Archives for 2016

Here at ShootDotEdit, we spend a lot of time covering tips to effectively upgrade and maintain your blog. From plugins to use, naming conventions to try, and how to use a blog calendar, we’ve covered topics which can help you fully maximize your blog.

In our Secrets to Blogging for the Savvy Photographer Webinar, Jeff and Erin Youngren, discuss steps to creating an effective blog. Since blogging is so important for your business, we’re going to break down the steps into three separate posts. Today, we want to discuss being strategic with your blog. Here are 3 steps to kickstart your blog through a well-planned strategy.

1. Focus on ROH

In business, you have probably heard about ROI (Return of Interest), which directly benefits you as the owner. When you have a high ROI, the work you put in increases your overall profit. Instead of focusing on ROI for your blog posts, Jeff and Erin suggest focusing on ROH (Return of Happiness). Since many consumers base their purchasing decisions on how they feel about a product or business, strategically creating content your ideal clients enjoy is key to mastering ROH.

“True marketing is where your client’s picture of happiness and services intersect.” – Brian Clark of Copyblogger

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When you shoot an engagement session or a wedding, you work your hardest to capture the important moments of the wedding day. After you receive your images back from a photography editing service, you should be sharing them on your blog (which many times is used with WordPress). Your blog is a necessary aspect of your business that helps you connect with your target audience. A blog post typically contains your past engagements and wedding shoots, as well as a narrative to make the story come alive for your followers. The more your content is shared with your ideal clients, the easier it can become to reach couples who are perfect for you. But, as a busy wedding photographer, it can be difficult to spend all of your time-sharing content with your followers (and trying to reach new ones). For you to optimize your blog and reach new audiences, you must encourage your past, current, and future clients to share your content on social media.

Because people who read your blog are also busy with their work and personal lives, encouraging social sharing needs to be an easy process. If there are too many complicated steps involved, readers will be less likely to share your work with their family and friends. Plugins are available for you to feature within your blog posts and are easy for readers to click on and share. Here are 3 plugins your blog needs to jumpstart social sharing (and help you meet more couples!).

1. Mashshare

Throughout the Internet, there are thousands of other photographers who offer content to their target market. Those photographers also want readers of their blog to share on social media so they can reach larger audiences. How can you make your social sharing experience more enticing for your blog readers so they choose to share your content over others? Mashshare is a quick and easy plugin to help encourage your blog readers to share your content.

Related: Do you use contests to skyrocket your reach on social media?

Specifically, Mashshare allows you to place visually pleasing social share buttons on your blog. Whether you use multiple social platforms, or only a few, Mashshare provides social share buttons that live on the top and bottom of one particular blog post. When a reader on your blog post clicks on a social share button, there will be text already included based on the social platform. Another great feature of this plugin is it shows you how many people have shared the blog post. Most readers want to be a part of something which is popular, so showing the share count on your blog may encourage them to stay on the page a bit longer.

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As you begin creating content and a title for your blog, take a moment to place yourself in your ideal client’s shoes. Start by thinking about what you would first do to search for a wedding photographer. When you type “wedding photographer” into Google’s search, how many websites and blogs appear? For brides and grooms looking for a photographer, having hundreds of pages filled with options can become overwhelming. Instead of searching through every photographer who appeared, they will focus on the first page of results.

Also think about what happens when your blog is shared on your social media networks. If your content is filtered in along with every other similar photographer, what will make your current and potential clients click to read more? Your blog title is key to achieving clicks on both search engines and social media. Although it can be simple to create a blog title which describes exactly what is included (such as Tracy and Joe – July 5, 2015), clients who are looking for something specific may be turned off from clicking.

Creating click-worthy blog titles to share with your ideal clients can help you reach out and share your work more easily. When a title appeals to what a couple needs to know for their wedding day, they will be more likely to click and read through your content. Here are a few tips to help you create click-worthy blog titles to get you started on your new blog post naming conventions.

Create Curiosity

From choosing a photographer, a venue, and all of the other important details of their day, wedding planning can be stressful for the bride and groom. Even brides who have a specific vision for their day can run into roadblocks during the process. In addition to featuring your past weddings on your blog, start creating content which caters to the difficulties couples may face.

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