10 places to promote your wedding photography business online.
April 8th, 2022
Now that you’ve tried several different specialities of photography and decided you want to be a wedding photographer (congrats!), it’s time to get down to business. Camera? Check. Lenses? Check. Gear? Check. Wedding website? Check. Next up: learning how to promote your wedding photography business.
The wedding photography business is incredibly competitive, so you need to make sure you can advertise your wedding photography services as widely as possible. Not sure how to market a photography business? We’ve put together a list of the 10 best ways to promote your photography business online. Best of all? They’re all free or budget-friendly. Let’s get started!
Online portfolio.
Best For: Showing off your most stunning work.
For a wedding photographer, curating an impactful portfolio is absolutely essential- clients fall in love with your work before even talking to you. As well as serving as a key marketing tool, it communicates your unique style and intention to your potential clients.
Your portfolio should showcase your best images, while also presenting your style and skill. Don’t hesitate to cut out the less polished shots to allow the more refined ones to truly shine. And remember, less is more. Several exceptional pieces are more effective and more resonant than many mediocre ones. Pick 20-30 of your finest work and show a range of images- color, black and white, fun reception photos, or captivating unique images that will set you apart from the competition. And, as your style and technique evolve, be sure to keep your portfolio up to date. Showing work that accurately reflects your improved skills will help attract your ideal clients.
Ultimately, a carefully crafted portfolio is more than just a marketing tool; it’s a testament to your passion, talent, and unwavering dedication to your art. It’s the visual statement that speaks volumes about who you are as a photographer and sets the stage for countless unforgettable moments yet to be captured by your lens.
Blog
Best for: Boosting your online presence.
With all of the social media platforms and your website, you may be wondering if you even need a blog. Even in an era that is bursting with ways to reach your audience, having a blog can play an essential role in today’s digital world. It gives you a powerful tool to show off your current work, reflect, and connect with your audience.
There is nothing more impactful than sharing a little bit of who you are- your style, your dreams, your insights. Photography is such a personal art form, and every photograph has a little piece of you in it. Through thoughtful storytelling and captivating images, you can form deeper connections with your readers, your clients, or your potential clients. Because blogging allows your audience a chance to see you in such a genuine way, it will set you apart from someone who has a portfolio and a few social media accounts. Weddings are innately intimate, and whether you are telling the story of your couple through images and writing, or divulging something personal or inspirational, you establish credibility and create relationships with your followers.
Blogging will also give you an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Boost! Using the right keywords, and metadata descriptions, and tagging images properly are key to improving your search results. By regularly posting fresh content, search engines will recognize that your website is buzzing with activity, which will help you rank higher, and organic traffic will be drawn in along with potential clients. Our Portfolio Plus and ProSuite Plans both include an integrated blog with all of the tools you need to successfully start your blogging journey.
Instagram.
Best For: Growing your client base.
Wedding photography is perhaps one of the most common topics posted about on Instagram, making it a competitive niche on a crowded platform. Here’s how to promote your wedding photography business on Instagram—and stand out from the rest:
Grow your followers.
We all want to gain thousands of Instagram followers as fast as possible. But how do you do it?
Make sure you follow local wedding vendors such as planners, venues, florists, HMU artists, and other photographers and engage with their content. This can be as simple as consistently liking their pics, or leaving the occasional compliment on a great post. Hopefully they’ll follow you back—and help build your numbers.
Increase your post frequency.
You need to post high-quality photographs on a steady basis. Post too little, and you risk followers losing interest. Post too frequently, and you could annoy your fanbase. Try and post somewhere between one to three times a day. An Instagram scheduling tool can help you keep on track, and Instagram analytics (in platform or separate apps) can fill you in on what content is working—and what isn’t.
Ace those Captions
As tempting as it is to caption a shot with that single perfect emoji, this is not a good way to promote your photography business. Instagram photos with engaging captions tend to fare better. Write a description that doesn’t sound like it’s coming straight from the fingers of a PR firm. Give your Instagram followers a sense of your personality by writing captions in your natural voice; it will help make you seem authentic and approachable (just the kind of person they’d want to work with for their own wedding!).
