Question for Professional Wedding photgraphers

<p>Hi everyone! <br>

I'm a masters student working on a marketing project for wedding photography. One important question I have for professional photographers: how much of a pain is it to fill up your available dates?<br>

Specifically, how much would you be willing to pay for a service that would give you 5- 10 ideal customers (brides who are happy to pay your rate, easy to work with, who like your style and want you) per year?<br>

Thanks in advance for your replies!<br>

Alison</p>

<p> </p>

<p>To be perfectly honest I think this an impossible proposition. Most of my clients book me via personal referrals or because we 'connect' on a personal level. Trust is such a huge part of my work; they must trust me to do my job and document their day to their desires, and my standards.<br>

I find it impossible to believe that there would be an outside source for my 'ideal customers'. Especially when wedding photography is often a large expense. Clients want to meet me first, which I completely understand, plus I want to meet them too, to make sure we're on the same page. I have turned down clients in the past when I believe we're not seeing eye-to-eye.</p>

<p>Interesting question -</p>

<p>I currently subscribe or get leads from 4 sources - other than word of mouth and pay anywhere from $2.00 to $30.00 (US) for them. 2 of them are non-refundable under any circumstances; 1 is refundable if I can prove that the customer is either a) a competitor or b) someone pranking someone and 1 is refundable without question if I haven't heard back from the customer within a week of contact.</p>

<p>Of these 4 services - 1 calls the customer when they submit the request to validate that they are legit - the other 3 don't.</p>

<p>Rather long answer to your question - but I'd probably be willing to pay $20.00 - 40.00 per lead assuming that 1) some basic matching / vetting has been done (ie the customer is indeed getting married and doesn't want Uncle Bob doing their photos) 2) that some type of matching / filtering is done - ie Don't send a bride that wants a low budget photographer to the most expensive photog and vice versa. 3) that there is some limit to the number of photographers a lead is sent to (ie 4 photographers)</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

<p>I'm in total agreement with David. Max would be $30-$40.00. I do the same and subscribe to similar services. My experience has been that I do get a few bookings each year from these but referrals and my own blog/facebook/website and other marketing efforts are more successful.</p>

<p>The reason I wouldn't pay much is, of the 20+ leads I get this way each year, the majority don't reply back. They are just checking style, prices and options. A bride isn't going to book just because you paid for the lead, so it's value is very limited. She will go through the lead service but also search the web and ask friends at the same time. I've actually had people go through a lead service and email directly at the same time, making the paid lead redundant.</p>

<p>Plus the lead service and promotional web sites are heavily diluted. There are literally hundreds of these sites and for most brides, this way of finding your photographer or other vendor is probably more confusing than just searching yourself. I get emails almost weekly from some company or other who now offer a service or site that "will solve all my SEO and booking issues". Most of them last a few months and disappear.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your detailed responses. That's very helpful! I've looked at the vendor (and specifically photographer) search functionality on theknot.com, weddingwire.com and sites like yelp.com, but I haven't found any that already have price and availability data - 2 key pieces that I assume brides are usually looking for. <br>

If you don't mind sharing the names, what are the names of the sites and services that already exist in this lead service / promotional web site area? <br>

Thank you again for your expertise and answers!</p>

<p>How much of a pain it is to fill dates? Not at all. As others have said already, I rely on vendor referrals as well as word of mouth from previous clients. Couple that with SEO, a blog/website that are "me" and serve to weed out the less than ideal clients and that's literally all I do.<br>

I don't recall all the leads sites out there but there are too many. Eventactive is one that comes to mind but I've never tried it. I find that couples who simply pop their data into a search engine and wait for it to spit out results are not my clients. They simply aren't. But it varies from photographer to photographer ... some of us are happy to take on any client just to book a date. Others only do very specific weddings and clients. <cite><strong></strong></cite></p>

<p>I have found that almost all clients that book me have taken the time to visit my website, fall in love with my work and then contact me to photograph their wedding. I have tried a couple sites that sell leads, and it very quickly turns into a meat market where the couple is getting responses from a huge number of photographers. <br>

I've also stumbled across lead sites as a consumer when shopping for insurance, and the experience as a consumer is equally frustrating. You input your information, and next thing you know, there are a dozen different sales people calling you, e-mailing you and all trying to sell you their service.<br>

A possible model that could work would be something like a dating site, say eHarmony, where both couples and photographers are asked an array of questions and the couple is matched with a very limited number of photographers based on their style preferences, photographer availability, etc.<br>

The mistake would be to base the leads system exclusively or almost entirely on price. A lot of couples don't really know what their budget is, and for the most part, if they are given a range of prices for their ideal budget, they will go for the lowest price.</p>

<p>@ A. Davis,</p>

<p>good idea on the eHarmony approach. Still a meat market, but way better than the leads approach.</p>

<p>Good work, solid style, great website, top notch marketing, they get my nod. I no longer rate these so called (and self proclaimed) wedding photography listing sites (knot/WW, etc.)</p>

<p>Your marketing premise for the wedding photography business is unfortunately incorrect. Websites that market themselves to wedding vendors as lead services such as WW and The Knot are nothing more than advertising revenue generators -- they do nothing to actually help vendors book business. Most photographers who have gotten suckered into buying advertising with these entities will tell you that the leads were minimal.</p>

<p>Quality wedding photography leads are best obtained through personal relationships and networking with wedding ceremony/reception sites and planners in the local market. Along with that is thoughtful branding that reaches your intended market, and a targeted SEO campaign that generates quality back-links to your website for search engine placement.</p>

<p>So, to answer your question about how much I would pay a lead service -- exactly zero.</p>

<p>Keith nailed it. These are self serving sites who are more interested in our money than they are in making money for us. Hence why we spend very little on doing this.</p>

<p>The answer comes in three parts. Successful photographers will not give you a dime for such a service because they are having no problem filling in their calendars. Starting photographers will not give you a dime because they're broke. The ones in between are convinced they can do better on their own because up to now they've seen gradual improvement with things they are doing on their own.</p>