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:
It's taken a lot of planning, strategising, hard work and… great photography.
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.
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.
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!
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
http://instagram.com/nordicaphoto
https://www.facebook.com/nordicaphotography
https://twitter.com/nordicaphoto
https://plus.google.com/+NordicaPhotographyStockholm/
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
hi – great so far from having a quick listen, sure i will have a lot more questions.. at one point you mentioned in wordpress you can turn off google something…?? it sort of dropped out a little on what you said can you clarify please..?
I might have been talking about Google Authorship? Can you let me know how far into the episode?
If it was Google Authorship and you have a WordPress site – you should have a Google Authorship plugin installed to let Google know that you are the author of each piece of content on your site and wherever else you publish content – other blogs, G+, blog comments etc.
The more that Google sees you are creating relevant, useful and original content, the more you will be rewarded (or your website will be) in the search engine rankings.
I think that’s what I was talking about 🙂
Paul,
Thanks for the comment. What we assume you’re referring to is this setting in your WordPress administration panel:
Settings – Reading – Search Engine Visibility
This option basically allows you to hide your website from search engines (if that’s what you want to do).
Cheers,
Cole and Jakob
Hi
Just found these podcasts, great information. Thanks a lot.
Hey Damian – glad that you found us, great to have you listening. How did you come across the podcast?
If you’d ever like to hear a particular photographer or topic covered, let me know.
I like the way you’ve laid out your website with links to great examples of what you’re talking about. Great idea.
Hello Andrew,
As always, great interview and great guests. I found the podcast in October and I have listened to all of them. I got caught up by episode 50. After fifty, I hoped there would be a bonus guest. I check in almost every day hoping for another one.
Now that I am caught up, it is time to become a premium member. I should never have waited. It has taken me 54 episodes too long. Keep up the great work. I appreciate all you do. Thank you.
Marc
Hey Marc – great to have you listening!
A bonus episode – are you trying to kill me! 🙂
I’m sure you’ll find lots of goodness in the premium area to keep you going between episodes.
Andrew,
I really liked the way they got back links to their site as a ‘part’ of their compensation. Smart!
I also liked the story behind their pricing structure. Their confidence in their prices was attractive to me.
I actually raised my prices before I even got done listening to the whole interview. I’m so tired of the “budget” shoppers. I can’t make any money at $600-$1000 a wedding. Now my range is $1000 to $3000.
So a BIG THANKS to Cole and Jacob for that little boost of confidence I needed.
I also admire the fact that they have a successful partnership for their studio. I haven’t seen or heard about too many successful partnerships so it’s refreshing to hear that they’ve reached that level.
So yeah, excellent interview, Andrew. Much appreciated
Joey Joiner
Fort Worth Photographer
USA
Nice one Joey – good to hear about the price rise.
It’s true what you say about partnerships, successful ones are difficult to come by.
I’ve been very lucky with my business partnership but there was a lot of pre planning, contracts and agreements to sign and we still didn’t manage to think of everything even with the help of a specialist solicitor.
Hi Andrew, Had a quick listen to this podcast Once again, an insightful interview. I did try to post a review on itunes but could not find out how to do it. Can you direct me to where I need to go.
thanks
Chris
Hi Chris – glad you enjoyed this episode and thanks for the attempted review.
If you get another chance, go to https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/photography-business-exposed/id620299393
Click on the “view in iTunes” button under the podcast logo on the left which will launch iTunes (which needs to be installed on your computer or device).
Once in the iTunes store, click on the “Ratings and Review” button to the right of the show logo.
Finally, click on the “write a review” button under the Customers Reviews heading.
Nice one. To comment on what Marc’s commented above. I am still trying to implement what is being talked about here in this part of the podcasts. I will one day jump into that premium side of life. Thanks to all in this interview
Glad you enjoyed the interview Joe. It’ll be great to see you in the membership area sometime – lots of good stuff there!
