Business insurance. Jargon-filled drudgery or underutilized marketing tool?
Your photography business insurance isn’t just one of the necessary administrative tasks that you’d rather not have to think about. It’s an asset you can leverage in your marketing as a way to enhance your credibility and image, and stand out to potential clients.
How (and Why) to Highlight Insurance In Your Photography Business Marketing
As of 2023 there were approximately 255,238 photography businesses in the US. According to IBIS World, the number of large portrait studios, etc. has declined with the advent of digital cameras as well. Meaning, more and more individual small businesses exist in the photography industry.
It is also estimated that over all small businesses, 29% do not carry any insurance at all. And 90% of small business owners aren’t confident that their insurance is even adequate.
Being able to confidently display and speak on your business’s insured status can therefore help you boost your image as a proactive, responsible, knowledgeable and experienced professional.
It is also estimated that over all small businesses, 29% do not carry any insurance at all. And 90% of small business owners aren’t confident that their insurance is even adequate.
Being able to confidently display and speak on your business’s insured status can therefore help you boost your image as a proactive, responsible, knowledgeable and experienced professional.
Having insurance reassures current and potential clients that there are resources available in the event that something does go awry on their big day. And when it comes to bigger events, corporate and other freelance gigs, photographers are often required to show proof of insurance before being hired.
You can get ahead of your competition by having your certificate of insurance card ready right away, without needing to be asked. But where do you start in implementing your business insurance in your marketing plan?
1. Display Your Insurance Badge
Displaying your insured status on your website and other promotional materials inspires trust in your business practices. It tells potential clients that you care about your work product, are prepared, and know what you’re doing.
Other places you can display your proof of insurance badge:
- Social media
- Ads
- Email signature
- Flyers
- Business cards
2. Include Your Insurance in Quotes and Proposals
Highlight your ability to think ahead — take initiative by proactively disclosing your insured status. Showing you are already covered could give you an edge over other applicants in the eyes of event planners or other hiring managers.
3. Leverage Your Insured Status As a Unique Selling Point
Promoting yourself as an insured professional provides peace of mind for your clients and business partners. You can include this in your advertising as a way to reassure them that if something were to happen during their event or photoshoot, you have already taken steps to help address those issues.
Anyone can claim to be reliable and trustworthy. You have proof to back that claim up. If you’ve bothered to get professional insurance, it shows you’ve done your due diligence and are a legit business.
4. Educate Your Clients
Using clear and unambiguous language, inform potential clients of the benefits of working with an insured photographer. For example, they may not realize that most wedding venues will require photographers and videographers to carry liability insurance before letting them do anything on their premises.
You can also remind them that having insurance is considered a best or standard practice in the industry, and it helps protect both you and them. In fact, your business being insured at the get-go means working with you will be both easier and less risky for them.
5. Avoid Overemphasis On Risks
On the flip side of all of this, is the concern over the appearance of risk.
It’s not unreasonable to be worried about potentially litigious clients when you’re a small business owner. Promoting your use of business insurance, however, is not an inherent invitation for lawsuits. Neither does it need to be a statement that working with you is full of risk.
To avoid the feeling that your business looks like a red flag or an invitation to a lawsuit, keep your language and tone positive when utilizing your insurance badge or discussing your coverage status. Focus on the benefits of being an insured professional over too much emphasis on all the risks that might exist or what could happen if you weren’t insured.
6. Get Cyber Liability Insurance
75% of Americans are concerned about their online privacy and the search volume for data privacy has nearly doubled since 2020. So, it’s safe to say that people are concerned about their online security.
Because of this, adding data breach coverage (aka Cyber Liability) to your freelance photographer insurance could significantly boost your appeal. Especially if you collect or store any of your clients’ information online on any device.
Adding data breach coverage to your policy shows you take your clients’ security seriously as well as that of your business. This in turn helps build trust in you and your brand.
Whether you’re a full-time wedding photographer or a freelance portrait photographer, you can work on incorporating your photography business insurance into your marketing strategy.
FAQs on How to Use Insurance in Photography Marketing
How Can Having Insurance Help Me Get More Clients?
Business insurance builds trust, displays your professionalism and commitment, meets venue requirements ahead of time, and conveys that you are knowledgeable and experienced.
How Can I Display My Insurance Badge?
Displaying your Full Frame Insurance (FFI) insurance badge is easy: Log in to your dashboard and click “My Account” in the top right. Next, under “My Profile,” choose “Add Site Seal To Your Site”. Pick a design and click “Copy Code”. Then embed the verified code onto your website, such as in a widget on the footer or your blog’s sidebar (or both) and publish.
Get detailed info about displaying your FFI insurance badge on your website on our blog.
How Do I Incorporate Insurance Into My Portfolio or Website?
You can add your insurance badge to a variety of places on your website, like your landing page or footer. You can also include a short statement on an FAQ page, an About page, or write a short blog outlining the importance and benefits of insurance.
What Kind of Insurance Do I Need to Build Trust With Clients?
To build trust with clients, you need to have a general liability policy for third party injury or property damage claims, at a minimum. Since things can go wrong that impede your ability to satisfy clients, you should also have professional liability coverage (what we call “failure to deliver”). And if you store client data online, you’ll want to have data breach / cyber liability insurance.
What Are Some Ways to Market My Photography Business?
Other ways to market your photography business include leveraging social media, local community outreach, email marketing, and/or build a website and track some basic SEO stats. Given that 55% of first brand impressions are visual, leveraging your superior skills and honing in on your personal style through the images you utilize will help boost your brand.
