Grow and Improve Your Wedding Photography Business
#1 Analyzing the in-and-out of entire wedding photography business
A professional wedding photographer is required to have the complete knowledge of wedding photography business including the information related to the best camera for wedding photography. If you are a novice and just planning to enter into this field you can contact the local wedding photographers in your area. This could help you in getting the idea about the budget and the pricing that is offered by the clients. This will even help in getting an insight into how to pitch a client.
Theoretical knowledge could be obtained by visiting the blogs and websites of professional wedding photographers. This help in getting an insight into the wedding photography packages.
The Wedding photography business is a very competitive field. You should have a proper list of your USP (unique selling points). It is your USP’s that could help in creating a difference from the other options that are available.
Your USP could be anything, for example, it could be related to your pricing or the style of photography you provide or it could be the ways with which you showcase your wedding photography packages.
#2 Firstly approaching to your inner circle
Don’t think that you have mastered the art of wedding photography including the different wedding photography styles if your friends and family are complimenting you on your photography skills. It is only when they have started referring you to their friends and relatives. It is the time when you can think that you have mastered the art of photographic skills. Your amount of success can be monitored by the amount offers and references you start getting on a regular basis. You can visit the local photographers to know how much do wedding photographers cost.
In the initial level, you could start as part-time. This will make sure that you have another source of income i.e. from your full-time job. This act is considered somewhat safe. As choosing wedding photography as a career could only be possible if your confident enough and ready to face the challenge which might occur in the way.
#3 Starting with free photography assignments
It may take quite a long time to get your first bonafide client who could recognize and pay you as a professional wedding photographer. It will take a huge amount of background work together with lots of dedication and preparation. In the initial stage, you could start taking free wedding photography assignments. This could help in building up the attractive portfolios. You could even ask the people with whom you have offered your services for free to rate you on your social media accounts. It is to be noted that the wedding you pick to shoot for free should be of premium class. It should include the best photography poses. This would enable you to produce a high-end portfolio.
#4 Deciding your pricing wisely and smartly
Pricing is a very important factor for both client and professional wedding photographer. Photography is a vast field, therefore, it becomes all the more difficult to decide a certain price for a certain type of photography. When it comes to choosing a professional wedding photographer, people will go through is his entire list of pricing as well as the services which would be included in it. Establishing a wedding photography business is all about making a proper plan of the expenses while keeping a certain percentage of profit in mind. It becomes very difficult for entry-level photographers. To overcome this problem they can get an idea of the pricing of the local photographers. This is the safe step as it will get in analyzing the current charges of local photographers. Also, you should have a proper list with detailed explanations of the expenses which could be both incidental as well as fixed expenses. It should cover everything like expenses of equipment, insurance even gas. It should even include the charges of assistants and other co-workers and the processing time.
It is very important to analyze where you stand as a professional wedding photographer. This is not a very good idea to keep your pricing below a certain level as it would also not give a good impression about the quality of your work.
Your rate card should always be kept ready. There might be situations where you need to lower down your pricing. In this situation, you should manage to earn at least a marginal profit.
#5 Establishing a brand name for the wedding photography business
To be able to get recognized as a professional wedding photographer, it is very essential to establish a brand which would include the name of your business, logo, unique visual elements like font size and colour. It even incorporates professional business cards, websites, brochures. It should be both attractive and have a professional look both at the same time. It is the very first thing which client will look into before directly approaching you. So, understand its importance and design it accordingly.
#6 Designing an attractive wedding portfolio website
It has become the need of an hour to have a professional wedding portfolio website in order to be recognized as a professional wedding photographer. Best photography websites could be designed with the help of professionals. Website has become a major platform to earn the business. It provides the chance to showcase your portfolio worldwide. It would be the very first step the client would see before contacting you. So, make sure that you have professional wedding portfolio website with the complete details of your business including photography pricing list. Make sure it should be pretty much concise with the proper contact details together with the link of other social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, twitter, youtube.
#7 Keeping in mind the importance of legal stuff
This is one of the most critical things which has to be looked upon wisely. Contracts and agreements play a major role in looking after the legal stuff. It is important both for the client as well as the professional wedding photographer. Contracts and agreements should list down all the details of the services which you would be offering to your client. This will be a great help to avoid any sort of confusion after the end of the project. The contract should provide with the clear list of all the items which would be included and which will not be included. Also, the price must be stated clearly. A Proper list of the extra requirements if needed by the client should also be written clearly.
#8 Using the client proofing platform to streamline and showcase your workflow
Online client proofing tool has made it possible to streamline and showcase your work in the form of an online gallery. This will make it much easier for your clients to view and share the images. This provides clients with easy access giving them the opportunity to share their thoughts on the images. It should become a part of the photography business plan.
It is also a great method in online delivering the work to your clients. It helps in saving time. You can tie up with companies who look after the editing post-processing of the photos. It is a valuable step as it saves time and you can handle multiple projects simultaneously.
