What Are The Marketing Tips For Wedding Photography?

As a wedding photographer, nothing is more effective than word-of-mouth from happy brides. When she meets a single buddy she likes, she will rave about you to them. She plans to advertise the stunning wedding art that decorates her living room. She plans to show her wedding book to her friends at the next "girls night out" so they may gush over her big day.

A happy bride is the best advertisement for your company. However, what do you do if acquiring brides is more difficult than retaining them in your business? It's not what you know but who you know that counts, as the old adage goes. That old adage holds especially true in the wedding photography market. To succeed as a photographer, you need to network, and not just to meet new people. You want others to recognise you for the photographer that you are.

It's not so much what you know as who knows you that matters. Getting the word out about yourself and your work is essential in today's industry, so use every promotional channel available to you. Direct web marketing has never been easier to do than in today's digital age. You may generate more interest in your company by mastering a few digital technologies.

In order to get their name out there, many photographers turn to direct mail campaigns. Greeting cards used in business. Flyers. Ads. Specials. They're at their most effective when combined with direct marketing strategies that include personal interaction with the customer.

The ability to schedule weddings is crucial to the success of a wedding photographer. Not just any customers, but their ideal customers, who help make photographing weddings enjoyable and profitable. Identify the specific kind of customers you want to work with before launching your photography business. Focus all of your promotional efforts on reaching this target audience.

Since our first year in business has been so fruitful in terms of client bookings, we feel confident sharing what we've learned with the rest of the photography marketing community. Check out our extensive list of Wedding Photographers in Melbourne to help capture your special moments.

Let's all agree that, contrary to what our circles of friends, mothers, and society may believe, having a photographic business is genuine, exhausting labour. You're performing as a one-person team. You're the CEO, CFO, OM, AA, CS, SMM, TS, and a dozen more titles we could throw at you. There is an absurdly large and daunting list of obligations and abilities needed to manage a successful firm.

Attract Your Ideal Clients, And Make Them Happy! 

One of the best ways to boost your photography business is to satisfy the couples who have already booked your services. We see it as our duty to ensure that the experience of having their portrait made is both positive and reflective of who they are as people. With this method, we can still follow up with the couple and make sure everything runs properly on their wedding day, even if we end up running late. Although this level of care should be given to all of your customers, it is especially important to pay special attention to the customers who best represent your ideal client.

So why is this a big deal? When customers are satisfied with your service, they will tell their friends and family about it. A "perfect customer" is likely to be surrounded by others who share their values and interests. As a general rule, people feel most comfortable around those who are just like them. When photographing a wedding for your ideal clientele, it's important to remember that the groomsmen and bridesmaids are likely to share a lot of the couple's values and interests.

Make Connections With Other Vendors In Your Area. 

Your wedding photography business will benefit from the services of other event providers. While shooting a wedding, we always make an attempt to meet and greet the DJ/band, caterers, venue staff, etc. When they succeed, we are glad to suggest them, and they often return the favour. Relationships with fellow photographers are equally as valuable as those with non-photography vendors. We share a lot of information, work together on occasional themed shoots, and even refer clients to each other when we're booked. Incredibly, we have successfully scheduled multiple weddings of this type.

Album Samples And Business Cards

Offering a physical item to a new contact is a great way to make a lasting impression and get your name out there. Let's pretend you've noticed that the first two methods of promoting your wedding photography services emphasise personal, face-to-face contact. If that's the case, you're privy to something that's crucial to making it in this field. It is crucial to learn how to network and promote oneself to potential clients, existing clients, and your colleagues (both direct and indirect). It's crucial to leave business cards with each of these folks so they have a tangible reminder of your company. Some photographers even leave sample albums with the venue's management for potential clients to peruse before hiring them.

Facebook

The use of social media to promote your wedding photography services is acceptable. There is great value in its own right, and Facebook is the perfect place to showcase your company to the world and attract new customers. Let's take a look at some of the ways in which Facebook can be used as a promotional tool:

• Ads on Facebook. Running a Facebook marketing campaign is one obvious choice. Anyone, no matter how specialised, may be reached by this method. One of our ads specifically sought for newly engaged ladies in the 21–35 age range in the local area who were also fans of Game of Thrones. It's crazy how specific you can get with Facebook's audience targeting, but we'll be the first to confess that your results may vary wildly depending on a number of factors. The aforementioned advertisement cost $50 to run for one month. We had some interest, but it never materialised. Although some photographers swear by it, this is definitely a letdown. If done correctly, the cost-benefit ratio of advertising that costs a few hundred dollars will be rather substantial, as it will be more than made up for by just scheduling one or two weddings.
• Tag your customers in posts. Using Facebook (and the highways!) to share photographs from previous sessions and weddings is a great method to promote your business. Every time we publish, it seems like we get a question or two, so we're still trying to find the chance to do this consistently. If you tag your clients in your photos, they'll be able to see previews of your job and your photo will be shared with their friends and family on Facebook.
• Set up a "Best of" folder and label each of your customers in it. If your Facebook page is well-organised, potential clients will have a simpler time browsing your portfolio. To hasten the process, make a "Best of" folder. If you've been working there for a while, you might want to organise this information by year. Don't waste space with anything less than the best, and don't forget to tag your clientele once again.
• Share your account's posts. Sharing content from your company page on your personal account is a simple approach to reach a wider audience. Jes does this frequently, and it occasionally works to pique the curiosity of our friends and family.

