Shoot to the Top Podcast Por Sam Hollis arte de portada

Shoot to the Top

Shoot to the Top

De: Sam Hollis
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 What happens when you get a commercial photographer (Marcus) and a seasoned marketeer (Sam) in the same room? That’s right, you get all the answers on how to “ Shoot To The Top” Learn the best marketing strategies for your commercial photography business. Sam will tell you how to find the ideal client, get yourself noticed, build your brand and loads more! But hold on, it’s not just about the money, is it? Marcus will be defending his corner with hard hitting punches on how to be the best photographer in your market, to really start taking images that you can be proud of.Sam Hollis Economía Marketing Marketing y Ventas
Episodios
  • Blogging: Why it is so essential to your marketing as a photographer.

    Blogging: Why it is so essential to your marketing as a photographer.
    Jun 30 2025

    Why blog?

    1. It's amazing for SEO
    2. It gives you things to talk about on social
    3. It gives you content for your newsletter
    4. It’s good for authority marketing
    5. It increases engagement on your website

    Sam explains that if you only write your blog and don’t promote it, no one will ever find it. He says your blog needs to be about a theme. It needs to be about a topic and help to show that you are an expert in your field. For example, Samsuggests that a wedding photographer could review wedding venues. A blog without a theme or purpose is not much use. Also, consider what is valuable to your target audience and how the topic can demonstrate your expertise.
    Once you have a theme, we are then down to writing individual blogs. Marcus asks if your blog should be on your website or elsewhere. Sam says one of the points of a blog is helping with SEO. This does not happen if you use a blogging platform instead of your website.
    Blogs are words. Photographs only are not acceptable and don’t work on their own. A blog must be at least 500 words. 1000 words average. Once it gets much over 1500 words, it’s time to think about splitting into two smaller blogs. A mix of sizes is good, some longer, some shorter. For SEO, Google needs to understand who you are and what you do, and only words can do that. For social media, there is no point promoting your blog on social if it is only images, as they would expect to see the images on social anyway. Do use images in the blogs. But there should be plenty of text to go with the images. Do not fill space with photographs.

    Organise the writing in your blog. Make it easier for people to skim read. Use sub-headings, bullet-pointed lists, etc, to help people skim read it. This structure helps people and Google to understand your blog. Give value in your blog. The blog has to be useful to them, or it won’t be engaging.External and internal links are essential. Both to other websites (external links) and within your website to other pages and blogs (internal links).


    1. Marcus asks if Sam blogs and how he blogs. Sam says that inthe past, he has had copywriters blogging for him. This ensures that you get regular blogs created. But he also blogs himself, both written and video blogs. Sam says one key is ensuring you put time aside to create content. In terms of ideas, Sam often uses topics that have come up in conversations in the last fewweeks.
      Marcus asks about AI. Sam says it's good for some stuff. It is bad at writing blogs. Do not simply ask AI to write you a blog; it will be very generic and easy to spot. But it is useful. It is great for ideas. If you cannot think of anything to write, it can give you ideas. You can also ask for a blog structure. Don’t 100% stick to the structure, as it will be quite bland. Then write the blog yourself. But once you have written it yourself, put it backthrough AI and ask for improvements.
      How do you get people to your blog? First of all, no one will come if you don’t tell them about it. What can you do?
    1. Send out social media posts sending people to the blog
    2. Make an email newsletter and send people to the blog.


    Those are really good ways of getting people to your blog. As part of SEO, Google assess how popular your website is and how long people stay on the website. So by sending engaged people to the blog, you are helping with your website's SEO. Ensure that you have your website connected to Google Analytics so you can see who is visiting your blogs and where they are coming from.
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    20 m
  • Could the Photographers United Pro Community help you as a commercial photographer?

