A Great Way to Add Value and Attract New Wedding Clients!
I’d only had my camera for about a month when a broke and desperate family member asked me to photograph their wedding. “Sure” I said, being eager for the experience. I took photos all day long, honestly most of them were terrible, but I loved every second of it. Weddings are amazing and magical events. Editing the photos is so much fun too, creating beautiful images for a couple at the start of their lives together. I decided that I LOVED WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY and that I should definitely try to do more of it.
But I was very soon to learn a hard lesson…
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IS A TIGHT MARKET!
Let’s be honest, wedding photography is a tough market to get into. It isn’t really the photography that difficult, its attracting the clients. I spend more time marketing and beating the bushes than I do actually taking photos and its exhausting!
But in the middle of the pandemic, I learned a pretty valuable lesson. If you give a little, you will get a lot!
I was so desperate to keep business coming in, at least for future dates that I was willing to try anything. I started throwing in free shoots, or discounts. Those didn’t work. Still wasn’t getting much interest. One of my friends showed me a new product he had see and just out of pure desperation, I decided to give one away as part of a promotion to book clients. Which got me several bookings, even in the middle of the pandemic. In fact, I ended up booking MORE WEDDINGS than I had before the pandemic and a little $100 item was to thank for my success!
What Was I Giving Away That Made Such a Difference?
Its honestly so trivial I didn’t really think about it, but the brides and their families loved it. It was a simple little video guest book that I found on Amazon. I loaded up images and occasionally some video that I had taken on their engagement photo shoot and just let it play as people signed in.
The brides and their families ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. It cost me around $100 but that’s a drop in the bucket when you’re booking a $2500 wedding and have the possibility of upscale later!
If you’re a wedding photographer - check out this link below or head out and find something similar that could possibly entice your almost-clients into booking with you!