Commercial Photographer: Your Guide to Marketing, Creativity and Growth

Episode 100. Instead of one guest, four regulars come back at once — Jeff Brown, Zoe Hiljemark, Gillian Devine and Martin Hobby — for a wide-ranging look back at what’s changed in commercial photography.

The group covers where AI is genuinely helping and hurting photographers, why video is becoming part of branding work, and where marketing is heading next.

• Where AI actually helps photographers, and where it causes new problems
• Why video is increasingly expected as part of branding photography
• Why owning your platforms — website and email list — matters more as social reach gets harder
• The pricing conversation: why you shouldn’t be the cheapest option
• When a free photoshoot is worth doing, and what to make sure you get out of it

A milestone episode with four voices who’ve all appeared on the show before — worth catching their original episodes if you haven't already:

• Using LinkedIn to its full potential as a photographer with Jeff Brown
• Guest Interview with Zoe Hiljemark
• How to not leave money on the table with Gillian Devine
• Guest Interview with Martin Hobby

The 100th-episode milestone deserves a personal follow-up — Sam Becomes the Guest as Marcus Asks Him About His Past is Marcus turning the questions on Sam himself.

The High-Income Blueprint: Are you tired of competing for "budget" clients on Facebook and Instagram? Andrew Collier joins us to reveal why the most lucrative Commercial Photography leads aren't found online at all.

• The AB1 Income Trap: Discover how to identify and target the "AB1" demographic—clients with high disposable income who value quality over a bargain—and how to speak their language.

• The "Physical World" Advantage: Andrew explains his counter-intuitive offline route to market that bypasses digital competition and builds instant trust with High-Value Photography Clients.

• The Credibility Gap: Learn why your current pricing might be scaring away your best potential clients and how to "be brave" to secure higher-end Branding Photography commissions.

Get our Guide to Marketing and Creativity

This idea gets picked up again much later in Offline Marketing for Photographers: What Every Brand Photographer Should Try Next, revisiting offline lead generation with a fresh perspective.

Your Most Important Kit: It’s not your camera or your lighting—it’s your body. Sam and Marcus discuss why neglecting your physical health is the fastest way to sabotage your Commercial Photography Business Growth.

• The Double Whammy: Discover the specific physical dangers of the "12-hour event" vs. the "editing desk marathon" and how to protect yourself in both scenarios.

• The "3-Pillar" Exercise Plan: We break down the exact mix of cardio, strength, and flexibility needed to survive a lifetime in Commercial Photography.

• The Minimalist Secret: Marcus teases a surprising kit setup that allows him to shoot high-end results with almost zero physical strain.

⁠Download the free guide to Marketing and Creativity here

Fitness is one way to protect the business long term. How to Use Personality Profiling to Help Your Photography Business with Kate Van Der Sluis looks at a very different kind of self-awareness.

Want to use LinkedIn to find commercial clients but hate the thought of sending spammy sales messages? You're not alone. This week, Sam and Marcus are joined by LinkedIn expert Craig Dean to unpack a clear, ethical, andhighly effective four-pillar strategy to turn connections into paying customers. This is essential marketing for photographers in the digital age.

This episode is packed with useful content, but we've pulled out the three essential takeaways that will most quickly boost your commercial photography business. Stop relying on luck; start implementing a clear planthat converts prospects into paying customers.

Listen to discover:

Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode

1. The Four Pillars of LinkedIn for Photographers: You'll find out the four core areas of the platform—including profile, content, and comments—that must all work together to make your direct messaging actually convert.
2. How to Craft the Perfect First Message: Learn the simple psychological technique to build instant rapport with a busy prospect, ensuring they feel noticed and are compelled to reply to your invitation for commercial photography work.
3. The Power of Opinion Content: Discover why sharing a strong, unique perspective on a topic—even if it's controversial—is essential for positioning yourself as a thought leader and attracting clients who truly value your commercial photography.

For the strategy behind those DMs, Guest Interview with LinkedIn Expert Maureen Kane is the deeper dive worth pairing with this one.