Instagram

If you want to show off your photographic skills, Instagram is the best social media platform to use.

Posting and playing with different hashtags generate a large amount of our reservations. This is how we met some of our most cherished customers. Use Instagram to get your name out there by posting your best work and striving for visual consistency in your feed so that anyone who happens upon it will have a good idea of your photographic sensibilities.

Instagram Stories are a great way to keep your account up-to-date between your more substantial updates, and they should be used in addition to the "normal" uploading of photographs, which ought to be the highest and best quality ones you have. In order to show off what we're working on at the moment, we frequently publish photos taken with lower-quality devices like iPhones. It allows you to post more frequently on social media without worrying about consistently posting high-quality images.

Automate Posting To Social Media Websites.

There are a plethora of online services that let you manage your many social media profiles in one place and plan updates in advance. Many people may benefit from this, but after a few attempts, we have concluded that it is not effective for us. Using these tools effectively and creating all of the content to be scheduled weeks or months in advance takes a considerable amount of work.

You should still inject some of your own individuality even if you opt to automate all of your posting. One of the potential downsides of automating content creation is that it may lead to writing that comes out as robot or fake, which is not a fair trade-off for "more content."

Create Your Website

Your website is your best online tool for managing your brand's visual identity and communicating with customers. It's past due to establish one if you haven't already. Whether you decide to design your own website or hire a professional web developer will determine which of the many excellent web hosting available meets your needs. WordPress is widely used, and many users pair it with a different, highly recognised web server like Blue Host or Host Gator.

The main reason we chose Squarespace to host Hand and Arrow's website is that it allowed us to construct our site with the help of established templates without requiring us to have in-depth knowledge of coding.

Blog More

Consistently updating your website is just as important as maintaining your photography business. We are continuously attempting to improve upon this method. It's no surprise that it's not easy, especially when you're working nonstop all week long on sessions, weddings, and photo processing. Nonetheless, it's a vital part of promoting your company.

Blog posts and other forms of website content can be thought of in the following ways, according to our current thinking:

• Staple content – These are the parts of your site's content that are supposed to remain constant. Writing one of these is a time-consuming process because of its length (often 2,000 words or more) and impact. Some of our most popular posts include our guide to the Exposure Triangle and our coverage of wedding packages.
• Selling your services – Creating blog posts to promote your business's offerings is really helpful. Simple examples of this content include announcements of upcoming services, such as mini-sessions for the holidays or a new year of wedding bookings. This material might range from lengthy and crucial to brief and easily consumable updates.
• Sales content – Next, articles written with the express purpose of making a sale typically take less time to write. While the term "sales" may strike fear in the hearts of even the most hardened businesspeople, it is, after all, essential to the smooth operation of any photography enterprise. There are two groups into which the sales content we'll be discussing can be sorted.
• Affiliate marketing is a method of selling things. –Affiliate marketing isn't for everyone, but it's a great way to make money and save expenses in the off season. Affiliate links are used sparingly, and only for items and services that we personally use and enjoy. Our most frequent outbound links will be to our favourite photographic gear and trusted business apps. Reviewing the photography equipment you own and providing relevant links to it is one form of content you may create. Of course, creative marketers will also discover other ways to achieve their goals.
• Personal/Brand Building content – This material won't necessarily boost your search engine rankings or generate leads right away, but it will help you keep your site fresh with new information (which is crucial) and give you a chance to put your personality into your business. Create a special part of your blog where you can ramble about whatever you choose, from your business endeavours to your personal life. Hopefully it goes without saying, but only provide personal information that you are comfortable having your intended audience and the public at large know about. So, if your company is focused on a Disney-inspired, princess-perfect wedding, you shouldn't brag about your wild weekend of partying.

When it comes to blogging, the only restriction is your own imagination. Also crucial is the ease with which you may broadcast this material to your social media followers, thereby seeding fresh material into those channels as well.

Learn Seo And Utilise It

Successful online brand promotion over the long term relies heavily on search engine optimisation (SEO). Algorithms are the backbone of any search engine, deciding what is shown and how each site or page is ranked. If you want your material to be discovered by potential clients looking for photographers in your region, the keywords you use throughout the piece (inside the headers, the body of the text, the image file names, etc.) are crucial. In the photography industry, localised SEO is essential.

