To be successful as a photographer you have to be able to run a business. It’s no longer good enough to take excellent photos, you now have to manage daily tasks to help land more clients, while ensuring existing clients repeat their business or bring you referrals.
Photographers need the right set of tools to make running their business as easy as possible. Certain tools enable photographers to spend less time on the more mundane administrative tasks, and more time focusing on what they love: photography.
There are many solutions available to photographers, but some are better than others. In this article, we’ll look at why photographers choose Format to meet the many demands of running a successful photography business.
1. Complete Solution to Run Your Business
Finding a solution that has a complete offering is important, no matter what stage your photography business is at. When choosing a tool to help run your business, ease of use, efficiency, and versatility are some of the most important criteria (let alone a platform with a built-in marketplace that won’t take a cut of your sales — but more on that later).
You want to have everything in one place, ideally on one platform. For over 10 years, Format has focused on being the best online portfolio builder in the industry, and has expanded to become a complete solution specifically for photographers. Today, Format features a full suite of tools to help you grow your business.
A beautifully designed portfolio is just the first step in converting more customers. You’ll also need a reliable, easy-to-use workflow so that you can consistently deliver a dazzling client experience (and save yourself time).
With Workflow from Format, you can access client-proofing galleries that make it easy to share proofs directly from your website. Once it’s time to deliver your images, you can offer your clients multiple ways to receive their files, giving them a beautiful, branded experience from start to finish.
Format also understands the importance of a good user experience. Portrait photographer TAMIYM chooses Format for a platform that matches the quality of their work and helps to sell clients on their skills and abilities. “I often get praise on the quality of its proofing platforms and the professionalism and ease that they can access and download images.”
You’ll also have the ability to manage client contact information and send and track contracts directly from the platform, so your administrative activities will become more streamlined. As photographer Luis Santana says, “Format has legitimized my business to attract clients around the world and improve my reach on a professional level. I enjoy the simplicity and how user-friendly the interface is”.
2. Built With Photographers in Mind
A common challenge photographers face when choosing a website solution is finding one that is built for their specific needs. While some photographers require extensive photo storage capabilities and client proofing solutions, others want the opportunity to be fully immersed in their site design, curating not only how their portfolio looks, but just how users will navigate their work online.
Having the right set of tools is critical in running a successful photography business, and that’s why Format always puts photographers’ needs first. Unlike generic website builders (like Squarespace and Wix) designed for any type of business, Format is more than a website builder.
Format users have portfolio-specific capabilities, such as designing their Feature Gallery Pages to look, feel and showcase work specific to their aesthetic. This includes everything from layouts to supporting thousands of images on a single page.
That’s why thousands of photographers around the world choose Format — not only as an online portfolio website builder, but also as a solution to manage their entire business. Landscape photographer, Josse Carstens, ”loves how easy and extensive the website builder is. “With lots of options and professionally built themes, there are all kinds of different options you need to grow your business, like proof galleries, a store, also a mailing list.”
3. Photographers Can Host Their Own Videos
Video has quickly become a dominant content form online, whether social media and email newsletters to websites and GIF-able content of all kinds. While your potential clients have come to expect video content from you, other website builders like Squarespace haven’t kept up and continue to rely on Youtube and Vimeo for video hosting
Format is the only solution of its kind that includes video hosting. In fact, this special feature can be accessed on all Format plans. Video hosting allows you to have fully customizable and branded video players on your website, so your portfolio website can reflect your work and personality. With video hosting, you won’t have to rely on YouTube or Vimeo to share your work with clients.
4. Wide Range of Beautiful, Unique, and Modern Designs
As an artist and photographer, it’s important to stand out and look professional. A beautifully designed website is an effective way of capturing the attention of your audience. Format’s designs are award-winning for good reason. They emphasize your work while ensuring the rest of the site is modern and memorable.
You don’t need any design or coding skills to create a site that looks completely aligned with your brand and style. L.A.-based photographer Michael Dirlam chooses Format for its ability to “allow a creative to display their work in various templates. There are hundreds of ways to display work, and Format encourages creativity and freedom to do just that.” The website templates are all easy to customize, so you don’t have to fuss around too much or pay expensive designers or developers to make your vision come to life.
5. Earning Extra Commission-free Money by Selling Prints
E-commerce has become a great way for photographers to earn extra money. In addition to selling your prints on your own online shop powered by Format, you can also benefit from selling your prints in the Format Prints Marketplace. Fine art photographers like Yolanda Garcia sell their creative prints through “an online storefront that’s accessible from anywhere in the world.” This will get your work in front of a wider audience that might not have found you otherwise.
6. Customer Service That Goes Above and Beyond
With Format, you can feel confident that you won’t be left hanging if you need help along your journey. Whether you need help designing your portfolio, using Workflow, managing your file storage, getting set up in the Format Prints Marketplace, or anything else you can rely on their exceptional customer service. If you want to be hands-off when setting up your online portfolio, you can even use their site building services to do the heavy lifting for you.
Beyond product support, you can also rely on Format’s customer service to help you with any other questions you may have about running your photography business. This extra level of support can make all the difference, easing some of the challenges that come with starting and growing your photography business. When you get stuck with any aspect of growing and supporting your business, just get in touch with Format’s support team.
There’s loads of options out there for photographers looking to build their presence and grow their business, but some are better than others. Format is purpose-built to help photographers start and grow their business.
From the photography business solutions and top-tier customer service to the gorgeous designs and simple video hosting, Format is a powerful tool for running a photography business at any stage. If you’re ready to take your photography career to the next level, think about getting started with Format.
This article was brought to you by Format.
