1 Wedding Business Advertising. by Walter Carlson

ADVERTISING by Walter Carlson

There I sat and no one was calling. All that investment, what am I going to do? The problem is no one knew who I was and what business I was in, never mind what products and pricing I had to offer. The light went on; I need to tell them what I am selling and at what price. I must advertise: what a brilliant thought. Oh no! I do not have anything to advertise! This is where the cart before the horse comes in. First we will talk about advertising, then pricing and packaging in the next blog. The following are my experiences in advertising my business it is by no means meant to be complete just my experience.

One thing first, make sure all of your advertising is done in a professional manner. Especially printed materials, such as business cards, post cards, stationary, brochures and handouts and extends to your website and signage. These things represent your business to the public. Using an ink-jet printed ad with lots of clip-art will not get you the $3,000 wedding customer, believe me your competition will not be using that form of advertisement. One of the most important things is to keep your advertising up to date. Ensure it is always accurate and truly represents your product line and pricing. I kept my pricing list separate because it changed the most, it just referred to the packages I provided. Do not cross out prices, it just turns people off.

OH NO, I lied another thing! It is imperative to have an advertising calendar for the year. Depending where you are in your business and local customs, your advertising will be different during different times of the year. My experience was in the North Eastern U.S. Weddings were mostly during the Spring and Summer and planning would take place in the Fall and Winter. So I adjusted my advertising towards the planning period. It was not that I did not advertise weddings during the Spring or Summer, I did, but the high point was during the potential CUSTOMERS planning time. The rest of the year I advertised for the long-term planners (ie. folks planning years ahead.), late planners and folks that could not get a photographer.

