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Episode 207 - Exactly What I Would Do If I Restarted My Wedding Business Today
891 Plays1 year ago
Some of you might not know this but back in the day, Krista and I ran a wedding photography business together. In today's episode, we cover the 5 things I would focus on if I were to go back and start that business over again. If you're in the wedding industry, this is relevant, even if you're not a photographer specifically. Really, this is what I would do regardless of what service-based business I was starting. Yes, some of the specific examples might change but this is what I would broadly focus on.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check 'em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/restarted-wedding-business-today-btb207. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Creating Roundup Posts with Wedding Collaborations
00:00:00
Speaker
There is no shortage, I think, of different types of content you can create like that. I'm thinking of, you know, one roundup post, we were like best bouquets of 2015 or whatever it is, right? And all we did was go back and pick the bouquet, pick a bouquet shot of every wedding we shot that year and feature it. And then we also featured the wedding planners. You know, we tagged the wedding planners in there. For the floral designers too. I'm sorry, the wedding planners and the floral designers. And then, you know, they reshared that post.
00:00:29
Speaker
You're listening to the Brands That Book Show, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want practical tips and strategies for building engaging brands, crafting high converting websites, and creating reliable lead generation systems for their businesses. I'm your host, Davy Jones, co-founder of two agencies, a brand and website design agency, Davy & Krista, and the digital advertising agency, Till Agency. And I ask questions so you can find answers.
Lessons from Running a Wedding Photography Business
00:00:58
Speaker
Some of you might not know this, but back in the day, Kristin and I ran a wedding photography business together. And in today's episode, we cover the five things that I would focus on if I were to go back and start that business over again. If you're in the wedding industry, this is relevant, even if you're not a photographer specifically. And really, this is what I would do regardless of what kind of service space business I was starting. Yes, some of the specific examples might change, but this is broadly what I would focus on.
00:01:25
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check them out at davianchrista.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. It really does make a difference. Now, onto the episode. All right, I'm excited about today's topic. Yeah, I am too.
00:01:41
Speaker
So today we are chatting about what I would do if we were to restart our wedding photography business.
Transitioning from Photography to Design and Branding
00:01:48
Speaker
So for those of you who don't know, probably a decade ago, I started a wedding photography business and we shot probably a couple hundred weddings. We ended up coming on after a few years. And then I've always also done design. And then when Jack was born, we decided to make design, marketing, branding, the full-time thing. So we haven't shot a wedding or done any photography work.
00:02:11
Speaker
in five years. Yeah. So it's been a while, but I feel like this topic comes up often in part because we have good friends who own a wedding venue and that wedding venue is only about a mile from where we live. So, you know, whenever there's a wedding at the farm, we'll say something like, oh, you know, it would just bring us back to our wedding photography days, you know? And so we'll start talking about maybe what we would do differently. We also still work with a lot of wedding professionals.
Marketing Strategies for Wedding Professionals
00:02:32
Speaker
So we build a lot of wedding venue websites and wedding photographer websites and planners and so on and so forth.
00:02:36
Speaker
So it's not uncommon for us to get some questions about just continuing to market a business after a website's been built. So it's actually a topic we talk about a fair amount. And somebody said, hey, you should record a podcast on that. So here we are just putting our thoughts to air, I guess.
00:02:56
Speaker
Of course, and also being 10 years advanced from the start of that business and having started other businesses in the meantime, I feel like we have learned a lot about starting a business. And so it'll be exciting to talk this through.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And specifically starting a service-based business. So we'll dive right in. Where should
Building a Portfolio with Styled Shoots
00:03:14
Speaker
we start? I think we should start with portfolio building. Okay, cool. Yeah. And that's a good question. I think when people are getting started, they want to know where they should find the first of their work. And so if I were to redo this again, one of the things that I would make sure that we do is build the portfolio of work, of the type of work that we want to do.
00:03:31
Speaker
And that can be challenging right when you're first getting started, especially depending on the season of life you're in. When you started the wedding photography business, we were, well, you were still pretty young, but you were out of college. So you had friends or new people that were getting married. I think I was 22. So everybody was getting married.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it becomes a little bit easier, like if you're in the season of life looking for that specific service, but still there's ways to build your portfolio and shoot the kind of work that you want to do without necessarily having to get hired, right? A few ideas there. Styled shoots, you know, organizing a styled shoot. My guess is that there's also a wedding planner or there's other
00:04:13
Speaker
people that are starting similar businesses in the wedding industry that are kind of at the same place maybe you are and so it would benefit everybody by getting together by getting a group of people together to do a style shoot not only builds your portfolio but also builds their portfolio as well. I think that is a key thing to make sure that you're asking people who are in a similar situation than you like if you were just getting started in the photography world you may not want to reach out to the most luxurious wedding planner in your area
00:04:38
Speaker
because chances are, she already has people that she frequently works with and she's going to use them for styled shoots. But if you have a friend or you know somebody who is just kicking off their planning business, maybe that's a good person to reach out to.
