Wedding Photography Ads

winterxrose

Hello everyone!

I've been in the wedding photography business for a year, and I'd like to expand and find more clients. I haven't quite exhausted my free marketing avenues just yet, but while I work on my SEO and try to get Google to notice my existence, I was wondering what sort of paid advertising might work to get new leads? I've read that Wedding Wire and The Knot are generally not worth the expense, but what about less obvious wedding websites such as A Practical Wedding or fearlessphotographers.com? Facebook or Google campaigns? Any other online advertising ideas?

Much appreciated!

Matthew Saville

Whatever you do, do NOT invest money in Facebook or Google ads, not without consulting a professional marketing consultant in those fields. I know a few people who do that kind of stuff for a living, and from what I hear you can actually do more harm than good if you pay for Facebook traffic, and especially if you pay for "likes".

The absolute best thing you can do for yourself, as far as social media is concerned, is to use it for what it is- a social network. I'd rather offer my current clients a free canvas as a referral reward, than spend that same $$$ on any type of advertising. I'd rather spend my hours calling, emailing, or just socially connecting with other wedding industry professionals, especially planners and venues and any other big ones, ...than spend my hours designing fancy business cards, or tweaking my website every 2 hours, or coming up with a print ad.

But, that's just me, in my area, where wedding photographers are almost a dime a dozen these days. My business lives or dies based on referrals, and social traffic / SEO.

There might be a good advertising opportunity out there for you; I don't know where you live or what your price range is so don't count it out. I'm just saying that before you commit to spending this or that amount on an ad, ask yourself if there is anything else you should spend that money (or time) on first.

Good luck!

winterxrose

Matthew Saville wrote: »

Whatever you do, do NOT invest money in Facebook or Google ads, not without consulting a professional marketing consultant in those fields. I know a few people who do that kind of stuff for a living, and from what I hear you can actually do more harm than good if you pay for Facebook traffic, and especially if you pay for "likes".

The absolute best thing you can do for yourself, as far as social media is concerned, is to use it for what it is- a social network. I'd rather offer my current clients a free canvas as a referral reward, than spend that same $$$ on any type of advertising. I'd rather spend my hours calling, emailing, or just socially connecting with other wedding industry professionals, especially planners and venues and any other big ones, ...than spend my hours designing fancy business cards, or tweaking my website every 2 hours, or coming up with a print ad.

But, that's just me, in my area, where wedding photographers are almost a dime a dozen these days. My business lives or dies based on referrals, and social traffic / SEO.

There might be a good advertising opportunity out there for you; I don't know where you live or what your price range is so don't count it out. I'm just saying that before you commit to spending this or that amount on an ad, ask yourself if there is anything else you should spend that money (or time) on first.

Good luck!

Thank you very much! I'm definitely working on my SEO and social/regular networking, but it is a long term effort and I'm wondering if some paid advertising might be a good kick-start. Is it inappropriate to reach out to venues and other professionals with whom I've never worked? (For example, email a venue that I've never shot at?)

Matthew Saville

winterxrose wrote: »

Thank you very much! I'm definitely working on my SEO and social/regular networking, but it is a long term effort and I'm wondering if some paid advertising might be a good kick-start. Is it inappropriate to reach out to venues and other professionals with whom I've never worked? (For example, email a venue that I've never shot at?)

I would say, it's worth a shot, but only if you think you're a perfect match for the type of venue, or the type of client, etc. Meaning, I wouldn't do it unless I had a specific handful of images to show them, and even then it probably wouldn't amount to much unless they were the best images that person had ever seen.

Your best bet is to try and connect with clients who are aligned with exactly the type of work you want to do. Turn them into raving fans of your results, and take it from there. I wouldn't invest in any sort of paid advertising, and definitely NEVER pay for traffic, because it can seriously mess up your true, "organic" traffic through social media / google. The only / safest thing you could consider doing is putting a few dollars into a google ad for your area, or your favorite venue. It'd probably at least help to increase traffic to your site...

JonaBeth Russell

FWIW, I use Wedding.com and WeddingWire.com. Neither generate enough work for full a full time wedding schedule, but both earn income and are justifiable expenses. I get a few weddings per year from each. The more feedback / reviews I get, the more business I get. Seems to work out alright.

I do not invest money into The Knot, however. It's remarkably more expensive than the other two sites I mentioned, and is super saturated.

Glort

winterxrose wrote: »

Hello everyone!

I've been in the wedding photography business for a year,

During that time or before, what sort of study, learning, educating yourself etc have you put into marketing and advertising? Why could a potential client book you over a competitor, IE, what's your USP?

What sort of things are bringing work on for you now what is the breakdown of the work you are getting from that?
Rather than just have a stab in the dark, always best to build on past initiatives and take that into account along with what you can offer clients over your competitors. Often that will be a guide as to what form and type of promotion will have the best ROI.

Matthew Saville

Glort wrote: »

During that time or before, what sort of study, learning, educating yourself etc have you put into marketing and advertising? Why could a potential client book you over a competitor, IE, what's your USP?

What sort of things are bringing work on for you now what is the breakdown of the work you are getting from that?
Rather than just have a stab in the dark, always best to build on past initiatives and take that into account along with what you can offer clients over your competitors. Often that will be a guide as to what form and type of promotion will have the best ROI.

I agree with everything Glort said.

winterxrose

Glort wrote: »

During that time or before, what sort of study, learning, educating yourself etc have you put into marketing and advertising? Why could a potential client book you over a competitor, IE, what's your USP?

What sort of things are bringing work on for you now what is the breakdown of the work you are getting from that?
Rather than just have a stab in the dark, always best to build on past initiatives and take that into account along with what you can offer clients over your competitors. Often that will be a guide as to what form and type of promotion will have the best ROI.

Thank you very much for the responses. Thus far I've been hired by friends, coworkers, and clients found on Thumbtack and Eventective. Most of my marketing research has been from poking around on Google So I'm very much a beginner at business marketing. I went ahead and set up Google ads in my area. Thankfully you can quit or change those at any time, since I'm wary of commitment at this point. I have heard that the highest-level ads on the Knot and Wedding Wire really pay off but unfortunately those are out of my budget!

Glort

winterxrose wrote: »

So I'm very much a beginner at business marketing. I went ahead and set up Google ads in my area.

In that case THE smartest thing you could do for yourself right now is to put some time and effort into learning more about Marketing, sales and advertising. Yeah, I know, most shooters think it's a load of hooey and they don't need it, all they need to be is the greatest shooter on the planet and they will be fine. These are the same people that Post endless " How much should I charge" questions and ask about basic business things that they should have known years back.

If you want to get ahead of the pack and know how and where to advertise and know whhat is working and what isn't, educate yourself NOW.

How are your google ads going? Do you know how many hits you have had? did you target them in any way? Have any idea what sort of ROI you are getting on them or what your lead conversion rate is?

Forget about trying to get work in for the moment, educate yourself with the endless free info on the net and at your local library and start of on the right track and have some foundation to make your advertising effective when you do spend money on it.
You don't have to be a marketing expert, You just need to have a grasp of the basics to see where to go and where everyone else is going wrong.

Once you get the basics of marketing understood, you won't be saying what paid advertising should I do and this and that is out of my price range, You'll know what free and effective advertising you can do today and you'll also know how to put the money you make into paid ads that are killer and bring you in more money that just give it to the media companys with no vale to you at all.