Newish wedding photographer and videographer. Iv been successfully booking 6-7 weddings a year for 2 years now. I am looking to continue this if not book more. Times are tough as everyone’s aware in Ontario, Canada. I work full time and have a wife and daughter. I’ve gotten most of my booking from friends and Facebook wedding groups. Iv tried ads on Facebook and Google and nothing, no bites. Not sure I’m doing it right. Website could be the problem as I did it myself. We don’t have much money to invest and booking more would really help out. We need a second vehicle living in rural Ontario but it will make us almost breaking even, I’d like to not count my business money to the equation as it is risky. But I have been averaging $16,000 but am afraid to assume I will make that if not more in 2024. I am confident in my work, just not on the economy. What Is my best course of action?
If you need help with your site or have questions on how to get clients organically, let me know. You can definately get clients from Google. You may just need a skilled hand to do so.
Link up with other photographers and videographers that don’t offer one of the other services and be a subcontractor for that. You’ll take a hit on the fee, but they take care of all the marketing and most of the planning/client interaction before the date.
I see you have some reviews on your site, but get a google business profile and work to fill it with good reviews - this really helps with local search leads (eventually).
I think your website is pretty good (though update the thumbnail on that video on the front page - one woman has her eyes closed and that’s kind of sloppy to highlight that frame of the video), but I would say add an about us/me page with a photo of yourself. A big part of hiring someone to film your wedding is if you feel comfortable with the person, so you and your personality are something that should be evident and promoted up front.
I have a friend who is in a similar line of business. She started by word of mouth. Then started advertising in wedding related sites, including local ones. She also partnered with local event planners and places that host weddings. I think she also had a booth at any wedding expos. Just some ideas.
The good news is, people get married in a shitty economy. The better news is, they still take wedding pictures. However, they may choose to spend less. You can make the same margins buy creating smaller photo packages to fit a tighter budget.
It’s all about sales and marketing.
The basics are your online marketing: setting your Google Business Profile and receive client reviews. That’s critical. Both are free.
The sales part to your business growth is critical. Every place that plays a role in the wedding is a prospect for you. All of these places interact with each other for a wedding and often recommend other event professionals.
- Hotel banquet managers
- Bridal Shops
- Wedding/Event Planners
- Churches & Synogogues
- Party/Event rental places
- DJ’s and Bands
- Florists
- Catering companies
- Restaurants with party/banquet/event room.
- Banquet Halls
Expand your business base beyond weddings and include Quinceañera (a big celebration of a Latin girl coming of age at 15) and Bar Mitzvah/ Bat Mitzvah (a big celebration of a Jewish boy(bar) and girl(bar) coming of age at 13).
My advice is to focus on engagement shoots. Dangle a carrot to a client. Book me for the engagement shoot, see how we work together give me $x. Then reel them in for wedding day. Also let them know, use me for both and save $y. You need a nice Instagram page and post a few times a week.