I’ve decided to start a blog category for wedding vendors! We always need encouragement and there is nothing better than sharing with one another as we explore the wedding industry together! That said, I do get many inquiries from vendors who would like to work with me and my clients on weddings, but from time to time there is no opportunity to make a strong introduction because one key thing is lacking – content.
It is true that as a wedding planner, I recommend vendors to my clients all of the time. I try to understand their vision, then find people who align with what that is. But at the end of the day, that paying client also needs to be confident in your ability to deliver. The initial layer of confidence comes from whatever content you have of your past work. Below are a few hurdles that I’ve seen vendors face and reasons, or ways to get around them:
- I can meet with them to help them better understand my style – The truth is that the modern day couple does not have time to meet with every single prospect, particularly those that they are not already somewhat convinced to work with. Everyone has very hectic schedules, and starts the weeding process very early. If you don’t have content, you can easily be weeded out early on.
- I am waiting for past videographers or photographers to send me footage of my work – The photographer/videographer’s job is to deliver work to the bride and groom. Some may send work your way as a courtesy, but many times they won’t. The truth is that sharing work with vendors will give any photographer or videographer free advertisement, but not everyone sees it that way. Many of them will hold on to their work, and you may never get the final footage of your work, or by the time you get it, a few prospects may have slipped away.
- I have unrelated content that I can share with them – It is very rare that a bride will book a photographer who’s portfolio is full of nothing but head shots. Why? She can’t visualize her wedding as a set of head shots. She needs to see something that resembles the feel that she wants in her shots. Photos of a corporate or non-profit gala can be much more convincing, but remember your advertising content should be as close to bridal as possible to help you sell to your first few clients.
Now that we have talked through a few common reasons that some vendors may have avoided keeping content in the past, let’s discuss the benefits of capturing your own content for your business.
- You can keep up with hashtags while they are still relevant – This is a HUGE one. The day of, or the day after any major wedding or event, everyone spends time on social media following the event hashtag to re-live the event. People look at which vendors were involved and other people’s reactions to them. If you don’t capture any of your own photos, and you wait a month or more for the photographer’s photos to be prepared, you will be posting photos to a hashtag that people are no longer looking into. Timing is key, so taking a few cell phone photos or videos to show off your work pays off big time for you!
- You can focus in on details that others miss – This is HUGE! I remember when I designed my 1st wedding some years back. I put so much detail into the branches, crystals and flowers. We had really nice teal lighting with a gobo just above the canopy for the sweetheart table. I just knew that the photographer would have captured all of that in his work…….. He didn’t. Most photos had the flash on too high, and washed out the ambiance in the photos, and he also somehow managed to take 0 photos of the sweetheart area and gobo. I couldn’t believe it! I ended up relying on my cell phone photos(using an old MyTouch) to sell the work to future clients. But all I could think of, was what would I have done without a cell phone photo? And the truth still stands to a degree. There are many details that we put into our work, that others may not capture. Its our responsibility to make sure that we capture it so that we can showcase it in the future.
- You can keep people engaged with behind the scenes work – Everyone loves behind the scenes footage. There are people who wait until the credits stop rolling at the movie theaters just to see the bloopers! Its important to keep people engaged both before and after events, and behind the scenes photos and videos are a great way to do that, but again you have to create and capture that yourself (unless you have a full-time media team that is, lol)
I hope that this post has convinced you to make better use of your phone, or to even invest in a semi-professional camera of your own. It’s well worth the time and money spent.
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