For most photographers — especially those of us who specialize in weddings — the new year can be scary and confusing. On the one hand, holidays and cold weather mean fewer photo shoots. Income seems to slow to a trickle. On the other hand, it’s engagement season. That means opportunity! But with opportunity comes pressure to perform. Can you get your name in front of enough prospective clients to keep your business alive? We’re talking high stakes stuff here!

So where should you focus your marketing strategy and budget this season? Over the years, Eileen and I have found more success in this single, free marketing trick than in all the traditional advertising we’ve thrown thousands of dollars at combined. You already have the tools you need to make it work: your blog and a Facebook page. Now it just takes three steps to make your word-of-mouth marketing go viral. And today is the best day of the year to do it!

I’ll speak in terms of using this plan for wedding bookings. But it can be equally effective when used with the portrait clients, newborns, seniors, etc., whom you’ve worked with during the past year…

1. Publish a year-end blog post.

But this isn’t just any blog post. This one is special. For one thing, this post will be simpler than any of the wedding posts you’ve painstakingly assembled throughout the year. In fact, you probably don’t even need to upload a single image for it. Since this post is our year in review, I generally log in to our blog site; then I simply insert into a new post one favorite image from each wedding I’ve blogged over the past year. (If you haven’t blogged all your weddings or portrait shoots this year, shame on you! Just kidding — we’ve all been there. You’ll just need to upload from your computer all those favorite images — one from every wedding. Unless you’re running your business on DSL — which we actually are 😛 — it shouldn’t take any time at all. And perhaps this extraordinary lil’ marketing strategy will help make up for the earlier lapse in blogging.

So you have your images in place. Now start your blog with a brief note, reminiscing the year bygone. I like to take this opportunity to thank our couples who entrusted us with such meaningful projects during the last year. Or lend a little space to mention some of your bright accomplishments during the last 12 months. After all, a lot of eyes are about to see this particular post; so paint yourself in the best possible light. This is where the excitement begins! To finish your note, you’re going to announce that — as a fun way to say “thank you” — you’re “ending this year with a fun giveaway!” (For a model, check out our current “Lovebirds” contest, just posted today. Feel free to drop a vote for one lucky couple while you’re there!)

“What?! A giveaway?!” you shout. “I thought this was a ‘free’ marketing idea.” Yes, well, let me explain. A giveaway is very effective marketing strategy we find everywhere — from the free makeup kit you receive for speaking with a consultant at Macy’s, to the free vacation you earn for sitting through a time share sales pitch, to the free meal you get for dressing like a cow on Chick-fil-A’s Cow Appreciation Day. As consumers, we often muse that these businesses “can’t be making a dime” considering all they’re giving away. Nothing could be further from the truth. The word-of-mouth marketing and brand awareness created from these campaigns is priceless. In a sea of impersonal advertising, word-of-mouth marketing is like solid ground to drowning consumers. (Tweet this out!) That’s because it’s reliable. When purchasing, we tend to value most the opinions and experiences of our friends because they provide us decision-making confidence without having to start from scratch. That convenience and peace-of-mind are a huge value add — something you can attract prospective clients with now, before you even meet them.

But I don’t need to convince most of you about the power of word-of-mouth advertising. You just want to get to the juicy stuff. Okay, here are the details. The key is to provide a giveaway that is of great value to the consumer, while not of great cost to you. We’ve chosen to gift the couple with the greatest number of comments on the post a beautiful 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas. In addition, every couple who receives at least 25 votes will win a retouched print image; every couple who receives at least 50 votes will win a mounted enlargement. We give these simple instructions to visitors: “It’s easy to vote: Just write something creative or caring in the comments section below for the couple of your choice!” Easy, right?

You see? The marketing you get out of this really is free. The many participants who will cast their votes don’t get a thing. They’re playing along because they want to support their friends and they’re excited you’re doing this for them. Yet you get to place your best work from the entire year, along with hundreds of positive comments about your photographs, in front of your couples’  bridal parties, family, and marrying-age friends — all during the height of engagement season. I link each couple’s selected image back to their full wedding blog post, which keeps numerous people on our Website even longer, surfing and building rapport with our brand.

The novice’s temptation is to pinch pennies and to gift only one grand prize. Resist the temptation. Otherwise one popular couple will inevitably jump out in front, and you’ll see voting come to a close because the outcome is clear. Besides, the minimal cost of goods will go 100 percent toward gifts for all your couples, leaving a sweet taste in their mouths that rolls off their tongues when they talk about you.

2. Start the social buzz!

With the post is ready, I then share it via our Facebook page and other social media. Use a clear call to action: “Vote to help these deserving couples win beautiful wedding artwork,” or anything along these lines. But that’s just a start. You can’t rely on Facebook’s most recent algorithm or the dwindling number of followers who may randomly see your post to make this a success. You need to go straight to the source.

Immediately after posting, I write a simple email to each of our wedding couples. This is the one way to be certain your marketing campaign will be found and spread abroad. It’s basically the same text I’ve already included in the blog post, thanking them for their support and announcing the giveaway as our way of saying “thank you.” Remember, the giveaway your offering is valuable! It appeals to your couples on both a personally emotional level as well as by its real monetary value. Few companies offer a product that appeals to their customers in both these ways. As photographers, we need to make the most of it!

Most importantly, I include the link to our year-end post, and encourage our couples to “be sure and share this with all your amazing friends and family. We’ve seen how much support y’all have, and we know they’d love to you love by getting out the vote.” In past years, we’ve occasionally notice huge numbers of votes flooding in during our New Year’s Eve party. Clearly, our couples were spreading the word to their friends during parties of their own. So we make a point in our email now to encourage all our couples to adopt this strategy. On average — between comments made to the post itself and comments that many will instead leave on a couple’s original wedding post — we receive 400 to 550 unique comments. Keep in mind, this is the response to sometimes fewer than 15 weddings we shoot in a year. Imagine the potential response if you’re a large-quantity studio. Even if you only shot three or four events last year, that’s hundreds of eyeballs, not only visiting your Web site, but connecting with your best work and sharing in the excitement of the giveaway experience.

 

3. Finish strong!

Keep up the momentum. You can follow me on our Facebook page to watch how I “stoke the fires” during the next few days of this campaign. We announce winners on January 10. So it’s not too late to start your campaign now! Announce your winners and take advantage of every social sharing opportunity during the next weeks. It’s game-changing time, friends!

_ _ _

Next week, we’ll explore a new angle on this giveaway — a strategy to extend it into the new year and attract even more clients, those who aren’t connected to your current couples. Stay tuned!