My heart is full of gratitude today: For the air I breathe. For the struggles and joys of my life.  For waterfalls and mountains. For French croissants and Spanish churros. For jobs booked far and wide on our small globe. For the way my nieces will still cuddle up with me and watch Mary Poppins like we did last night. Today, I am on the road flying to Florida for a beautiful wedding tomorrow in some exotic gardens, but I wanted to send along just a small thank you in the form of FIVE OF THE BEST MARKETING TIPS I’ve used to grow my business, grow my Instagram, and expand my life.

D’Arcy’s TOP FIVE TIPS for MARKETING

1. BE VISIBLE. When you are on the radar of the people who can help bring you jobs (photographers, wedding planners, coordinators, high-end vendors) then when the opportunities come up—you often get referrals. My business thrives on referrals. I get referrals because I like to stay on people’s radar. I send out emails often, I set up coffee dates, I make sure I am constantly shooting and submitting my shoots for publication so that editors of magazines know and recognize my name. I look for ways to help others.  One of the NUMBER ONE ways I stay visible is through FACEBOOK Ads. I like to boost at least one post a week so that my name and images are getting in front of the eyes I want. I alternate between doing targeted ads and between boosting a post to my current audience and their friends. The more your name can be everywhere, the more jobs you will get, the more your brand will grow, and the happy dance parties you will do in your kitchen.

2. HAVE A REASON BEHIND ALL OF YOUR COLLABORATIONS. I see it again and again in our industry. People do a collaboration without any real thought behind it. They haven’t studied exactly what is being published and where. Usually, people get ideas from other things they’ve seen, and then they go out in a blind fashion to create something that just doesn’t have “it”. Follow this up by a major let down when the shoot is rejected.

I approach collaborations in a very, very different way that most people, which is why my rejection rate is close to 0%. This is not to brag. You can do this too. Nothing about my collaborations are haphazard or left to fate. I have my target publication in mind each time I do one. I know exactly what they will published, what they have published, and what they are looking to publish more of. In addition, I use each shoot for more than just a pretty publication (which is only ever about 20 of the images in total). I make sure that the images serve more purpose than just some pretty photos and in turn, have my images spread around Instagram and Pinterest at very high rates. (I spend almost ½ going more in depth about getting published in my workshops).  Most of my Pinterest activity does not come from the images you would expect, but knowing why and how to create more brings you business.

3. GET OFF THE COUCH & INVEST IN YOURSELF. I cannot say this enough. I am a business coach and lead my clients towards the path of the best strategies to build strong business foundations so that they can start bringing in money right away. I help them come up with marketing plans, I help them network, I introduce them to people who will help their business, and more. Why do I do this? BECAUSE THEY HAVE INVESTED IN ME. When someone has trusted me, invested in me, I am so completely invested in their success that I move mountains to make their success inevitable (ok, I teach them how to move their own mountains, which is way more powerful). I am a person who has invested a lot in myself and my training, and I mean a lot. I would say over $50,000 in the last three years alone. And those investments have been returned to me many times over. Just last year I invested $5,000 in a business conference. At that conference, I networked like crazy and was hired by several clients to gross $30,000 from just the people I met at that conference alone. These were my ideal clients. These were clients who had no issues paying my rates. I got these clients because I knew where to find them. And I knew that paying the $5,000 was worth every cent to make the $30,000. But, here’s the thing about most people—they won’t ever spend the 5k. And thus, it will take them a year to make 30k. I made it . I definitely am not a gambler in the regular sense, but with my business, I have not been afraid to take some very big risks because I have learned that they generally hold a large return. So, get up! Get off the couch and meet new people, join a mastermind, invest in yourself in some way and see how your business grows.

4. USE CURRENT EVENTS and RELEVANT HASHTAGS & TOPICS. Something simple you can do right now to grow your Instagram and Facebook is to truly research and use hashtags that are relevant, but also deal with current events. If you know something big is happening (like the Super Bowl or the Oscars), prepare something that can be released AT THE TIME of the event. Most people do Christmas shoots at Christmas time, and thus should really wait a year before they publish and market. Thinking ahead on the calendar by three months and working backward is key to staying at the top of the social media game. Take out a piece of paper and do a free write of everything coming up in the next six months and see what you can do around those topics to bring traffic to your blog, Instagram, and more.

5. GIVE BACK. Everyone loves to help people. Helping, giving back, and contributing to our world is one of our greatest joys. I truly believe when we are able to give back to our communities and give money and means to those things we are most passionate about, our businesses thrive. Whether you feel called to help the homeless, fight for animal rights, help women who have been abused, –we all have things we are deeply passionate about. When you give back, your business thrives. It’s a little law of the universe that has always remained true and is true today. Each Christmas Holiday, I donate 75% of print sales to pay for the education of women in Africa. Not only does this serve my clients, but it really brings a peace and love into the flow of my business. Most of us creatives are in business to help the world become a more beautiful place, giving back is just part of that beauty.

There are so many other marketing strategies to share over the next several months. Know someone who could benefit from this information? Make sure to forward this email to them. If you would love some in-person training on the best strategies to grow your business and earn more money while traveling the globe, make sure to check out the 2017 PATH WORLDWIDE WORKSHOPS. We’re heading to Cuba, Scotland, Croatia, Italy, Utah, and New York City. I’d love to have you there.