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How Do I Grow My Photography Business? Use SEO to Shoot for the Sky 

 December 12, 2016

By  Pascal Depuhl

How Does OWN IT Gold Ambassador Pascal Depuhl Grow His Photography Business? Use SEO to Shoot for the Sky

Behind the scene shots play a large role in the use of SEO
Photo by Gilberto Salazar

Meet our more recent Gold Ambassador here in OWN IT — Miami-based photographer Pascal Depuhl[Achieving that has much to do with how I use SEO.]

After falling into shooting images on a whim as a teen, Pascal honed his art over a number of years before starting his own company about a decade ago. Now he boasts an impressive lineup of clients, including National Geographic, SeaRay and Mars thanks to constant hard work and dedication to his craft.

We chatted with Pascal about the first big job that launched his career, how he learned to stand out in a saturated industry and the secret sauce for keeping your happy customers coming back for me. [Much of my success has to do with how I use SEO.]

Read on to hear his story!


Consistent branding across channels is important when you use SEO

Name: Pascal Depuhl

Business: Photography by Depuhl

Started: 2004

How did you start your business?

I’ve been getting paid for my photography since my late high-school years. I began assisting and apprenticing after college for four years [Read more about that in “This phone call made my career.” BTW a blog post is a great way to use SEO.] and got my first full-time job in 1996, but I only launched my company in 2004. I honestly don’t know what first drew me to photography! I was saving money to buy a mountain bike and ended up walking into a store and picking up a camera instead.

I opened up my own shop out of necessity. I had gotten laid off from two full-time photography jobs in 12 months and didn’t want to have to rely on someone else to earn my livelihood.

Who was your very first customer?

A friend of my dad had an ad agency that needed photos for one of their clients. I was a senior in high school when I got that job, and the budget for the whole thing — including travel expenses, food, lodging, film, processing, my time, and equipment — was a little over $1,750 dollars.

My dad’s friend told me he didn’t care how long I stayed in Israel to photograph, as long as I didn’t go over budget. I was there for a month!

When did you know your business was going to work?

I got an unsolicited email from a company that provided a retouching service to photographers. I realized that they found my business online and were looking to sell me their service [To be honest at that time I did not know much about how to use SEO]. I was so excited because I’d spent absolutely zero money on advertising, yet someone who didn’t know me figured out I was a photographer based on information that was out there online.

Today, what is your most effective means of getting new customers?

Everything I do, from writing a blog to keeping an active social media presence on sites like Instagram and Twitter, from putting on workshops to volunteering and being deeply involved in the local small business community [all good examples of how I use SEO to build my online brand], is done with …[nextpage title=”read more”]

… SEO in mind. For the last few years, my business has ranked first on page one of the organic Google search results. Not a week goes by where I don’t get leads from that. [That’s the proof I’m looking for to measure, that I use SEO effectively.]

The second most effective marketing trick I learned was to have my elevator speech down. I need my business to stand out, so here’s how I introduce myself when people ask what I do for a living: “I’m a mind changer.”

Try to forget me now.

Sunrise run was shot on a job for a client, reusing the image online is an example of how I use SEO

How do you price your services?

A lot of factors go into determining my pricing. The base is obviously the cost of doing business. Then it’s my time, how the images and videos will be used and what the market can bear.

Since I sell myself not just as a technician who pushes a button, but as someone who creates and produces mind-changing visual content, the main thing that the pricing itself does is weed out clients I’m not a good fit for.

What has been the biggest surprise so far after starting your own business realizing that people forget?

I had an Art Director I worked with every day for years. We really enjoyed working together. About two years after I had gone out on my own and was struggling to find business, we ran into each other. She said she’d totally forgotten about me and that she’d been working with a client I’d be perfect for.

It was totally my fault — I wasn’t reaching out to my potential customers. That was probably the biggest turning point in how I market myself. [At that point I realized that I had much to learn about how to use SEO.]

Consistent use of imagery is a big factor on how I use SEO

What does a typical day look like for you?

I can find myself filming at 10,000 feet elevation in 25-below-zero temperatures in the mountains of Afghanistan one day and be writing a blog post for a national photographic society the next.

Or, I might be interviewing a 70-year-old pecan farmer in New Mexico another day and be figuring out how to automate the processes of my small business the next. There’s really no set schedule!

How do you juggle other responsibilities and interests outside of your business?

Being my own boss means I work long and hard, often deep into the night, but it also affords me the opportunity to take time to get involved in my kids’ schools, to volunteer at my church, to take a week off, and cruise the Bahamas on a boat with just my family.

On one hand, I have hundreds of bosses — every one of my clients — and on the other hand, I have just one. Me!

If you could go back in time, what’s the one thing you would do differently when starting your business?

I would have started helping people remember my business earlier. That first year was tough when I was still naive enough to believe that everyone who knew me was just going to call and hire me.

My clients are the lifeblood of my company and, as we all know, it’s a lot easier and cheaper to keep an existing customer than find a new one. Want to know the secret to a happy client? Under-promise and over-deliver.


This article was first published on Own It. A social network of small businesses sponsored by Intuit on December 9th, 2016.

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Pascal Depuhl


Miami product photographer, video producer, cinematographer and chief mindchanger at Photography by Depuhl

I love to share the knowledge I've gained over the past two decades. Catching light in motion.

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