Some might say that blogging has had its era. Been there, done that. Got over it rather quickly…Everyone’s on social media right now, right? That’s where it’s at. You won’t find a photographer worth their snaps without a Facebook page and Instagram account. You have to have an online presence – that’s what they all say!
But I’m here to tell you that blogging is not dead. And all photographers should blog, particularly wedding photographers! It is one of the best marketing tools that you can employ for your photography business.
What are wedding photographers blogs?
A photography blog is a section on your photography business website where you regularly update posts. These can be anything from your top photography tips to images of your latest projects (scroll down for a few more topic ideas).
A wedding photographers blog is a combination of beautiful images and well-written words, telling a story.
Why wedding photographers should blog
There are so many benefits of blogging for photographers. From creating an online portfolio to developing your storytelling skills and marketing your business.
It’s good for SEO
Let’s start with the technical benefits. Regularly updating your blog is great for your website’s SEO. For those not fully in the know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s basically all about trying to impress Google and get Google to like you, so that you pop up in more Google searches. It’s the organic reach that everyone talks about!
So, why is SEO blogging a good idea? Well, firstly it adds more content and pages to your blog, and it allows you to focus on more niche/long-tail keywords on the different blog posts. More pages equal more opportunity for internal linking and new published pages/updated pages shows Google that your website is not dead and forgotten. These are all among Google’s tick box for whether or not your website is rank worthy. There are more reasons, but we don’t need to get into that now…
You’re building your own platform
You own your website and blog. Unlike your business Facebook page and Instagram account, it can’t just be taken away. Your blog is yours to do what you want with. Building a photography blog is all about what you want to get out of it. Your photos and posts will be there for as long as you want them to be.
More content to share in newsletters
Just like growing your own platform, regularly contributing to your blog will allow you to have more content to share in your newsletters – which is another platform worth growing (I’ll get into that in another blog post).
You can also use blog posts to get more email subscribers. One way to do this is to make a simple downloadable PDF with more info that readers have to fill in their details to be able to download. Perhaps a checklist for finding the best wedding photographer or beginner photographers cheat sheet.
A photography blog allows you to share more of your brand.
You’re building your brand
By sharing more blog posts, you’re also sharing a bit more of your personality and your brand. You’re telling a story and allowing your readers (which are potential clients) to get to learn a little more about you. Hiring a photographer, especially a wedding photographer, is an extremely personal thing. They want to know that they’ll ‘click’ with you (pun not intended). Sharing a bit of your personality in your blog posts could be just the way that they decide to work with you or not.
Blogging will also help you to become a better storyteller because the images you share come with a story. Learning to tell stories with your photos is one of the best ways to improve your photography. A good storyteller will capture people’s interest and emotions. Also, read more about why storytelling is the best type of content marketing.
Share more of your photography
You may have a static portfolio page where you show some of your favourite photographs, but you can also use your blog as a type of portfolio. Each time that you finish off a job, you can create a blog post sharing more of the photographs from the shoot, including a bit of background to the shoot.
This also helps your future clients to see the different types of shoots that you do – they may just resonate with one of them. Perhaps they have booked their wedding at a venue that you’ve done a shoot at. Seeing your photographs at that venue may make them want to book you for theirs!
Build a relationship with your partner vendors
Creating blog posts for your various shoots is a great way to give your partner vendors a small punt. You’ll see many wedding photographers blog giving credit to the venue, make-up artists, wedding planners, décor, catering, dressmakers, etc. in their blog posts. By giving them a mention in your post, they may end up sharing the post with their own following – which is always a win. It helps with building a good relationship with vendors in your industry – you never know when they may need to refer a photographer. So, make sure that you name is top of mind (and in a good way) when they do.
When I was looking for wedding venues, I spent hours scrolling through local wedding photographer’s blogs to find which venues had the best photo opportunities. I found it was a great way to find both venues and vendors.
Your clients will love it
While some clients may not want you to share their wedding photographs on your website. Others will LOVE it! Give them their moment to shine by creating a full post dedicated to their wedding and the amazing photographs that you took. They will also most likely share the post on their own social platforms – thereby giving you more traffic and more publicity.
Make the post extra special by sending the couple a questionnaire to fill in after their wedding. Including things like sharing their love story, their best wedding moments, any wedding regrets and other small personal details. Use this info to write up a short story to go along with the photographs – keep it brief, you aren’t writing a romance novel, just a short story that will hopefully tug at the heartstrings of couples looking for a wedding photographer.
Blogging is critical to many components of your business, playing important roles in client satisfaction, SEO, vendor networking, and more. Blogging requires dedication in order to be effective; and consistency is key. So now that we know why you need to blog, let’s dive into how to get you started.
Wedding photographers blog ideas
You may be thinking how on earth are you going to come up new blog topics every month? I get it. When your mind isn’t on blogging mode, it’s hard to come up with creative ideas. Below are a few topics for you to explore with to start.
