7
photography concentrate
Simple Ways to
Market your
Wedding
Photography
Business
Marketing is anything you do to get your name out there, to show people that what you offer is valuable and interesting. It’s a simple concept, but can seem maddeningly difficult to do. There are tons of ways to market your photography, and it’s hard to know where to begin. Luckily there are some simple techniques you can use to get your work in front of your target audience. These are strategies we’ve used ourselves, and found them to be effective in booking more clients. While these techniques are simple, that doesn’t mean they don’t take work. Marketing requires a lot of commitment and effort. You need to focus your energy on creating opportunities for yourself, and if you haven’t done that before it can be scary. Once you jump in, and get going, you’ll find marketing is less intimidating than you may think; it can even be fun! So let’s dive in, and look at some simple ways to market your wedding photography business! 7 Simple Ways To Market Your Wedding Photography Business | p h oto g r a p h yc o n c e n t r at e .c o m | 2
No. 1
Blog
Most photographers have a blog these days, and that’s awesome. But there’s a difference between blogging, and leveraging the platform to be a marketing machine. See, blogging is a majorly powerful marketing technique, in many ways. First, it establishes your personal voice. You have an opportunity to connect with your audience before they even meet you. There are a lot of wedding photographers out there, and a big part of marketing is showing what makes you unique. It can be hard for brides to differentiate by photographs alone, especially after looking at dozens and dozens of portfolios. But someone with a personal writing style, and an engaging blog, can really catch their eye. So don’t just post photos, but see blogging as an opportunity to share and engage your audience. Be personable, show who you are, and what you think about photography!
You can also use your blog to give potential clients important information. Writing articles that help couples makes you a valuable resource, and establishes you as an authority. This isn’t hard at all, you just have to share tips with them on how to make their photos awesome! It can be articles as simple as: • Your favourite venue locations • How to prepare for photos with you • Great locations to take wedding portraits • Tips on making a wedding go smoothly
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Sit down, and brainstorm ideas for articles that could help potential clients. These types of posts make your blog different than most, and something that brides will bookmark and share! Major marketing power! Blogging also lets you show off your most recent work, which is often your best. A portfolio can get old very quickly, but a blog is always fresh. It also lets you show off variety in your work, which can help you stand out in the crowd. There’s a concept known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and it has to do with how your site ranks in search engines like Google. In general blogs do much better for SEO than websites, because they have regular updates. Search engines love new content, so blogs are a great way to get a better ranking. The trick here is that there is no trick. You simply need to post useful content regularly, and your website will jump up the ranks, and help new clients find you! Blogging is especially great if you’re just starting out. You may not have booked a wedding yet, but that’s no reason not to get blogging. You’ll be able to start building your audience, and getting your work out in front of new people. You might only have a few followers at first, but it only takes one person who needs wedding photos to get you on your way!
Blog Comment Contest One technique we used that was incredibly effective was to have a blog comment contest for our posts. We would publish a set of photos, and tell the client that if they got a certain number of comments, they would win a free print. It made it into a fun contest for them, and they would go off and share the photos with all their friends and family. We got way more eyes on our work, and folks interacting with our site by commenting. The visitors had more of a personal connection to the photos because they knew the subjects, allowing them to enjoy the images even more. Our clients would be happy, because they got lots of nice comments, and a free print, and we were happy because we had tons of potential new clients looking at our work!
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No. 2
Announce Your Goals
You need to let the world know what you want! There’s no sense holding back here. Tell your family and friends what you want to achieve with your photography business. Talk to your co-workers about it. Post it on your blog and your Facebook page. Give business cards to people you meet.
