Marketing is probably the least favorite but most important part of being a photographer. You just want to make art but the reality is you have to sell it first. Let’s talk about the wonderful world of wedding photography business marketing.
In this article, I’ll walk you through building a strong foundation with your website and brand. Then we’ll talk about building a marketing plan and the marketing strategies you’ll implement. And finally, we’ll address the importance of evaluating and adjusting your marketing based on what’s working and what isn’t.
My main tip is to start somewhere. Procrastinating until you have the perfect plan is simply procrastination. There is no perfect plan or secret formula, you need to find the best roadmap for you and your business.
Your Brand, Website, and Presence
Before you can go out and find clients, you need to have somewhere to send them. They’ll want to see your portfolio, website, or at least your Instagram account. Therefore, you need to spend some time building a brand, website, and online presence.
If you’re just starting out, you don’t actually need to spend too much time or money on this because you’re not going to be attracting high-end clients yet. You’ll definitely want to refine your branding and update your website as you go along and as you start charging more and trying to attract more specific clients. However, in the beginning, you just need a solid foundation and a scalable launchpad.
Your goal is to continually build and refine a brand and website that eventually attracts your ideal clients and allows you to run a profitable business. Your marketing strategy will be partially determined by your brand, experience, and overall business goals. Where are you now? Are you just starting out and wanting to build a portfolio or are you looking to refine your strategy to attract a certain type of clientele?
The Marketing Plan
By the time you’ve put some thought into your branding strategy and website, you’ll have thought through questions such as who your ideal customer is and what style of wedding photography you’re interested in. That process will help you build a marketing plan to attract clients who are looking for the type of work you want to do. There are a lot of ways to market and while you’ll likely adopt more than one strategy, you’ll want to build an overall marketing plan that works for you.
The first step is to be findable, you’ll want to increase your online presence. That involves creating listings and accounts on everything from social media and Google to wedding-specific websites. Everything should link back to your website and everything should be branded similarly for continuity.
From there, you’ll adopt a variety of strategies to either go find couples, help them find you, or be where they are. You can choose the strategies that you’re most excited about or that you believe to be the most effective and then you can evaluate what’s working and adjust accordingly. Then, build yourself a calendar or to-do list so that you actually do the things you need to do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Marketing Strategies
Below are a handful of marketing strategies to consider:
- Bridal shows: If you want to physically go where the brides are at a time when they’re actively planning their wedding and searching for vendors, you can’t beat a bridal show.
- Promos: Another old-school marketing strategy is promos and business cards. Even if you’re not going to put your promo up at your favorite coffee shop it’s worth having a business card handy for someone who is interested after meeting you at a wedding.
- Wedding listings: If you want to digitally go where the brides are at a time when they’re actively planning their wedding and searching for vendors, there are wedding planning tools and listings like theknot.com and wedding wire.
- SEO: Search engine optimization is a great long-term strategy for being found in your specialty or geographical area. When someone searches for the best local wedding photographer, you want to be found.
- Email marketing: If your SEO game is strong because you provide valuable content on your blog, it’s in your best interest to add an email capture to your website so that you can create a way to stay in touch with couples that are in the early stages of planning but not quite ready to book.
- Social media: Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or any of the other social media platforms where people are hanging out can be a great way to connect with potential couples and stay top of mind. Each of these platforms has its own powerful ways of connecting you with potential clients.
- Referrals: When a bride asks her friend if she has any recommendations and gets a raving review about how awesome you were to work with, there’s no greater salesman. I always say, treat your clients well and it will treat you well.
- Client gifts: In addition to taking awesome photos of your clients you can treat them well with client gifts or great experiences that will help them remember you fondly.
- Testimonials: The next best thing to a direct referral is to have raving reviews and testimonials about your business either on your website, google, or another site that couples might be searching for you.
- Styled shoots and wedding blogs: If you want to be found for your unique style, want to increase your online presence, or improve your portfolio you can do a styled shoot. Often one of the goals of a styled shoot is to get published on a niche wedding blog which helps SEO and a certain type of bride find you.
- Guest posts: In addition to getting published on wedding blogs, you can guest post on other websites to increase your online presence.
- Paid advertising: And there’s always paid advertising if you have more money than time and are looking to get your brand in front of potential clients without battling social media algorithms or SEO rules.
Evaluating and Adjusting Your Strategy
One of the most important aspects of a marketing strategy is to track whatever is trackable so that you can evaluate what’s working. Pay attention to the marketing strategies that are most effective and then spend more time on those than the others. Track and monitor your SEO progress and where your leads are coming from.
Additionally, you might find that some strategies bring you higher-quality clients. For example, our best clients come from our best clients. If we get a call from a friend of one of our ideal clients we know it’s going to be a perfect match that results in a win-win wedding day.
Your strategy will adapt over time as you seek quantity over quality in the beginning but then refine it to attract more of your ideal clients. Additionally, there are always new strategies to test and experiment with. Keep an open mind while also demanding results from all of your efforts.