Benefits of Styled Shoots and Collaborations
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. And there's no harm in asking somebody who's more experienced than you.
00:04:54
Speaker
but there is more of a chance and you shouldn't be offended if they say no. And there's always people out there, I think, that are in sort of the same boat, right? And it benefits everybody. And, you know, as those people get work, since they've worked with you and you've now shot stuff for them, you'll likely be the person that they refer. So style shoots is something that I prioritized in the beginning, you know, trying to do maybe in my first year, two or three of those. And those are a lot of work, you know? So two or three of those would be a lot.
00:05:21
Speaker
free work in exchange for reviews. I can't remember what you charged for your very first wedding. I think it was like $400. I think it was less than that. Yeah, it wasn't a lot, right? But it was the kind of wedding that you wanted to shoot in the future, right? So you knew it was going to be a good wedding and you could use that wedding to find other work.
00:05:40
Speaker
Well, even their engagement session, I helped them, and they were good at this too, style it a little bit more. And from there, I started booking other couples and other weddings before I'd even shop my first wedding. Yeah. And that's engagement sessions are huge too, you know? So really making sure, like if you were to have a collection and maybe the collection doesn't include engagement sessions, like that's one thing I would do is like everybody at first, I would do an engagement session with, because to your point, you can use that work to start booking other work before you even shoot your first wedding.
Selective Free Work for Portfolio Building
00:06:10
Speaker
Yes. So, but in general, you know, we're not big fans of doing free work, except maybe when you're first getting started and being clear about what you want out of it as well. And so it might not be monetary. Maybe you ask somebody just to cover your costs, but you definitely want to say like, Hey, I want to be able to feature this wedding, like doing free work for somebody who doesn't want their wedding published anywhere.
00:06:32
Speaker
not a good idea because you can't use that work to then book future work. And there are cases where that happened. Like we worked, since we were in the Annapolis DC area, we worked with plenty of people who had military ties. And so in some cases, like they didn't want images published all over the web. And we totally understand that. But when you're first getting started, that work is important to get other work.
00:06:51
Speaker
especially if you're charging very little, which I did at first. And I think that was rightfully so because I had no experience posing or knowing lighting or editing or any of the things.
The Value of Second Shooting for Networking and Learning
00:07:01
Speaker
Sure. Sure. And then the next thing that I would do is try to second shoot, you know, choose a few awesome photographers in the area and try to second shoot because I think that the most important thing there. And again, maybe I wouldn't do that if I was restarting my business since I already know how to use a camera and, you know, all the things that you just mentioned.
00:07:19
Speaker
But especially if I was first getting started, I would second shoot because of the amount that you would learn second shooting. But then also you can usually blog those images with the permission of the photographer in certain situations. And if you're not able to get any second shooting positions, sometimes they do want somebody who has had experience, you could always offer to be a free assistant or free help.
00:07:40
Speaker
I think that would be a route to go if you're not having any luck getting people to hire you for a second shooting and you really just want to get in the door and start learning. And when you're there, be as helpful as possible and make it about the person that you're serving and not necessarily what you can learn.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you do that a few times and it won't be long until some sort of second shooting opportunity rolls around. I think that Caitlin James has a second shooting course that might be helpful for somebody like in this situation. Okay. Yeah, cool. Yeah. Awesome. The, oh, this is, I think something you added.
00:08:14
Speaker
Oh yeah, we're working from an outline. I think it can also be helpful, especially as you're getting started and trying to build relationships to offer to do property photos for local venues or head shots for local venues or their staff or other vendors.
Building Relationships with Free Venue Photography
00:08:29
Speaker
Again, you don't necessarily want to be doing free work for nothing, but it can go a long way towards building relationships with local vendors and hopefully having them refer to you. And then there's also the chance that they will use those images on their social media, on their website, and then give you a credit.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. And this I think is a great segue into the second thing I would do. All right. So first thing was, you know, a few tips on how I would build my portfolio. The second thing I would do is focus on relationships and I would try to make it a point to meet at least two new people each month.
