2020 promises to be one of the best years yet, from an economic and wedding photography standpoint. Both The Knot and WeddingWire predict record engagement numbers; it is therefore no better time than now to start planning your 2020 photo sessions (though perhaps six months earlier would have been ideal!). Below are a few strategies you’ll want to implement to ensure a stellar year!
1. Establish Your Website and Blog
I must confess, this item always takes a backseat until December. My reasoning? Since I spend a year creating content, and then upload it all at the end of each year onto my website and blog at once. Throughout the year, Evolve will take approximately 50 creatives from each wedding that best showcase my style of work; then at year’s end, I select weddings with that best represent what type of work I want to highlight during that year and write blog posts about each.
My blog posts don’t focus on writing much text; rather, they aim to capture images and link back to landing pages with relevant information – for instance on my website I may have one called “Vibiana Cathedral Weddings Los Angeles” which will contain loads of content about Vibiana Cathedral Weddings.
On that page, we’ll discuss costs, planning details, and anything else people are searching for when planning their Vibiana weddings. I will bring all my future Vibiana weddings back to this specific page so we can all keep updated.
Have no time to write? No problem. At Verblio, we provide content writing for our website that you simply fill out and pay for as soon as it becomes available to us – all it takes to find something perfect is fill out one simple form, pay the fee, and select an article of your liking!
No doubt it isn’t cheap, but investing in yourself and in what you excel at – shooting or executive duties for your business – will pay dividends in terms of time saved and skill learned.
2. PLAN YOUR PORTFOLIO As
one of my first five years in business went by, this was my primary task in the offseason. Today, your portfolio should be considered one of your greatest assets in your industry. I learned through hard experience that images submitted and scored in competition aren’t always the most suitable images to attract new clientele. Photographers may appreciate art while people value trends and exclusivity – you must find a balance between these elements to attract your ideal customers. At our studio, our trademark is colorful images featuring our subjects taking up two-thirds of the frame with appropriate tonality – neither too dark nor too bright. Instagram photos that do well for us tend to be good indicators of which images our clients will appreciate; thus, I have used that metric as a gauge when selecting pictures for our portfolio’s first page.
If your clientele is still finding themselves without enough stunning images to view, now may be the time to set up some portfolio shoots. Aim to schedule four to five of each genre in the first quarter. In 2020, our plan is to increase our portrait bookings; to do this we held fashion portfolio sessions similar to what was done for weddings before. Establish a plan, set dates and involve all vendors.
3. Establish A DIGITAL ADVERTISING STRATEGY
Digital advertising can often be the easiest and least-expensive form of promotion you can undertake; but that also makes it among the most competitive. I recommend creating a plan involving both print and digital ads; here is a short breakdown list with some sources you might use as starting points:
Paid directories such as WeddingWire and The Knot can be invaluable tools for reaching a wide audience, but require a competitive price point as window shoppers frequently browse them. Furthermore, paid directories typically hold top rankings on Google so as to put you in front of many potential clients.
Social Ads & PPC on Facebook & Instagram will result in your lowest conversion ratio; therefore it is not advised until your brand is more established to consider them as potential solutions.
Reaching highly targeted subgroups on social media requires understanding that most users on the platform aren’t actively searching for photographers; passive marketing works best here for high-dollar items such as wedding photography. Ads for portrait sessions often perform much better; contests and model calls can often increase effectiveness significantly.
Plan for successful warming-up of cold audiences and closing-out of warm ones, using Google & PPC ads (if appropriate) as well as social media to increase brand recognition and awareness; they can be highly cost-competitive so plan to outspend competitors!
Establish a successful booking strategy using social ads like Yelp; this approach works particularly well for photographers specializing in portraiture or small events as the target demographic will likely be budget-minded.
Requiring knowledge of who your client is, particularly understanding why they continue to complain online (like on Yelp). There are multiple approaches available so I have provided pros and cons of each approach for your consideration.
Your next question likely involves which option is the most beneficial?
Answer: To maximize success in wedding business, it is wiser to explore the last three options first and only consider the first option as time allows. Keep in mind that none of these is an immediate solution–you will likely book weddings through each method so it is best to have an overall strategy in place.
On Facebook, photographers often state how Facebook or Google PPC have worked well for them.
Understanding that all success depends on the needs and expectations of your business is important; some may only wish to book three weddings annually while if a company attempts to secure 200 events annually, their strategy will change significantly.
4. Step up Your Email Game Today
Email marketing remains a top priority; in fact, most of your competitors likely fail to take full advantage of its power to increase wedding bookings for 2020 clients by automating all aspects of email communication with them. Our business increased wedding bookings 50 percent due to this approach!
Not talking about creating new leads–anyone who has seen me speak at Obscura already knows we do that regularly–but instead creating an email plan designed to convert past clients into future ones.
What a business owners who have been in operation for some time may not realize is that they’re sitting on an untapped goldmine!
Drip email system will help you create an email sequence targeting existing clients year-round with specials that provide the maximum return for investment, plus run a print sale using N-Vu or your gallery provider every other month. I guarantee this strategy will make money, although it will take considerable time and dedication before seeing results.
5. Develop A Consistent Social Media STRATEGY
Businesses struggle with social media due to a lack of consistency. I am often asked how my Instagram following grew so rapidly when the platform first launched; my strategy consisted in being consistent and not over-posting too frequently. My ideal approach for publishing new content on a regular basis is once every day or every other day; recycling old posts after six months should also be okay. Remember when we discussed getting your blog in order? Now is the time to leverage those blog posts as social media content, but be wary of any inconsistency with your posting schedule – whether three times weekly or seven – be consistent and thorough when selecting tags and locations for posts.
Speaking of Instagram, make sure that all vendors involved in your wedding are tagged both textually and visually in photos. Wedding photographers should geotag venues as this will allow them to appear in search results.
With these tips in mind, I hope that 2019 is your most successful year yet! In June make sure that a plan for 2021 has been laid out – you can never plan too early!