Here’s a story. One day we were getting a sandwich at a local deli, and the gal making it for us had an engagement ring on. Rob was chatting with her and said “I noticed you’re engaged, congratulations! Have you picked your photographer yet?” We let her know that we were wedding photographers, and gave her our business card. I’m sure you know how this story ends. She booked us. You never know who needs photography, or knows someone else that does. If you are offering something valuable with your work, it’s a service to others to let them know about it! You’re not doing anyone any good by keeping it a secret. This may seem scary, but really, what do you have to lose? 7 Simple Ways To Market Your Wedding Photography Business | p h oto g r a p h yc o n c e n t r at e .c o m | 5
No. 3
Start A Personal Project
A personal project shows your diversity as a photographer, and establishes you as a passionate, committed shooter. It also attracts attention as being something different and unique. Side benefits include it being really fun, and helping you grow and improve! Try to do something that your potential clients could connect with. For example, after our first year of shooting
weddings we did a project called The Wedding Travelers. We went to India, and shot a couple weddings to explore more about the culture. We had photographed a lot of Indian weddings at home, so this was a direct extension of the work we were doing, but for personal interest. That project got us lots of attention and respect from potential clients. We could have booked lots of weddings in India as well; we still get inquiries 4 years later! You don’t have to travel across the world to do a personal project, however. It could be something as simple as photographing local businesses, doing street photography of couples in your city, or a project showing what love looks like at different ages. The more you get out there and shoot, the more connections you’ll make, and attention you’ll get for your business. Once you have your project, and are underway, make sure to tell people about it! It not only gets the word out, but also helps to keep you committed to it.
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No. 4
Network With Photographers
Other photographers are a great source of leads for your photography business. With weddings, when a photographer is already booked for a certain day, they’ll refer new inquiries for that date to other shooters who might be available. Most photographers like to have a list to send out. These lists are great to be on, and can really help you get your name out there. Networking with other photographers is valuable, but needs to be handled smartly. The key is to create winwin situations, where both people benefit from the relationship.
Meet with other photographers for coffee to trade tips and news. Be friendly and helpful. Establish a referral network, or see if one already exists that you can become a part of. Send out their names when you’re booked, and they’ll begin to do the same! Remember, this is about creating win-win relationships, not seeing how you can benefit from someone else.
Try to find other photographers who are at the same level of experience as you. More established studios may not be willing to meet up, or just don’t have the time. Don’t take offense. They’re working on building their business too.
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No. 5
Meet With Vendors A wedding involves a lot of vendors, and meeting with them can help get your name out there to potential clients. The two big groups to connect with are planners and venues. These are the people who are booked before the photographer, and are in the best position to pass your name along.
When it comes to planners, do some research to see who is out there, and who has a similar approach to weddings as you do. If they are aiming for the same market as you, there’s a good chance their clients would be interested in what you offer! Once you’ve scouted out some potential matches, offer to take them to lunch or coffee. Don’t just email asking to be on their referral list. They get tons of requests like that all the time. Do something to stand out, and be memorable. Also do some research into the wedding and reception venues in the city. Figure out where your target market is booking, and then connect with the event managers.
When you do meet up with vendors, make sure to bring along a sample album to show what you can create. You can also bring along some nifty brochures and business cards that they could give to brides. If you really want to stand out, create a beautifully branded package of information that is easy to distribute to potential clients. Offer to return with more in case they run out. Before these meetings, have an outline of what you want to communicate in your time together. How can you provide value to their clients? What makes you unique? Practice the important parts before the meeting so you’re totally prepared to make the most of it! Then follow up, and let them know how much you appreciated their time, and how much you would love to be on their referral list. Try to figure out how to make it a win-win relationship. See if the planner needs some new headshots, or if the venue needs images of a new room. The more helpful you can be, the more likely they are to reciprocate, and the more your name will get out there.
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Vendor relationships can not only get your business started, but they also help it stay strong. The key here is to make sure to keep taking care of vendors after every wedding. Vendors need images for their own portfolios. They usually don’t have the skills or the opportunity to photograph the work they do for the couple on the big day. But you do! After each wedding, make a point of sending images to all the vendors (flowers, cake, decorations, linens, venue, planner, DJ, etc.), along with a note letting them know how much you enjoyed working with them. This simple act creates goodwill, strengthens the relationship, and gets your images into their portfolios and in front of more brides’ eyes! You can either watermark the images you send out, or ask that they include photo credit to you whenever they use it. This helps those photos become little marketing machines for you!