Networking in the Wedding Industry
00:09:03
Speaker
And there are all sorts of ways to do this. Since I'm using wedding photography specifically as the example here, I mean, everybody needs photos, right? And so it's just one of those things where you can always reach out to people and see if they need anything photographed. And that's just a nice little in, right?
00:09:20
Speaker
There was a wedding planner that we frequently worked with later in our career who often like to do editorial inspired shoots or just like show off DIY projects for weddings and we would go out to her studio like once a month like every other month and shoot those pieces for her because it was good for her to get them featured places and then it was good for us to maintain that relationship.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah. And so I do feel like wedding photographers have it a little bit easier here. But regardless of whether you're a wedding photographer or not, this is something that anybody can do. And just taking every opportunity to get to know wedding planners, florists, venue operators. I mean, this is, again, going back to how you can combine some of these efforts.
00:09:55
Speaker
If you are offering to be somebody's assistant for a shoot, you're just getting started. Take that opportunity to meet everybody in the room. If you are a second shooter for a photographer, that doesn't mean that you can't go and introduce yourself to the wedding planner and get to know the staff at the venue, those sorts of things. But I would take every opportunity to do that. Look for networking events in your area. I know back in Annapolis, at least, there were a fair amount of wedding-specific meetups throughout the year.
00:10:25
Speaker
So I would get to those, meet anybody that I could meet, find, you know, finding local networking events, and then just following on social, commenting on their stuff, you know, sending them DMs, not necessarily like... To pitch yourself. Yeah, exactly. Not necessarily to pitch yourself, but maybe just to, you know, comment on their stories or, you know, whatever it might be.
00:10:44
Speaker
I think that that goes a long way towards building relationships. And if they are familiar with your name on social media before you ever meet them in person, that's going to help them connect two and two together. And I feel like GMs these days go a long way and comments on posts can go a long way. And so if you're the one that who is always there cheering them on, they're going to remember that when they actually meet you in person.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah. I will say that you have to be careful. Like if you're second shooting for somebody else, there's a certain etiquette that you wouldn't want to go and say like, hi, I'm shooting for Davy Jones photography, but I'm Krista Jones photography. You always want to make sure that you're representing the person that you are helping and working for. But if you are serving and being a great assistant or great second, I think it's more likely that the person that you're working with is going to introduce you and say like, Oh, she also has your own business. So just like make sure that it's not all about you, especially if you're with somebody else.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's an important point to clarify. And that's kind of what I was thinking was like going to get to know people and introduce yourself, but in a way to serve them and represent the brand that you're representing there. And I think if you do a really good job though, that person who you are representing is more likely to refer you down the line. And people remember that. Like if you're always helpful in fluffing dresses and just positive, like people remember people who are kind.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Especially in the wedding industry, things can get so stressful that if you stand out, it's easy to stand out in that way. It is. The next thing I want to say about relationships, I said to meet two new people each month because I think it's nice to have that goal in mind. And you'd be surprised at how relationships compound. It does take a little bit of time to build relationships, but it doesn't take as long as you might think and relationships compound. You meet one person, you do a really good job for them,
00:12:30
Speaker
strike up a relationship with them, and then they're bound to introduce you to other people. So I think that the more people you meet, the easier it gets to meet more people, right? Even, you know, through introductions, but just to be able to say, oh, you know, I also know so and so, you know, and be able to make those connections when you meet people. Should we move on to the third tip?
Optimizing Google Business Profiles for SEO
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, this is probably one of your favorites. Local SEO. Yes, local SEO. All right, so here's the thing. I think a lot of local businesses don't pay enough attention to their Google business profile. And they often only start paying attention because maybe they started their Google business profile and they got a bad review. Maybe it's like one of those spam reviews, you know, like the person never even worked with you, but you get this weird spam review on your Google business profile. And now it looks like you have an average, you know, two stars out of five. Yeah, something like that.
