As a wedding photographer, booking clients is the lifeline to your photography business. One way to achieve your goals is to utilize luxury brand marketing to book high end brides who will pay you what you are worth.
Luxury Brand Marketing
As a professional wedding photo editing company, we provide wedding photo edits for photographers. We also partner with industry-leading photographers to bring you valuable insights into relevant topics perfect to help you grow your photography business. In our Secrets to Booking the $10K Wedding Webinar, Scott Robert Lim shared ways for you to establish your brand and raise your prices. Here are 5 ways to promote photography business to reach high end brides and develop your Luxury Brand.
1. Reinvent Your Brand
The wedding industry is constantly evolving, so it is important for you to reinvent yourself and your brand every few years. You already have beautiful images and great marketing techniques, but you must have more than good quality to create a Luxury Brand. Start to develop a persona that matches a Luxury Bride’s expectations by booking the right clients, setting the perfect prices, and creating a unique and intriguing style. This way, you build a plan for full marketing to the high end bride.
“Subconsciously, the Luxury Bride wants her photographer to look good because he or she is a direct reflection of the bride.” – Scott Robert Lim
When you think of Luxury style, match your wardrobe to the brand image you want to sell to your brides. If you are not big into fashion, find someone who is that is similar to you and emulate their style. When you look good, Luxury Brides will know you take pride in your appearance, as well as your images. Remember, if you are trying to book high end brides, they are going to dress nicely and they will want someone who will accurately represent them, meaning you need to dress to impress. This is how high end wedding photographers continue to represent their Luxury Brand.
Related: Get these pro tips to strengthen your photography brand!
2. Book Fiona the Fanatic or Luxury Lucy
Now in the photography industry, it is necessary for you either to cater to low end or high end clients – it can be challenging to find someone in between! There are two kinds of higher end clients that you should search for to see an increase in your profit.
Fiona the Fanatic is your biggest fan – she will spend anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 on your services. She is passionate about what you do and spreads the word to all of her friends and family. Fiona is the ideal clients for photographers because she is investing in your brand and providing you with referrals for years to come.
Luxury Lucy is a high end bride – she spends a minimum of $10,000 on your services. She wants signature style and world class quality to show her circle of influences after the wedding is over. Lucy hires you because she identifies your brand as Luxury, and will include you in her world of prominent figures that may need photography services in the future!
Quick Tip
Utilize high end marketing materials to reach Fiona the Fanatic or Luxury Lucy. This means your marketing plan will cater specifically to this type of bride and will help you more easily get in front of them and book them.
3. Understand the Luxury society
The goal for reinventing your business is to appeal to Luxury Brides. In order to do this, you must understand the Luxury Brand society. As a photographer, you may offer similar services or products as other photographers, and it is your brand that will differentiate you from the rest. You first must realize that beauty and glamour are a large part of appealing to Luxury Brides. Structure your brand so that you focus on beautiful weddings that capture the attention of high end clients. Perception is also a huge factor when it comes to reaching this society – when people start to recognize your business as a Luxury Brand, you will open more doors to higher end weddings. Luxury Brides want to know that they will have the best photographer, images, and wedding that money can buy.[ninja-inline id=14322]
4. Create “Wow” Images
To brand yourself as Luxury, you must have unique and dynamic images that stand out to your brides. It is important for you to take a close look at your portfolio and choose the best examples to showcase on your website. Keep in mind that you sell the bride’s dream wedding and the journey that she will take when she books you with your images. Make sure that each image you present is perfection in her eyes.
Quick Tip
One way to know if you are creating “wow” images is to submit work into a large competition, such as the Print Competition at WPPI. If you can take the top spot for a few consecutive years, it helps to establish yourself as a Luxury Brand!
Related: How can defining your Signature Style help you double your income?
5. Add Value to Key Influencers
When you are working your way into a Luxury Bride’s circle, it is necessary for you to reach out to a trusted source in the group. This is the person that the bride goes to when she needs a suggestion for industry people to work with. It is important for you to add value to this source so that you can be part of the trusted circle. If the source is a vendor, offer to provide images for their business. The source will pay you back in favors – providing you with jobs and opportunities to work with influencers within the circle. Adding value to the source allows you to create a “celebrity” status that will help you book jobs based on your brand.
“Celebrity status increases likeability and gives you a free pass. Your status precedes you, and they will trust you more because you are now known in the industry.” – Scott Robert Lim
With these tips on how to get wedding photography clients by establishing your Luxury Brand, you need more free time to implement them. Some of the best ways to free yourself from the day-to-day tasks are to delegate and outsource your workload. You can hire employees, from an accountant to a sales manager, to assist you in running your photography business. You can also use photo editing companies to take care of your post production work.
And before you go, we have another valuable resource, filled with techniques to help you create a clear and unique brand message. Click on the banner below to download our 7 Branding Mistakes Wedding Photographers Make (and How to Fix Them) to get started!
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