The Importance of Effective Writing and Storytelling – Marketing for Photographers

This chapter is an excerpt from the in-depth e-book, Creative Freelance Marketing for Photographers.

Writing effectively is vital for gaining attention in today’s world. It is a key to being able to take full advantage of many different marketing techniques.

You have to be able to clearly explain your work and your practices so people can easily understand them. Try to take the perspective of someone who knows little about your work or field. Develop your writing ability by learning from others.

The best writers read. Seek out writers who cover topics that you would like to write about. Read the best books in your field. See how other successful creatives write about themselves and their work. Follow these people, and continue to learn from what they write and create.

One of the primary purposes of any creative field is to foster an emotion or story in a viewer’s mind. It is important that what you are creating is beautiful on the surface, but it will be even more successful if a work causes the viewer to have an emotional connection with it. Stories can create that connection.

Seek out those interesting stories and use them. Stories can be about the process, the location or journey that you took to create the work, what connects you to the work, ideas behind the meaning of the work, or about an overall project that the work takes place within. A story can be about the ideas or connections that come into a viewer’s mind when experiencing the work, even if these ideas are different from what you had in mind. Your work can remind a viewer of a special place, memory, or time in their life.

People want to know about the creative behind the work, and stories will help them get to know you better. Give them a glimpse into your life. The more they know you, the more they will trust you and give your work the attention it deserves. If you can intrigue a person with a story, they will give your work a more critical eye and take you more seriously. They will start to notice things that they missed the first time around when they were not paying attention and had no background information.

To take this idea further, if a person puts a piece of art on their wall, they want to be able to talk about it and the artist behind it. The more you can connect them to it, the better. That does not mean that you have to spell out the artwork for them. Ambiguity and mystery are important in art, but you can help them get to know you better, or give them glimpses into your process and ideas.

For further education, download Creative Freelance Marketing for Photographers.