No matter where you are in your photography business (whether you are at the beginning or you are a seasoned professional wedding photographer), planning for your success is key. With a wedding photography business plan, you ensure that you are ready to handle the challenges that come as you grow your photography business. Starting a photography business is fun and exciting, but as you book more weddings and fill your calendar, what once was your dream job can turn stressful and unmanageable. Having a photography business plan will ensure you can handle your growth and scale.
Within the competitive wedding photography industry, there are thousands of photographers who want to book clients who match their brand and message. As a photographer, you spend much of your time working on your business to reflect a certain message that will reach out to like-minded clients. In order to be successful in attracting ideal couples, there are a few steps you need to take to stand out as a photography business owner from others in the industry.
Since finding your ideal client is key to growing your business, we brought in photography duo Jeff and Erin Youngren of The Youngrens, to share some of her insight into finding couples you want to work with. This is the first installment of our 4-part series discussing how to find your ideal client written by Erin, so let’s get to it!
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Are you tired of shooting weddings that aren’t your style? Or working with clients that you don’t enjoy? There’s nothing more difficult than feeling dragged down by your business or dreading your shoots because you don’t connect with your clients or they don’t connect with you. It’s hard feeling unknown, unappreciated, or simply disconnected from your clientele and your art.
I strongly believe that every photographer has a unique client type that is perfectly suited for them. We talk about it all the time in the wedding and portrait photography industry – your target audience, your perfect bride, the right clientele. All different ways to talk about the same thing – your ideal client. [···]
When shooting wedding photography, challenges, both arising and unexpected, are nothing more than perfect opportunities to shoot images that stand out. Some of your best images may come from a few of of the toughest situations you are placed in, because you are challenged to think outside of the box and push yourself when it comes to creating stellar images.
In our webinar, Shooting Stand Out Imagery in the Toughest Situations, wedding photography duo Justin and Mary Marantz discussed how to make obstacles work to your advantage. They shared tips and strategies on how photographers can turn any challenge into an opportunity to shoot some of the most stunning images. We’ve put together the top 5 tips for shooting stand out imagery for you to implement into your business today!
1. Create a Common Theme in Your Images
During the wedding day, every part of your shoot will have its own set of challenges for you to overcome. The easiest way to face these obstacles is to keep the scene free from distractions. Avoid creating too many calculated moments – let the shoot take a natural course that provides you with stunning images. Since the getting ready shoot is about the moments leading up to the ceremony, be sure to highlight the details that represent the bride and groom during this time. The getting ready room may also have many beautiful details, but those are not necessarily what you should focus on during that shoot. [···]
As you are shooting with the bride and groom, you spend a lot of time thinking about what wedding photography poses you should use that will make them look their best. In the past, we have covered topics on how to pose the couple during engagement sessions, as well as how to pose the bride, bridesmaids, and family formals. Since posing is a critical part of your shooting routine, we thought we should cover another important part of the wedding day – groom poses!
Before establishing an effective wedding photography business, you have to know who you are trying to attract, and most importantly, who your ideal clients are. Ideal clients are your dream clients – they are your target audience, most preferred consumers, and your biggest fans.
In our recent Discovering Your Ideal Client Webinar, wedding photographers Jeff and Erin Youngren discussed how ideal clients bring joy and satisfaction to your business and become the reason behind why you love what you do. Here are 5 helpful tips on how to discover your ideal clients.
1. Profile Yourself
Profiling yourself will help you identify similar interests that your ideal client shares. Since you have your wedding photo editing outsourced to a specialist, you have more free time to start thinking about yourself what’s important to you. Do you value creativity or simplicity? What are the reasons behind your decisions? How do you spend your money and free time? When profiling yourself, you are figuring out what your core values and beliefs are. Writing down these qualities about yourself will make your profiling process much easier. Chances are, some of your same values, hobbies and beliefs will be the same as your ideal clients. [···]
As a busy wedding photographer, your calendar is full with client meetings, marketing, blogging, and most importantly, weddings. With everything needing your attention at once, it can be challenging to keep track of everything you need to do, especially small day-to-day tasks such as social media. This is understandable, but the good news is there are ways you can avoid forgetting, and instead, continuously stay relevant in the minds of your past, present, and future clients!
