Why You Might Not Be Getting Booked for Jobs
I know how utterly frustrating it can be to feel like you’re “doing all the things” but still not getting any bookings for photography jobs. It sucks, but I’m here to help. Today we’re going to cut to the chase, and look at a few reasons why you might be missing out on bookings for jobs.
You’re Not Replying To Emails Fast Enough:
This one might sound really obvious, but how quickly are you getting back to people? Be honest. If it’s taking you more than 24h to reply to people’s job enquiries, you’re probably losing out on work. Things move really quickly in the fashion industry, and often you won’t be the only one being approached to bid for jobs (it’s usually 3-5 photographers I’ve found). You want to be the person getting back to the client first, if you can! I know how much it sucks to feel like you’ve got to be glued to your inbox, but I make a point to check my emails every hour or so during the working week. On the weekends, I check less, but that’s also because there are far fewer emails being sent out. I’ll check my emails on the weekends once around lunch time, and once in the evening, and that’s it. If anything has come through (which is rare) I’ll take 5 minutes to send a reply. Anything else that isn’t urgent, I leave till Monday to answer.
Also, don’t forget to check your junk mail folder once a day. I never used to, and one day realised that I was missing out on SO many important replies because they were going to junk!
Your Website Is A Bit of a Mess:
Your website should be treated like your home online. It’s where people will go when they’re checking you out, and wondering whether to hire you or not. A lot of people question whether you even need a website these days with Instagram being so popular. My take on it is this: you have no control over Instagram. They could change their layout tomorrow, and you’d have no say. They could accidentally delete your account, and you’d have no say. You do, however, have total control over your website, and how that looks.
Make sure that your website is easy to navigate, has an easy to use and simple contact form, your email address is listed (and your phone number is recommended as well). Try to limit the tabs in your header to 8, and make sure that your site is working well on mobile as well as desktop. Check your analytics - you’ll probably find that over 50% of your traffic is coming from mobile!
You’re Not Niched Down Enough:
Are you still offering weddings, portraits, branding shoots, and editorial fashion shoots? As much as I know it feels like that’s the logical thing to do, it’s actually having the opposite effect. By trying to serve lots of different people, you end up not being able to serve any of them as well as you could. When someone is looking to hire a photographer, they’re generally looking for someone who is an expert in “that thing.” In our case, brands are looking to hire fashion photographers. If you’re happy just working with very small start ups, then you might be able to just about get away with it… but I know that most of you reading this dream of shooting campaigns, lookbooks and editorials for some of the biggest brands in the world.
Sadly, if you ever stand a chance of shooting for those major brands, you need to specialised in JUST fashion. You can’t have a website which is a bit of fashion, a bit of portraits, and a bit of weddings… I guarantee that they’ll take one look at your site and not consider you as far enough along in your career to be an expert in fashion photography.
Try this: take down your other offerings for just one month, and see how it goes? Drag those pages into the “not listed” section of your site, so that if you change your mind after one month, you can drag them back! Easy.
You’re Not Pitching:
There are literally hundreds upon thousands of photographers listed on the internet. It would truly be naive to think that every brand you want to work with will magically discover you via a Google search. The odds are just not in our favour! Want to know how to increase your odds of being hired? You reach out to the people you want to work with, and TELL them about you and your work. Pitching directly to brands means that you no longer leave it to chance, and hope and pray that brands will find you. Instead you’re taking matters into your own hands (which feels really empowering, by the way!) and making the work happen for yourself.
As much as we’d all love to be able to sit back and let the enquiries roll in, when you’re getting started, the likelihood of that happening is slim. You need to be putting yourself out there to massively increase your chances of getting hired.
The good news is that if you want to learn how to pitch effectively, my online course “Pitching With Confidence” is coming back soon! Till then, you can download my free email pitching template here:
You’re Mindset Is Getting In Your Way:
This last one is a big one, and by no means should it be discounted. The reality is that a reason you might not be getting hired is simply because you’re struggling with mindset blocks. I’m talking things like:
Thinking that there is too much competition out there.
Not believing that your work is strong enough.
Feeling like you’re “rude and imposing” if you reach out to a brand directly.
I could honestly go on and on. Limiting beliefs are possibly the BIGGEST reason why you’re not getting hired, and there is so much that you can do to overcome them. If you’d like to learn more about overcoming limiting beliefs, here are some resources that I’ve used myself, which have massively helped me.
Books I recommend:
