The great thing about wedding photography is that it's such a rewarding career.
Not only do you get to witness special day after special day and document it for posterity, but it can also be financially rewarding for you as well.
But, of course, there's a downside, and that's that wedding season doesn't last all year.
That means you need to be prepared to generate business when wedding season is over.
Here's four simple, straightforward ways to do just that.
Write a Wedding Photography Blog
Blogging is a great marketing tool for a couple of reasons.
First, having a blog allows you to demonstrate your expertise and show off some of your best images to potential clients.
Clients want a photographer that actually knows what they're doing, and a steady stream of blog posts will show them that you have what it takes to photograph their wedding.
Second, if you blog about your wedding photography experiences, your workflow, the gear you use, and so forth, it could be picked up by photography websites, which increases exposure for your business even more.
And the best part?
Often, when your blog gets re-blogged, you don't have to do anything but give them permission to use your work. That makes it an effective tool for building your business, but one that doesn't take any extra time.
Start a YouTube Channel
In addition to writing blogs, making how-to videos for budding photographers and posting them on YouTube is a great way to get more exposure for your business.
YouTube has a huge audience, and photographers of all skill levels flock to videos with good content that are well-produced.
What some photographers do is focus too much on the content and not enough on the production value of the video.
That doesn't mean that a beautifully made video can make up for bad content; it just means there needs to be a good balance between the two.
I've seen my fair share of videos on YouTube that were just plain hard to watch not because the content was bad or the video quality was bad, but because the audio was so terrible.
Whether it's faint voices, too much background noise, or that annoying sound the wind makes when it blows across the surface of a microphone, bad audio can totally ruin your videos.
That's why if you want to get the most out of marketing your business on YouTube, you need great audio to go along with your awesome content and HD video.
You can get just that with Sound Shark.
This thing is small, lightweight, and easy to use as it simply mounts to your camera's hot-shoe.
That puts it out of the way so you don't have cables to trip over. Plus whoever is working the camera can be highly mobile without sacrificing audio quality.
Another great feature of Sound Shark is that it eliminates extraneous noise, focusing just on your voice, even from great distances.
In fact, this thing will pick up voices from up to 50 feet away, but they'll sound crystal clear with ambient noise and wind noise all but eliminated.
Even better, Sound Shark comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee, so what have you got to lose?!
See for yourself how incredible the sound quality is with Sound Shark in the video above.
Learn more:
Market Yourself With Incredible Products
Likely the best means of promoting yourself in the off-season (well, year-round, really...) is putting out gorgeous products that show potential clients how dedicated you are to delivering the perfect wedding photography experience.
And I don't just mean taking beautiful photos - that's a given.
Instead, how you present those photos can be used to help you generate business year-round.
You can't just offer your clients beautiful prints. Instead, you need a complete product line that allows them to save their memories in whatever way they choose.
Naturally, wedding albums are a primary means of doing so, but if you don't offer the right kinds of albums, you'll find that your clients aren't as impressed as they could be.
That's where nPhoto comes in...
nPhoto handcrafts some of the best photo albums on the market today, albums that offer your clients a gorgeous vehicle for viewing their photos and cherishing them for generations to come.
When you pick up some photo albums, you can immediately tell that they're flimsy and cheap. Not so with nPhoto.
These albums look and feel like a million bucks because of the quality materials and attention to detail that's paid in creating them.
From the covers of these albums - which come in a variety of materials and offer numerous customization options - to the thick, lay flat photographic paper on which the photos are printed, it's a viewing experience that's second-to-none.
What's more, there's so many customization options that your clients can truly get an album that's specific to their tastes and wants.
That means that the album you deliver to them will be that much more special, something that they will want to share with friends and family and relive their happy day all over again.
And that's great news for you!
The more your clients show their album to their loved ones, the more people ask, "Who was your photographer?" And the more often that question is asked, the more opportunities you'll have to book new clients in the future.
Learn More:
- Learn How to Build a Custom Photo Album
- Reviewed: The Best Photo Album on the Market
- How to Design a Professional Photo Album
Network and Make Friends in the Business
Whether you network in person or via social media, it's a crucial component to developing your business in the off-season.
Think about it - there's wedding planners, florists, printers, bakers, and other specialists in your area that depend on wedding season, just like you.
And if you can make inroads with other wedding-related businesses, that will only mean more business for you down the road.
Making connections with other businesses in your area doesn't have to be a time-consuming task, either.
For example, if there's a popular florist in your area, send them a message on Facebook and offer to photograph their staff and their products on a complimentary basis.
By extending that offer, you not only help improve their exposure during the off-season, but with your watermark all over their photos, you get some exposure each time they share the photos you took.
Besides, it never hurts to make friends in related industries, that way when someone is at the florist or the wedding planner and asks who a good photographer is, they'll recommend you!
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Final Thoughts
Being in the wedding photography business can be a tough job with tons of stress and lots of time invested.
And evening out the ebbs and flows of being a wedding photographer is critical to your success.
However, if you persevere, develop a good workflow, foster relationships with other businesses in your area, and offer top-notch products and services, you will have a solid foundation for success, even during the off-season.