Free advertising for new wedding photography business?

Harmonycrumb

Hi there ladies 'n' gents

I'm starting out as a wedding photographer (doing a few weddings for free to get my portfolio going then i'll start charging etc) and I was wondering where, apart from Gumtree and local freead papers, I can advertise for free initially to get some business my way?

Cheers

S

heather_helo

facebook for sale site - find your local one and put that your doing stuff for free and youl have loads of business!

spacey2012

Be very careful who knows you worked for free, it can make it very difficult to get paid once you are know as a freebie.

phill99

I attend a couple of local network groups. Well worth doing. Most are free and you will meet like minded small business owners whio support each other.

trailingspouse

If you can think of anything noteworthy or quirky that's happened to you in the course of setting up your business, send a press release to your local paper. If they're interested they might even send their own photographer round!! When I ran an Art Gallery, we got free advertising via a press release when we a) got an Art Fund grant for expanding the premises b) held an exhibition of young/upcoming artists c) sold an absolutely huge picture that someone had commissioned - the largest our framer had ever framed. So think hard, and get writing (google 'how to write a press release' because there are accepted ways of doing it and they won't look at it if it isn't in the right format)

whitewing

Local magazines produced by the town council may publish your details or you could 'sponsor' a local event.

Local glossy magazines that advertise local businesses would be good - I would say you need to have some of your photos on your advert.

We drove past a photographer the other day that had signage outside his studio with about 3 of his photos on the sign. We would have stopped had we been looking for a photographer because it was so good. Most of the photographers here have websites but not photos on their signage.

Savvy_Sue

Word of mouth. Get your business card out EVERYWHERE you go, make sure your 'freebies' pass the word out ... although do you HAVE to do freebies?

starbutton

Freebies are essential to build up your portfolio, keep going until paid work comes in. Ask friends to pose for you, pose a fake wedding even. Do not be shy to offer to be a second photographer for free at a real wedding, have look out at local forums for possible clients. Good luck :-)

paulwf

Advertising is all about being targeted. If you wanted to advertise to older people you'd advertise in the Saga magazine, if you wanted to reach new parents you'd advertise in the local NCT magazine and so on.

As a wedding photographer you should have a good idea where people are going to look to find wedding services and that is where you should focus your efforts. Do people really search for wedding services in free papers? If not then don't waste your time. Also be wary of projecting a "I have no marketing budget so will get listed on every crappy website" image.

Grab a piece of paper, make a coffee and start composing a list of where people go to research their weddings. If you aren't sure then ask some newlyweds how they chose their providers.

Go to some wedding fairs and stalk the photographers Get their names and then find out where they advertise. You'll soon get a feel for where they invest their money.

Naturally you will have a very professional website and be active on facebook and twitter and use social networking as a two way process. There are some fantastic marketing ideas above which are far better than traditional advertising, make sure you follow them up.