Jamie is passionate about sales strategy, LinkedIn, socialmedia, and sales training to help businesses improve their revenue and processes. Focusing on selling to different personalities! In this show, he talks about setting up an e-learning course, and we could do this as photographers. After being a podcast guest, the host asked Jamie if he wanted to make an e-learning course with him. They used software called Zenler for the course. Jamie provided the content.
When building a course, you need to think about who your target market is. And why do they need your course? You also need to think about the cost of the course.  But the real key is what the value and outcomes people are going to get from taking part in this course.

For Jamie’es e-learning course, each module contained amodule made into a video with Jamie talking over the presentation. Sam says that making the videos can put people off doing this. Jamie says to start with the end goal and think of recurring income to spur you on to create the resources. Butit does take time. Sam also suggests running some of the course modules as webinars and then recording them. These recordings can be used for the e-learning course.  This way, it’s part of your marketing.

Pricing is another challenge in working out what to charge.Introductory offers are good at the start, but then it’s also getting the affordable price. Jamie’s e-learning course also has an add-on option he sells where they can get some personal input at the end.

Sam asks what you need for an e-learning course. Jamie sayssome guides and workbooks would be good. Video, auditory and written resources for learning. It is also vital that your e-learning course is unique and different to whatever else is out there.

Jamie says creating the course is not enough. Promoting the course is a key part of the success of the course. The course will not sell itself. It’s essential to think about whether the people you already market to are the target market for your course or not.

You can find James on Linkedin here

The first Shoot to the Top Webinar is on the 2nd of April and it’s all about getting higher value clients for your business. Tofind out more and book click here.

To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every weekto ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠clickhere ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellowphotographers, guests and Sam and Marcus.

E-learning is one way to build recurring income. Retainer Models for Photographers: Turning Clients into Recurring Income looks at a more direct route to the same goal.

To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Marcus says street photography is about capturing incidentshappening around you. He also says there is so much to learn from street photography that all photographers should be doing it. He says the need to work at the moment as you see things is perfect training for other types of photography.
Equipment
A street photographer needs to be mobile and discrete. So, no huge camera bags. A camera and a lens or two. He says the lens should be 50mm or wide angle, and the photographer then needs to be close and involved with their subjects. Somestreet photographers use flash for street photography.

Location

 Marcus says it needs to be where people gather. Otherwise, it’s landscape photography.Martin Parr photographs in gas stations, country fairs and other places. Tony Ray Jonesisanother street photographer. He photographed a lot of beach towns on the East coast of Yorkshire.
How

Marcus says you need to be invisible as a street photographer.Marcus says one approach is “shooting from the hip”. So, having the camera by your waist. Marcus also thinks pre-focussing also helps.  Marcus says misdirection is another approach. He says to get your camera out walk towards them, but photograph off to the side. But with a wide-angle lens, they are still in the shot, but it doesn’t look like you are photographing them. The third option is simply to ask people’s permission to photograph them. They will very often say yes. Sam asks about the issue of photographing people without their permission. Marcussays the law is on your side as a street photographer taking photographs.
Marcus’s final approach is called “pick a spot” This approach is to find a photographic location and wait there for people to go past.

What are you looking for?
To start with, take some photographs. It doesn’t matter what, just warm up. Then, you are looking for people interacting with each other. People interact with the background or environment.

To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don't miss an episode,⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Join the⁠⁠⁠⁠Shoot to the Top Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus

Street photography teaches you to read a moment, and Don't Start Your Next Shoot Until You Master Event Photography Storytelling applies that same instinct to paid event work.

Abi and Giles have a background in film and TV. Abi as a producer. They met while working on Jonathan Creek.  Abi says she does the organising side doing the paperwork, keeping the clients happy and getting the next client while Giles does the creative stuff.

Giles started doing stills photography as an assistant in the movie industry. He then moved into being a movie cameraman. Eventually, they both got tired of the long hours in the movie industry and set up their own business. They ran the company alongside their film careers for about five years.

They now do video. Having done just stills for a long time they are now doing some video. However, they are sticking to short videos and outsourcing to filmmakers for longer work.

Marcus and Giles talk a little about equipment. Marcus says he is quite a technical geek and loves focus-stacking. This also allows him to change the look of an image later on if the client wants it. He uses a Sony mirrorless camera now and thinks they are now good. He has moved from Canon to Nikon to Sony over the years.

