Finding wedding photography leads

 

<p>Hi All,<br>

I was hoping the community might be able to give me a bit of insight into a project I am working on to make wedding photographers lives a bit easier. A friend and I are looking to build a website which would aggregate information from engaged couples looking to hire a photographer. Local photographers could then log in to the site and, for a fee ($20-$100), purchase that couples contact info and make a bid to shoot their wedding. You will be able to search through the leads by information such as client budget, location, event type, etc.</p>

<p>Would you purchase leads to find new customers? How much would you be willing to pay? Essentially you would be paying for someone to go out and do the leg work of finding you new customers so that you could concentrate on shooting.</p>

<p>All of your input is greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Best of luck,<br>

Mike</p>

 

 

You do not comment on why they should log in to your site than a site that a wedding photographer already has in his her area. imo as a b or g i would want personal contact . but hey... all ideas are worth a shot regards miken

<p>Sounds exactly like two other sites I found. I'd list the names on here, but the forum thinks I'm advertising my own business and won't let me. They both do this and then you purchase bidding rights from site and place bid on wedding jobs. I have looked at both of them as ways to generate leads.<br>

Hannah</p>

<p>The idea is worthwhile if you can guarantee quality targeted leads. Meaning as a photographer I can fill-in a customer profile I want and I only get those customers. If its just a massive open-for-all bidding I'd stay away because a lot of the other sites are already doing that and they only charge $1 per lead or are FREE To their featured advertisers.</p>

<p>Build the database first and offer a trial rather than charging right away, no one knows you why should they spend money on you.</p>

<p>Why would I use your company over the many, many others who are doing the same thing?</p>

<p>Mike, there are about 10 major websites that I know of that do just this for all vendors of a wedding. So you would hopefully have to offer something new. I subscribe to 4 of them that I can think of. the problem with these big websites is that the bridal couple receives a tremendous number of emails, what could the bridal couple do when they receive emails form a couple of hundred of vendors all looking for their business. there may be as many as 25 wedding photographers all sending the couple an email. Are you planning on qualifying the prospects or the photographers for that matter? Insure each photographer with you is a professional and not a CL photog? Just what will your criteria be? And what will make you stand out from the rest of the websites? </p>

<p>Hmmm... kind of like wedplan, onewed, theknot, wedding wire, etc??? Not worth the time and effort...</p>

<p>I receive 99% of my leads from referrals.<br>

There are a jillion places to drop money on internet web sites that are supposedly marketing to those getting married. Like the boxalder bugs that I see in the fall, far too many of them. <br>

From visiting with potential clients, there seems to be lots of confusion because of the proliferation of these types of sites. </p>

<p>The big sites already do this for much, much less. (Think Brides.com and TheKnot.com). </p>

<p>What is unique to your offering? I can tell you that "buying" email addresses as leads has proven entirely ineffective in my own experience. And that's as part of a print ad campaign with a name publisher.</p>

<p>My first reaction (fwiw) when I read the post was "no way". You would have to clearly (CLEARLY) articulate the VALUE and DIFFERENTIATION your site offers.</p>

<p>Which, based on the description in the OP, was absent. Still, I would tread carefully. The wedding industry's huge, but access to email addresses is easy to come by.</p>

<p>What's a "quality" lead - one of the Glen Garry leads? Best lead (in my experience) are referrals. And they take the longest to build up. Cold-calling (even so-called "qualified" cold-calling) has a low, low success rate. Why would a wedding pro choose your service? If you can answer the question in terms of your prospect (not your perspective), AND deliver the product AND market it effectively, you might have a chance. </p>

<p>There's already critical mass on many sites / magazines / channels and that'll be really tough for you to overcome. Good luck answering these questions and overcoming the challenges.</p>