5 Ways to Showcase Your Product Photography Skills Online

With Statista revealing that more than 81% of the United States’ total population shops online, it’s important for online retailers to display their products in the best possible light. This is where product photographers come in. The demand for good product photography is growing, as is the number of photographers in this niche. However, the competition out there is tough, so you need to do everything you can to showcase your product photography skills online and set yourself apart from your competitors.

The big question, then, is how to give prospective clients a good idea of your capabilities, skills, and work. If you want to attract clients, you need to do more than simply display examples of your work. You need to get your message out there in various ways, giving potential clients an understanding of who you are, how you get great shots, and what you can do better than the competition. Explore five ways to showcase your product photography skills online below.

1. Build an Online Store and Start a Blog

If you don’t already have an online store to sell your photos and services, start one. There are a variety of e-commerce platforms that make it easy to create a portfolio that includes a store, complete with photo galleries, shopping carts, checkout, and secure payment options. Once you’ve got your online store, start a blog. It’s worth mentioning that even if you don’t feel ready to build a store online, you can still start a blog to exhibit your skills and provide prospective clients with your contact details.

Use your blog to show your work differently and provide readers with insights into who you are and how you work. You can write about shoots that you do, and about the various photography techniques you use. The idea is to give readers a behind-the-scenes ‘tour’ or a backstage pass. Be sure to include examples of some of the product photos you take and photos of your set-up.

You can use this same approach on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. The important thing to remember with these social media platforms is to keep your content short. Sharing bite-sized blog posts in your captions can be a good way to attract more visitors to your blog and/or online store.

2. Invest in Copywriting and SEO

Posting examples of your best product photography is one of the most important things you can do on your online store and blog. Another is to invest in copywriting and search engine optimization (SEO).

The copy on your website and blog forms an important part of your SEO strategy. It helps your readers learn who you are, how you work, and what sets you apart from others. It also shows some of your personality, evokes emotions, tells a story, and provides them with information that is not featured in your product photos.

Your copy should take SEO principles into account, which can help boost your ranking on Google search results pages. The higher your website appears in the search results, the better its chances of being discovered by potential clients. You must incorporate relevant keywords and key phrases, as well as links to relevant pages on your site. While you can write your own copy and optimize it for search engines, you can also pay someone to do it for you. You also have the option of writing your own content and paying someone to optimize it for you.

3. Create Digital Guides

As an experienced photographer, you’ve built up a wealth of knowledge and skills. Create digital guides to product photography in general, staging product photo shoots, how to use lighting and props, finding the perfect locations, and other topics.

These guides can take the form of e-books and how-tos featuring text, examples of your work, and behind-the-scenes photos, as well as links to your website, blog, and social media channels. Host your digital guides on your website or blog, where readers can download them.

4. Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube is a popular choice for entertainment and education. It’s also a great platform for sharing your product photography skills with the world. Start a YouTube channel and use it to share your portfolio, behind-the-scenes videos, and short videos advertising your services.

Create videos on all sorts of topics related to product photography as an extension of your blog and digital guides. For example, you can demonstrate how you set up your lighting rig and stage products, or you can take viewers on a short tour of an incredible location. You can even create vlogs featuring short interviews with the people behind the products you photograph, giving viewers insights into the products as well as the creative process involved in photographing them in a way that resonates with the product’s brand identity as well as with customers.

Before creating your YouTube channel and vlogs, watch videos by photographers who’ve successfully used this platform, such as Peter McKinnon, Pierre T. Lambert, and Evan Ranft.

5. Use Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are an excellent platform for marketing and sharing your work. In 2023, there were 4 billion daily email users, and 77% of marketers saw an increase in email engagement in that year. 2023 also saw that most marketers include mobile-friendly emails in their marketing strategy.

Use email newsletters to share your most recent photos, teasers, stories, updates, and offers. This can help build relationships with your clients and grow their trust in your skills and brand. In addition to making it easy for your site visitors to sign up for email newsletters by offering the option on every page, you can also try incentivizing signing up. Do this by offering a discount code, a free ebook, or a free consultation.

If your preferred ecommerce site does not offer an email marketing function, you can use an email marketing tool such as Mailchimp.

Ways to Showcase Your Product Photography – The Bottom Line

With so much of the world shopping online, you must meet your customers where they are. Showcasing your product photography skills is the first step to getting your name out there and differentiating yourself from your competitors. Use the information above to ensure that your work reaches a wider audience across the web and get yourself noticed.