Run A Promotion Or Contest. 

Running a promotion (think: discounted services, free add-ons like a photo album, etc.) is a simple approach to generate interest in your business and attract prospective new customers. It could take the shape of a contest, take place around a certain holiday, or coincide with the start of "engagement season" for weddings in the fall. To enter a contest for a free marriage photo or wedding, for instance, you may ask Facebook friends to share and like a post.

The most challenging component of this process is striking a balance between providing a service that is of value to potential customers and losing money on the venture. This is a great approach for newcomers to get their foot in the door and start accumulating work samples.

Offline Promotion

As simple as it is to adopt, this has the potential to greatly improve your company's performance. Get a batch of business cards printed with your contact information and hand them out during engagement parties. Include the business cards and the link to the online gallery where the event's photos can be viewed. Distribute the business cards to the visitors and inform them that the photo album will be available for viewing at the provided link in a few weeks or months.Looking for a wedding photographer in Melbourne? Look no further. Cosmopolitan events has compiled an ultimate list of wedding photo companies to help you choose. 

You've made it simple for attendees to view all of the images from an event, place an order for prints, albums, or holiday cards, and keep in touch with you in the case another event is in their future. You may reach out to these people personally, which is especially effective around special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, if you require them to sign up for an email address before viewing the images.

Online Promotion

Using a tool like Pic-Time, you may upsell to your customers' friends and family in a simple and visually appealing way. Send out promotional materials with a discount code to boost sales of Christmas cards, huge prints, albums, etc. How to do it is explained below.

Make A Client Guide

Not only can a Client Guide help you save time fielding the same questions from prospective customers over and over again through email and social media, but it can also help you find new, highly qualified leads who are more likely to become paying customers. You just need to compile a PDF guide full of helpful advice, pointers, vendor suggestions, and planning insights (the specifics of which will vary from client to client and will be determined by your target audience and their priorities) to promote your photography services. Then post the pdf on your website for download without charge in exchange for the visitor's email address.

Working With Other Vendors

When it comes to forming alliances with various wedding suppliers, you can do a few things:

• Client Guide and request that they list you as one of their prefered photographers.
• Mention them in your writings and share them on social media; most people will repay the favour and spread the word about your work, giving you the credit you deserve. You're both reaching the same people for free, so why not collaborate and spread the word?
• If you've been using a single location for a lot of shoots, you probably have a tonne of fantastic shots of the space and all of its furnishings. Pick your favourites, get a sample album made up of those pictures, and give it to the location as a present. For a couple to easily reach you after they've seen your work, be sure to include your name, website, and contact information in the album. Yes, they will.
• Most suppliers can be reached through email after a wedding and asked to select photographs that best showcase their wares rather than printing a sample album. They will gladly use your photos, with proper attribution and a link back to your site, because they rarely have access to high-quality images themselves. Keep in mind that we are not having a casual conversation. It's a great way to boost your website's search engine rankings by acquiring new inbound links.
• You can help out businesses you've worked with by leaving them Google reviews.

Work With Other Photographers

Photographers in general and wedding photographers in particular are likely familiar with the existence of fantastic Facebook Communities.

If you're a photographer and you're not participating in active Facebook groups wherein photographers from all over the world share ideas, queries, tips, and news, you're missing out on a TON of networking opportunities and prospective collaborations.

In addition to receiving assistance and guidance in the fields of business, marketing, sales, and client communication, you can also find posts announcing a job opportunity there, as the photographer may be booked and in need of a second shooter, or other exciting chances. Find photography groups in your area or around the world to join right away.

Before Delivering Photos, Create Powerful Teasers.

The anticipation and enthusiasm among your couples to see their wedding images is likely at a fever pitch. Delete "probably" from the last sentence; your couples ARE frantic with impatience to see their wedding pictures. As the day ends, the newlyweds are left with a whirlwind of emotions and details that only your photographs can help them piece together.

Take advantage of the excitement of the wait by releasing a small sample of 30–40 photographs (often on a Sunday evening) and then the entire gallery a few weeks later. We find that slideshows set to music are more effective.

“Packaging” When Delivering Photos

What method do you use to send customers pictures? Sending a few prints and a USB disc with the full gallery to a client? Put some thought into the presentation by using branded packaging, such as that offered by Wooden Banana. Those exquisitely crafted wooden boxes will not go unnoticed, and their recipients will want to show them off to their internet friends and neighbours.

You should offer printed albums to your customers if you aren't already doing so. Pixellu, Pic-time, and Fundy, to name a few, all offer fantastic design templates, streamlined client contact channels for settling on page structure and photos, and cheap printing from industry leaders.

