Tired of spending hours upon hours creating content and dancing for likes with little to show for it? We all love to complain about the algorithm, but what if I told you there’s a better way? Dive into this episode with my friend, past coaching client, and fellow photographer, Heather Anderson, while we chat about how paid advertisement has changed our businesses for the better, and how you can too with just a few simple strategies!

About Heather Anderson:

Heather is a California elopement photographer, workshop host and educator with 10 years of experience. She went from a full-time teacher to a destination wedding photographer (just like me!), and is now combining both passions to help photographers build their businesses with proven marketing strategies.

Step #1: Get in the right mindset about your marketing

We all love to complain about the algorithm, am I right? We have to have something to blame our lack of success on. We spend hours upon hours creating content and dancing for likes with little to show for it.

What if I told you there’s a better way? All you have to do is be willing to LEARN and INVEST in your business. And if you value your business and want success, then I hope you’re willing to do both.

Facebook and Instagram Ads have been around for awhile, and for the longest time I believed I could make it without paid advertisement (here are my top 25 Marketing Strategies that you can do organically). Heather even said she felt like it was cheating to pay for someone to see her offer. Does any of this sound familiar?

Once both of us decided that our businesses deserved a fighting chance, it was a game-changer.

Before I get to the next step, I want you to name a famous entrepreneur… Do they run ads? Chances are – yes. There aren’t very many people out there in today’s online business world who are MAKING BIG MONEY without first INVESTING big money into their marketing and advertisements.

You need to do more than just “take pretty photos” “write good copy” “design pretty brands” etc. to find success and scale your business.

Now that you’ve hopefully changed your mindset around your marketing, let’s move on to step two.

Step #2: Be empowered and DON’T outsource (yet)

Imagine if you are a photographer (maybe you are) and you’ve never edited an image in your life, but you ask someone to take over your editing…. Where do they start? How are they expected to get your “look” without you being able to speak their language and teach them your ways? The same goes for marketing and specifically, Facebook and Instagram ads.

Just like you take the time to master your craft – whether that be photography, copywriting, design, planning – you should invest that time into honing your marketing strategies.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I outsourced to Ads Manager after Ads Manager without the results I was craving. What was I missing? It was only when we brought our ads management in house that we discovered the secret sauce to success with paid ads was first understanding how they worked and then developing a strategy that works for our audience and offer. It was only then that we started getting GAME CHANGING results.

The truth is, NO ONE knows your target audience like you do. NO ONE knows your offer like you do. How is a stranger expected to speak to those people about that offer without being YOU?

Once you learn the in’s and out’s, you’ve created your strategy, and you know what it takes to get results – it’s time to outsource (unless you really love doing it.) 

Before moving onto step three, you might be wondering what resources you need to learn proven ads strategies that you can use too! Check out Heather’s course for a more hands-off approach or my Self Made Mastermind (where Heather is a guest expert) for more accountability and support.

Step #3: Don’t give up too early

Here’s the thing… ads are NOT an overnight success. It takes awhile to build out your first ads. Then, on top of the time it takes to learn and create them, you have to let them run (ideally for 6 weeks) in order for Facebook to learn your audience and see results.

The good news is, paid ads – whether successful or not – are an amazing source of data that you can use to tweak your offers, marketing strategies, and more. If you’re not seeing the results you want, pivot and try again. I promise it’s worth it.

A few notes on Ad Budgets:

• Spend at least $20 daily for the first 6 weeks of the learning period
• Work your way up to at least $300 per month after that
• Hot tip: reinvest some of your returns from sales into your ads (we recommend 20%)

Click here for more ways to listen to this episode!

Links:

25 Marketing Strategies Freebie

Heather’s Ghosted to Golden Course

The Self Made Mastermind

The Profitable Portfolio luxury wedding photography course