85: 25 Marketing Lessons From 2025

We share 25 hard-won marketing lessons from 2025 that helped family photographers book faster with less friction. The through-line is trust: clearer sites, local proof, simple systems, and a human voice that makes your brand easy to choose.

The Black Friday sale does include the Facebook ads small group class, the Pinterest Small Group Class, and the website small group class that are happening virtually in 2026. If you're not, you can go on the email list by getting any one of the freebies that are in my Instagram link in bio and it'll put you on the email list

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Setting The Stage For 2025 Lessons

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everybody. Okay, so this episode is going to be 25 Marketing Lessons from 2025. Um, so 2025 has been a very interesting year. I feel like definitely there's been shifts in how families are finding photographers in their buying behavior um and evolving content habits on both the part of the searcher, the family, and the content creator, the photographer, as well as um kind of the general consensus on what matters when it comes to family photography. Um, so I'm just gonna go over these 25, and I don't want it to be a 25,000-hour episode, so there I'm not gonna go super in-depth in each one, but I just think it's important to chat about some things that I've learned and tweaked and been able to give clarity when teaching photography. So, or sorry, I've not been teaching photography. Actually, that's really funny. Someone asked me, why don't you teach photography? Because I do not know how to do teach like I I know how to work the three buttons on my camera. And one time someone was like, Could you look at my Canon and DMPG? And I was like, I nope, couldn't do it. I have no idea. I can't. I have I my brain works like this. I get the information that I need, and I'm simply not curious about the 47 other buttons on the camera. I and I can't therefore cannot teach someone else how to use them. I can teach, you know, light and that sort of stuff, which oh side note, I might this year, just for fun, do one more round of golden hour school, which was a class that I did, I think two years ago, where I basically just taught how to shoot in golden hour light, which I feel like is um maybe this is like a unpopular opinion, but I do feel like golden hour,

Trust Over Aesthetics On Your Website

SPEAKER_00 1:59

especially the transition from pre-Golden to golden hour to blue hour, is the toughest light that you can shoot in. Okay, side note, distracting myself. All right, so first I kind of broke it up into sections. So section one is about trust. So home page clarity was a better metric of conversion for me and most of my students than fancy design. So being clear is very, very much more important than being trendy or fancy or pretty. Second one is local proof, familiar landmarks, and location clarity increase booking speed. And that's kind of what I like in the membership. I have these, um, when I send out all these marketing ideas, as you know, at the beginning of every week. And then I have real trends like real R-E-E-L, like trying to just I just choose one facet of social media trends that are going on if someone wants to participate in a trend. And usually one of those is geared towards becoming a showcase of your local town. So that's kind of what it is. It's like people are grasping for trust and familiarity, and you can use your your location for that. Number three is real client voices outperformed polished brand messaging. So built it's faster, according to what I've seen and other people's experience, to build trust off of literally screenshots of uh response positive responses to galleries than paying a copywriter to formulate the perfect about me paragraph. Do I think the about me paragraph matters? Yes, but I don't think that's necessarily where all the trust is built. In fact, just to go on an about me rant, about me page rant, um, majority of people think like I have a picture of me and a perfectly curated copy paragraph that explains what I do, what I love, all these things. And then the elements that actually build trust are often completely missing from that page, like screenshots of reviews or positive text messages or um more gallery images or more about your process. Um, so that's been, I feel like we are moving away from like people thinking if you get an extremely polished copy paragraph, then you have that box checked off for that page. Um, fourth one is photographers who, and unfortunately, this is gonna be unfortunate for some people, but photographers who let people see their personality booked warmer clients with fewer steps. So I know that some of you don't want that to be true because you want to stay away from you, you want to separate your photography from your yourself, right? Um, but I think in the chase, I think chasing, if you're gonna chase anything in your marketing, don't let it be views, don't let it be followers, don't let it be trends, let it be trust. That could be like the theme for 2026. And the fastest way to build trust is to let people get to know you.

