As a wedding photographer, what helps you stand out from others in the industry? Setting yourself apart from photographers who have similar qualities as you can give you an advantage when it comes to attracting and booking your ideal clients. Although discovering your unique qualities helps you and your business, it can sometimes become difficult to create a new strategy to market your brand.
In our Live Event Recording with legendary photographer, Joe Buissink, he shared how you can reinvent your brand and make it new again. Your past work speaks to who you are and the experience your clients will have when they book you. So you can properly use your content to attract the clients you want to work with, here are the top 5 tips for reinventing your brand.
1. Find Unique Qualities
As you begin to reinvent your brand, look at your past images and study them. After a bit of studying time, you will find yourself in every one of those photos. This helps you find your unique qualities because it gives you a look into why you shoot the way you do.
“You cannot possibly hit the shutter without leaving a piece of you in the image.” – Joe Buissink
When you study your photos, think about why you take certain shots. What from your background makes you who you are? Because your experiences shape you as a photographer today, your style will be represented in your photos.
Related: What inspires you to continue growing and improving your business?
2. Create Connections through Prints
For your ideal clients to take interest in you, something in your business needs to separate you from other photographers and how they interact with clients. Selling your wedding photos as prints assists you in increasing your income and also allows your clients to have a physical memory of what you provided for them from their wedding day.
Sharing prints with clients is a crucial part of what Joe does today in his business, especially with his older images. Before meeting his clients, he prints his favorite photos, signs them, and frames them. When he is in a client meeting, he shares his past work with clients, and offers two options for his prints: unsigned and signed, which includes a price increase. In addition to offering prints, he tells the story behind the photo. Showing clients an online gallery or slideshow can be beneficial, but does not contribute to your relationship with your clients like prints or an album do.
“65% of my clients buy the prints signed. Why? Because I pitched it that way. I sold it when I showed it to them. They buy what you pitch.” – Joe Buissink
Tip: Leave the room when you share a sample album with your clients. If you are there, they may feel tempted to ask you questions rather than looking at the photos and absorbing the experience.
Related: Are you increasing your profit by selling prints to every client?
3. Outsource Photo Editing
After the wedding is over, how many hours are you sitting in front of the screen? Joe recalls the days he spent endless hours working on his photos, as well as when he hired someone in-house to help. Because neither of those options were working, he thought back to an old adage:
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“Do what you do best and delegate the rest.” – Joe Buissink
Using a wedding photo editing company takes care of the science of your photos and sends them back consistent and color corrected. All you have to do is add your artistic edits, which usually takes minimal time. Outsourcing your post production needs can eliminate a majority of your workflow and help you focus on other parts of your business, such as continuously reinventing your brand and attracting ideal clients.
4. Make Shooting Simple
As you shoot during the wedding day, capturing emotional and candid moments can help you create some of the best shots for your clients. Because there are so many moving parts, you and your camera have to be ready to document these moments at every turn. Adjusting the way you shoot and the settings you use on your camera assists in allowing you to document moments without worrying you missed anything from the day.
Tip: Joe recommends shooting in Program mode (or as Joe says, “P for Professional”) to save yourself exponential time during your shoot. When your camera is in the program setting, you can stop thinking and spend more time in the moment.
5. Remain Curious about Photography
When you begin to reinvent your brand with your past work, you are on your way to meeting new clients and trying new techniques. Even after you make adjustments and improvements to your business, continue to evolve and make changes. Remaining curious as a photographer can help you continue to grow through trying new shooting skills and business strategies.
Try taking on other work outside of your business for inspiration. Find personal projects that have nothing to do with increasing your profit or growing your business, but that you are passionate about. These projects can help you discover what you love to shoot and what you need to work on.
As a photographer in a hectic and evolving business, reinventing your brand is a necessary part of the job. There are always improvements and adjustments that can be made to keep clients interested in you. So you can get started on making changes today, take a look at your past work and get to know who you are as a photographer and business owner. Discover how you can share a clear brand message to your ideal clients with our Guide, 7 Branding Mistakes Wedding Photographers Make (and How to Fix Them)!
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