When it comes to creating content for your social media, I see far too many photographers relying on pretty pictures alone.
Whilst it's true that beautiful images are important on your social media, they don't do enough to turn your social media accounts into lead generation machines - as you may have noticed!
That's where my ABC method of content creation comes in. It's a simple system to focus your content, making sure every single post has a purpose that leads to more clients.
ATTRACT
The A in my ABC method is 'attract'. This is the content that encourages users to follow you. If you don't attract your ideal audience in your following, the rest of your efforts are largely wasted.
So what types of posts encourage followers? It's going to be different for each of you but Instagram itself can give us a pretty good indication.
Click on insights from your home page and in the top left drop-down select a period of at least the last 30 days. Don't look at more than 90 days of insights as the more recent the data, the more accurate it will be.
Then click update and you'll see your insights page. Click on posts and the default will be that Instagram will show you all of your posts over the period you selected, ordered by reach. Reach is all well and good but we are interested in Follows. Choosing Follows from the drop down menu will order your posts by how well they converted the people who saw it, into followers of your account.
Take a look at the top 5 or 6 best converting posts for you - what TYPE of content are those posts? For me, I get more followers directly from content that is funny or relatable to photographers or content that gives out valuable information.
Once you know what type of posts convert users to followers, you need to make sure around a third of the content you create is similar. This will give you a constant stream of new followers, the majority of which should be in your target market.
BUILD
Next, we'll move onto B for 'build'. This content is all about building a relationship and building trust with your audience. This is a vital step in the method because very few people will reach out to you to enquire or book if they don't feel like they 'know' you in some way.
The content you create needs to engage your audience and encourage conversation. There's a whole section in my monthly content club dedicated to conversation starters if you're stuck with this.
Don't forget that 'content' extends to your stories too which are brilliant for engaging your audience. There are lots of stickers you can use on your stories that are specifically designed to encourage interaction. If you need some inspiration using these, have a look at these 15 engaging story ideas.
Also remember that showing your personality and snippets of yourself, doesn't mean you have to open up your private life. Just sharing your morning routine, how you set up for a newborn session or video of you out buying props will all help your audience get to know you better.
Again, try and make sure around a third of your content falls into the 'Build' category.
CONVERT
Conversion is the last piece of the jigsaw and should make up the final third of all of your content. Once you've Attracted your ideal audience and have Built a relationship with them, you need to be able to Convert them to clients.
Conversion content is usually promotional and includes a call to action. You can check in your insights for the type of content that converts your audience by choosing to look at the posts that have resulted in website or contact clicks. if you struggle to write promotional content, don't forget there's a whole section of posts you can copy, edit and paste in my monthly content calendar for photographers.
Remember to use all of the tools available to you in Instagram - for example lots of my stories that include a link click convert well. Testimonials and social proof always work well to convert my audience to clients, wherever they appear, but make sure you research your own insights.