Use the Right Hashtags
Keep a copy of your go-to hashtags in a document on a program like Evernote or Google Keep so you always have them at the ready. Stuck? A hashtag-finding service like Hashtagify can offer up inspiration for how to advertise your wedding photography. Some of the most popular hashtags for wedding photography advertising include: #weddingdress, #bride, #photographer, and #weddingphotographer, just to name a few. Don’t forget to add location hashtags for your state and nearby cities, or your shoot destinations. For example, wedding photographers in North Carolina might include #ncweddingphotographer and #raleighweddingphotographer.
Google Business Profile.
Best For: Making sure that your business shows up in Google searches.
Setting up a Google Business Profile is easy! Here’s how you do it:
- First, sign up for a Google account, if you don’t have one already. This can be a Gmail account—just make sure the account name is one you wouldn’t mind associating with your business.
- Create a Business Profile, or claim an existing profile on Search and Maps. Be sure to choose the most appropriate business category if creating a new profile.
- Google will ask you to select a verification method for your business. This is a necessary step. You will not be able to progress any further until your business has been verified. Once you get the go-ahead, you’re ready to add all the fun stuff to your Google Business page.
- Personalize with your hours, a selection of your best photos, and other details to help customers nearby learn more about your services.
After your business has been recognized by Google, it will be a lot easier for clients to find you, thanks to the magic of search engine optimization (SEO). Not sure what SEO is? Basically, SEO is what determines how likely it is for your page to show up on the first page of Google searches. The good news is, it doesn’t take long to get started with the basic SEO tools—and it could pay off for your wedding photography business big-time.
Email list.
Best For: Nurturing ongoing and new client relationships.
Make sure to equip your wedding website with an email capture form to start collecting email addresses. Creating a newsletter mailing list is a great wedding photography marketing strategy. It allows you to maintain a direct connection between you and your customer base, from people you have shot for before to prospective clients.
Fill your newsletters with helpful content, whether it’s tips on how to ace that “we’re engaged!” selfie or some of your most unique wedding shoot ideas. Folks you signed up at wedding fairs or prospects who joined off your website will be stoked to see that you’re a helpful, knowledgeable wedding photographer—and that’s the kind of wedding photography business that they want to hire!
You can use your newsletter to offer a referral bonus to existing customers. Say, for every person who books a wedding with you, they get a free one-hour portrait session, complete with five finished prints.
Social media giveaways.
Best For: Attracting attention to your social media accounts and gaining followers.
Posting a giveaway on your Instagram or Facebook account can be a great way to promote your photography business. It’s even better if your giveaway is in celebration of a follower milestone, as this draws attention to your popularity and can inspire others to follow you in hopes of future giveaways. Some examples of the things you can offer include a free engagement shoot or a free print.
Use this wedding photography marketing technique sparingly, however: you don’t want to pull in too many contest people who have little intention of booking you. Make sure to engage with your new followers right away, and consider an introduction post with your portrait, so they can get to know you better!
Wedding planning websites.
Best For: Investing in exposure.
Chances are you have heard of tremendously popular wedding planning websites like The Knot and WeddingWire. What you may not know, however, is that it is actually possible for wedding photographers to advertise directly on these sites.
Placing an advertisement on wedding planning websites is not free, but there are several options available that fit a variety of budgets. On The Knot, photographers can either opt to advertise exclusively on the mobile and desktop site, or they can take it a step further and buy spaces in email newsletters or in the print magazine. The Knot will even pair you with an account strategist who can help you get started and understand your ad performance.
Wedding blogs.
Best for: Creating a buzz in the blogosphere.
There is no shortage of wedding blogs on the internet, with many of them wildly popular. Getting your photographs placed on a popular platform can go a long way to boost your career. Not only do these sites carry a strong reputation and sense of prestige, but they also have the potential to show your work off to millions of people monthly, which could bring your exposure to a whole new level.
To get your work featured on a wedding blog, it is important to be selective in the photos you choose to submit. Blogs are always on the lookout for photos that offer something new or unexpected—if you have a fresh shoot idea that hasn’t been done many times before, chances are an editor might be interested in featuring it. Quick tip: submit a collection of images to one blog at a time and wait until you hear back from each editor before pitching your photos to other outlets! Simultaneous pitching is generally frowned upon in the blogging world.
Best For: Connecting with your clients and followers one-on-one.
Facebook is a wonderful place for wedding photography advertising. There’s a lot you can do with your Facebook presence. First, you need to set up your Facebook Business Page. Here’s how it’s done:
- Create your page name and fill out your basic contact info. In order to do this, you must have a personal Facebook account that you can link your page to. It is not possible to operate a Facebook business page without a personal page.
