Early on in this interview with Cole and Jacob from Nordica Photography, I asked if the secret to photography business success was creative marketing or great photography. I'm not really sure I received a real answer but I have strong suspicions that whatever these guys tackle as a team, they were bound for success.

Why that assumption?

Because of the strategies they shared about their approach to social media, SEO, wedding photography and networking since starting Nordica.

It's often been said on the Photo Biz Xposed podcast and by countless marketers and successful business operators that one of the best things you can do to stand out from the crowd is do the opposite to what everyone else in your niche is doing. Not only did Cole and Jacob do exactly that, they share how they did it and why they took the approach they did in this interview.

Not only did they shoot for little or no fees when starting out, they concentrated on shooting events outside the wedding space for very specific reasons. They put together great content for popular blogs but not in the wedding space. A few years down the track, their approach has definitely paid off but a few things have changed since then, we cover that too.

Here's some more of what we cover:

  • Forming a partnership and working together as a wedding photography team
  • Marketing for success – what that means in “real life” for two marketing experts ready to take on the world of wedding photography right after college
  • Networking outside your target market and how it can boost your profile fast
  • Getting known quickly to make a name for your new business
  • Using social media creatively and strategically to separate yourself from the crowd
  • Shooting for free (or cheaply) to get your work out there
  • Branding and rebranding, who to hire and when is the right time to bring in the big guns
  • Doubling your prices then doubling them again to be taken seriously, will it work for you too
  • Building a business brand (not the names and reputations of the shooters behind the brand) to build a real business not simply a personal reputation and why Cole and Jacob are taking this approach with Nordica Photography
  • Ranking for the 1st position in Google for a super competitive keyword phrase – how they did it in 12 months and the tactics they used
  • Social media changes and adapting as you go to stay ahead of the competition
  • Creating content and why it's so important to getting found through the search engines
  • Being resourceful in building a portfolio in the early days of your business and what you can do with only a few weddings under your belt
Following this episode, I'll be surprised if you're not looking at your content marketing, social media and even your pricing strategies. It was very easy to hear that Cole and Jacob are by no means where they are by accident.

It's taken a lot of planning, strategising, hard work and… great photography.

Nordica Photography Interview

What's on Offer for Premium Members

From the main interview, you've heard that Cole and Jacob place a huge amount of importance on being found in the search engines organically. To do that takes a lot of content, plenty of back links and a well thought out SEO strategy.

You'll also be aware that things are moving fast and constantly changing in the world of online marketing and SEO. In the extra audio for Premium Members, Cole and Jacob go into detail about their SEO efforts, what has worked, what's not working anymore and most importantly, that their plans are going forward – specifically, which basket they are placing most of their eggs in and why.

Nordica Photography Interview

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview with Cole and Jacob of Nordica Photography, I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you'd like to implement or learnt from what they had to share? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you'd like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

If you'd like an easy way to show the guys your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically and let them know you're listening: https://photobizx.com/nordica.

iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs

Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews and each week I'm excited to see what you've had to say about the podcast and am usually blown away by the comments and reviews. This week was no exception with 3 fantastic reviews. A big thanks this week to Miss Toes from the USA who I believe is Rollin from RoHu Photography, Ahmad Elfarram of Knight Image Photography in Canada and Adrian Miller from the UK.

Photo Biz Xposed iTunes Reviews

Sincerely, thanks so much for your rating and review, I appreciate the time you've taken and it's a big help for the show. It's these iTunes reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. If you have the time and are happy to leave an honest rating and review, head over to iTunes.

Don't feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask. Don't be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.

Get in Touch or Leave a Voicemail Message

If you'd like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at https://photobizx.com/facebook – I'd love to hear from you!

Nordica Photography Interview

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

http://nordicaphotography.com

http://instagram.com/nordicaphoto

https://www.facebook.com/nordicaphotography

https://twitter.com/nordicaphoto

https://plus.google.com/+NordicaPhotographyStockholm/

Nordica Photography Interview

That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

If you've been enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to tell another photographer about it – it could be in a Facebook Group you're a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter.

If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: https://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew