We’re one of the few photography companies that actually created a lucrative business out of catering to the wedding industry. In less than two years, we went from a general photography company to one that specialized in wedding photography, making well into the Six Figure level. Then we doubled our business. And again.
But it wasn’t always like that.
In the beginning, we did what every other wedding photographer does.
We decided to offer wedding related services. We created our first wedding brochure. And we charged and shot pretty much like every other wedding photographer out there.
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But very quickly something started to change.
We studied what the top names in the industry were doing. We learned from the best. And we quickly changed and grew. And we discovered 3 things that most wedding photographers did that were actually holding them back.
They Create The Wrong Packages
Most wedding photographers create a handful of packages, give everything a bride could possibly want into each package, and then wonder where the extra sales are.
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A package is meant to be a starting point. It’s meant to offer a great value to the bride, and give her the basics of what she needs to relive the memories from her special day.
If she wants more, she must pay for it.
- Larger albums
- Albums for family members
- Gift products
- Engagement sessions
- Trash the Dress sessions
All of this is meant to be add-on sales, creating more profits for you.
They Limit Their Creativity
When many photographers head into a wedding, they head in with “the list”. Photograph of bride with mom – check. Photograph of bride looking lovingly at her new husband – check.
Then depending on the package, they promise the bride a certain amount of photographs.
With package A, you’ll receive 200 images.
With package B, you’ll receive 250 images.
The thing that I never understood about that line of thinking was “How can you know ahead of time how many images you’ll need to cover the event in its entirety?”
Every wedding is unique. Every wedding offers its own opportunities.
What if you are at the reception, and already have 200 images on your Flash? You know you don’t need many more, so you sit down to relax. And you may very well miss the most important image of the day.
A wedding is an event. You have to shoot it from beginning to end as an event. You can’t count photographs. You have to be there and present for every moment to capture it as it happens. To do anything else truly isn’t photographing a wedding.
Yes, even when we were still photographing with film, before we made the conversion to digital, we were shooting hundreds and hundreds of images every time. Our average wedding was around 2000 images – and that’s not “pray and spray” philosophy. We actually concentrated on creating 2000 great images that could stand alone. We regularly sold multiple volume sets, 3 to 5 albums, each with 200-300 images in them.
You can never sell what you don’t create. And the only way to grow into a successful, six figure wedding business is to move beyond what everyone else is doing.
They Attempt To Be Like Every Other Wedding Photographer
It’s easy to do. You decide you want to photograph weddings. You head out online and look at a variety of other photographers. You use their packages as your idea model, and you create your own.
Then you wonder where your profits are.
Becoming a successful wedding photographer means thinking outside of the box. It means not doing what the average photographer is doing. It means marketing yourself in a slightly different manner.
If you sell yourself as an average wedding photographer, you’ll only ever be an average wedding photographer.
If you want to be at the top of your game, you have to sell yourself as the unique individual you are.
You have to become known as an artist – something more than just a picture taker.
I have been a part of the wedding industry now for many years. And I love it just as much now as I did when we first started in it. Which is why I’m so excited to finally have ready my third Kindle/PDF ebook – Become A Top Wedding Photographer.
Inside Become A Top Wedding Photographer, you’ll discover a wealth of information on every aspect of creating a lucrative wedding business. I’ve shared all kinds of secrets that we learned over the years; tips that will help you bypass what doesn’t work, and move right into what does.
If you’ve always wanted to become a wedding photographer, or have wondered how to move from slow to “WOW” with your profit margins, Become A Top Wedding Photographer is your starting point.
Enjoy!
Lori
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