create an area dedicated to new images on your site/ store (like an album titled New Work, for example).

An up-to-date site will also help with SEO (search engine optimisation). Regarding how your site ranks in search results, search engines prefer sites with regularly updated content, making it likely to appear higher in searches.

As we’ve previously covered, ensure you’re regularly posting new photos, news or information on all your social and communication channels, and make that a crucial part of your growth strategy.

‍

Enter competitions

‍

The exposure that comes from shortlisting or winning competitions is fantastic. Many contests garner widespread press coverage, publish books, or hold exhibitions. This could mean that your name will be in front of a potentially huge audience, and you’ll also be able to add any accolades to your CV or portfolio to impress future clients.

Entering photography competitions is also a fun way to challenge yourself. With probably hundreds of different competitions out there, ranging from small and niche challenges up to huge, global contests, there’s bound to be something that suits your photographic style.

Read more about how to enter photographic competitions and how best to prepare your photos with our top tips compiled by experts.

‍

Tap into a niche

‍

If your photography focuses on a particular or specialist subject or style, it's worth exploring more of this niche to tap into any potential markets.

Say you're a photographer who enjoys taking pictures of trains, do some research, and you'll soon discover a massive market for that type of photography - from publications specialising in the railway industry to enthusiasts looking for an image to hang on their wall.

Reaching into specialist markets like this can help you create a dedicated and engaged following for your work. And you could soon find yourself the go-to person for that type of photography. Generally, photographers who specialise in a particular niche, or are known for a specific kind of work, tend to be commercially more successful in the long run.

‍

Further reading:
‍
Read our detailed guide on developing a unique photographic style.

Get published

‍

Getting your work in front of the wider public can significantly boost your photography business, especially if you can refer any published work back to your store to drive traffic. It’ll also help immensely with getting your name out there.

Having your work published can be more straightforward than you think, as long as you have some basic knowledge. As the person submitting work for publication, your job is to make life as easy as possible for the person on the receiving end of it.

‍

Our top tips on places to get your photography published will give you some ideas for the best places to submit your work.

‍

If your photography caters to a specific niche, then it's particularly worthwhile reaching out to companies and publishers that specialise in that area. For the ins-and-outs of how to pitch, along with best practices read our guide on pitching your photography to a publisher - which will give you all the information you need to make that first approach.

‍

Collaborate

‍

Working with other creatives not only potentially opens you up to ideas you might never have thought of alone, but it also delivers you to a whole new set of customers and potential clients - theirs.

Look for others you can work with in a meaningful way, which will very likely depend on the type of photography you do. Spend time researching people you could work with, particularly in your local area.

Joining relevant Facebook groups can be a great way to meet like-minded people who might be up for collaboration. Typical creatives you might be able to work with include make-up artists, designers, videographers and artists. Building up a good, solid relationship with these kinds of people helps to create a network which is mutually beneficial to all involved.

Once you’ve completed the collaboration - make sure you exploit the assets as much as possible. Upload to your channels, and ask those you’ve collaborated with to tag you, include links or hashtags that you use and be sure to repost to your followers.

‍

More ideas for growing your store:

See more ideas for how you can increase revenues brought in from your photography store with these suggestions from award-winning travel photographer Kav Dadfar.