Today I’m talking about the #1 change I made in my business last year to level up my marketing efforts so you can do it, too!

If you think that I’m going to talk about traditional marketing strategies like advertising in The Knot or Wedding Wire, no worries there because, no, I don’t rely on those directories to generate leads for my business and, honestly, I don’t think you should either. Paying monthly fees to directories that put you next to all your competitors in a never-ending scroll is just going to attract price shoppers rather than quality leads who love your work.

The #1 thing I did in 2020 to up-level my marketing efforts actually doesn’t have anything to do with traditional marketing strategies at all! In fact, it has to do with personal marketing: I invested in a wedding day assistant. Now, I know this is no novelty; photographers have had assistants with them on wedding days for years and years. But the difference is that I don’t have my assistant focused on carrying my gear. Sure, she helped out with it plenty of times but, most of the time, I can carry my own gear! Instead, I’ve been using my assistant to have an impact on my marketing.

First, she made sure my clients felt taken care of and ensured wedding days went smoothly by keeping track of timelines, fluffing the dress, holding the bouquet, etc. She made my clients feel special! Second, she was also there to grab behind-the-scenes of me working on wedding days, and of my clients throughout their big day.

Nowadays, potential clients want to see our faces. You can’t hide behind your website anymore. You have to show your face so they can get to know, like, and trust you. You have to show yourself and behind-the-scenes of you working so that they can image what it would be like to work with you! My assistant made sure I had photos and video footage from every wedding day and we then re-purposed this content in several ways:

• We posted scenes from wedding days on IG stories. Vendors loved them because we tagged them and they had content to share. Couples loved them because they got to re-live little moments from their wedding day.
• We created wedding day recaps on IG Reels. Again, vendors loved the mentions and couples loved the little moments captured from their big day.
• I incorporated behind-the-scenes images from wedding days into my weekly Wedding Wednesday emails that go out to my brides.
• I used those same images to show up on my Instagram feeds @idaliaphotography and @its.alex.peterson so that people can put a face to the name and get to know me.

Having an assistant that wasn’t focused on carrying my gear but rather on serving my clients and capturing their experience with me allowed me to create a better experience for my clients all while providing me with content to market myself better. Ultimately, this helped me stand out in a saturated market.

And the best part? This content is content that keeps on giving. Past brides are mentioning in reviews how nice it was to have that third set of hands on their wedding day. Potential brides are binge-watching past IG Reels over on @idaliaphotography. The views on all my Reels increase on a daily basis, even months after they were posted.

Now, I know not everyone has the budget for an assistant on wedding days. If you fall under that umbrella, know that you can start out small – have a friend or family member accompany you on an engagement session to get photos and video of you working. Start small and slowly build up your team.

If you’re interested in reading more about how to stand out in a saturated market, check out this article: How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market.