00:13:19
Speaker
And that's not the position that you wanna be where all of a sudden now you have to pay attention to it. I think beyond that too, there's just so much opportunity with Google business profiles, right? Like it's another way to show up in the organic search engine results page, right? So when you Google something, especially for a local business, what's gonna show up at the top is the local pack. It's gonna be that map with the different business names next to it, right? That's a second opportunity to rank well organically, right? And so,
00:13:49
Speaker
even if your business hasn't been in business that long, you still have a chance to show up there maybe before you would show up in the organic search results. So why not take some time to optimize that? One, it's super easy to do. Just follow the prompts that Google gives you. Two, even asking for reviews, like I would, especially as you're doing maybe trying to generate some free work, you know, the people that you're doing style shoots for, you can ask them for reviews because they worked
00:14:14
Speaker
with you, right? They have experience working with your business. So go and ask them for reviews. But, you know, if you go out and do maybe a family session just to get some experience doing family portraits, ask them to leave you a review. Those reviews make a difference. I'd say that like some of the biggest
00:14:30
Speaker
Difference makers when it comes to a Google business profile what once proximity, you know So like of course like if I Google, you know pizza near me Google's not gonna give me a pizza place over in Richmond two hours away, right? They're gonna give me local results. But you know, I'd say second up there is probably reviews. Mm-hmm
00:14:49
Speaker
So anyways, that's my thing about local SEO. This is one of those things that you just have to optimize once and then maybe revisit quarterly, right? So it doesn't require that much effort. Like today, if you took some time to do that, you know, it would take you probably
00:15:04
Speaker
25, 30 minutes. Right. We've also learned over the years that it can be helpful to ask specific questions for people to answer in the reviews to get better reviews. And like, Davy Jones was great to work with. Like that's not as helpful as somebody saying like, Davy Jones was an amazing photographer and maybe even including like the specific location where you worked. And so if you want to get some of the questions that we ask, we'll make sure that we include those in the show notes because we've written a blog post with some of the questions that we typically send people.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, and we actually include all this information in our SEO courses as well. So if you're interested in taking the SEO course and I'll show you step by step on how to set these things up. But I do think that local SEO is just one of those things that's super underrated and people should pay more attention to.
00:15:50
Speaker
So anyways, take some time to do that. It'll only take you about 30 minutes and then revisit it maybe once a quarter and you'll be well on your way. Yeah, totally.
The Power of Blogging for Photographers
00:15:58
Speaker
All right, cool. So the fourth thing that I would do is I would blog weekly. I would want to make sure that I am creating content regularly.
00:16:06
Speaker
that I'm going back to old content and I'm repurposing it, but I'm always showing off work. And I think I would want to do that for a few reasons. First, I want it to seem like, especially if it's not true, I want it to seem like I'm busy. Like I have active projects that I am working on.
00:16:25
Speaker
All right, so that's one thing that I want to do. The second thing, the second reason I'm a big fan of blogging is that I think it's an opportunity to show off how good you are at something over and over again in different situations. I do think that especially for visual services like photography,
00:16:44
Speaker
somebody being able to go to a blog and see some of your work, they can imagine themselves maybe in some of the different, in some of your portfolio work, right? And it helps them better imagine you working for them.
00:16:58
Speaker
And this is where the editorial work could come in really handy because it can give you more things to share. You might be able to repurpose different pieces of the editorial work into different blog posts. When I was first getting started, I brought my camera everywhere, when we traveled, when we were with friends, and I tried to photograph everything that I could and then blog about it just to make myself seem busier than I was and get my name out there. This could also be a great opportunity to share some of those
00:17:24
Speaker
headshots, property photos, venue photos that you're taking as well, so that it all comes up on your blog and it can hopefully help with search engine optimization as
Using SEO and Blogging to Attract Clients
00:17:34
Speaker
well. Yeah, I probably wouldn't do, like if I'm a wedding photographer, I probably wouldn't show off any headshot work. Yeah. You know, just because like it gives a more, it's more of like a commercial feel. If you're thinking like, if you're thinking like corporate headshots with like the backdrop, no, but like if you take lifestyle headshots of a wedding planner or like a floral designer with her flowers, like that could probably fit.
00:17:54
Speaker
Maybe, maybe. You can see, maybe we do something a little bit differently, but I see where you're going with that, and I would do something similar. I would definitely try to show off the work that I'm shooting. When we went on vacation, we'd often go with friends, and so you would do a portrait session for our friends. That kind of work fit really nicely onto our blog, and it was just an opportunity to show off portraits that you were shooting.
00:18:21
Speaker
Even the venue, like if you were to go and do work for a venue, doing a feature of that venue and showing off maybe some of the different spots that you can get married at the venue, so on and so forth, I think that's really good for search engine optimization as well. One of the things that we recommend to people in the wedding industry is to create these venue cornerstone pages, right? So that hopefully when people are searching for that venue, you also show up. But I probably limit it to a very specific look and feel.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah, especially when it comes to like commercial work.