Hi Andrew, I posted a comment on itunes but it didn’t appear. Followed the link that you gave me but I’m not sure where it went. Certainly not where it was meant to go. Anyway, I loved the passion and enthusiasm these guys had and how they gave Nordica a life of its own. They personified it. my big takeaway is to get that passion going in my business. Loved it.
Hey Chris – thanks for the review! It’s totally normal for the review to disappear while Apple confirms you’re a real person and whatever else they do before showing your comments in iTunes. Normally it’s a day or two.
Great takeaway – looking forward to seeing your passion show!
So am I
Thank you Andrew for the Shout Out – just had time tonight to finish listening to this episode. I totally forgot about our family iTunes account was nicknamed Miss Toes LOL And thank you so much for the link on these show notes to my site. 25+ years of photojournalism experience and my first wedding is next Saturday – so looking forward to the challenge of shooting live again. Very small affair; four and a judge in a greenhouse, should be very interesting.
And please don’t apologize for getting in depth with the guests – they can put up the limits, but you are getting good useful content and that will keep us listening and saying Thank$ in one way or another. Speaking of limits, keep on keeping your quality high and I agree with you don’t add more work for yourself with enhanced podcasts at the risk of diluting the core of what you are doing here. Interviewing is not easy, and that you don’t do a long interview and then edit down to this content is impressive. Dig even deeper if you can.
Hey Rollin – my pleasure for the shout out and back-link, thanks again for the iTunes review.
Good to hear you’ll be back in the swing of things this weekend – my fingers are crossed for good weather and a great day.
Thanks for your support, I appreciate your comments. Dig deeper? I’ll be glad the interviews are via Skype and not in person! 🙂
Another great post, Andrew, Cole and Jacob. Loads of relevant information – I also run a partnership wedding photography business. Also want to expand (very original, I know 🙂 and we also think about shooting weddings individually.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Adi – another partnership operation, there’s not too many that I know of in wedding photography that aren’t husband and wife.
Considering your ambitions, I’m sure you found some great info in what Cole and Jacob shared – theirs sounds like a similar setup to what you have going on.
How these guys run a successful wedding photography business without actually speaking with the client until the day of the wedding is totally foreign to me. Perhaps because I’m old but I still find it necessary to have an initial talk with my clients. I find that this allows me to further understand them, their desires and needs. Having said this, if this works for Nordica then more power to them. Good info on this podcast.
Hi Noel, thanks for adding your comments and I’m probably a little old fashioned as well – I prefer to meet the clients before the wedding day if possible.
I guess Nordica and photographers like Kevin Mullins are reducing the time required with a client which leaves more time for other things or simply, a higher profit. Like you say, more power to them.
I think too, it has a lot to do with the style of photography being offered. With a true photojournalistic approach, meeting the clients beforehand probably doesn’t really help with the end result at all.
Love these guys and what they share about SEO. It’s a great way to start moving up Google and I’m putting a lot of what they’ve spoken about into practice. Hopefully I’ll start seeing some results soon.
In regard to SEO, these guys are definitely on a different level to most photographers I know of. I love that they take a risk and a hunch on the way social media is heading then put a ton of their eggs in that basket.
I do agree too that G+ is where things are heading, even though most of our clients aren’t their yet. By client’s, I meant those people booking wedding and portrait photographers, not other photographers.
At the very least Chris, make sure you have your Google authorship set up.
Hey Cole and Jacob,
Thanks for the great interview, I left super inspired and started my G+ page and the hidden gem in it are the communities. There are some great active communities on there, heaps better compared to Facebook Groups.
Thanks again!
Min
Yes! The G+ communities are great for learning, networking and meeting other photographers.
I’m not sure how long it will be till more of our clients are there but there’s no doubt Google will be working hard to make it happen.
[…] and Cole of Nordica Photography who I interviewed in episode 55 of the podcast are putting together the first Scandinavian wedding photography summit with […]