Contents
It’s common for new wedding photographers to struggle with how to get more wedding photography clients.
Every photographer wants to know how to get more wedding clients.
When you are just starting out, it can be difficult to even know where to begin.
But if you want to know how to get more clients, you should remember that it all comes down to marketing.
Marketing is the most important thing in business.
If you don’t have enough customers, you won’t make any money.
And if you don’t make any money, you won’t have any money to market.
So how do you market?
The answer is simple – you need to create content.
But not just any content.
You need to create content that speaks directly to your target audience.
And you need to do it fast and consistently.
How To Get Wedding Clients For Photography
There are many ways to get clients to gravitate towards you.
We are going to cover the most effective ways in this list.
Create A Landing Page Or Website
“First Impressions Matter”
When someone visits your website for the first time, they should see a nice clean website with clear calls to action.
Your landing page or website “first impression” should be as clean and professional as possible.
Make sure it is easy-to-read and easy-to-scroll.
Use white space and avoid graphics and bright colors.
Make sure it is easy-to-find what he wants and easy-to-get back to the main page. Include bullets, bold headlines, subheads, and easy-to-read text.
This is the first place that people will see your marketing message.
Your website (or at least the front page) should be designed to draw clients to you like a magnet.
It should be set up so that it is easy-to-find when someone types a search phrase into a search engine that describes what they are looking for.
In other words, your website should be optimized for search engines.
It should include descriptive, unique titles for each webpage.
Lead Magnets
One of the most powerful ways to get clients is to give them a reason to buy from you.
And the best way to give them a reason to buy from you is to give them a compelling reason to buy from you.
A good way to do this is by using “leads magnets”.
The best lead magnets are free.
They are things like free reports, free videos, free teleseminars, free ebooks, and so on.
People love to give stuff away for free.
It is a proven fact that people will pay almost anything to get something they can keep for free.
If you offer a lead magnet, your customers will be much more likely to buy from you.
They will see that you are serious about your business and that you have valuable information to share.
The following tools can create your website AND lead magnets for you:
All of these have free, or very inexpensive trials – we suggest giving them all a try, and pick whichever you like best.
SEO Optimized Content
A lot of new photographers struggle with this part.
They get so caught up in the creative process of taking photos, that they forget about the need to get their website or landing page “seo optimized”.
But, there is no real substitute for good ol’ fashioned “honest hard work”.
If you do your research properly, it really is not that difficult to “trick” the search engines into giving you a higher ranking.
And the easiest way to do this is by creating high-quality, unique, relevant content.
It is worth noting that if you decide to go the SEO route, you probably do not want to use the lead gen tools to create the site – but instead create a free site with WordPress.
You still need the tools to create the lead magnets, however.
Promote On Social Media
One of the most powerful ways to promote your website (and by extension, your business) is on social media.
- Facebook has over 2 billion active users.
- Twitter has over 300 million.
- Pinterest has over 40 million.
- LinkedIn has over 200 million.
And many people use all of these sites and many others I have left out.
You should be on every single one of them.
Posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram is free.
But make sure you are only posting things that will benefit your clients.
Never post anything that is not directly related to your business.
If you do this often enough, over time your “social media profile” will become an important “reputation management tool”.
It will help to prevent you from having to respond to negative comments or criticism.
One thing you can do is to ask permission from your clients before you post anything about them on social media.
Email Marketing
Almost everybody uses email.
It is the most widely-used marketing tool on the planet.
According to Hubspot, 99% of Americans check their email at least once every day.
That means it is the perfect way to stay top-of-mind with your clients.
There are two big mistakes new photographers make when it comes to email marketing:
- They send emails that are so sales-y that the recipients think they have sent a spam email and automatically delete it without reading it.
- Or worse yet, they send an email that does not compel the recipient to click-through and read it. Let’s talk about what makes an “email irresistible”.
A compelling subject line is more likely to get your readers to open your email and read it.
You will need an autoresponder for email marketing.
The following are the best, and have free or very inexpensive plans:
Feel free to sign up with each of them, to see which you like best.
Forums And Communities
Almost everyone uses forums and communities these days.
If you are in any way connected to photography, there is a forum or community out there for you.
This can be a great way to connect with other photographers.
You can also get great ideas by joining groups on Facebook and just observing what is being posted.
There are many different types of forums and communities – some are general, others are focused on a specific niche.
For example, one could be a forum for people who have just purchased a new camera, another could be a forum for people who are looking to hire a wedding photographer.
One of the best places to find forums and communities is by searching on Google.
Mail Flyers, Postcards, Etc.
Another thing you can do is create direct mail pieces (mail flyers, postcards, etc.) that feature your website.
There are many ways to get your message in front of people, without paying for advertising.
One of the most powerful (and free) ways to do this is to simply create “lead magnets” which will draw people to your website.
Lead magnets can be anything from a free ebook, to a free camera, to a free video camera, to a free online course, to a free teleseminar, to a free critique of their photos, to a free phone consultation, and so on.
There are many different lead magnet ideas. The main thing is to come up with a few yourself, test them, and then select the ones that work the best.
Conclusion
There you have it – a short (but very effective) guide to some tried-and-true tactics every new photographer should know about.
There are many other ways to promote your photography business, but these are the ones I have found to be the most effective.
If you use these tactics, I can almost guarantee your business will grow at an astonishing rate.
I hope you find this information helpful.