The Next Step (no pics, just unabashed advice sought)

indiegirl · September 14, 2010

Hello, you wedding photogs. You wonderful folks, you.

So the short of it is that I've been shooting all of my adult life as an on-the-side gig and I've gone off the deep end and am doing it "for reals" now. I'm confident about my wedding photography skills, have the gear and would like some perspective on aligning my professional goals with a realistic timeline.

Sept: new website, prepare marketing for school shoots, blog update, holiday marketing
October: two school shoots (500 +/- students), order processing, holiday marketing, join PPA
November: school shoot order fulfillment, retakes, holiday marketing
December: family shoots, holiday order fulfillment, prepare for wedding marketing
January: launch wedding marketing
Feb: Weddings, graduation marketing
March: etc
April: etc
May-August: shoot a bazillion weddings and love every minute of it, craft my site for WPJA entry based on summer gigs, enter PPA photo competition in Aug

I'm budgeting about 6% of my revenue from the school shoots toward marketing for weddings because I want my bread-and-butter to come from wedding photography next year (and forever more).

I want the MOST bang for my buck (duh, who doesn't?!). I'd like targeted, smart access to brides but I don't want to waste my money spreading myself across several media markets if I don't have to.

So in this, my "build up" year, do you have any advice for me?

:bow

Qarik · September 14, 2010

where are you located? google adwords might be something to look into

indiegirl · September 14, 2010

Seattle area

Matthew Saville · September 14, 2010

indiegirl wrote: »

...and I've gone off the deep end and am doing it "for reals" now.

...and so have roughly 100,000 other hobbyist photographers, in 2009. (Rumored statistic.) My point- Good luck with that! I don't mean to be negative, but realistic.

indiegirl wrote: »

May-August: shoot a bazillion weddings and love every minute of it...

Here's where the "realistic" needs to settle in. I'm sure you're just being light-hearted when you say "a bazillion weddings", but it still bears saying- Unless you hatch some brand new marketing / branding scheme that catches on like wildfire, it's just not gonna happen.

If you watch the recent trends in the industry of wedding photography, it is pretty clear that the past one year has seen a huge hit in everyone's success. Probably because it takes about one year for a recession to catch up to an industry like this where everything is planned and paid for so far in advance. That, and like I said every hobbyist (and their grandma) is currently trying to get into business. Sounds cynical, but I'd love to see proof that says otherwise...

But, forget the nay-saying. Let's talk real numbers. How many weddings would you like to shoot in the first year after you "launch"? 10? 20? 30?

It should be easy to achieve one of these goals, depending on your market placement and visibility. Will you go for the budget bride? Or the bride with a decent budget? Where will these first clients come from? Friends? Family? Church? Co-workers? Advertising?

Personally, my preference is to pursue whichever areas you are already socially connected to. Depending on which stage of your life you're in, you may have a ton of high school / college friends currently getting married, or you may have a ton of co-workers getting married, or maybe you're active in a church and there is always a fresh supply of 20-somethings eager to tie the knot. My point is, wherever you are, pursue that. Before you pursue advertising, I would say. Advertising is so hit-or-miss these days; it is just NOT a good basket to put your eggs in. I would only consider advertising an experiment that you should only do if you can afford to have it be a complete waste. If you have a household or a home loan on the line though, don't mess around- pound the pavement, get out there and FIND your first 10-30 weddings.

Joining the WPJA might be a good idea since it IS a good source of business, but as I just posted in the other thread- it's only a good idea of photojournalism is truly your core talent and passion. And as far as the PPA goes, I dunno what benefit you would get from entering competitions etc. in your first year. Is there a proven path to new business, if you win something? Seems like a business tactic that belongs in the 80's or 90's...