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No. 6
Create Posters We shot 30 weddings our first season, and posters booked us over half of them. They are low tech, affordable, and effective. Here’s what we did.
Poster Tips
First, we considered who our target market was. We were new to the industry, had a modern style, and were really young. We guessed that University students were the type who would appreciate a more artistic approach, but couldn’t afford to spend a ton on photography. They would be likely to take a chance on us, and we would charge them less than the established studios. So we designed some posters that featured high impact photos from the two weddings we had photographed for friends. We added tear-off business cards to make it different, and easy to contact us. These posters cost us $1 each at the University printer, and we spent around $200 total on them. We would put them up every week after the boards were cleared off. We never had any competition, and got tons of attention from the right people!
A few tips if you are going to put up posters: • Look for high traffic areas outside big lecture theatres
and busy halls
• Make something creative and eye catching. Big photos
are always good.
• Check the boards regularly, and re-post if yours gets
covered up.
• Put posters at eye level. • Have your contact info on the poster in case all the
business cards are taken (website, Facebook page, email)
• Get a student to regularly check posters for you.
Also consider if there are other places your target market hangs out, and if there are poster boards you could use!
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our posters Here is one of the posters that we used to launch our wedding photography business. It featured a big photo to catch attention, and some small
images for the people who stopped to look. We designed the side to be “business cards”, and perforated the edge so they were easy to tear off. It was a simple and affordable marketing strategy that produced great results! 7 Simple Ways To Market Your Wedding Photography Business | p h oto g r a p h yc o n c e n t r at e .c o m | 11
No. 7
Create Reception Slideshows This technique only works once you have weddings booked, but then it helps keep the attention coming!
of business cards beside the laptop so people can visit your portfolio and contact you.
It’s simple. Create a short slideshow of 20 – 30 images from the wedding day that you loop on a laptop at the reception. It takes about 40 minutes during the cocktail hour and dinner to choose and edit a few key photos. Then put them up with a simple screen saver, and you have yourself a strong marketing tool.
We once had an out-of-town couple, who were guests at a wedding we were shooting, come up to us during the reception. They had seen our slideshow and wanted to meet us the next day to talk about their own event. We ended up booking a beautiful destination wedding with them thanks to a simple slideshow!
See, the reception is a fantastic time to show off some photos. Everyone is caught up in the excitement of the wedding day, and the news that there are already some pictures to look at is thrilling. People will crowd around the laptop for ages, watching each and every image multiple times. Then they call over their friends. Then the crowd attracts more people. The bride and groom sometimes even announce that there are photos to look at. This is marketing gold. You have tons of potential clients in attendance, and a very good chance that they will go home and check out your work. Put a stack
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Here are some tips for better slideshows: • Choose great images that will get attention. Examples
are the getting ready images, a couple from the ceremony, any cute kids or pets, epic shots from the portrait session, images of the whole bridal party, and happy portraits of the bride and groom.
• Put the slideshow near the bar if possible—it’s the high-
est traffic area.
• Use the screen saver to create the slideshow. • Change your energy saving preferences so that the com-
puter doesn’t go to sleep.
• Put password protection on so people can’t accidentally
stop the slideshow and get into your computer.
• Bring a lock just in case you need to secure it to a table
(we didn’t use this often, mostly if it was in an area that we couldn’t keep an eye on).
• Use the photos for Facebook and blog teasers afterwards.
If you don’t have time to process images from the wedding you can show a slideshow of the engagement photos. You’ll still get lots of attention, and your work in front of a lot of eyes!
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Bonus!