Personality And Real Client Voices Win

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Okay, so section two is formatted around search and discovery. And obviously, there's been huge shifts in this, which I'm trying my darndest to stay on top of. So number five is Google's AI, Google's AI overview pushed photographers to structure content for answers rather than keywords. And this is what we've been talking about in the membership is like you the way that you used to write blog posts, and it's so funny because I see people even selling um like SEO training for family photographers or any type of photographers, and I go in and there's like no mention still of AI overviews. Um, so the way search did a 180 this year, and that's really hard, especially if you put a lot of money and effort into traditional SEO. It's just a different ballgame now. Um, so number six is local search mattered more. Things like Google Business Profile, QA, and service descriptors, those things matter way more than um like Seattle family photographer being your keyword. So it's just again, it's just a shift. Uh seven, Pinterest traffic improved for post. That's been true for me. So Pinterest, so it's been really funny because Pinterest is trying to figure out who it is and it's frustrating people right now in some capacities, but in other capacities, I feel like they've increased their searchability. And so I've seen more hits from Pinterest this year than last year, which I found to be interesting because if you talk to people about Pinterest, a lot of people feel frustrated with Pinterest. However, I noticed that like for my daughters, we don't do social media, but they're allowed to have Pinterest, and like their generation loves Pinterest, and so I feel like it's not going anywhere, and it would be very short-sighted, like to be like, okay, well, some people are annoyed at it, or it wasn't Pinterest of 2015, and so we're just gonna toss the whole app. Um, it is not a dead app. So just keep that in mind. Eight is short form video with strong story performed better than trendy audio, and I would I would preface this by saying it it it performed better in terms of building trust. Like, yes, trendy audio is helpful, but I feel like it really pulls in people who are just following a trend and not necessarily tapping into your messaging. Okay, so number nine is that families are using a mix of channels now to find photographers. Like if you were to go to back, even go, if you were to go to back, even a few years, Instagram I feel like would be the main way beyond Google. And now you have people using TikTok, you have people using threads. There's like a bunch of different channels that people are doing and utilizing to find family photographers. Um, and that does not mean that you need to burn yourself out being everywhere all at once, but that does mean that if you wanted to build a presence on even like YouTube shorts, you could do that because families attention span is not just focused on Instagram. People have diversified. There is a lot of frustration about Instagram. So if you wanted to s if you wanted to stop um Instagram in 2026 and swing your focus over to TikTok, that's not an outlandish thing. Whereas in 2019, when I got on TikTok, it was literally children. So I was like, ooh, that there's no moms on here. That is not true at all. Ma the

Search Shifts: AI Overviews And Local SEO

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I feel like moms my age, like 30, I'm not 30, I'm 40, but like 25 to 55 women are like huge on TikTok in terms of viewers. So that's just an example of a trend that's becoming even more solidified. Okay, section three is consistency is built through systems. That's the main overall focus. So number 10 is that photographers who worked on weekly mark marketing routines stayed visible even through the busy seasons. That consistency helped them to have for to have their marketing just feel like part of a flow instead of an ebb and flow. Number 11 is that a three-layer ecosystem, which I had a whole podcast uh episode on this, which is trust, visibility, conversion, creates a simple path to follow that you can use to survive those ebbs and flows. So that consistency of focusing on that ecosystem that only cares about getting visibility, building trust, and then converting the people who are the right clients for you, that's the sole focus, not views, trending followers, which I feel like is where a lot of people are stuck. And the way I know that is because still in the year of 2025, people are joining those pods for Instagram comments. There is like literally not not only is that against Instagram terms of use, so you're putting yourself at risk, it also goes to the heart of like what are you doing? What are you looking for when you do that? You're you the the majority of family photographers that I'm that I mentor have such a limited bandwidth for marketing and you're spending your time commenting on 19 other people's family photography posts so that you'll get 19 comments on yours. And if you're a hobbyist and you don't need you don't you're just doing it for fun and you want all all eyes are good on your photography, or if you're an educator, go for it. But like, is that a good use of your time? And if you get to the psychology behind why you're doing that, um, I think you would be much better off not having 19 photographers from all over the world commenting on all of your posts and instead having two to three local moms commenting on your posts. That's sort of a mindset shift that I think is really, really important. Okay, 12 batch creating content for the next season can keep you out of panic mode. So this looks like setting yourself up for success, meaning we just finished fall. How can you set your how can you set fall 2026 you up for success? You have a folder of fall behind the scenes 2025, you have a folder of things you've learned, of things you want to try. You're setting yourself up for success now. Those are like really, really good lessons to learn. Uh, number 13 is giving yourself data runways in order to test things and not harshly judging yourself on your first failure. That that has been huge. Like there's people who who are like, I wasn't sure about, you know, I wanted to start a series. The first series I did got no views. And then I'm on like series entry number five about whatever it is newborn sessions, maternity sessions, and I'm and I just got a booking and they said they love my series. Like sticking things through without judging yourself and silencing yourself,

