Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

- Partnering with other wedding vendors (caterers, receception halls, wedding planners, florists, etc.). Make as many connections as possible to others that work in the wedding industry. Make sure these people know who you are and can refer you.
- Attend Bridal Shows - This can be expensive as you usually need to pay to exhibit, but will give you great exposure to people that will be getting married.
- Read the newspaper "engagements" section. Find out where the people live and send a postcard or brochure about your services. Be sure to call to follow up.
- Talk with people that do wedding invitations as this is usually one of the first services people contract with. Ask them if they can share clients name. You will need to be careful doing this as people may be a little leery of sharing this info.

Hope this gives you some ideas to start with.

Mike

Market yourself to other wedding vendors (ie: tux rentals, wedding dress stores, DJ's, flower shop, Party Houses, Churches, etc). Offer them referral incentives. Offer them a percentage of the job, a flat fee, or offer your services to them at a discount. Take photos of their storefront, inventory, etc for their promotional material and/or websites. When they see your work and how good you are, they will refer you to their customers.

hi!

In my opinion, making connections (as mentioned in the previous two posts) is no doubt a good strategy but the problem in this is 2 fold and both are psychological -

1) It looks normal that somebody will refer you - but in reality if some business person refers any other business then the immediate message that goes into customer mind is that both the businesses have some tie up and they are doing this for commission etc, which might affect the 'referring business' adversely and more than the 'referred business'.... so ask yourself ... will you do that if your own business comes under scanner because of doing that?... so why will somebody refer you even if they know that you are good and why will the customer trust him.


2) with a thing like marriage photography, it is obvious that 'consumers' would be very concerned about the quality of service and rightly so. Now, in this case, we can ask ourselves that if i would have been getting married and if i need a marriage photographer then whether i would 'trust' a recommendation made by some 'marriage vendor' or whether i will talk to my friends or relatives who have used the service in the past. In may opinion the former will not work and the latter will be more appropriate.


In that case my suggestion to you is that you can have a 3 pronged strategy -


1) keep the 'references strategy', rather use it more aggressively because this is a 'credence service' and 'credence services' are sold through word of mouth more than anything else.



2) Make connections and come out with a package with other vendors, instead of asking them to 'refer' or 'recommend' you. They should rather offer an attractive package which might appeal to some consumers.



3) Advertise your services, not to the consumers but to the trade so that they know who you are and what you do and here the idea is to reduce / eliminate the hesitation that the vendors might have to develop a 'package' including your service and theirs. (because if they dont know you then definitely they will hesitate as it poses a business risk for them). Moreover, with this advertising if you can get some additional direct consumers, it will be a bonus.


hope this helps

Anurag

A great website (with lots of your photos & testimonials) that's SEO'd for your region.

Articles (in local paper) on how to take professional-quality photographs of events.

Work on getting a feature in a local magazine such as:

Delaware Today...https://www.delawaretoday.com/

Delaware Bride...https://www.delawaretoday.com/Delaware-Today/Delaware-Bride/

Similar publications for your area or areas you are interested in picking up some business.

Also, I know that some of our community newspapers offered a paid feature, that is, you pay for the space much like an ad but an entire article is dedicated to your services.

Marketing-Riot

You are in a very specific industry - I think you will find the Wedding and Event Videographers Association - www.weva.com - to provide very specific information about marketing in that industry - a still photographer often works with videographers.

I know of a very successful wedding videographer on Cape Cod who started as a still photographer and added video. He nows offers a package of both.

If you want to pick up video skills (if you can do digital still photography - you can do video) - check out your local community access televisions stations and take their training.. You may have to look around a bit to find a good one (meaning staff skill and equipment) - but you can't beat the opportunity and price (just the trivial cost of annual dues.)

That's how the photographer I referenced above did it.

If you want to stick with still photography - the The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) - www.wpja.org - and also American Professional Wedding Photographers Association - www.apwpa.com would be places to look for both marketing advisories and networking opportunities.

In other words - use the techniques that are used by your peers rather than general marketing business development methods. That way - you'll get quicker results.

Hope this is helps - I used to do a bit of wedding photography - lot of work, but rather interesting.

I found sales promotions to be one of the quickest ways to generate some activity. The affect on your brand awareness is not long-lived, but you can maintain an ongoing discount, premium, or coupon that consumers in your market would hang on to.

Direct marketing is another tool for influencing consumers short-term. If you don't have a database of email addresses in your market, start one NOW. Send out a monthly email with some useful info and a note about your current promotion. Telemarketing has a higher success rate, but the Do Not Call Law applies. Direct mail postcards can be inexpensive as well.

The most successful small business owners I know either enjoyed very fortunate market conditions or they made some degree of financial commitment to advertising (mass media - billboards, newspaper, radio, Internet, etc). In conjunction with a mix of promotional activities, advertising can take you to the next level in your business. This is a long-term strategy and it requires planning in advance. Formulate a few 12-month objectives that are clearly measurable and then shop the local advertising media sources.

Good Luck!