Make it a point to tell your customers to record their "unboxing" experience so you may share in their excitement. Just how much better can promotional material get? True, unfiltered joy is unparalleled.

Set Up A Google My Business Account

For local photographers, this is crucial, but even travel photographers can profit from this. Create a Google My Business (GMB) profile, or, if you already have one, make sure it's up to date and secure. Get some of your recent, satisfied customers to write glowing recommendations, and post some stunning photos of you and your work. Having a Google My Business page improves your chances of getting local organic traffic. Increased traffic and sales can be expected from local search engine optimisation of both your website and your Google My Business presence.

Seo

You're probably already employing some fundamentals of search engine optimisation (SEO) on your site. If your website is anything like mine, you've improved the precision with which you select keywords for various portions of the main page and throughout the site. If you're using WordPress or Flothemes, you're already working with the Yoast SEO plugin. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an ongoing procedure. You can't just do it once and then ignore it for the next decade.

There is a long checklist of things you can do to make your site more visible in Google's (and other search engines') results, which in turn increases the likelihood that customers will find you online. In this article, "Everything a Photographer Should Know about SEO," we detail the vast majority of these tactics. Joining a community like Fuel your images, The SEO for photographer group, or FloSEO is another great way to network with other photographers and learn about the latest industry trends, Google Algorithm updates, and SEO best practices. You shouldn't let this discourage you. It's best to take it slow and steady.

You can learn more about this subject by making sure your website has the bare necessities for search engine optimisation (SEO). In order to improve your organic search results, you may want to implement the following optimizations:

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising can be tried on a wide variety of channels. Even while social media marketing is easier on the wallet, it still requires a sizable budget and the services of a Google Ads expert.

Google Analytics data should form the basis of your decision between platforms. We just wondering where the bulk of your visitors are coming from. Which is better: Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest? or maybe a natural and straightforward search? This will let you know which avenue requires more attention and development. You can zero in on recent engaged people or readers of certain Bridal Magazines page to promote your business on Facebook. It is also integrated with Instagram, so you can effectively kill two birds with one stone.

Automate Your Social Media

Consistency (not just visually, but also in terms of publishing at the same time every day) is essential on social networking. At the same time, it's not productive to let yourself get sidetracked by social media and interrupt your work flow to make a post on Facebook or Instagram.

Check out some automated tools. Good Instagram apps include Latergram, Iconosquare, and Planoly. Despite the fact that none of them automates your Instagram Stories, you may still gain valuable information, stats, and statistics to evaluate and enhance your present strategy.

You can use Facebook's in-house scheduling tools. Spend as much time as you need to plan out your posts, images, and text. If you put them all on a schedule, you'll have more time to focus on more complicated chores. You need not spend time every day thinking of what to share and how to caption it.

Bonus Tip: 

After you've implemented everything and seen some success, you can boost your traffic and the number of people who join to your email list by creating specific landing sites for each lead magnet and optimising them with powerful SEO keywords. Promote your email list for a fee if you need a larger subscriber base. With this strategy, Facebook is a fantastic medium for inexpensive conversions.

Educate Yourself

Don't ever stop educating yourself. The good news is that there is a wealth of resources available to you, including photography workshops, mentorship sessions, online courses, and both free and paid educational material. Don't just study photography; broaden your skill set by learning adjacent disciplines like marketing, sales, client relations, and more. You may grow and learn in countless ways that can improve your business operations, marketing strategies, and creative output.

Pinterest For Exposure

Instead of taking on unpaid projects in the hopes of getting noticed in 2020, you should make posting photographs on Pinterest a regular habit. Many firms, including your own, have not yet made full use of this fantastic resource.

Pinterest is the most popular website for creating visual mood boards and gathering ideas. When most brides start thinking seriously about their wedding, where do you suppose they go? Bingo! Do not discount the potential for Pinterest to increase visits to your site and interest in your work.

If you're using Pinterest for your business, keep in mind that you may want to be selective about the content you share. As a wedding photographer, you may want to keep certain of your boards private, such as those on food and home improvement. Instead of making boards with vague titles like "Wedding Photography" or "Wedding Inspiration," get specific. Use descriptive terms that could be important to your future wife when making your boards. Focusing on specifics will help you bring in the right kind of customers. Games may be titled "Bohemian Wedding Flowers" or "Destination Weddings Amalfi Coast," for instance.

Can't wait? Invest in a programme that will schedule your weekly pins on Pinterest. On Monday, spend 30 minutes adding keywords and descriptions to each photograph, then set them to upload at the appointed time. If you want to see if your new habit is paying off, track the traffic to your website from Pinterest on your Google Analytics account.

An effective strategy for making Pinterest work for you and exposing your pins to the widest potential audience is to pin between five and ten photographs per day.