Creating a social media schedule for your business is extremely helpful in assisting you with maintaining a consistent and successful workflow. This is one of the benchmark steps in a successful content marketing strategy, which is why we’ve developed 4 steps to help you figure out what works best for you and your business.
1. Decide on your Social Platforms
Before you can determine how often you are posting, you will first need to know what platforms work best for your business. You want your images to make a connection with your audience, and social media platforms are extremely helpful for several reasons. Instagram allows you to share your photos instantly with other users. You can also use Twitter for the same purpose, as well interacting with your followers. Facebook is also great for this because you can use it for contests that engage people in your feed. [···]
As a wedding photographer, there’s something great about finding your ideal clients that have similar interests and values as you. Not only do you create personal connections with them, but it can also help motivate you to push the boundaries on your photography because you love your clients! When couples reflect the same values or artistic interests as you, they are more likely to reach out to you when they are interested in finding a wedding photographer. Being a wedding photographer puts you in a great position to connect with all different kinds of people, and being a social media savvy wedding photographer gives you even more of an advantage. You also have plenty of content to share (your images) – so once you get them back from a post-production photography service, you can start implementing them into your blog!
With that in mind, when you sit down to work on your blogging, it is imperative that the experiences you write about and the stories you share create a bond between you and your clients. You can do this by developing a personal series that focuses on something you are passionate about and directly reflects your values as a photographer.
Knowing exactly how to create a personal series can be a challenge at first, especially because it causes you to think of all your other passions besides photography and engage them in a way you otherwise might not have. Here are 3 steps to help you connect with current and potential clients using the most authentic tool in your content marketing toolkit: You!
1. Determine the topic
Think about all the aspects that make up the unique individual that is you. Maybe you are an outdoor wedding photographer that loves camping and frequently camps in the mountains. Take advantage of these trips by documenting and sharing your experiences on the blog. Not only does this allow readers to get to know you on a personal level, but if they also love camping, this may be just the spark they need that gets them to reach out to you. [···]
While you are shooting the bride and groom on the wedding day, there are many variables to think about – do you have the right poses? Are you confident in the shooting plan you have created for this location? Do you have the right lighting to deliver stunning images to your clients? Lighting is an important aspect of your shoot that can elevate your images from good to outstanding. Backlighting is a technique that you can use when shooting your subjects that allows you to shoot your subject directly in front of the light.
CreativeLive is our favorite resource for awesome online education for professional photographers. Photographer and author Roberto Valenzuela spent time teaching the fundamentals of posing in his CreativeLive class, Location, Posing, Execution. We have exciting news – from May 31st to June 1st, CreativeLive is rebroadcasting Roberto’s class for FREE!
As a wedding photographer, posing is one of the most crucial parts of creating stunning images for your clients. By simply understanding the basics of how to pose your clients, you can speed up your shooting process and make sure that your clients look their best in every image! [···]
Facebook is an essential resource for you as a wedding photography business owner. With at least 350 million people logging in every month, you have the opportunity to capture the attention of ideal clients around the world! Facebook doesn’t allow users to do business on their personal pages, so it is necessary for you to create a customized Facebook page that is catered to your ideal clients. Since you’ve made the decision to outsource your wedding photo editing, you can take these 4 tips and customize your Facebook fan page.
1. Include a branded cover image
One of the most important parts of your Facebook page is your cover image. Make sure that you design a Facebook cover image that takes into consideration that there is a headshot in the left corner of the space – meaning you want to avoid creating an image that is blocked by the photo or other tabs. As you choose the image that will represent you and your business, find an image that reflects you as a wedding photographer.
Photographer Ning Wong has a cover image on his fan page that is simple, but represents his brand and what type of images he will shoot for clients. The simplicity of his cover image shows his followers that he pays attention to detail and will do the same in their wedding shoot. [···]