#9 Using a blog to write and share the wedding shoot experience
Blogging helps in making your wedding photography portfolio richer. It increases the chances of getting more business from the couple out there who are in search of professional wedding photographers. This could even help in gaining existence in google and other used search engines. It is also very important in increasing the branding of your business together with the style of photography.
This is done by hiring SEO. SEO would help in optimizing the website for local searches termed as local SEO. This is a great step in increasing the business as well as recognition.
#10 Registering wedding photography business on ‘Wedding Marketplaces’
Wedding marketplaces is considered to be the best choice for listing your wedding photography business. These wedding marketplaces are known to provide the best of services in the field of caterers, officiants, DJs
The list of some of the prominent wedding marketplaces found in the USA are given below:
Mywedding.com
Style Me Pretty
Carats and Cake
Wedding Wire
These prominent wedding planning websites are often flooded with the to-be-brides. It has a list of highly professional photographers which make this competitive. As these wedding planning websites are visited by a large number of to-be-couple so reviews of your work on these websites will be a great source in increasing the business and goodwill. It is entirely free to list your wedding photography business on these wedding planning websites. However, the advertising option is offered by these marketplaces.
For example: Style Me Pretty comes with ‘Little Black Book’ membership as a form of advertising option. Wedding Wire promotes wedding photography business with the help of an advertising option that helps in gaining recognition across the network.
These marketplaces also provide a forum where the discussions could be made on the needs and requirements of the bride and the groom. It is very essential to be active on such platforms in order to gain clients and to make the people be aware of your business.
#11 Approaching wedding blogs and magazines to get your work featured
There are many wedding magazines out there who pick up the work of finest professionals of the industry and feature their work in the magazine. Wedding planning blogs showcase the choice of perfect designer bridal gown and even perfect wedding venues. It offers a wide range of choices to the clients. These wedding magazines tell about the latest trends in fashion and makeup industry. It gives a detailed analysis of the best professional wedding photographers available in the market.
How to get your work published in the wedding magazines?
Getting yourself listed in the top wedding magazines is not an easy task. You have to prove your calibre and skill set with full passion and dedication.
Writing to editor
Impressing editors with your work is one of the difficult tasks of this industry. Contact details particularly the email addresses of the editors are given in the magazines. You can approach them via an email. However, they are huge chances that they would not reply to your mail. They are very busy people. In this case, taking a follow up would be a good option. Also, try to keep the subject line as effective as you can. This would give them a brief idea about the content that would be present in the email. Example of the subject line could be: tips in mind during the pre-wedding shoot or content related to pre-wedding photoshoot dresses.
Using wedding magazines and blogs as a source of advertisement
It is a bit expensive but is considered to be one of the best ways of promoting your wedding photography business.
Some of the lists of famous wedding magazines which you can use as a source of advertisement are:
The Knot Magazine
Inside Weddings
Brides
Wedding Style
Bridal Guide
The magazines have appealing online blogs as well. Getting a referral link or a backlink could significantly increase the traffic on your website.
Also, getting yourself published in a local wedding magazine is also very important. It would help in gaining more and more clients locally.
#12 Actively using social media and showcasing creativity
Anything can become viral if it has something unique or creative with the help of social media. Social media is a great platform for streamlining your work and getting in touch with the people. However, it should not be misinterpreted by posting one picture on a daily basis. It is far more beyond this.
#13 Building social network
Networking is one of the crucial steps in building any business. It can be both ways i.e. online as well as offline. Ways of networking could be rewarding people who help you to get business. It has to be kept in mind that it is the people who could help in increasing the business. So you should always respect people approaching you related to your business. They are converted into your clients or not is however another matter. This is one of the finest steps which could help you in becoming a professional wedding photographer.
#14 Seeking testimonials
Seeking testimonials on the wedding photos of the couple can have a huge positive impact on the marketing of the photographer.
#15 Collaborating photographers from different niche
It can be a crucial step in collaborating photographers from different niche. This could help in providing great exposure. Similarly, wedding photographers can work with boudoir photographers. You can ask the collaborating partners to tag you in the images of behind the scenes.
#16 Maintaining a healthy relationship with a vendor network
The other essential parts of a wedding apart from a wedding photographer are florists, wedding bands, decorators. So, collaborating with them and maintaining a healthy relationship can be a good option. This will directly or indirectly help in increasing the wedding photography business.
Ways with which you can approach vendors
Proactively asking the vendors to praise your work in front of their clients
Vendors very well know the importance of clients in order to run a business. So asking help from vendors can be a good option.
Providing your sample album to vendors
This could be a great method in showcasing your work. It can even help in gaining the confidence of the clients.
#17 There is no limit of growing of learning
There is no limit to learning and growing in the field of photography. A Photography business is something which keeps on evolving frequently. You could be in touch with workshops, seminars and tutorials so as to keep yourself updated with all the latest evolvement.These are some of the methods which could help you in increasing and spreading your business. However, a wedding photography business is a vast field and there could be innumerable challenges that might occur in your way. It is solely your dedication and passion towards your occupation that could help you keep you going despite all the hardships that might occur your way.
Author: Aarzu Jain