7 Strategies to Help You Book More Weddings

Over the course of your career, you’ll have periods of intense wedding videography activity and complete dry spells.

Sometimes, these work-free periods will last a lifetime, getting you worried about the sustainability of your business.

Booking more wedding videography and photography clients should never be about luck.

A proactive approach is the only one bound to deliver consistent results.

Do you feel like you’re not getting enough work to be profitable in the long run?

If so, the following approaches can help you win over new clients and give yourself a consistent stream of exciting projects to work on.

 

Utilize Your Professional Network

 

Counting on your professional network is always a good idea. These people know you and what you’re capable of.

They’ll find it easy to recommend your wedding videography or photography services to a suitable client.

Be an active and engaged member of your professional community. The goal can be accomplished both in person and online.

When shooting a wedding, introduce yourself to the wedding planner, the caterer and even the DJ.

These are all professionals who attend a lot of weddings as a part of their job. Potential clients trust their judgment, which makes them valuable members of your professional network.

It’s a good idea to always have business cards on you. Feature your name, email, phone number and website or online portfolio.

Try to make a good impression, be communicative and present.

If you impress a wedding planner or another reputable professional, you’ll easily discover new work opportunities with their assistance.

 

Follow Up with Wedding Videography and Photography Clients

 

Other people you can count on to book more weddings are your former clients.

Get in the habit of reaching out and following up after some time.

You can inquire about a client’s satisfaction with the outcome you delivered.

You can simply send a quick note to say hi and ask about their wellbeing.

Coming up with a referral program is another smart thing to do.

Give your former clients the incentive to recommend you to the people they know. These personal recommendations are incredibly valuable.

Most people trust referrals, especially if they come from a close friend or a family member.

Send former clients an email and introduce the loyalty program.

Let them know what perk they’ll enjoy if they refer a new client (a free photo album, a digital video teaser to share on their social media, discounts for additional work they may need, etc.).

if people are happy with the quality of the work you did, they’ll be easy to incentivize and motivate.

 

Come Up with Unique Wedding Videography and Photography Packages/Propositions

 

People will book you if you can offer something special, something that only a few other professionals are capable of delivering.

Sit down and review your packages. What is it that you’re offering potential clients? Do you have a unique value proposition, a distinctive voice?

Having packages that look like 90 percent of all other wedding videography and photography services will make it impossible to differentiate yourself.

Is there a special skill you have that you’d like to advertise? Will you include something in the package that will create added value?

For example, if you have a package that gives clients access to digital copies of their wedding photos, throw in a print wedding album for free.

To make a package unique, you can feature a few distinctive things in the offering.

For example, you can offer the creation of a digital photo slideshow that looks like a film and gives your clients something unique to share online.

You can offer poster-size photographs that will be printed out and delivered in sufficiently high quality for hanging on the wall.

A good package could also offer coverage for both an engagement and a wedding shoot.

You can have drone photography incorporated in the main plan, allowing the clients to enjoy a number of spectacular aerial shots.

Highlight whatever it is that you do best and make that point central in the package.

Giving clients something valuable or unique is going to get them contacting you and not the competition.

 

Work on Your Website

 

Speaking of clients contacting you, take some time to work on your business website.

Learn the core principles of search engine optimization (SEO).

Doing some SEO work on your content will help you position your website on the first search engine results page for keywords of preference.

People are looking for services online. If your website isn’t visible, you’re missing on a huge opportunity to connect with prospects.

Doing SEO work doesn’t have to be cumbersome or too complex. Writing a few blog posts per week will be enough to improve your rankings.

Focus on interesting industry topics and the things that will interest potential clients.

Not only is this approach good in terms of search engine optimization, it also helps you establish your online authority and professional reputation.

 

Announce a Limited Time Offers to Create a Sense of Urgency

 

This approach is great for wedding videography and photography professionals who already have a solid following on social media.

Use these channels to announce a special offer that will be available a limited amount of time.

This approach creates a sense of urgency, prompting people who haven’t made a decision yet to contact you.

Make sure that the offer is irresistible enough and emphasize on the short amount of time that it will be available.

When embracing this approach, keep your promise and focus on quality at the same time.

Don’t do a mediocre job just because you’ve given clients a discount. That’s a recipe for disaster that could ruin your reputation for a long period of time.

This approach works really well and it’s perfect to get a large volume of work. You should, however, account for the discount.

The projects still need to be profitable, getting the job done otherwise will simply do nothing for the sustainability of your business.

 

Make Sure You Have Enough Client Reviews Online

 

Ask former clients to leave reviews on your Facebook page and Google business page.

Online reviews are just as important as SEO work. They encourage potential clients to reach out and contact you.

Recent studies suggest that most people trust online reviews as much as they’d trust a personal recommendation.

They believe that someone who has used a service isa reliable source of information about its quality.

If you don’t have that many reviews yet, incentivize former clients to write a few sentences about partnering up with you.

Offer them a discount or any other small perk in exchange for an honest review.

It’s super important to keep these reviews honest and authentic. Creating fake positive reviews can get you penalized on the respective channel.

Furthermore, most internet users already know how to spot fake reviews. You’ll be doing yourself a massive disservice by engaging in such shady practices.

Even a negative review can be used for marketing, depending on your response.

Answering promptly and professionally, offering a disgruntled client some form of compensation can easily turn them into your biggest fan.

 

Use the Time to Earn an Income in an Alternative Way

 

Sometimes, booking new clients will be impossible. There is the off-season period and there may be other circumstances that contribute to fewer bookings than anticipated.

This may be a great opportunity to consider alternative income streams. Never putting all your eggs in the same basket is a wise thing to do.

Creating passive streams of income will allow you to monetize your work and earn, even when you don’t have that many weddings booked.

Starting a YouTube channel or selling some digital content online can be great opportunities.

You can also write an ebook about photography or wedding videography.

Putting together a professional course for other photographers and videographers is another cool opportunity to look into.

Apart from allowing you to earn some cash, it will once again position you as a reputable and highly skilled expert in the field.

 

Take Control of Your Bookings

 

A passive approach towards scoring new bookings is never going to work (unless you’re a celebrity wedding photographer or videographer everybody wants to work with).

Doing marketing has become easier today than it’s ever been in the past.

Employ digital channels and grow your business network. Interact with other businesses involved in weddings on a regular basis.

Make yourself approachable and establish your credibility every way you can.

While some of your efforts aren’t going to pay off immediately, you will see an increase in the number of client requests that you get over time.

Be patient and continue enhancing your marketing efforts. Increase your reach and employ multiple channels at the same time.

Finally, don’t forget to differentiate yourself. Adding some uniqueness to your proposition will get potential clients curious to find out more.