During Pinckney’s fourth year of psychology graduate school, he realized something—photography came before everything else in his life. He loved the depth of emotion, richness of joy and sacredness of a moment he could find in just one of his images.
While some questioned his decision to choose photography over a graduate-level education, Pinckney jumped in head first. As soon as he committed himself to his camera, things took off more quickly than he could have ever anticipated.
Year after year, he’s reached new business milestones and has seen an increasing amount of inquiries and revenue.
As his business grew, Pinckney quickly realized how the visual power of Instagram could not only showcase his work, but also help establish legitimacy behind his brand to potential clients.
“Instagram is a tool to showcase my work and in doing so, create excitement around my imagery. This is huge right after a wedding when couples are on pins and needles waiting to see how their images turned out. And much of the time, this excitement from just a few images, leads to referrals.”
When asked what makes a successful Instagram, Todd said it all comes down to: “consistency, consistency, consistency—both in terms of the amount of content, the appearance of content, and the voice of content.
By sharing the happiness of his clients via Instagram, Todd has created a visual portfolio to highlight his best work and increase his brand awareness
“First and foremost, Instagram is a tool for me to stay at "top of mind" for people - wedding planners, friends of engaged friends, other wedding vendors, etc. - so that when their friend, client, family member gets engaged, they think of me first.”
Like most, “solopreneurs, Todd wears an ever-increasing number of hats. From accountant to customer service representative to social media manager, Pinckney is mostly a one-stop shop—which is why he decided to use Kicksta to save him time on growing his Instagram.
Pinckney contacted us with big goals for his Instagram. After working together for a few months, here’s what he has to say:
“I love Kicksta's approach because they successfully target followers of other pages similar to mine, thus increasing the likelihood of voluntarily following my page. Kicksta has helped me consistently gain legitimate and engaged followers each month.
"Even further, though, (because followers really don't mean anything without sales/leads) I've received several inquiries for jobs that have come directly through Kicksta over the last several months of using their services"
Todd also shared that with the help of Kicksta he is now averaging 12 legitimate leads a month just from Instagram alone.
“I've received several leads from using Kicksta and have booked a couple of weddings with clients who found me because of Kicksta.”
“With Kicksta's help in growing my follower count, it's given further perceived legitimacy to my work.”
Todd’s photography business has become a full-time job with a stable income.
“I book around 25 weddings a year. Around 90% of my income comes from weddings and then the other 10% from commercial / corporate shoots”
With Kicksta focusing on the finding potential clients, Todd’s been able to spend more time utilizing Instagram features to further captivate his growing audience.
“Often times I use Stories to direct people to a blog post about a particular wedding by giving them a little preview in Stories.
"Kicksta was a tool in getting me to 10,000 followers to unlock that "Swipe Up" feature so that if people wanted to see more from that preview, they could access the full blog post right from stories rather than having to post something like, ‘Link in profile to see more’.”
Since joining Kicksta, Todd has found the time to put the focus back on his passion—growing his business and capturing the priceless moments of his clients.
On your next life-changing day, don’t leave anything to chance. Make sure you have someone professional—like Todd Pinckney—behind the camera.
“I started with Kicksta in October and grew my base from 2500 to 10.5K in just 2 months“
Kristi Eide, Fitness Influencer
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