Since we know that couples book their facilities before they book their photographer, make sure to take very flattering images of every reception facility where you find yourself. Make prints of these images, making sure to tastefully include your company name and contact information on the image itself, and then send the images to the facility free of charge. Include an invoice with the images. Show the value of the images on the invoice, and then show a 100% discount. List the reason for the discount as “professional courtesy”.

If the images are of good enough quality, it is possible the facility manager will use your images as a sales tool to reserve couples for their facility. In essence, the facility manager becomes your agent. When you have made your vendor images, be sure to deliver them in person. Use the opportunity to build a professional relationship and contact. Let them meet you face to face. Let them experience your passion and professionalism.

Now that you have this general idea of vendor prints, put it to good use. Send images to the florist. Who made the cake? Who made the dress? Who sold the wedding bands? Send them all images they can advertise with. I’ll bet they would love to show your images.

Vendor Referrals is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

When writing a blog entry about a specific facility you photographed, make sure to include the name of the facility. With any luck, when someone searches for that facility name on Google, your blog and site will appear in the search results. More than likely anyone searching for that facility is also in need of a wedding photographer. You can take this tactic one step further and include the company name of every vendor that participated in the wedding you photographed. Talk about who made the cake. Talk about where your client got her dress. Talk about where they got their rings. Talk about the florist. This may help your blog show up in search results for other search terms other than your own. If you haven’t photographed at a certain facility, but you want to shoot there, write a blog entry about that desire. Write the entry with the knowledge that once you post the entry, people searching for the name of that wedding facility on Google may now see your blog entry come up in their search result.

There is one more thing that you need to consider when writing a blog entry with the intention of including wedding vendors in the entry with the hopes of having your company name show up in search term results. Couples planning a wedding purchase and reserve the services of the wedding vendors they require in a certain order. Understanding this pecking order will make you more efficient.

The first thing a typical couple will reserve when planning their wedding is the location of their ceremony. The second thing they will reserve is the location of their reception. Sometimes the ceremony location and the reception locations are the same.

With their facilities safely reserved, they can then begin to shop for additional vendors. The reason couples do not begin shopping for vendors first, and locations for their wedding second, is because most wedding vendors require a retainer to reserve their services, and in most cases these retainers are nonrefundable.

Whether they know it or not, next on the couple’s shopping list should be the vendors that can only be at one place at one time. The photographer and the band are normally at the top of this list and I would say for most couples the photography is of course more important.

So what does this information tell us? It tells us when we make our blog entries we should always include the names of the facility where we photographed. Of course, we can include the names of the florist and the cake maker in our blog entries, but when it comes to the pecking order of how our clients shop, we know that they are going to normally purchase the flowers and a cake after they have reserved the services of a photographer. This means that you will get very few referrals from florists and cake makers. Your largest source of referrals is going to come from facility managers and catering directors.

If you know the name of the catering director or facility manager, make sure to include the person’s name in the blog entry and make them aware that you have done so. Let them know you are marketing their services. Simply send an email to the catering director with a link to your blog entry.

Happy blogging.

Efficient Blogging is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum

Here’s a radical idea that might be a better way of spending your advertising dollars. It has worked wonders for my company: Cancel your weakest magazine ad and use those advertising dollars to take the top 15 catering directors and facility managers to lunch. Pick out 15 reception facilities that you would like to photograph on a regular basis. Contact the facility managers and invite them and their team to your studio for a catered lunch. Have a limo pick them up and bring them to you. Chose the limo company you use wisely. Find the most expensive wedding magazine in your area and see which limo companies are advertising there. Explain to the manager of the company you are hiring them to pick up catering directors from wedding facilities the limo company more than likely already services. The limo company just might give you a discount on their service.

When the facility manager arrives at your place of business, make sure to have everything looking as nice as it can so the manager understands this is what people will see should they decide to refer their clients to you. When your guests arrive, send out your assistant to pick up the food. During this time, you show your guests what you have to offer. Show them everything that you would show a prospective client. When the food arrives, you eat and tell wedding stories. When everyone is done eating, hand your guests a stack of 8x10s you have taken of their facility. Invite them to use these images as tools to help book events.

Establishing long lasting personal relationships with facility managers that can refer your services to their clients is much more powerful than purchasing a magazine ad which will some day expire.

An Alternate Idea To Magazine Advertising is a post from: The Pro Photo Business Forum