Marketing your wedding photography business is a vital part of your operation. I’m not just saying that, if you don’t have this aspect of your business dialed in, then things might get tough for you and it might be hard to get consistent business.
If someone asks you where you get your clients from and you don’t have an answer, you have a serious problem.
If your answer is “word of mouth” then you might have an issue. Perhaps you have an awesome referral partner and it’s all good, but more likely than not, you don’t have a repeatable source of leads. If that’s the case for you, then you my friend are in trouble, because you don’t have a business you have just “done a few gigs.”
If the above situation describes you, fear not, all is not lost, what you need to do is dial in your digital marketing.
Marketing yourself as a wedding photography business is a continuous effort, and the most successful businesses oftentimes make large investments in marketing across various channels.
Here is a quick guide to understanding the importance and outcomes of choosing a platform and strategy.
1. Use SEO To Improve Search Engine Visibility – A Key Wedding Photographer Marketing Strategy
Using SEO to improve search engine visibility can generate consistent leads for your wedding photography business. Optimizing your website for targeted keywords based on search intent can rank your website at the top of search engines like Google and Bing.
Your potential clients may search and find your website as a solution to their problem.
Check out our guide to Wedding Photographer SEO to learn how to leverage it for you business.
2. Run Facebook Ads To Target Specific Audiences
You can choose paid Advertising on Facebook to obtain quick results, if you know what you’re doing. Facebook is the top advertising social media platform with a very powerful ad manager software.
You can use several targeting options based on location, age, interest, behavior, and many other aspects to go after a specific target market.
Read our guide on Wedding Photography Advertising to learn more about this marketing channel.
3. Use Organic Instagram Promotion To Build A Following
Instagram’s growth is fast and dynamic compared to other social media platforms. An ideal channel for wedding photographer marketing. You can grow your Instagram page by regularly posting reels, images, IGTV, live, stories, carousels, etc.
Posting at the right time, using relevant hashtags, and engaging with similar accounts are a few ways to grow your Instagram account organically. Getting a high engagement rate on your wedding photoshoots could build your brand awareness in the market.
4. Create And Share High-Quality Content On Social Media
Choose one social media platform to focus on if you’re short on time, or you can cast a wide net and post content on multiple platforms. Preferably Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for visual content, and Twitter is ideal for sharing messages in short form, it’s ideal for announcements.
You can choose accordingly and share content regularly in the form of reels, images, posts, stories, etc., to reach more people. With the right strategy and consistent posting and engagement, you increase the chances that your account gets a huge number of followers and a high engagement rate, but most of all drives more business.
5. Offer Special Promotions Or Discounts To Attract New Clients
Offering discounts is a great plan, especially if you are new to wedding photographer marketing. This can be a great way to attract new customers as it creates a psychological impact.
You can offer promo codes and gift coupons to your clients via email campaigns, social media posts, and on your website.
Check out our Wedding Photographer Web Design Tips to learn how to make your business stand out.
6. Collaborate With Other Wedding Vendors And Industry Professionals
A collaborative effort with wedding vendors and industry professionals could get your photography business more customers. Wedding venues, catering companies, and planners can be great partners for this kind of endeavor.
If you’re up and coming, find some other small businesses that are just developing and offer to help them out by referring business to them!
7. Attend And Sponsor Local Events To Network And Promote Your Business
Attending and sponsoring local events may build your network. A famous Tim Sanders quote is that “your network is your net worth”, meaning that referrals may fetch you wedding photography leads. It is a traditional form of marketing that has existed for a long time and still works wonders for a photography business. If this is your main driver of leads, make sure to really build up your network to make your business consistent.
8. Utilize Email Marketing To Stay In Touch With Past And Potential Clients
The best channel for wedding photography marketing might be email. You can continuously drop emails to your potential wedding photography clients about new offers, your recent work, or your memories.
Collect email addresses by offering a lead magnet on your website and social media channels. You can attract engaged couples by offering an eBook or another download in exchange for email addresses.
Check out our guide to Email Marketing for Wedding Photographers to learn how to leverage it for you business
9. Create And Distribute Business Cards And Promotional Materials
Creating attractive business cards, pamphlets and promotional materials is a traditional form of marketing. Distributing such materials may get you fantastic local reach.
Nowadays, you can get all sorts of custom marketing materials made and find a service that can print and send them to you from your computer.
10. Utilize Word-Of-Mouth Marketing By Encouraging Satisfied Clients To Refer Your Business To Friends And Family
Now, I know I knocked word of mouth marketing at the start of this article, but if done right, then it can be really effective. Word of Mouth Marketing is a grapevine technique that is usually created automatically by you doing a great job and leaving your customers satisfied.
Happy clients spread news and recommend services to everyone they know all the time.
11. Create A Strong Presence On Review Websites Like Yelp, Weddingwire, And The Knot To Improve Your Online Reputation And Attract Potential Clients
Before buying a product or service, customers tend to check out reviews.
It’s great for business if you get good testimonials from your clients on top sites like Yelp, The Knot, and Wedding Wire.
12. Use Google My Business To Improve Local Search Map Rankings
List your business on “Google My Business” with your address, phone number, images, business hours, and contact information. It helps your business to pop up before any other website in local Google search results and the more optimized your portfolio is, the more you stand out. Google My Business also allows users to rate your business and drop a review, so dont neglect this one!
Read our guide to Wedding Photography Keywords to learn more about optimizing your website for search.
13. Create Youtube Videos
Making Youtube videos might help you get more customers. Some ideas for this include:
- Documenting an entire wedding and editing it into a video
- Doing a behind the scenes video
- Making “how to pick a wedding photographer video”
YouTube’s algorithm works differently from Instagram and other social media apps. You should concentrate on the visual quality of the content and YouTube SEO when doing marketing for wedding photographers.
14. Use keyword-targeted paid advertising on platforms like Google AdWords
Choosing Google Search Ads for keyword-based advertising can allow you to quickly access targeted traffic. This is because it allows you to skip doing SEO and pay for search traffic immediately.
Search traffic is so valuable because the people searching are actually looking for wedding photographers, so they have the right intent as opposed to someone you are interrupting with many other marketing channels.
Don’t forget, having an optimized wedding photography landing page is an essential part to successful paid advertising.
15. Experiment With Different Marketing Channels To See What Works Best For Your Business
If you are still wondering about how to market yourself as a wedding photographer, an integrated marketing channel mix is a combination strategy to try if you have the time, money and grit.
You can test out a number of strategies and find the ones that provide you with the highest ROI.
How the Heck Do I Compete With the Knott?
Competing with well-established wedding photographers on The Knot can be an intimidating challenge, not to mention the platform itself. If you take SEO for example, they rank first for “wedding photographer” in practically every city.
So what are some ways to stand out in a super competitive industry like wedding photography?
- Invest in high quality images for any marketing channel you use
- Invest in a high quality professional website
- Invest in expanding your online presence
- Develop a unique brand identity
You can always contact us for marketing consulting and services to promote your wedding photography business. Contact us today for your free marketing plan.