Multi‑Channel Discovery Beyond Instagram

SPEAKER_00 11:47

like actually giving yourself a six-week runway to try marketing, massive lesson. Okay, section four is about offers and then general booking behavior that's evolved. So, number 14 is clear timing, like like released dates in chunks outperform endless availability. So that would look like my whole year is wide open and I have a million dates available. That's less successful than saying than dropping your seasons or chunks of a year and what's available in that because it's easier for the client to get excited about it. It's hard to get excited about something that's all year long, despite there being many, many differences between the seasons that are not addressed in a in a in a ongoing, rolling, non-seasonal booking strategy. So that leads into number 15. Seasonal messaging, not discounts, can create urgency. So if the season is coming, there's a natural timeline that's not inauthentic. Spring will be here in X number of times of X number of days. I only have X number of times available. I only have X number of slots. Instead of saying like the only way I can create urgency is like limited sessions at this discount. So like that sort of seasonal uh bundles, thinking about your your your year and seasons, dropping the availability and marketing just to that season gives more clarity to you because you know what you're talking about and you're only talking about one thing, and to your potential client because it allows them time to get excited about what you're offering. Okay, so micro offers and different, like um, trying new and different things can help support your slower months instead of just trying to do the same thing that you're doing all year round. So if you have a slower month, sorry, this was number 17, identifying some something slightly different that you can market about in an excited way can help carry you through. Instead of being like, I offer, let's say, newborn sessions and outdoor sessions. And so when the cold months and and icky rainy months or whatever are here, I only have to rely on um newborn sessions. You can come up with a winter offer that's something new and something different, and that's the only time of year that you offer that. So you can start thinking about your business like it doesn't, if you offer did like if you offer micro mini, micro mini, okay, this is how my brain works. I'm coming up with stuff. So if you offer like micro mini personality portraits in a studio one Saturday a month all the way through winter,

Systems, Consistency, And Data Runways

SPEAKER_00 14:30

you do not have to carry that offer all the way through the year. You can decide however you want to run things. So if you need to create a unique offer to get you through slow season, you can do that. It's not gonna make the rest of your work just because somebody is able to get like a a two-headshot personality portrait of their child under 10 only during the winter months, does not mean that that same family won't pay a thousand dollars for an outdoor shoot. So I think that's really important to not feel like sometimes people get stuck in in pricing in their head and think like they can't do anything outside of what they already decided. And I feel like to get through a slower season, you can come up with an offer that you think will work for that season. Okay, number 18, families did book earlier when they saw limited spots plus consistent visibility, and those two things are built on the foundation of a seasonal marketing plan. So that's that's data that I've seen across the board. And I've interviewed a few people and been like, hey, I saw that you released this. I saw you released your snow minis in August. What was that like? What happened? And the first year they did it, it was a little bit quieter. Now people know what to look for. People who've done it in the past come back. They're constantly talking about openings and what's available and getting people excited. And those sessions aren't taking place for four months. But clients work clients are smart enough to see that there's something that they want, and then you build trust with them about why it's important, and then you offer the ability for them to easily grab that thing. That's kind of a winning structure in terms of booking. Okay, section five is about community and collaboration and how those two things can grow your impact as a local business. So, number 19, local partnerships with parks, coffee shops, flower farms, and boutiques increased reach, especially with Instagram's collaboration tool. So that's not something to discount. Uh, 20. Photographers who publish resource style content became known as community helpers. So many of us are still invisible in our local community. Maybe super famous on Instagram, maybe like, oh my gosh, I love it, so many, so many accolades on and then nobody knows you exist in your town. So that mindset shift is so important. 21 conversations built in public spaces are a fast way to build trust than just posting once. So if you can get yourself in just one room a quarter where you're with real people, that's going to have an impact on your business, especially if you have practiced your elevator pitch, how you talk about your business, and how you focus in those spaces on how you're bringing, you're bringing um, what is the word I'm looking for? Not not rely, not resources, but like I guess resources, how you're bringing help to other people in that room. If you go in there in a way where you're like, how can I help the other people in this room? I have a really clear way to talk about my business and I'm excited to talk about it. That's a really good recipe for if you find yourself in a room with other local people. And I do feel like everyone once a quarter should try to find themselves in a room like that. Okay, section six is this is the one that you guys are gonna like, but creators who leaned into their own personality stood out. So if you think about photographers that you follow as