Brainstorm
The ideas in this book are simple, but with marketing you can get as creative as possible! Just think about where your target market is, and how you can get your work in front of them. Here are some brainstormed ideas for you: • Create a promotional video
• Follow up with past clients
• Start a Twitter account, and post
• Have a studio party, and invite clients,
• Start a Facebook page, and interact
• Submit your website to directories
useful information
with your audience
• Use targeted Facebook ads
vendors, colleagues
• Get testimonials from past clients and
put them on your website
• Start a newsletter, with useful tips
• Sponsor an event that target clients
• Volunteer
• Trade services to make new
and offers to your audience
• Pitch an article to a local news station • Guest blog for wedding vendors in
your town
• Create a referral program • Hold a contest to attract new clients
would go to
connections
• Publish a book of your personal work • Create a free e-book for potential
clients
• Attend networking events, hand out
lots of business cards
• Set up a booth at a tradeshow, make it
totally unique
• Give gifts to your fav clients • Donate gift certificates to charity
auctions
• Partner with local businesses that
cater to your target market
• Send photos to all vendors after every
wedding (flowers, DJ, venue, planner, decorations, cake)
• Teach a class and establish yourself as
an expert
• Offer gift certificates • Hold a free seminar on weddings • Offer mini-engagement sessions
• Have a promo to drum up business 7 Simple Ways To Market Your Wedding Photography Business | p h oto g r a p h yc o n c e n t r at e .c o m | 14
Final Thoughts Here are a few final thoughts on marketing:
Measure
When putting effort into marketing, make sure you’re taking time to measure whether or not it’s actually working. This is simple. When people contact you, ask how they found out about your business. When clients book you, ask again. Keep track of this information to see which strategies are leading to inquiries, and which ones are converting into bookings!
Social Media
Sites like Twitter and Facebook have huge marketing potential and have become a big source of business for many photographers. Your target market is likely on there; you just have to figure out how to connect with them. Building your business around a platform is a bit risky, since you have no control over it, and policies can change suddenly. They’ve also become saturated, and it’s tough to stand out. Think creatively, and see if you can find a way to make them work for you.
Google Adwords
At the beginning of our career we created some Google ads and booked a few weddings off of them. But eventually they became very expensive and competitive, and we didn’t stand out much anymore. We gave up on them and looked for other methods, but there is still potential if you are willing to spend the money.
Magazines
We never paid for any magazine advertising because we felt it was far too expensive. Though we don’t have any direct experience, we’ve always heard from other photographers that they didn’t get enough results to make it worth it at all.
Action
The big idea here is that you have to act. Marketing doesn’t happen by sitting around waiting for people to find you. Get out there, show the world what you can do, try new strategies, and don’t be afraid to fail a bit. Just keep at it, and success will be yours!
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Simple Wedding Photography Want to learn more? Check out our new book, Simple Wedding Photography! See, wedding photography is simple. But don’t confuse that with easy! It takes a lot of work to properly cover such an important day, and create a successful business. This book will get you on the right track, and save you countless hours figuring it out yourself!
Everything you need to know about photographing weddings, and the business behind it. In one book. • 200 pages of practical information you can use! • Written in a casual, “real speak” manner, like a conver-
sation with your photographer friend!
• Packed with over 220 photos to help you see the con-
cepts in action.
• Includes diagrams and examples to make ideas easy to
understand
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About The Authors
Hi, we’re Rob & Lauren, head ninjas at Photography Concentrate. We’re photographers, educators, travelers, and all-around fun loving folks. We built a wedding photography business from the ground up, and know that it can be tough to figure out how to market your work, and get your photos seen. What you’ve just read is the result of many hours of trial and error, and the learning the came out of it. We’re very happy to share it with you, in the hopes that it makes your journey a little simpler!
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Legal
Copyright: All contents copyright ©2012 by RNL Media Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this tutorial should be reproduced or distributed in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. We’re trusting you to use this tutorial responsibly, and encourage others to purchase their own copy if you think they would benefit from the information. Liability: This eBook contains the ideas and opinions of its authors. It is intended to provide helpful information on the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that advice and information provided may not be suitable for every situation. The authors and RNL Media Inc. (Photography Concentrate) disclaim any responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, damage or loss caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this eBook and it’s bonus content. Trademarks: This guide identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. They are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. The author and publisher are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this guide, unless explicitly stated.
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