6 Ways to Market Your Wedding Photography Business
Are you looking for the best ways to market your wedding photography business? I have explored and tried countless options over the years and have compiled a complete list of all the best and most popular options to help your business grow.
In this article, I want to take you through all of the marketing tools a wedding photographer has at their disposal. I will also give my personal experience and tips and tricks with each option while explaining which have worked the best for me and why I think some are better than others.
Free Ways to market your wedding photography business
In the free advertising world, there are a few great options, including social media - namely Instagram and Facebook, personal referrals, and Google reviews.
#1 - Social Media
Pros:
It is “free” in that it only requires your time
Can be a great option if you do not mind posting regularly and creating content
Cons:
Can be time consuming and requires photographers to actively and regularly post
If a photographer wants to gain a following, it will require them to sacrifice things like time, style, and often times creativity and originality
Growth is not instant nor will you gain clients overnight
It can be oversaturated depending on your style and niche
Main Takeaways
Instagram and Facebook are fantastic free ways of advertising your new photography business and continuing to get leads when established as well. Most photographers take this route due to the “free” nature of it but there are some drawbacks that should be noted for each of these options. After a while. of using social media, you may come to the realization that it can be monotonous and that it can be very time consuming. Many people believe that they will grow a following overnight but that is almost never the case. To grow a following you must often times sacrifice something in return; from your time to style and even your own creativity. As what you may call a “content creator” (I hate the term) myself with over 100K followers, I am all too familiar with this and have experienced it time to time myself. My best advice I can give in regard to photography and especially Instagram is to be unique and to not equate the number of followers or likes with success. Some of the most successful people I know in the wedding space who easily make six figures every year and never struggle to find work do not have a large following and do not have a “trendy” page.
#2 - Personal Referrals
Pros:
One of the best ways to get clients
Actually free as it does not require your time
Cons:
Takes experience and sometimes years in the industry proving yourself to be worthy of a referral
Main Takeaways
Referrals are hard to come by and generally come with experience over years of working with vendors and clients. As a wedding photographer, referrals are by far the best way to get work because it means the person who is referring you is generally singing you praise. They have seen your work and love it enough to recommend you to someone. A referral inquiry is also one of the most likely to be booked for this reason. As a photographer, you are likely second to be booked when brides are looking for a wedding behind the venue (and sometimes a coordinator). Thus, achieving a great reputation in the eyes of venues, coordinators, and of course, past clients is of upmost importance.
#3 - Collecting Google Reviews
Pros:
Actually free as it does not require your time
Is in some ways better than a personal referral as the audience is much larger
Can be the easiest way to rank on the first page of Google depending on the “competition”
Requires almost no learning to create a “Google my Business” and start collecting reviews
Cons:
Takes experience and clientele
You have to gain more reviews than other photographers in your area to gain visibility
Bad reviews can ruin your business (obviously)
Main Takeaways
Google reviews and third party reviews (reviews not collected and displayed on a photographer’s own website alone) are the bread and butter for professional photographers. Reviews are a big deal because they hold photographers accountable and allow clients to leave praise for a photographer’s work for others to see.
Reviews are a big deal to me and my business because I want my clients to know that they are going to get the best images and experience possible. They can see what hundreds of others have said and experienced via the reviews of my past clients. There are photographers out there on social media (specifically Instagram because Facebook has a built-in review system) who do not collect reviews or have any kind of review system. I openly recommend that all people stay away from them. It is a red flag to me when Instagram wedding photographers do not collect reviews on a third party site (a site that they cannot curate) because they cannot be held accountable for bad experiences, lost work, or bad product. I cannot tell you how many people I have worked with or have met who had a terrible wedding photography experience via an Instagram photographer who did not collect reviews. It sucks to hear, yet the photographer can keep going about their business, giving out terrible experiences and products because there is no accountability for their actions via reviews.
When a photographer utilizes reviews on Google, it can be a powerful tool to give prospective clients assurance that they are hiring someone truly amazing to be their photographer; a photographer that people are ranting and raving about. Furthermore, if you collect enough reviews to out-do your local competition, you can rank on the first page of Google above all the website listings. In some areas, this may be the easiest way to gain exposure at no cost to you. It is one of my not-so-secret trade secrets that I always recommend my family and friends with small businesses look into to get listed on the first page of Google. When they do collect enough reviews to beat out their competition, their businesses receive a huge traffic boost. It is truly crazy to me that more people do not focus on collecting reviews for their business. If you are committed to giving great customer experiences and making your customer your top priority, getting great reviews is the easiest thing you can do.