Seasonal Offers And Booking Behavior

SPEAKER_00 18:00

a photographer, which you follow people differently as a photographer, following another photographer than the other person does, but think back to people who were entertaining, fun, made you laugh, feel connected, you feel like you kind of know them. Think back to those people, and chances are that potential clients feel that way about them too. So number 22 is again behind the scenes and process telling process storytelling performed better than highlight reels. And I believe that will continue into 2026. So people don't need to see that your life is perfectly curated to believe that you can produce highly curated images for their family, like images that look way better than an iPhone. I think that sometimes can mess with people's heads. 23, sharing your values, your quirks, your creative perspective makes you memorable. Remember, marketing is all about visibility. So you so if you pick one thing that you focus on in 2026, that's a side side quest that you're gonna talk about that just has to do with you personally, whether I've I've talked about there's a million of these ideas: books you read, music you like, workouts you're doing, walking your dog more, exploring your town, friendships you're building, something personal that you're working on, those things do, whether you like it or not, make you memorable. And you can you could see that if you knew a local photographer and then she started a little side quest of hiking every and you let's say you guys were in the same town, right? And she started a little side quest of taking her dog on a new hike every single weekend, because you're local and you're interested in that area, you would remember that person more so than if all you ever saw from them was a highlight reel of uh the session they just did. Okay, let me see. 24. This is the same, but even everyday simple life content can improve connections and booking. So those are really should have been the same, but it's just true. Like, I know that it's uncomfortable to think about sometimes of like there's I don't want to, you know, people are like, I don't want to share too much of my life, I want to keep it separate. Part of it is that we're all personally victimized by the way that Instagram makes us feel. So the first step is trying to disconnect from that and not create in a space of comparison, but create in a space of like you you may need your business to work. Like, that's the bottom line. You may need this income, which most of the people that I talk to do. So, what's it worth in terms of your level of uncomfortability? Like, what is it worth to build a little more connection faster? Like, that's a question that so many people ask me. They're like, I have, you know, sessions that are available and they haven't booked. What do I do? And I'm like, what are you doing for marketing right now? And they're like, well, I posted them on Instagram and I'm like, okay, well, let's think about how you could build local trust fast. Instagram's like posting generally, Instagram is like one of the last things on is you'd be better off writing blog posts that are hyper local. If you're just posting on Instagram all the work you've done, that's that's like low on the list in terms of grabbing real solid, available to build trust local attention. The work that your energy you're putting into marketing is actually low on that list when you're just posting on Instagram, as opposed to coming up with all kinds of ways to think if I needed someone in my neighborhood to know my business exists, how would you do that if you couldn't talk to them in person? And for a lot of you people, a lot of you people, you could talk to them in person. You could find events you could go to, you could, you could plug into things, you could create your own group. You could locate like five creative business-owning women in your town and meet once a month to just chat. That that's gonna be a better source of, and then at the end of those meetings, you say you have a rule that everyone's gonna go around and say what they're looking for and what they're trying to book right now, what what's needed for their own creative practice, and then you can all you can have then four other humans in your town on the hunt for potential clients for you. That's gonna be a better use of your time than just S family in the park. You know what I mean? Okay, so number 25, messaging. So

