One of the most common parts of a wedding photography package for a couple to book is an engagement session. This is an opportunity for you to spend time with your couple and get to know them. It allows you to make them as comfortable as possible in front of the camera, so they are not nervous on the wedding day. Plus, the images you share with your couple after the engagement session help solidify your brand message and expectations they had from seeing your past photos on your website and blog. If you’re looking for engagement session ideas, you’ve come to the right place!
As a business owner, marketing is a key component of your strategy to attract ideal clients and book more weddings. With so many options to use, how do you know which is best for your business?
In our Online Training: 7 Easy Marketing Ideas Which Are Right Under Your Nose, with The Scobeys, they covered some of their top marketing ideas. They shared valuable marketing tips to help you cater to your ideal clients, and to help you make the entire experience a positive one. To help you get started with your marketing efforts, here are the top 5 tips from their Online Training.
Image Compliments of The Scobeys
1. Utilize Social Media
For your business, social media is a top way to market to your ideal clients and share about your brand. And, although there are ways to pay for social media strategies, you can market on the platforms for free and still expand your reach. Both Facebook and Instagram are platforms that are perfect to share your images and content with ideal clients. A few tips The Scobeys have for using these platforms are:
Does this sound familiar? Wedding, engagement and portrait shoots, emails, meetings, timelines, albums… the list goes on and on. You have a never-ending to-do list to maintain your business. A wedding happens and you capture images you are ecstatic about, and have full intentions to share them on your blog to show your couple (and to help attract more clients). But, the next client inquiry comes in and your schedule is suddenly packed again. You think, “I’ll get to blogging about my last wedding when I do the next one.” And then, it happens again, and again, and again.
Blogging is a bottleneck for many wedding photographers, and is one of the most common tasks to get pushed aside. And even though it may never be the most important task of the day, it is vitally important to growing your wedding photography business. The challenge is figuring out how you can blog consistently, post in a timely manner, and keep up with the demands of the rest of your business. We have a great resource to help you with each of these items, so you can reap the benefits of blogging as a wedding photographer.
How many times have you wanted to post multiple images on Instagram, but didn’t want to clutter your account? With Instagram Galleries, now you can post more than one image at a time, and maintain the style of your account!
The newest update allows you to share up to 10 images (or videos) in one post for your followers to swipe through. This is great news for you and your photography business, since you share past wedding images and more, to attract ideal clients. There are many possibilities with this new addition to take advantage of, especially when it comes to posts that share about your photography and brand. We’ve put together a few tools to help you maximize Instagram Galleries for your wedding photography business.
Build a Strategy
This is not the first time Instagram has introduced a new feature to the app. For example, they introduced Instagram Stories, which was a significant update for users. With Instagram Stories, image posts received less interaction, which caused many to reevaluate their strategy to keep followers engaged.
Now, with Instagram Galleries, you have the opportunity to increase the interaction from your image posts. Take the time to adjust your strategy to include Galleries, so you maximize the newest feature with your followers. Keep in mind, although you can post up to 10 images and videos to your account, the posts you share should still reflect your brand.
Becoming a full-time wedding photography business owner can be a daunting task. From a seemingly never-ending workload to long days of shooting, the list goes on and on. But, the switch to invest in your business as your main priority can allow you to streamline your business and focus on the aspects of it you love to do. So, how do you know if you are ready to switch to full-time?
ShootDotEdit Wedding Pro, Vanessa Joy, is sharing her story that took her from doing what she did not love to do to what she loves. She is also providing you with 4 questions to ask yourself that can help you get to a place where you love what you do.
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From doing what I hate to doing what I love
Ok, so maybe I didn’t hate being an Elementary School Spanish teacher, but waking up extra early to answer e-mails before running to school and then coming home covered in chalk, just to walk right to my computer and start working the night shift, was not my ideal way of spending my first year of marriage. My poor husband would greet me at the door, super excited to see me (he was already a full-time wedding cinematographer), and I’d have to do my best to smile through the anxious thoughts over how long the hello would take because I knew the exponential rate that the editing pile was growing.
One of our favorite things to do here at ShootDotEdit (besides providing outsourcing photo editing services) is to share valuable information for you to implement into your wedding photography business. We also love to partner with leaders in the industry who can provide their insights to help you succeed, in this case, specifically when it comes to submitting photography to magazines.
Submitting Photography to Magazines
In her first post with us, Editor-in-Chief of Rangefinder Magazine, Jacqueline Tobin, shared what qualities she and other judges look for in the 30 Rising Stars. Today, she’s sharing her top tips for how to get your photos published. Adding wedding photography magazine submissions to your workflow is an important part of reaching larger audiences and sharing your style with potential clients. Read through the post to discover Jacqueline’s expertise into the subject.
As a wedding photographer, your brand is what sets you apart from others in the industry. It allows you to share your unique photography style with ideal clients who are a perfect match for you.
Every few years, it becomes necessary for you to work on and elevate your brand to keep up with the changes in the photography industry. Since that can take time and can be difficult to know where to start, we put together a list of tips to help you strengthen your brand this year with help from some top wedding pros. These tips can help you share a strong and clear brand message, to assist you in booking the clients you desire.
Discover Your “Why”
One of the first ways to strengthen your brand is to discover your “why.” Think about why you wanted to become a photographer, and what qualities motivate you to capture special moments from your couples and their loved ones. When you identify your “why,” you can share your unique qualities with ideal clients who want to book you as their photographer.
Much of your job as a photographer is spent reaching out to clients who will help you grow your business. One of the top ways to do that is to create and use a strategic marketing plan, which can provide you with more opportunities to share about your brand with ideal clients. The more effort you place into your marketing plan, the easier it becomes to attract clients and book more weddings.
In our Secrets to Getting Booked Guide, we asked top industry leaders what techniques worked in their business last year to book more weddings. Below, 3 wedding pros share marketing tips you need to know to help you book the clients you desire this year.
1. Set Specific Goals
As with every plan you create, you must set specific goals for your marketing efforts. When you have the specific goals set, you can then create a detailed marketing plan that allows you to reach ideal clients. Those are the clients you should spend time marketing to, so you can reach your goal for the weddings you need to book.
ShootDotEdit Customer, Vanessa Joy Photography, recommends being specific in the goals you set for the weddings you want to book. This means looking at your financial goals to decide how many weddings should be on your schedule. The more specific you are with your goals, the more detail you can include in your marketing plan to achieve those bookings.
More than ever, a strong social media presence is vital for the success of your wedding photography business. Do you have a plan in place for how you will maximize social media this year to reach ideal clients, increase awareness about your brand, and book more weddings? To get you started, here are 14 tips to help you build a strong social media plan this year.
1. Identify Where Your Audience Is
Although having a presence on each social platform is ideal, it can be helpful to know where the majority of your audience is. If, for example, you find that most of your clients come from Facebook, this is where you want to spend a bit more of your time and efforts.
During the wedding day shoot, detail shots are the most important images to capture. From getting ready to the ceremony to the reception, there are various details to include in the wedding story. Ring shots are among the details you must document for your couple. Depending on your location, props you bring, or the elements available to you, there are plenty of creative and unique ways to shoot the rings. Below, we share 5 engagement and wedding ring shots from a few wedding pros to spark your creativity.