Newspaper, all you have to do is create an advertisement and call your local newspaper and give them the ad and tell them how long you would like it to run for. I would do a week for specials during slow times. I did get a few weddings which more than paid for the ads. I advertised in the want ad section for two years and never got a call from it. When I checked from time to time I never saw another photographer advertise in the want ads.
Yellow pages can be very expensive, but it is use to be a necessary evil. There are many kinds of ads, one is the run of the mill one line black and white, which I got because it costs much less than the individual squared off-color ads or part of a page ads. It may be worth your while to check prices and what your competition is doing. I got very few referrals for weddings, from this process. One thing you might consider is how the number of cell phones might impact this method of advertisement.
Mailing, of all the methods of advertisement this was the most disappointing of all for me. There are a lot of companies selling mailing lists and you can find them on the web (Just google “mailing lists”.). You can select lists by age, gender, and many more categories. I tried two different mailings, I bought the lists from two different companies. I spent a lot of time buying stamps, designing and purchasing postcards, and putting the two together and mailing them. First thing that happened was about 50% came back wrong address and non-deliverable. The second thing that happened was silence no one called. I did eventually have two couples come in and closed one sale, this was not a good experience for me, both times.
Wedding Shows, if you can swing the $600 to $1200 price tag this really works. You do need to know what you are getting into though. You are in direct face-to-face competition with all the other photographers who are there. That means photographers who are selling $300 dollar packages and others who are selling $10,000 packages, are selling their products at the same show you are at. So, you better have your best presentation together for what ever price range your in. You need to have great photography, albums and advertising materials. The important thing about wedding shows is they attract your target audience, people who are looking for wedding information. One wedding show brought 17 couples to my studio; that was a big win.One of the best side benefits is that you get to know most of your competitors and see what they have to offer, (if you bring someone with you they can get your competitors advertising materials. I did not say that, did I?). But the best thing of all is you get to schmooze with all the other vendors and they get to know who you are. This last benefit can help get advertisements in their businesses and you can advertise their businesses. An example of this is a wedding gown vendor or cake vendor can put your ads in their shops and you can put theirs in yours and set up links to their sites on yours. One caution, before you advertise someones business make sure they are reputable ( I got caught up in that circle of demons and it was no fun.). However, I did meet a great videographer who actually worked with me. I had great fun at these and they were some of the best most productive times of the year. I really looked forward to attending them because they were both profitable and educational.
Networking, of all the methods of advertising this is very important to the success of your business:
1: Networking with other Photographers can be one of your biggest assets. Join professional wedding organizations, Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) http://www.wppionline.com/, Professional Photographers Association (PPA) http://www.ppa.com/. Our PPA group had a calendar that showed what wedding dates that each member had open so you could recommend a photographer if you were busy. This provided some weddings on days that I was not booked, which is really important. It also provided photographers that could back me up in case of emergency. This was a big advertising point.
2: Fraternal Organizations, Moose, Elks, Eagles, KofC, Masons, Rotary, etc., join as many as you can, tell people what you do for a living, advertise in their newsletters.
3: Chamber of Commerce, from my experience, I did get commercial and portrait business, but not one wedding. Having their sign outside your office use to be some form of certification that you are a real business, and being in their list of businesses was also an important sales point. You need to check this out in your own community.
4: Business Networking International (BNI) is a networking organization that really worked for my business. I received many referrals from this group and I definitely got my dues money back. Check this out, It is really worth joining. http://www.bni.com .
5: Wedding affiliates, wedding planners, wedding Cake vendors, wedding dress vendors, tux and lemo rentals, videographers, DJ’s, reception halls, are some the most important people to network with, and you can learn a lot from them. The reason it is so important is that most of these folks know the current trends of the overall wedding business in your area. These folks are also the ones that you will be working with and can help you with your business. Have them at least put your link on their website and put theirs on yours.
Craft Shows, this is a great way to meet people and get the news out about who you are and what you are doing. However, the audience is so wide that I never got any wedding business that I knew of from this. I did get some portrait and Senior business from them.
Signage can be anything from a magnetic sign on your car to a hot air balloon. I had a sign on my car and the one over my studio that was expensive and done by a professional sign maker. I never tried, the new blinking roadside signs, billboards, etc. so I can not state how they work. One thing, the sign represents your business make very sure it is done right. Cardboard signs with finger-paints will only turn people away.
Word of mouth is the most important form of advertisement. Well done weddings will provide your business with great advertisements from, the bride, the groom, the parents, the bridesmaids, the grooms men, and the guests. This is where you will get the most your most referrals. One group of people here is very important, they are the bridesmaids and groom men. If they are not already married, then they are a great target audience for your advertising campaign. Get names, addresses, websites what ever you can during the wedding rehearsal and wedding day. Also, during the wedding reception is a great time to advertise. At each table put a card holder containing your business with your e-mail address on it. During the beginning of the reception have the DJ announce that the address and password for getting the pictures of the day will be on your site and a date they will be active. This does two things, gets folks to your site and drives up after package sales.
Website is an important way of advertising your work. A professionally done site with great pictures and ads can be a great asset. I had a site that I had Marathon Press create. It did get me weddings, but the best part was you could give the address out on your business cards and ads so people could see your work. I highly suggest a well done site for your business. Getting high up on the list for google search as a photographer would be very expensive so if people are browsing they might not have your site come up as number one. This just means you have to get people to your site by other means, like advertising materials. Of course if you can afford to be number one on the hit list, do it.
Radio/Television are great ways to advertise. I did an ad on local television by swapping photographs of their staff for air time and ad design. It worked out great for both of us and I got some weddings and great airtime.
Wedding planners, this is the holy grail of wedding business advertisement. Each planner has a very short list of photographers, but most have many clients. To get on the list you have to be one of the top photographers in your area, part of the elite, the in crowd. If you can get on their list you got it made. Set up lunch meetings (You pay.), to show them your work, ask their advice. Where do you find them? In the telephone book, wedding shows and on-line.
Wedding planning sites, are web sites that advertise wedding business vendors; mostly for a small fee. There is really nothing wrong with getting listed with the other wedding photographers, it is cheap and I did get some calls and web hits from this source.
I hope this helps, as I stated this list is not complete and I would love to hear from other folks about their advertising experiences, good or bad.

Thanks, Walt

Let the light in.