As a professional photographer, you’re also a business owner. This means you need to drive sales – you know, like booked clients!

And marketing does exactly that. Especially marketing online. So understanding the landscape of digital marketing is essential.

We created this list to give you a basic understanding of some key marketing terms you need to know so you can get better results in your online efforts.

Learning these concepts will enhance your online visibility and help you book more photo shoots!

1. A/B Testing: Testing two versions of a web page to see which performs better. Example: A newborn photographer tests two versions of a landing page to see which layout leads to more inquiries.
2. Affiliate Marketing: Earning a commission by promoting other people’s products. Example: A photography blog earns commissions by linking to camera gear on an e-commerce site.
3. Analytics: Data analysis to evaluate the performance of a website or marketing campaign. Example: Using Google Analytics to track visitor behavior and improve website design.
4. Brand Awareness: The extent consumers are familiar with a brand. Example: Nikon sponsors photography contests to increase brand awareness.
5. Brand Equity: The value of a brand based on consumer perceptions. Example: Apple’s strong brand equity allows it to price products higher. This is VERY important as a luxury photographer. With a more luxury focused brand, you can command higher prices.
6. Bounce Rate: Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing one page. Example: A high bounce rate on a landing page may indicate unengaging content. High bounce rate – bad. Low bounce rate – good!
7. Call to Action (CTA): A prompt for an immediate response or action. Example: “Book Now” button on a photographer’s website.
8. Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on a link. Example: An email campaign with a 10% CTR means 10% of recipients clicked on the link.
9. Content Marketing: Creating content to attract and engage an audience. Example: A camera company publishes tutorials and reviews on its blog.
10. Content Strategy: Planning and management of content. Example: A content calendar for a photo studio’s social media posts. It’s easy to have weeks or even months slip by without posting. Your strategy will help avoid that.
11. Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action. Example: The rate at which website visitors sign up for a photography course.
12. Customer Persona: Representations of ideal customers. Example: A wedding photography studio creates personas for typical clients to tailor its marketing.
13. Engagement: Interaction with content. Example: High engagement on a photographer’s Instagram posts indicates strong follower interest.
14. Entrances: The point at which a user enters a website. Example: Many visitors enter a blog through articles linked from social media or paid ads or search engine results.
15. Goal: A specific action visitors are encouraged to take. Example: Your website’s goal might be for visitors to download a brochure or to book a consultation.
16. Impressions: The number of times content is displayed. Example: A banner ad displayed 1,000 times has 1,000 impressions.
17. Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with social media personalities. Example: A camera brand partners with a famous photographer to promote a new camera.
18. Landing Page: A page designed to convert traffic. Also known as a squeeze page or funnel. Example: A special offer page for a photography course sign-up.
19. Lead Generation: Attracting and converting prospects. Example: Offering a free brochure to collect potential clients’ emails (related: the more emails you have, the better!)
20. Meta Description: A brief page content description for search results. Example: A concise summary for a blog post on portrait photography tips.
21. Meta Keywords: Words describing page content for SEO. Example: “wedding photography,” “wedding poses,” “Dallas wedding photographer”. Note – if you’re using WordPress for your website, we’ve found that the Yoast plugin gives you a big head start.
22. New Users: First-time website visitors. Example: A photography forum tracks how many new users sign up daily.
23. Organic Traffic: Visitors from unpaid search results. Example: People finding a photography blog through Google search. This is the BEST kind because it shows your content marketing & SEO strategies are working PLUS the visitors are usually more qualified and interested.
24. Paid Traffic: The process of attracting visitors to your website through paid advertisements. For instance, a wedding photographer might use Google Ads to target individuals searching for “wedding photography workshops.”
25. Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed. Example: A photo gallery page that receives a high number of views indicates interest.
26. Pixel: A tool used to track and analyze how users interact with a website after clicking on an ad. For example, an e-commerce site specializing in camera equipment might use a Facebook pixel to see which ads lead to sales on their website. This helps in refining ad strategies and targeting to improve campaign performance and ROI.
27. Reach: The total number of people who see your content. Example: A Facebook post about a photography contest reaches 20,000 people, indicating the contest’s wide visibility.
28. Redirect: Automatically sending a user from one URL to another. Example: Redirecting visitors from an old gallery page to a new one ensures they find the latest photos.
29. Retargeting: Serving ads to individuals who have previously visited your website. Example: A photography equipment store displays ads for a new lens to users who visited the lens’s product page but did not purchase. This is how ads can “follow you” around online.
30. ROI (Return on Investment): A measure of the profitability of an investment. Example: A photographer calculates the ROI of an advertising campaign to be positive after several high-value bookings.
31. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Improving your website’s visibility in search engine results. Example: A photography blog optimizes its posts for SEO to rank higher for photography tips, attracting more organic traffic.
32. SERP (Search Engine Results Page): The list of results a search engine displays in response to a query. For example, when a photographer searches for “best lenses for portrait photography,” the SERP will include links to websites, articles, and product listings related to portrait photography lenses, ranked based on relevance and other factors determined by the search engine’s algorithm.
33. Social Proof: Testimonials and reviews from past clients to drive new sales. Example: Displaying customer testimonials on a service page increases a maternity photographer’s bookings. This is the entire basis of reputation management – getting more reviews!
34. Users: Individuals who visit your website. Example: A monthly report shows an increase in users to a photography tutorial website, indicating successful marketing efforts.

Just a Few Marketing Terms for Photographers

The above list is just to get you started.

Just like any new piece of equipment, as you get more familiar with the above terms, you’ll find your work will be that much more effective.

Here’s to your digital marketing success!