Either way, good luck! I hope I wasn't too harsh, but hey this is a harsh industry and time to be entering it!
=Matt=

indiegirl · September 14, 2010

Hey Matt, thanks for your great feedback.

studio1972 · September 14, 2010

Matt is quite blunt, but he's right to say this is a very hard time to do what you're planning. I would suggest starting off part time and see how you like it rather than jumping in with both feet. That's how I started anyway, 10 weddings in first year, 20 in second, 35 in third which I'm now in. Also, fi you don't start marketing until Jan you'll not have time to get many bookings by the summer. You need to start now.

One last thing, you need to think about it as a process, having a slick workflow will help you a great deal. Aperture/Lightroom are much better than PS for this IMHO.

indiegirl · September 14, 2010

I should clarify my intention with this thread a bit, or perhaps my background

I'm not a novice. I'm nationally-published and have a good workflow, good equipment and a good head on my shoulders

What I'm looking for (and what Matt has reinforced) is how to best cultivate a client base which will result in exponential growth. Do I invest in wedding expos? A full page ad? I have a great base of clients with family/kid photography and want to transition into weddings as I refine my business plan.

Jesse

Mishka · September 14, 2010

First, before you do anything, ask yourself who your ideal client is. If you don't know that and define it before you start, you'll likely never reach them. I know who my clients are, and I market to them.

Your initial year will be the hardest, as word of mouth and referrals are always stronger than advertisement. If you're going to advertise, I recommend advertising on the web--forget the expos and magazines. You'll get more ROI online, in my opinion, than at a one-day event or one-page ad. Use your social networks to find clients--facebook, word of mouth.

Get to know other wedding photographers in your market. Become their friends. Seriously, a good percentage of my inquiries come from referrals from other photographers in my town who are already booked. We refer brides back and forth to one another if we're not available for a date.

Show them what you want to shoot. I just visited your blog--great photos but nothing to do with weddings (I know you obviously haven't started marketing for that yet). Brides want to see wedding photos, so make sure they can see those when they find you. Get rid of everything else--portraits, landscapes, commercial, if it's not wedding related, get rid of it.

If you want to book weddings for next year, you need to be marketing now. January will be too late to get that started.

Good luck!

Matthew Saville · September 15, 2010

indiegirl wrote: »

I should clarify my intention with this thread a bit, or perhaps my background

I'm not a novice. I'm nationally-published and have a good workflow, good equipment and a good head on my shoulders

What I'm looking for (and what Matt has reinforced) is how to best cultivate a client base which will result in exponential growth. Do I invest in wedding expos? A full page ad? I have a great base of clients with family/kid photography and want to transition into weddings as I refine my business plan.

Jesse

If this is the case, then that makes me even more confident that your time and money will be better spent if you don't worry too much about advertising, and just reach out to your current connections. And as Mishka advised- Reach out now, not in January. And get rid of everything that isn't weddings.

Bottom line- If anyone stands a chance at success, it's probably you; but don't squander too much time or money with advertising. Unless you assess your target market and decide that an ad, or a bridal show, IS indeed the best way to reach them. And hey, it might be, so who knows!

I think that's the biggest take-home so far- If you're hoping to make weddings your bread and butter, start *NOW*. People are booking for 2011 right now, and often by January it will be too late. Well it depends where you live I guess; I'm in Southern California so we kinda shoot all year round I guess...

Take care!
=Matt=

l.k.madison · September 15, 2010

Facebook!!!

If you don't have one already, get one. Put up a status update tagging your photo page and sit back and watch it grow. EVERY gig I've ever done was thanks to Facebook. Shoot a few shots for couples, tag them I'm the pictures and their friends will see it and so on. Its free advertising.

Another puce of advice: find the one "genre" you want to shoot in and stick to it. No offense, but I wouldn't hire a wedding photographer who shoots school portraits. It's one thing to be posed, its another to catch *the* moment 200 times in one day. Find a specialty and cater to that crowd.

I do agree with all of the other comments about everybody with a nice camera thinking they can be pro photogs. It takes more than fancy numbers and fast glass, we all know this.

With all of that being said, good luck!

The Next Step (no pics, just unabashed advice sought)

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