The fact that you have few orders for photography or wedding recording may have nothing to do with the quality of your work. I know many people who are good at what they do but don’t know how to sell themselves. They got stuck in the role of a technician. (I recommend reading the book “The E-Myth”).
“The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280
Collaborations
Often underestimated source of clients. Other companies should not be seen as competition, although it may not make sense at first. Perhaps there is a company in your area that has so much work that they can’t keep up and even refuse work. Or it could be a company that seemingly does something different than you.
I’ll give an example – you can establish a partnership with a catering company or collaborate with a wedding dress rental shop or tailors. Help each other mutually. For example, for a commission. The conditions of how it will work are up to you two.
Ask for recommendations from old clients
From my observations, many people underestimate recommendations or are explicitly afraid of them. I mean that people are commonly afraid to ask for recommendations. So pick up the phone, write a message, and ask for recommendations. Remind them appropriately so it doesn’t feel forced. If you don’t know how, you’ll find many tips on YouTube on how to ask for recommendations from clients.
Learn marketing (at least) basics
Marketing will help you significantly increase the number of orders, but for marketing to bring you results, you need at least two things:
- Sufficiently quality service
- Studied marketing basics.
I’ll give an example – I had an old project and had almost no customers, I didn’t know why. I started learning marketing and suddenly customers started contacting me regularly. No more chasing. Of course, direct sales are also needed but to a much lesser extent.
Create interesting content – blog, photos, etc.
This point is closely related to the previous point. The content you create regularly can be one of the marketing channels to get “wedding” clients. For example, an interesting article about how to avoid low-quality photos from a wedding can bring you an order, or a photo from a wedding on Instagram interests a bride so much that she calls you.
Practically, this article is an example of interesting content. It is not written by AI, as such articles are very similar and very general.
The key in content creation is regularity. If you want to have results, you must add content regularly. Make such content that comes “easily” to you, as they say.
Start using social media
I must admit that I underestimated social media. But times are changing, more and more people are looking for interesting content on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube… It’s no longer about optimization for search engines but about optimization for various sources. If you really want to have more orders for wedding recording, you need to show your work on social networks.
Pinterest – a large number of women go there, Instagram – also a large number of women. Women usually invest more in weddings than men, or tend to spend more.
Men generally allocate larger budgets for weddings, often prioritizing extravagant elements such as venue and entertainment.
Women, influenced by societal expectations and personal preferences, may focus on details like decor and attire, leading to a more balanced overall expenditure(Perritt, 2015).
Launch advertisements for your services
Personally, I prefer “SEO”, but its problem is that sometimes it can take a very long time before you see results from it. The fastest way to test interest in your services is to launch ads for them. If people are buying, it’s a good sign; if they’re buying a lot, it’s a great sign.
Namely:
- Customer Feedback: Positive responses from customers mentioning the advertising (Source: Market research best practices via qualitative feedback analysis).
- Word-of-Mouth Amplification: People discussing, sharing, and recommending based on your advertising (Source: Word of Mouth Marketing Association research).
- Lower Customer Acquisition Cost: Reduction in the expense of acquiring new customers (Source: Harvard Business School studies on CAC).
Email marketing
Get emails from wedding guests, for example by offering them a service that you’ll notify them by email about photos from the wedding. The advantage of email marketing is that it is relatively cheap compared to traditional advertising. Mailing tools for up to a few thousand subscribers are free, and with paid versions, the price is around 10 euros/dollars. ATTENTION – the price for these tools can rise sharply if you have many email subscribers. Then it pays to switch to a local solution like Fluent CRM.
With emails, be especially careful not to oversell. Give subscribers value and only later sell. I’ll give an example: 3 emails with tips for interesting wedding or celebration locations, and then, for example, a special discount coupon for subscribers.
Delegate work that you can’t do well
As you noticed, there are many things you can do to have more clients. The problem is that you won’t be able to do all of them well or won’t have time for them. For example, investing in one article from a skilled copywriter can bring you even twice as many orders compared to an amateur article with a large number of errors that will put readers to sleep rather than interest them.
Can’t make nice posters? Hire someone online – you can use online marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork, Facebook groups, or someone local from your area. When choosing someone to help you, ask for recommendations and especially final works – what result they brought. So you don’t pay money for something of poor quality. Alternatively, you can agree on a barter – photos for a poster, etc.
The goal is to pay for a service that will be more professional than if you did it yourself, and then the investment can literally return in a few days. Doing everything yourself is the most common mistake of small businesses. Or five activities are done by one or two people very averagely or even below average, and then the business owners wonder why they have few orders.
Conclusion
There are a large number of strategies you can do to have more customers; I tried to point out mainly those with which I have personal experience and at least partially understand. So that you don’t have too much, start with one strategy that is most accessible and easiest for you. Did you have a relationship with writing? Start writing articles; over time, these articles can bring customers and save you a lot of time that you would otherwise have to invest in “chasing clients”.