3 Creative Ideas to Attract Wedding Photography Clients

The top question that haunts wedding photographers is: how do I get more clients? When it comes to wedding photography, get creative with your marketing tactics. These ideas to attract wedding photography clients will refresh your routine and expose you to clients you may not otherwise reach.

Connect With a Proposal Planner

Connect with a local proposal planner to be an on-call photographer. Proposal planners are an increasingly popular trend to help with the execution of ideas. From the most elaborate of proposals to simple, quiet moments, many are turning to the help of a planner. Reach out to local proposal planners to see if you are a fit to work together. Ask to become one of their on-call photographers. When you photograph proposals, you meet couples at the very beginning of their marriage journey. This is a highly emotional moment that you can capture a lot of very sentimental memories from. Once you’ve connected with those couples and have been there in the thick of things with them for one of the biggest moments of their lives, it’s easier to connect with them when you’re following up about their wedding plans.

Following up With Proposal Clients

One of the simplest follow-up techniques for these newly engaged couples is to ask them whether they’d like an engagement session. Wait a few weeks after their proposal until the real wedding planning thoughts have started to set in, then reach out, see how they’re doing, and see how you can help. Creating touchpoints in-between the proposal and your contact, like connecting on Instagram, helps to keep you top of mind for these couples.

Look for Featured Vendor Spots at Open Houses

Stop number one on a wedding planning journey is to pick out the venue. Lots of venues host weekly or monthly open houses for prospective couples to stop through. Often, these venues will feature a couple of vendors per open house to meet with couples as well. These can range from florists, to caterers, to photographers. Reach out to venues that you love to shoot at (or want to shoot at!) and see if there’s a spot for you to collaborate on an upcoming open house.

Open houses are a wonderful opportunity to get your name in front of potential clients. These couples don’t have their wedding date yet, but when they do, they’ll have already received your information. Find a way to stand out from the other photographers in your area. Offer creative takeaways that remind people of your business, like branded packs of gum or candy. You could set up a mini photo booth at the open house for prospective couples to take a couple of photos together. Create custom branded Instax sheets and let your couples take home an Instax of themselves with your branding on it. Offering takeaways like these are a fantastic way to get follow-up information on potential clients.

Following up With Open House Clients

When following up with clients after an open house, it can be tricky not to seem too much like you're trying to close the sale at this point. If they’ve been to enough open houses or bridal shows, they’re just tuning out all these vendors that are sending them follow-up after follow-up. Keep it personal. Photography is one of the most personal aspects of their special day, after all. Make sure when meeting them to jot down a couple of notes about what you talked about, so you’re not just shooting off a generic “Hey, thanks for stopping by! Give me money!” kind of email.

Collaborate With Venues on Updated Photos

Reaching out to venues to collaborate on updated photos gets your foot in the door. There may be specific venues that you’d love to shoot at or that your ideal clients are flocking to. Asking them if they need updated photos for their site and social can let you get in with venues you might not otherwise be working at. Creating that friendly rapport with those who work at the venue can open up opportunities, like the coveted “preferred vendors” list. Potential clients can see the way that you capture the space in which they want to host their celebration. If it resonates, they know they want you shooting their special day from that same perspective.

Make Sure You’re Getting Your Worth

Remind venues to tag you in the images that they use on social and ask that they credit you on images they use on their site. This should be a given, but sometimes, those photos get handed off to someone else who hasn’t worked directly with you. You could watermark your images, but there are plenty of vendors who don’t love a watermarked image. If you’re collaborating on these photos to get in front of that venue’s audience, a watermark isn’t totally necessary.

Creative Ways to Attract Wedding Photography Clients

These creative tactics to attract wedding photography clients will help you get the clients that care about more than the price. The potential clients you attract with these methods care about your work right off the bat – the price comes second to the personal connection. There are tons of ways to generate wedding photography leads, but it’s the ones who resonate on a personal level with your work that make for great wedding photography clients.