Bride Insight: Why I Love my Wedding Photographer

photo credit: Studio 27 Photo

From a marketing standpoint, the goal for all photographers is to attract and acquire your ideal clients. Clients who appreciate you and appreciate your style of photography. I can’t tell you who your ideal client is. I might not be your ideal client. But sharing the journey as to how I found my ideal photographer might help you. This post is also a love story.

This is the story of how I fell in love with my photographers.

One of the things that blogging for all of our amazing Fotoskribe clients has helped me to appreciate is what a good image looks like. My almost-husband is in film production so he understands and appreciates these things as well.

So we found ourselves looking at images and thinking, “Eh. It’s fine.”

I didn’t want my images to be fine. I wanted to have my breath hitch when I looked at them. I want to be able to look at my album 20 years from now and still get misty-eyed. I want to love my images. Forever. We suffered from the curse of knowing exactly what we wanted…. and trying to find it.

Brides play on Google a lot. So we see a vast number of different results. That’s why the meta description in the snippet is SO important. In a sea of “Premier wedding photographer,” “Beautiful wedding photography” and bizarre chains of “mountain photography, wedding photography, photojournalistic weddings” this one stood out:

“We hate cheesy wedding images, too.”

Right there. That was what got me to click on their site.

Every page is saturated with the unique story of this couple who loves each other and who loves love. I found myself spellbound as I watched the slideshow of their images. I watched the whole thing twice. The images were beautiful.

But what was more beautiful was the transparency and authenticity of the site. I felt like I knew who this couple was. I watched the video they put together of how they got engaged. I went to their blog and I read all of the blog posts.

They made it really easy to stalk them.

Active on Facebook and on Instagram, I was able to look at the feeds of images that were important to them. Things they enjoyed. I felt instantly connected to them.

So I sent in an email for more information. I’m never shy when it comes to words so I wrote a pretty lengthy email.

I got a response within an hour.

Now, I know that maybe it was luck. Maybe it just so happened that I caught her at the perfect time. But what is important here is that I had become so jaded to waiting a day, two days, five days for a response from a vendor…. It was such a delight.

*side note* There are still people who NEVER EMAILED ME BACK. And one of them was a Ritz Carlton, so it’s not like they weren’t open. Want to know how to make a bride angry? Yeah.

And her email back to me was also pretty lengthy. I knew that a lot of it was a form email, but she took the time to make sure that the first and last paragraphs were especially tailored to me.

I love words, so I ate that right up. We talked shop in long emails like we were friends catching up from years of not talking. This was in sharp contrast to the emails I was getting from other photographers who would send me what was CLEARLY a form letter with a link to a pricing sheet. Some of these emails didn’t even have my name. I continued to do my homework, talking to other area photographers, but I just kept coming back to them. We agreed to meet up.

Meeting them was less like a first meeting, it was like meeting up with long lost friends.

“Is it okay to get excited yet?” She asked me. “Oh, yes. You have to be my photographer.” I replied.

All of my years of giving classes on how to sell and how to provide exemplary customer service have given me unrealistic expectations on how customers should be treated. I believe and I teach that the follow-up is the biggest part of your job. They delivered on every level. Booking with them was easy. Paying them was easy. Getting in touch with them was easy.

Once I was officially on board…. I started getting some of the most amazing content from them.

I never had to ask for it. Every few weeks, I would get an email and a stunning PDF guide.

• You’re engaged! What’s next?
• Tips for the timeline of your day.
• How to prepare for an engagement session.
• Local preferred vendors.

I would get these emails and I would dig in, studying like they were required bride reading. I forwarded them to the fiancé and made him read them too. I sent them to my friends who were getting married because there was so much amazing information in them.

“My photographer doesn’t do cool stuff like this,” a friend at work lamented.

I’m already a huge fan. So much so that when I was at WPPI, surrounded by professionals, I sent them an email:

That even hanging out with 10000 photographers, I was happy they were mine.

They created this content before I met them. They do this because they love it. And they take joy in telling the stories of their clients. Even though I am not married yet, I am already talking about them. I am sharing them and their site and their guides with engaged friends. With almost engaged friends. With anyone who will listen to me. And now, I’m sharing them with you.

What if ALL of your brides did this?

Have you shown your clients how much you appreciate them?

Think about how you can reach out and show YOU to your clients. They can become the best marketing tool in your arsenal.

Regular and consistent blogging can help you attract those clients, and we can help you blog. Contact us to learn more about blogging without losing your unique view as an artist.