00:18:53
Speaker
I also used to do like DIY wedding related projects and photograph all of the steps. And I would submit them to a bigger blog for publication and then share them on my own blog. And so some of those got picked up and they helped me get more traction and more links back to the website. And they also gave me more content to share. But I know that that wouldn't be a great fit for everybody. Like I can't imagine you doing, I think I did DIY wedding favor seed bombs one time.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, it might not be, but I think it's a great idea. And if I was more crafty like that, I would definitely would do something like that because not only do you get a link back, maybe from a awesome, you know, high authority site, but you also remember like that kind of stuff would be pre-shared. Like I'm thinking we had a flag day wedding and every flag day or every Memorial Day or every 4th of July, everybody re-shared it. And so you get a lot of social media followers from that as well.
00:19:48
Speaker
or I did work for a blogger and I didn't necessarily get paid very much for it, but her stuff was featured on like Pottery Barn and Home Depot. And so all of these big, very authoritative links went back to me. Yeah. And all of that is good for search engine optimization as well. But that's like endless content right there. And it's good evergreen content that can be reshared year after year. And, you know, like there is no shortage, I think, of different types of content you can create like that. I'm thinking of,
00:20:16
Speaker
one roundup post, we were like best bouquets of 2015 or whatever it is. And all we did was go back and pick a bouquet shot of every wedding we shot that year and feature it. And then we also featured the wedding planners. We tagged the wedding planners in there. For the floral designers too. I'm sorry, the wedding planners and the floral designers.
00:20:35
Speaker
And then they re-shared that post, right? Because everybody's looking for off-season content like that. So it was an opportunity to feature people we work with and continue building relationships. It was an opportunity to go back through work we already did that year and reuse those images so that we're not just using them once.
00:20:51
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So that's why I would blog. I don't think this has to be done every day. I think once a week, I think minimally though, maybe twice a month, but I would shoot for once a week. Okay. And then social media. You see that social media is pretty far down my list, but I would try to share to social media at least three times a week.
Reaching New Audiences on Instagram and TikTok
00:21:14
Speaker
And I probably prioritize reels and carousel posts. Okay.
00:21:20
Speaker
And if you go back, you listen to my interview I just did with a cab this past summer, just a few episodes ago. Maybe it was like last episode. I can't remember anyways. We'll put it in the show notes. She talked about the different strategy there, you know, so reels and carousel posts tend to reach a newer audience. So not just your followers, but
00:21:37
Speaker
potentially other people that might be interested in follow you as well. But I try to be as strategic as possible with my social media posts. So instead of just like static image of an image I shot, right? And those things fit, really trying to focus on taking that blog content we were just talking about and then converting it into something like a reel in order to reach people who are searching for maybe DIY wedding favors or something like that, right?
00:22:03
Speaker
Social media, I think it's important. I think it's less important to be on every single social media channel out there, but I would definitely be on Instagram and TikTok. Right. Yeah. Anything else to add to that? I don't think so. I feel like that gives people a lot to do. Yeah. Well, it's a lot to do, but that's something I actually want to mention. I'm glad that you bring that up, right?
Managing Content Creation and Networking
00:22:22
Speaker
Because when you think, I mean, it sounds like a lot if you're starting from scratch. Well, I just think a lot of different things to try.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. But I guess what I want to go through real quick is just the cadence in which those things need to be visited. I mean, on an ongoing basis, you should be creating blog content and sharing to social media, right? Relationships on an ongoing basis as well. But one of those things where, you know, make it a goal, write down people you want to meet, write down, you could write down probably a list of 50 to 100 people you want to meet, all right? Try to meet two of them each month.
00:22:49
Speaker
that doesn't take much time. I mean, it takes maybe a little bit of pre-planned effort in coming in on their social media feeds and looking for opportunities maybe that they're going to be at different networking events and you'll try to be there too, that sort of thing. Building a portfolio, yes, that takes a little bit of work too, but three style shoots a year, like in your first year or two starting, right? That's a lot of effort for, I don't know, a couple weeks maybe leading up to the shoot.
00:23:17
Speaker
and really like the week leading up to the shoot. So if you think on like, once things sort of normalize and you start picking up work and you know, once the flywheel starts moving, then really what you're doing on a ongoing basis is like creating content. So anyways, I hope you find that helpful. Would love to hear what you think. So, you know, feel free to send us a DM on Instagram and let us know, especially if there's something that you feel like we left out or you have a question about one of the things that we're talking about. Anything else to add?
00:23:46
Speaker
I don't think so. Thanks for joining us, guys. Yeah. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in to The Brancid Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, leaving a review on Apple Podcast, and sharing this episode with others. For show notes and other resources, head on over to DavianChrista.com.