Micro Offers To Bridge Slow Months

SPEAKER_00 22:10

this goes into this has a few different facets. Messaging that shows confidence and clarity attracts aligned clients. So this is I hate the word, I hate the word ideal clients, but I do kind of like the idea of an aligned client. Ideals too difficult, ideals too weird, it feels too like they're perfect. It's it's that how you can't, nobody can connect to your business if you don't let your business be connectable. That's the bottom line. No one can say, this is for me, this is what I'm looking for, this is what I've been waiting for. No one can say any of those sentences if your business is just a boring little ball that's rolling around on Instagram and every once in a while it like rolls pot rolls by people's perception at 400 miles an hour because that's our attention span. How are you making it fun? How are you excited? How are you showcasing what's important about your work? How are you bringing people into the story? All of these things. Confidence and clarity. Confidence doesn't have to mean that you're the best photographer. Hello, I just told you all that I couldn't teach a photography class because I know exactly three buttons on my camera. Like there's male photographers who would just simply pass away, knowing that I don't know every button. But that doesn't affect my confidence because there's no better person in this world to run Fiona Marga photography other than Miss Fiona Margo herself, which is me, which is who is doing this work. And I am the one. No one is coming to do it for me. I don't have a marketing assistant budget. And even if I did, it would be really hard for that person to portray my artist process on my behalf. So then let's talk about the word clarity. A lot of you guys are still trying to create a business that is for everyone. Get clear on what you actually want to do and invite people into that very specific, very clear stories. I love to photograph adventurous, playful families in pretty light in better than average locations. That is not, I like to photograph everyone at their mom at the local park at 1 p.m. I am not that. This is what I am, this is what I love. So you can get really clear on that, and then you can get excited to bring people in. And if I had any tweak for your energy going into 2026 marketing, that would be it. What do you want to do? Really decide, lean in, come up with a seasonal marketing plan that you can consistently show up to excitedly talk about and bring people into the story and get clear on who that is for and who that is not for. Like I had a session recently with you're not gonna guess who showed up. It was a grumpy dad. And I felt like creatively at the end, I feel like I'm hit by a bus. That's how it feels to me when I'm like, I have this mom and her kiddos, and she's playful and excited, and the dad's standing there with hands in his pockets saying physical words that sound like this. This

Community Partnerships And Local Presence

SPEAKER_00 25:20

is a sentence this person said. This is awkward. For who, sir? You're who's making awkward? You have mom here rolling around playing, snuggling with her kids, and you're standing there with her hands in your pockets. So I know that's actually my fault. Because I'm somehow, despite my best efforts, not being clear enough about the fact that I don't want that person there. So it's not their fault. There, and I and I feel for mom because she could have just said, you know, I plan this, here's your outfits, wear this, show up. I need to be more clear, and that's why I think for 2026, I'm actually gonna create a welcome video. That's my new thing. I want to have like a little video that goes out in my email that just says, like, hey, I'm Fiona. I'm so excited to meet you as a reminder, blah-b-do-ba-ga-boo. Because it's my business. You know, this is my business. I I purposely no longer work for anyone else because I want to make the rules, so I better freaking make them. You know what I mean? Okay, hope you guys have a good week. I will not be here next week. I will be back in two weeks. Um, in the meantime, the Black Friday sale does include the Facebook ads small group class, the Pinterest Small Group Class, and the website small group class that are happening virtually in 2026. It's full it's over the course of a month. The Pinterest class is shorter because it doesn't take that long to get going on Pinterest. Um, so if you're interested in those, keep an eye on my own Instagram and I'll try to send an email out if you're on the email list. If you're not, you can go on the email list by getting any one of the freebies that are in my Instagram uh link in bio and it'll put you on the email list. Okay, have a good week.