Top 3 Ways Photographers Can Use AI to Market Their Work
If you’ve ever talked to me, you probably know I live in two worlds. By day, I work in marketing, and by night and on weekends, I’m out with my camera building my photography business.
For the longest time, I kept those worlds separate. But the more AI tools have shown up in my day job, the more I’ve realized the same playbook I use for marketing campaigns at work can save photographers a ridiculous amount of time on their own businesses. So I figured it was time to combine the two worlds and share what’s actually been working for me.
We spend so much time perfecting our shots, editing late into the night, and building our portfolios. But how often do we actually sit down and think about how to get our work in front of people? It’s honestly the part most photographers I know hate the most.
Whenever I bring up using AI to help with marketing, I get hit with the same kinds of questions:
Isn’t AI just going to replace us?
Won’t my content sound fake and robotic?
What tools do I even start with?
Of those three concerns, the most common one I hear is that people are scared their voice will get lost. But in reality, AI isn’t there to replace you, it’s there to handle the boring stuff so you can focus on shooting and connecting with clients.
I always recommend my photographer friends to start small and work your way up, and pretty soon you’ll have a marketing workflow that runs in the background while you’re out with your camera.
Isn’t AI just going to replace us?
Won’t my content sound fake and robotic?
What tools do I even start with?
My Go-To Tool: Claude
Quick note before the top 3, because the tool you pick matters.
My go-to is Claude (by Anthropic). I’ve tried pretty much all of them, and Claude wins on the two things that matter most for marketing work: the writing actually sounds like a human wrote it, and it nails voice matching when I feed it my old captions or emails. Other tools have that giveaway AI cadence and flatten everything into the same generic voice.
That’s it. Pick your tool, then put it to work.
The top 3 tips in my book, pulled straight from what I do in my marketing day job and applied to photography, are really about getting your time back so you can focus on the work that actually matters.
1) Captions and Social Posts
This is the easiest place to start, and honestly the one that saves you the most time on a daily basis.
You just got back from a shoot, you have 30 keepers, and now you need to write captions for Instagram, Pinterest, and maybe a quick LinkedIn post. Sitting there staring at a blinking cursor at midnight, trying to come up with something clever, do it the easy way!
Drop the image into Claude, give it some context about where you were and what you were feeling, and ask for a few caption options in your voice. The whole point of this is to liberate yourself from the parts of marketing that feel like a chore.
The trick from my day job: feed Claude a few of your old captions first so it actually sounds like you. We do this at work all the time with brand voice, and it works just as well for your personal brand. Don’t just copy whatever it gives you, treat it like a starting point and edit it until it sounds right.
Our daily lives as photographers are already so packed, so spending 10 minutes on captions instead of an hour is a win you’ll feel every single week.
2) Leave the SEO Fear at Home!
This is one of the biggest opportunities for photographers, and it’s crucial to growing your business long term.
Leave your fear of writing blog posts at home, because that’s where most photographers lose. Don’t be afraid of SEO just because it sounds technical!
I’m always asked if writing blog posts is even worth it anymore, and my response is always the same, “What’s the worst that can happen?”. In my day job, we obsess over content that ranks because we know a single well-optimized post can drive traffic for years. The same logic applies to your photography business, a single blog post about a venue you shot at or a city you photographed can bring you inbound leads long after you hit publish.
If you’re stuck, don’t panic. Just:
Open up Claude
Give it your rough notes about the shoot
Have it draft you a structured post with headings and meta description
Go back in and add your actual opinions, the lighting details only you would know, and the honest takes that make it sound like a real person wrote it
This is exactly where Claude’s writing quality pulls ahead. The drafts come back sounding like a blog, not a content mill. Don’t let writer’s block ruin your shot at ranking on Google!
3) Get Out and Pitch!
Get out of the inbound bubble and say hi to potential clients (in the right setting).
A lot of the time you’ll be photographing in cities or venues where editors, planners, and brands are looking for photographers just like you, and they have no idea you exist. So, get out and send a thoughtful pitch email and try to land a new gig.
Last year I was working on outreach to a few local venues, and I was dreading writing 20 different personalized emails. This is the exact same problem we solve at work for B2B outreach campaigns, so I opened up Claude, fed it the venue’s website and my portfolio context, and got solid drafts in minutes.
I had a great response rate and ended up booking work I wouldn’t have had time to chase otherwise.
Expand your horizons by sending pitches your usual self wouldn’t have the time to write (within limits, don’t spam people).
Wrapping Up
As a result, by following these 3 rules for using AI in your marketing, you will feel less overwhelmed about the freedom and flexibility of running your business.
After being able to get past your inner fears about AI and being open to letting it handle the parts that drain you, you can spend more time behind the camera and connecting with clients.
These are the tips I’ve picked up combining my marketing day job with my photography world, and they’ve made a real difference for me. Pick your tool wisely (I’m sticking with Claude), and let me know your thoughts on my top 3 list of using AI as a photographer.
Tags: Photography, Marketing, AI, Claude, Photography Business, Travel Blogger