- Wedding shoots – these types of posts are obvious, and I’ve mentioned them already. Share a roundup of each wedding that you do but make it interesting. Give the post a creative title that perhaps eludes to the venue/destination or something unique about the couple. Bulk up the post with a short story about the couple and add in your own personal experience. Remember to end off with linking to the other wedding vendors.
- Cover an event – just because you’re a wedding photographer doesn’t mean that you can’t share other photographs. Obviously, don’t do this all the time. But if you go to a really cool event, why not post about it and share some of your photographs? It shows that your work is not one-dimensional and again, shares more of your personality.
- Talk about the work that you admire – share your inspiration. Is there another photographer that you absolutely love – write a post about them and tell us why you love them so much.
- Link to any press received – did you win an award or perhaps were featured in a magazine? Share it in your blog – show off your achievements!
- Product reviews – have you tried out a new piece of equipment or perhaps an editing software? Why not write a review about it?
- Share some outtakes – not all photoshoots are perfect right? Share some of the images that didn’t make it into your portfolio or weren’t chosen by your client. This is a good way to share lots of work while ensuring that your portfolio stays neatly curated.
- Talk about your challenges – your blog is the place for you to be real. Share your story and the challenges that you face as a wedding photographer. Whether it’s how you deal with lack of inspiration, the business side of photography or how you’re marketing your business.
- Tips for couples – make a guide that you can send to your clients with tips on what they need to do to help get great photographs on their wedding day. Things like lighting, makeup, props, venues etc.
- Tips for other photographers – share your top tips for getting amazing wedding photographs. Things like how to get the best group photos, how to capture the venue and décor or how to deal with a bridezilla.
- Vendor highlight – are you a location-based wedding photographer? Why not write a round-up of your favourite wedding vendors to work with in your city? Or perhaps the best venues for photographs?
- Make a playlist – do you love editing to a certain type of music? Why not make a playlist on Spotify and share it on your blog.
- Share your process – speak more about your process of photography. How do you get into the zone, how do you figure out the best spots to photograph etc. Discussing how you create gives visitors to your site a deeper understanding of your work.
- Do round-ups for the year – at the end of each year you can do a round-up of your highs and lows of the year that’s past. Perhaps even a summary of your favourite photographs from the year and a short story about each of them.
- Goals for the year – share your upcoming goals for the year ahead. Perhaps you want to do more work in a specific destination – put it out there. This is all part of the manifestation process to getting what you strive for.
- Write a travel diary – are you a destination wedding photographer? Or perhaps you just like to travel a lot? Share your travel stories, images and tips.
- Share a lesson – talk about a time you learned something important on the job. These types of posts are interesting to other people in your industry, and also show your commitment to your work.
- Create a tutorial – while it is time-consuming, creating a tutorial is a great way to engage with visitors to your blog.
Get inspired – some of the best wedding photography blogs to follow
Sometimes all you need is a little bit of inspiration. I’ve found a few amazing wedding photography blogs that are worth following if you want to up your blogging game.
There’s an opportunity to offer your clients so much more in your blog.
Fiona Kelly Photography
I want to get married all over again just to get Fiona Kelly to photograph the wedding! Wow. Her blog shares a bunch of posts featuring the weddings that she’s photographed, including a lovely summary of the day at the top and a list of suppliers at the bottom. She also has other posts in between relating to weddings like ‘How to host a sustainable wedding’, ‘Look your best for your wedding photos: Top tips’ and ‘Ideas for using your photos to personalise your phone’.
Heather Waraksa
I love the layout of Heather’s website and blog – so sleek and professional. Apart from sharing her photoshoots she also shares posts on her press and editorial work. While the layout is beautiful, I do feel like the posts are lacking in context.
Give tips, share stories and tell your readers more about you.
Twogether Studios
This is another great example of a wedding photographers blog offering a variety of posts. Apart from the usual wedding shoots, the blog also goes behind the scenes of shoots, what’s in their camera bag, destination wedding stories, gear and product reviews and even giveaways!
Susan Stripling
While Susan mostly only blogs about her weddings, I love the personal stories she starts each blog post off with. This brings in a lovely personal touch.
Furious Photographers
This blog is an example of where a wedding photographer shares some personal images, including travel stories and photographs from events.
Let’s get serious
As a creative professional building an online presence, a blog is a great way to add personality to your portfolio, helping you attract clients and adding dimension to your work. If you can’t find the time to do it yourself, then perhaps look at getting a professional to help out and keep your blog updates consistent. There is nothing worse than an abandoned blog with stale content.
We also have to admit that we aren’t all good at everything. You take killer photographs and I writer killer words – let’s combine our skills and create a kick-ass blog! Send me an email at bridget@sparrow-digital and let’s start chatting about how we can make something useful out of your blog!