- Pay close attention to your Facebook business page’s name, as this will also serve as your page’s URL. Though it’s possible to change your page name, you cannot change your URL.
- Choose your cover photo and profile photo for your page. This is where you can let your photography skills shine through.
- Invite friends to like your page. The more likes, the better!
Now that you’re set up, here’s how to market a photography business on Facebook:
Work that Facebook business page.
Share photos of recent weddings that you’ve shot, and offer sneak peaks. (Just don’t forget to get those release forms signed first!) These photos are generally a hit among family and friends; this means that they are likely to be shared, which is great for wedding photography marketing. Add a watermark and ask posters to tag your business page so folks know whose amazing work it is.
Utilize Facebook Messenger.
Facebook’s messenger feature is extremely useful as it provides an alternative to the telephone for both you and your prospective clients. If you are attentive to the messages that you receive, Facebook awards you with a badge that says that you “typically respond within an hour.” This metric can encourage others to reach out.
Try Facebook advertising.
Don’t be intimidated: running a Facebook advertising campaign is surprisingly easy! You can learn all about how to run Facebook ads in our handy guide. Make an effort to play around with the platform because there are two big benefits in terms of wedding photography advertising:
- Facebook allows you to choose the right advertising campaign for you, depending on your intended target audience and budget.
- Facebook lets you target your advertising audience based on factors such as age, gender, and perhaps most importantly, location.
Take a peek at the Facebook analytics.
Facebook offers its own analytics, which come in handy when you’re trying to figure out how to market a photography business. Some of the things you can view include:
- How many people have seen your post
- Where your audience is
- Which posts get the best engagement and which posts get the worst
- Which posts are resulting in the most page likes (or page unlikes)
Use Facebook groups to your advantage.
There is a Facebook group for just about everyone! To best promote your wedding photography business, find the groups local to your area (try searching for groups for wedding planners, the recently engaged, etc). Then, advertise your services in the group. Even better, attend in-person mixers organized by these groups and get to know them; it makes a difference! Heads up: when sharing about your business online, make sure that the rules of the group allow for self-promotion. Some only allow vendors to post on certain days or only to PM if specifically asked to.
TikTok
Best for: Reaching a younger, trend-obsessed audience.
Video content has swept the social media world by storm. You might be an Instagram Reel pro by now, but deciphering its ever-changing algorithm can sometimes feel like trying to crack a code in internet math. TikTok has come along and revolutionized the social media landscape, and adding it as part of your marketing strategy can help you target your audience more effectively.
TikTok is primarily focused on short-form video content under 90 seconds, just like Reels. But while Reels tend to be more curated and refined, TikToks can be less polished and shorter, which can make them a bit more approachable. The overall vibe is more relaxed, making it easier for you to connect more personally with your followers- turning potential clients into devoted customers. From visual storytelling, behind-the-scenes footage, or sharing tips with your fellow wedding photographers, incorporating TikTok can take your marketing to a whole new level.
How Can Zenfolio Help?
Zenfolio’s feature-rich, all-in-one platform gives you everything you need to build your business and create a prominent online presence that elevates your style and brand.
Portfolio: Clean, contemporary, website templates tailor-made for creating an online portfolio that not only elegantly showcases your work, but also reflects the essence of you and your brand.
Blog: (Portfolio Plus, ProSuite) Provide updates, tell the love story of your most recent clients, and share a little piece of yourself with our built-in blog feature.
Booking Tool: Our BookMe tool takes all the guesswork out of managing client sessions and appointments. Your clients can go from scheduling their initial consultation to choosing the preferred date for their engagement sessions, right through to booking you for their big day! They can even pay right in this one convenient spot! Bookme is included in our ProSuite plan and available as an add-on for the Portfolio and Portfolio Plus plans.
Social Media Integration: Easily connect your social media accounts right to your website so that your potential clients can seamlessly view and follow. You can even share your Instagram feed from any page on your website.
Testimonial Blocks: Seamlessly add those glowing customer testimonials right to your website with our easily customizable testimonial blocks.
Custom Pages: Create a lively, detailed About Me page to show off your personality to potential clients, and don’t forget to include a price list: prospective brides and grooms with thank you later.
