Advertising is one of the most important parts of a business. A high quality product isn’t worth much if nobody knows it exists. Thankfully, advertising comes easier for some professions than others. Photographers often find themselves surprised by how many options they have for low cost advertising.
In the following article we’ll consider how to advertise wedding photography business. We’ll rank the options by general importance. Additionally, we’ll consider the overall difficulty and cost.
1. Try Blogging
Discussions of online presence tends to center around social media. But it’s important to remember that there’s other ways to establish one’s presence. Photographers in particular should look into blogging.
Blogging is similar to some forms of social networking. The main difference is that there’s no limitation on space. One can have a post just as long or short as one needs it to be. Additionally the posts can stay in view for an indefinite amount of time. Finally, blogging makes it easier to group posts by specific topic.
Wedding photographers in particular have a lot to gain from blogging. The format makes it easy for one to create a full narrative with images. Blogs make it easy to showcase one’s work. But it also makes it easy to categorize that work into a captivating story.
One should consider how a reader will feel the emotion of a wedding shoot as it moves forward. This careful organization can help draw people in and invest them in the mood of a wedding. And in turn this showcases how strong the photography captures those feelings.
There’s quite a few good options for a new blogger. But at the moment Blogger offers the most options for free accounts.
2. Use Social Media
There’s quite a few different types of social networking options out there. Wondering how to advertise wedding photography business samples often has an easy resolution. It’s often as simple as using the tools people already have on their computers.
The ubiquity of social networking makes it effective to use for advertising. And in the same way it ensures that everyone’s ready to do so without much preparation. The best way to go about this is to use one’s personal accounts as a foundation.
For example, a photographer might have a Twitter account. One would use that account to first show an occasional sample. This could then move into mentioning a new professional Twitter account. Photographers can continue to occasionally mention the professional account from the personal one. This keeps two main forms of awareness open.
It won’t push people who aren’t interested from following the main account. Instead they’ll simply remain aware of one’s professional services. The awareness, in turn, serves to ensure they’ll mention it to friends in search of a wedding photographer. One can use the same overall strategy on Facebook or similar services.
3. Use Automated Social Media Tools
Social media is a vital part of any successful business. But one should consider how to advertise wedding photography business options in a slightly different way. Wedding photography works in slightly different ways to most businesses.
Wedding photography centers around capturing specific moments in time. But social media is a fast paced system. This can seemingly create some conflict between medium and message. But automated posting tools offer a way to perfectly integrate the two.
Automated posting tools such as Buffer can schedule posts for any point in time. By doing so it’s considerably easier to create an always on presence. When potential clients look online it’s far more likely that they’ll see evidence of one’s work.
This also helps one avoid over saturating networks with one’s work. One can build up a larger amount of potential posts. But rather than send it all at once they can instead organically move into a network.
4. Write General Guides for Wedding Advice
Photography and writing might seem at odds with each other at first. However, a wedding photographer quickly learns quite a bit about weddings. And this can lend an interesting perspective to the subject.
A unique view of such an important subject can be a huge help to people. One can consider how to advertise wedding photography business in another way. It’s about attracting interested parties through any general method involving increased awareness.
Writing an ebook or larger blog about weddings can serve as a method of advertising. The actual pitch doesn’t have to be very strong within the written material. Instead one simply needs to stress the importance of wedding photography in general. The photographer should frame the writing in a way that sets his services as the hub of a wedding.
By framing it this way one can create an implicit idea that wedding photography is vital to a good experperience. The only downside of this tip comes from how much time it might require. Writing even a short wedding guide might require a significant time investment. But that fact also means that one’s competitors are less likely to try.
5. Give Referral Bonuses
When people talk about business they’re usually quick to bring up online social networks. But this tip’s high ranking showcases the fact that face to face contacts still matter. A referral bonus helps leverage friends, family and acquaintances as a marketing advantage.
Learning how to advertise wedding photography business often involves recognizing one’s resources. And there’s few resources as powerful as people who really believe in one’s talent. A referral bonus can refer to a wide variety of different things. One usually offers prints or even an overall discount on future service.
But whatever the actual item is it’s a valuable commodity that convinces people to plug one’s services. Spending time or money might seem counterintuitive at first. But one needs to consider it as an advertising expense.
The referral bonus provides motivation to people so that they can plug one’s services. That one individual can often give a far more passionate sell than any standard advertisement could.
6. Free Work Doesn’t Mean Working for Free
The previous tip suggests enlisting others to help by providing goods or services. This tip involves seemingly giving them something for nothing. One should always consider offering a free photo shoot.
Offering one’s services for free might not seem like good use of resources. But in doing so one will actually gain a few important things. Considering how to advertise wedding photography business services means assessing resources.
Sometimes that assessment shows that one doesn’t have a sufficient portfolio. Other times one might not have as much experience as he or she would like. And of course one can always use more contacts within the various other wedding adjacent businesses.
All of these points are addressable by doing a few free photo shoots. It will of course take up some of one’s times. And there still might be a charge for supplies. But in general one can offer a deal that’s hard for the couple to refuse. And in doing so one can gain some quite significant resources for later advertising efforts.
7. Know the Business Landscape
A wedding photographer needs to know the industry as a whole. Almost every one of the previous points relates to this one. When one works a wedding he’ll have a chance to see a wide variety of professional services.
But the important part of these events comes from a lack of competition. Everyone working a wedding covers a different business interest. And they all benefit from having more weddings. This provides them with a good incentive to plug services to prospective couples.
One should always have business cards and contact information handy when working weddings. These aren’t just for for guests who might want to use one’s services in the future. It’s actually more important to concentrate on marketing to the various other professionals working there. One should be ready to receive information and give it to others.
Once again it showcases how important the human element is. Networking face to face with people can influence them to bring up your services to others.
Summing Up
In conclusion, one can see that photographers have quite a few options. This shouldn’t seem intimidating. Instead it means that photographers can match their strengths to the different choices. For example, someone who enjoys writing can utilize that talent. Those with good people skills can take another route.
The choices highlight how important resources are. One should remain aware not just of one’s skills, but available resources as a whole. Friends, family and other industry professionals can empower marketing efforts.