    Could the Photographers United Pro Community help you as a commercial photographer?
    Jun 24 2025
    Phillip Noth Coombes started Photographers United as aFacebook group. Graham Diprose is also a part of this. He was a commercial photographer in the 70s to 90s. And then taught at the London College of Communication.He also wrote books about the River Thames, and one about Henry Taunt. You can find all Graham's books hereThe group is now called Photographers United Pro. The group started in 2018 from an idea Phil had on a dog walk. He thought photographers were all working alone at home, and he wanted photographers to be able to communicate. So he built a community of commercial photographers to help each other and help sustain the industry. Graham is a real help in bringing in the photography students with all his work with photographer education links. Sam asks if Phil has created a modern version of a photography association. Phil thinks that he has, but in some ways, this group is different. This group doesn’t charge; it’s about helping each other. There are also no grades within the group. Everyone is equal and has their skills and experience. There areabout 3,400 members on the Facebook group, and lots of members are sharing their ideas and helping each other. There are other parts of the group beyond the Facebook group. They try and arrange socials so people can meet in person. They also arrange in-person meetings where they bring people together, and some speakers give talks. The group also deals with education, which Graham is dealing with. The group also has a range of discounts for members. A member of the group got a job at an auction house. So some members put work into frames and put them into the auction, and lots were sold. The group don’t run courses themselves, but have a very good idea of what courses are on offer in theUK and can guide people to the right place. Lots of leaders of courses are in the group too, which is a great benefit to student members. Marcus asks if they have some advice for photographers.Graham says Be prepared. He says when working with film, a lot less gets edited post-shoot, so the shot had to be perfect. This meant planning had to be spot on, and that is a really useful skill even with digital photography. Graham saysthat being able to complete a risk assessment is vital to protecting yourself. Phil says Get out there and meet people. Be bold, creative and make connections. Phil says he started by literally knocking on doors. His second idea is to keep fresh, keep re-inventing yourself and keep clients. He says these things are linked, as having new ideas means you havesomething new to offer your regular clients. Phil asks Marcus the same question.Marcus says ideas are very important. Phil says building a great team is also very important, and as part of this, an assistant is very helpful. Graham says as part of this that many photography courses have students in their second andthird year who are looking for experience. And they can make amazing assistants. Graham says he is happy for photographers to contact him to get help with this.Graham has been doing quite a lot of work on neuro-diversityand looking at how this can be seen as an asset in some areas rather than a problem. To join the Photographers United Pro group, you have to have :A website A businessInsuranceThis ensures that only those in the industry are in the group. The Facebook group is free, but the website with furtherresources is £30 a year. You can reach out to Phil and Graham via the Facebook page.Or find the website here.To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And to join the ⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook group head here.
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    30 m
  • Styling yourself as part of your brand.

    Styling yourself as part of your brand.
    Jun 17 2025

    Marcus is going to talk about your personal brand. He wantsto talk about the aesthetics of this. First, what is a personal brand. So, it’s a combination of who you are, what you do, what you are known for a who is your target audience. Marcus is going to focus on how we look.

    Marcus thinks women are much better at this than men. Marcus thinks that when people book a photographer, they have certain expectations. He thinks people expect photographers to be cool and a little arty. This expectation makes a difference to our brand.
    We have had a couple of stylists on the show including Nick Hems and Suzanne Suthers
    Marcus says the first thing is to know your size. Get properly measured so you can work out what is going to fit you. Marcus thinks are then you need a “capsule wardrobe”. This is a few items of clothing that work well together. Marcus recommends getting clothes second hand. He thinks higher quality second hand clothes are better than cheap new clothes. He says you need some items that match your brand. Marcus says if you can’t decide on a colour go for black. Something small with your brand colour can work well with black.
    Marcus says there are several points of contacts with people. Usually on Zoom, Networking, on your website and then on the shoot. On Zoom calls it’s important to get the background right. Arrange the background well. Some artefacts in the backgrounds that show you are a photographer are great. Marcus doesn’t like the artificial backgrounds. Marcus does suggest a slide show in the background. He also suggests getting a good webcam or use your SLR as a webcam. Get the camera level and lighting right. Also ensure your label on Zoom clearly says your name and business.

    Marcus says then on the website you want at least twophotographs of yourself. Sam and Marcus agree a photo of you on the homepage is important. Marcus says a behind the scenes video is useful. Sam says it shows you interacting with customers which is very powerful. Marcus says a photo onthe about page is also important, and you need to be in your branded calls. Sam says also using images for example of you having a nice chat with someone by the call me button may help put people at ease.
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    21 m
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