Paid Advertising Options for Wedding Photographers
There are nearly an infinite number of paid advertising options out there from online advertising companies to brochures but in this article I want to focus on the ones I have explored and tried for myself from the cheapest option to the most expensive.
#4 - Creating your own website
Pros:
Costs $200 - $250 using Squarespace (my preferred website builder)
Once a website is built, it requires very little time to upkeep and gain clients
Can be monetized and make you extra income
If you achieve the first page on Google, you will likely never have to look for work again
Cons:
Learning how to rank a website (SEO) can be difficult to learn or cost a lot of money if you want to hire someone to do it for you
Building a website takes time and has a learning curve initially
Main Takeaways
I am personally a HUGE advocate of building a website and learning how to rank it on Google. In my area, I have been in the first spot on the first page on Google just under WeddingWire and The Knot for the last three years for wedding photographers with only a couple weeks exception mixed in as new people pop up and Google changes around its indexing. I have worked hard to create my brand and reputation and it has paid off ten fold. Not only do I gain clients for weddings, but also every other type of photography. I also have an online store built for my landscape work and preset packs that I sell through my Instagram account and via Google searches. I am also an affiliate for Amazon and all kinds of other companies that I can post affiliate links for in my blog. All of these things bring in passively generated income that add up significantly over time and grows every year as I draft more articles and grow my brand.
On top of that, my website takes very little updating and time. A couple times a year I update my portfolio photos and pricing and write articles when I feel in the mood to do so. A website is truly a must for professional photographers.
#5 - Paid Listings
Pros:
If your portfolio stands out among the other photographers and you are priced well, you can get a lot of clients from paid listings on websites like WeddingWire, The Knot, and Zola
Gain passive leads that you pay the advertising companies to get for you
You can pay to be on the first page - minimal work required
Cons:
Can be very expensive - WeddingWire and the Knot alone can cost $3,000 - $5,000 a year
You will receive a lot of “ghosting” from inquiries and spam
Main Takeaways
WeddingWire and The Knot can be very valuable tools when starting off but the price tag can have a bit of sticker shock. When I paid for WeddingWire my first year, it took almost two weddings to pay for. I did have huge success (booking 22 weddings my first year) though with WeddingWire because I had a fantastic portfolio from second shooting for another professional the summer before and I also had very reasonable pricing.
I personally do not pay for The Knot as I do not need more work and WeddingWire ranks higher on Google in my area than does The Knot. I would recommend you do a search in your area for “(your local area) wedding photographer” and see which of the two pops up higher on Google. Whichever one does, go with that one for the best success.
Lastly, there are other wedding directories popping up all the time. Some are free and should be signed up for without hesitation and others are free but paid once you receive a lead. Websites like Zola offer a free listing but you pay for leads as they come to you and they are very affordable. I love this model because you only have to pay for leads that you want to pay for. You do not pay for your spot or ranking. It is a great alternative though there is not near as much traffic as WeddingWire or The Knot. If you would like to read more about WeddingWire and The Knot and my opinion on each, check out my article on the two that goes into great depth on whether or not I think it is worth the money.
#6 - search engine ads
Pros:
Automatically puts you at the top of a search for the keywords you target under the “Ad” section
Cons:
Can be very expensive if not done right
Often times requires you to learn keywords and can be difficult to reach the right audience
Without optimization, you may receive little to no clients
Main Takeaways
To be completely honest, I do know people that this works for and people that gain clients this way but often times each client requires a lot of money to acquire; especially if you do not have your Ad optimized. Furthermore, I do not believe a lot of smart clients who care about the quality of photos they will receive are going to turn to Ads at the top of their search engine because they know that those spots are paid for. Just think back to the last time you searched for an item or especially a service. Did you look at the Ads or did you skip them to look at the reviews and listings of the first page of Google? The fact is that most people do skip the ads to turn to reviews and websites more often than not.
Final Remarks
I hope that this article proved to be useful to you. If you are a photographer just starting out, my best advice is to start with the small and free options. Build a fantastic portfolio by doing free shoots or by second shooting for a professional in your area and post your work to social media without expecting any real “growth” at all. After all, you don’t need growth to get clients. Build a website early on when you have more free time to learn the ins and outs of website building and learn about SEO (search engine optimization) to rank your website on Google. When you get enough of a portfolio, consider WeddingWire or The Knot if you want and then track your inquiries to see how many you get from these sources every year. If it seems worth while, continue paying for the service; but if not, then don’t be afraid to cut ties.
As always, feel free to leave any questions or thoughts in the comments below and thank you for reading along!
6 Ways to Market Your Wedding Photography Business
Written by: Zach Nichols
January 30, 2023
© Zach Nichols Photography