When it comes to creative businesses, opening a wedding photography business is top on the list, it’s fun, it a business that deals with a happy marriage and joyful moments that can be captured forever with your lenses.
Not to mention, its a can pay really well, so it worth it.
in this article, we will talk about the essence of starting a wedding photography studio step by step and how to grow it to reach a point where it generates leads to you while you sleep.
Here are my steps for building a sustainable wedding photography studio:
Step 1: Get the naming right and register it.
Step 2: Get the equipment ready
Step 3: Build your portfolio
Step 4: Create a sale funnel
Step 5: Work on your content
Step 6: Market the hell out of it
Step 7: Automate it all
Let’s dig into each
Step 1: Get the naming right and register it.
Naming your business should be your top priority as it going to stick with you for a long time, and when it comes to calling wedding studios, it can be a fun process when it is done right.
Start with brainstorming some ideas, you can go with your name or with a generic name that matching the weddings themes. In my case, I picked “perfect moment photography” because I wanted to capture the perfect moments with my lenses.
Remember to register it immediately after you decide on a name before it too late.
You can use domain registrar like Godaddy, or buy an expired domain though an auction if the name is catchy.
Step 2: Get the types of equipment ready
When it comes to photography, the equipment is everything, and it’s the most expensive hurdle, and in most cases, it hard to pick the right one.
With experience, you more likely will know what equipment works for you, and you might end up replacing a few over time, but some will always remain favorites.
Some of the equipment you will need is
- Lenses
- Software and edits tools
- Lighting equipment
- Storage
Step 3: Build your portfolio
The number one factor that makes or breaks a deal is the portfolio, this what you will be working on overtime to develop a portfolio that attracts customers like bees.
The best way to build your portfolio is by taking free gigs here and there, or volunteer to help a friend wedding or work as a freelance photographer for a while to build up your portfolio.
Try to publish your portfolio in known blogs or magazines who touch on the same audiences as yours to gain brand exposure.
Your style and theme will play an important factor here in shaping your identity.
Step 4: Create a sale funnel
After having a name, equipment, and a strong portfolio, it’s time to build a platform where people can find you and inquire about your services.
Your website should always be the frontline of capturing and converting visitors into leads, I prefer to call it sale funnel instead of the site because the goal of having it is to generate leads and inquiries.
There are many options when it comes to building your website, you can:
- Hire a freelancer to code it for you from scratch
- Do it yourself with drag and drop page builders like Squarespace.
- Do it yourself by learning WordPress and buy a customizable theme
Step 5: Work on your content
Content is king, it’s your voice that your potential client will hear the first time they arrive at your website.
It’s true that for creative business, your portfolio speaks a thousand words, but if you want to ace the marketing game, you need content.
Remember that without content, you can’t rank for keywords, and you need SEO to generate organic traffic.
A good example is to write content that relates to your audience, like this one “The Top 10 Most Affordable Sydney Wedding Venues”, Why? Because whoever book venues need to book a photographer next.
Step 6: Market the hell out of it
Having a portfolio, and a great website with useful content is excellent to start, but can your audience find it?
Marketing is a big topic of its own, but here are some tips:
A- Market your contents by doing guest posting in relevant sites
B- Publish your portfolio and allow others to use your photos for free as long as they credit your name and link to your site
C- Run targeted Facebook ads
Step 7: Automate it all
When it comes to wedding photography, managing the business can take tremendous time from you, time that you don’t have and better if it allocated somewhere else like photo-shooting.
Automation could be helpful if it used correctly, especially to automate replying to general inquiries that relate to pricing.
I hope you enjoyed this post if you are interested to know how I market my business to get some inspiration, check out my website.
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Guest Author Bio: Wedding photography expert Jeffrey Wang has his own wedding photography studio in Sydney Perfect Moment Photography. He helped hundreds of couples to capture their love stories and the raw emotions and spirit behinds the weddings. In his free time, he writes about love stories, venues and photography tips for known wedding blogs around the globe.
