Marketing a Wedding Photography Business

[jerrybsmith]

I need some good advice on how to market my wedding photography business. How do I take it from 0 to 60?

[tim]

I started by doing a couple for free, putting up a website, and having low prices. I also advertise in my local yellow pages (online and print), I link to my website from multiple sites (helps get a good google ranking), and I advertise on google adwords. I'm also about to start advertising in wedding magazines.

It's a tough business! And remember it is a business, not a hobby, if you call yourself a professional.

[liza]

Build a portfolio and make sure you have an excellent website. All your other marketing should divert attention to your website, which shows the best of your work, gives a price range for your packages, and provides your contact information.

[picturecrazy]

As mentioned... website website website
And yes, make sure your site has lots of your best pictures. Bride to be's love it. Don't make the mistake of having one of those sites that just have one picture and says, give us a call at XXX-XXXX. You'd be surprised at how many sites are like this. Imagine you're a bride and you see a yellow pages ad with a URL, so you go to the URL and then it says "call us". You just made them take an extra step with no gain. That'll piss them off and they'll likely never call you, unless your site says "call us for FREE wedding photography".

So don't advertise your website until it is COMPLETE.

And make it look professional! If you cannot design an amazing site on your own, you'd best invest into a designer to do it for you. Everything on your site should say, "this guy/girl has got some seriously great style!" from you pictures, layout, colour choices... everything.

And music on websites suck. Don't do it. A lot of these girls surf sites at work! Some companies don't even allow flash sites to be viewed, so skip the flash stuff too.

[liza]

I don't know about that one. Many of the best wedding photographers on the planet use music and flash in their sites. I rather like Yervant's site. Simple but elegant.

[tim]

I used to have my proofs on a flash website, but after 3 different people complained they couldn't see them I went back to html.