Sam’s asks how they get clients. Abi says word of mouth has been key for a long time. There are a lot of connections and conversations with people. Their clients tend to stay with them for a long time. Their oldest clients have been with them for over fifteen years. Once they get new clients in the studio or on location they tend to keep them. Also, they work a lot with marketing agencies and they have a high staff turnover. This works well with them as staff they have built a relationship with in one agency move to another and then they get introduced as great photographers to the new agency.

Abi spent lots of time chatting to clients over lockdown as the clients were feeling low. Her day-to-day job is keeping those connections alive. They are also always suggesting new ideas to current clients. Giles likes to run new ideas with old clients and they really like that and like trying them.

Sam asks about their approach to AI. He says it’s here and they love it and want to embrace it, but also he is keeping the enemy close. Giles did do some talks on it but stopped due to the hate mail he was getting. Giles says the generative AI is so much better if you give long prompts giving lots of technical terms to do with the lighting and style of shoot. Giles says it’s great for generating ideas so you are not staring at a blank page. It helps spark ideas.

Marcus mentions Scott Choucino of Tin House Studio who does food photography. Marcus says due to AI he is going to make his photography more organic and doing things like shooting on film. Giles thinks it’s great to go back to film. You can listen to our show on film here. But Giles thinks commercially it’s essential to stick to digital.

As final advice, Giles says to stick to your rates and value your experience. He also recommends working out how much you need to charge hourly as a minimum to survive with the lifestyle you have.

For the other side of the AI conversation, What Are AI's Weaknesses with Our Guest Who Has Studied Them, Alec Watson, is a useful reality check.

The old ways of selling are dead. Sales trainer Martyn Sloman explains why success in Commercial Photography is now about helping, not closing. Learn the non-pushy techniques you need to survive in the modern "social selling" era.

• Rule #1: The Mindset Shift: Discover the non-pushy mindset you must adopt to immediately earn client trust and redefine your Commercial Photography Sales process.

• Rule #2: The Hidden Truth: Find out the single most powerful tool for finding the truth behind a client's brief, which is the key to effective Commercial Photography Marketing.

• Rule #3: The Guaranteed Follow-Up: Learn the specific, mutual technique used to prevent quotes from being ignored and ensure your sales interaction always moves forward.

Marketing mistakes and pricing mistakes often go hand in hand. How to Decide What to Charge, Pricing for Photographers tackles the other half of that problem.

Problem: Feeling lost trying to convert contacts into paying clients? Solution: Sam breaks down the often overcomplicated concept of the Sales Funnel for Photographers, showing you how to build a clear, step-by-step system for Commercial Photography Lead Generation.

The LinkedIn Hook: Discover the specific, non-generic message you must use to connect with your target niche (e.g., solicitors) and instantly get them into your Marketing Funnel for Photographers.

The Commitment Filter: Learn the clever conversion step to filter out low-quality leads and identify the clients most likely to book a high-value shoot.

The Consistency Command: Find out why neglecting your email list sabotages all your hard lead generation work and why consistent follow-up is non-negotiable.

For a funnel problem you might not have thought about, Your Income Is at Risk: The Commercial Photography Marketing Strategy That Pays You for Stolen Images is worth hearing next.

Gillian Devine is back for round two — this time on the money already sitting in your client list that most photographers never ask for.

Sam and Gillian talk through three practical ways to earn more from the clients you already have, without anything that feels salesy or pushy.

• Why a lower-ticket offering can work alongside your premium services, and who it’s actually for
• Add-ons and upgrades Gillian has sold on top of newborn and branding packages — including wall art and a branding book
• Why saying "most other clients go for this add-on" makes people far more likely to say yes
• How subscription branding clients naturally upgrade into regular brand shoots
• Where to expand your service offering beyond photography — video, audio, gifs, social media, and more
• Why the top 10% of clients want an aspirational package, and how staying quiet after making an offer helps you close it

Small, low-pressure changes that add up to real extra income from the clients already on your books.

Gillian was hosting the business school at the Societies Convention around when this episode went live, and runs a five-day free mini-course. Find Gillian on LinkedIn.

This is the second half of a two-part conversation with Gillian. Guest Interview with Gillian Devine is where it originally started, worth catching if you haven't heard it.