All-In Wedding Photography

Make These Three Changes on Social Media if You Want More Bookings

• Alex Stead • Season 1 • Episode 11

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Does it feel like you're doing everything right on social media, but it's not moving the needle?

On today's episode, we break down step by step why the things that you're doing aren't working, and what to do instead. 

- Setting clear, measurable goals for social media beyond just followers and likes
- Creating a curated portfolio that only features work you want to attract more of
- Writing strategic captions that include FAQs or help clients imagine themselves working with you
- Using Instagram as a starting point in your marketing ecosystem, not the endpoint
- Adding clear calls to action that invite engagement rather than just broadcasting
- Building a complete marketing ecosystem including website, SEO, and targeted advertising


Social media strategy for wedding photographers

Alex:

More likes, more followers, more engagement. Her goal was very unclear. When we switch her goal to, can we get one inquiry a week from social media that changes things? To quote her, she said my business completely skyrocketed. I went from doing occasional photo shoots for fun with friends to getting serious inquiries to shoot weddings. I've seen so much growth. Have you ever met a person who doesn't have a fucked up relationship with social media? I don't think I do. Whoa, sorry, just me and everybody else I've ever met, then You're the anomaly.

Ren:

I don't know, Do you think I do Like? I mean, I'm scared to post.

Alex:

Okay, let's dive deeper into that.

Ren:

Okay, I think I should be scared to post.

Alex:

The internet is scary, they're gonna come for you. It does seem very unpredictable, like the people who have been quote unquote, canceled in the last few years have been like what the hell? Like the girl who had like the sepia photo gate, that was bizarre, oh yeah. The one who just like edited her photos like normal, yeah, and the bride like did not like that. And then the photographer who just posted how much she charges and people lost their minds Because it was a lot. It was like I would say, like a regular higher end number. It wasn't like out to launch, it was very much like within the realm of normal. Why did it upset people? Because it's the internet.

Ren:

You were asking if I know anybody who doesn't have a fucked up relationship with social media. Yeah, Like.

Alex:

I've never met a single person who's just like yeah, I love Instagram. I think it's great because I can connect with my family and friends. Everybody has some sort of horror story of like I feel like I'm not cool enough, or I feel like I don't post enough. Or, if I do post, I'm not getting enough likes and I post enough.

Ren:

Or if I do post, I'm not getting enough likes and I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with it, but I feel like I have to post constantly or else the algorithm will murder me dead in my sleep. Right the?

Alex:

algorithm okay, but we need to use social media, do we? I think? Says who? Um, because social media tells us we need to use social media. The algorithm is just people like. It's just people want to see stuff and they like the things they see I'm guessing you're gonna talk about social media today.

Alex:

Actually, we're gonna talk about lenses, just kidding. So a conversation I have a lot all the time is that, like someone feels like they're doing everything right and they're like social media is still just not working for me. So today's topic is here is why social media isn't working for you the way that you want it to, even when you feel like you're doing everything right. So, to start, it's what is your goal from social media? Because if you don't have a goal, then the goal post is always moving. If you're like, if your goal is I want more likes, I want more followers. Is there an end point to more? You're always going to feel like you're on a hamster wheel if there is no goal in mind. For me, the goal is inquiries. I do not care how many followers I have, I do not care how many likes I get on a post. In the perfect world, if my social media is working, it's driving people to my website to inquire with me. So my goal is generally to get two to three inquiries a week from social media without posting more than like once every two weeks. To be honest, I am not a daily poster. It's not something I enjoy doing, and so a lot of people come to me. I think kind of see that, and they're like I want to have a similar relationship that you have with social media. You have a story, all right, why don't we walk through this like a case study then, of one client yes, okay, let, okay, let's call her Jamie, jamie. So Jamie came to me and there was a lot going on, but one of them was she was like I am posting all the time on social media Like daily stories, doing the reels, doing all the things that like you're supposed to do, right, but she's like I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere with it. So the first thing I noticed that Jamie was doing wrong or that the reason it wasn't working for her is because she was posting every single shoot that she was doing.

Alex:

The thing about your Instagram grid essentially is it is a portfolio of your absolute top work, creme de la creme, top 10%. Your Instagram is not for your clients, it is for you. Your clients get their gallery right. They post their favorites For you. You are only showing work that you want to attract more of. So if you did a shoot and you're like, let's just, let's just say it for real.

Alex:

Let's say, if it was like a first birthday cake smash but you want to be doing documentary weddings. You do not need to post pictures from the first birthday cake smash. You can send them to your client and tell them it was beautiful and you had a great time, and just not post the pictures from it to your public portfolio. You need to be just only sharing the work that you want to get more of. You need to be just only sharing the work that you want to get more of. When I was switching to doing pretty much solely cliffside elopements, I stopped sharing photos from the receptions, from indoor ceremonies. I stopped sharing family pictures. If you go to my wedding Instagram right now, pretty well every single picture on my feed is of couples or wedding couples on a cliffside somewhere.

Ren:

That is how I've always run my officiant account on Instagram is the ceremonies that I'd like to do attract the most? Yeah, and that is being outdoors small, intimate couple of cliff sides nearby that I really enjoy. Last year I got an inquiry and like, just because this is all that I'm sharing does not mean that this is all that I'm doing. Actually, probably I'm doing more of other stuff and I got an inquiry and they said we really want to book you as our officiant, but it's going to be indoors. I said okay and they said well, we don't know if you work indoors, can you do that?

Alex:

I was like oh my gosh, you're like a vampire, you need to be invited in, if I'm invited.

Ren:

If I'm invited in, I can. And I was like, oh yes, I work indoors all the time. It's just not what I post, but anyway, I do work indoors. I don't post my indoor photos. I know that those are going to come to me even if I'm posting outdoors. Because that's exactly it. The baseline for officiants is that they're going to go to a nice indoor location in our town and it's going to be harder to find somebody who's going to hike outside. So I really put the emphasis on I will hike outside.

Alex:

And that's a really good point, Ryan, and I think that would be another piece of advice that I would give is share what nobody else is sharing, right, If everybody else is doing this very particular way of doing things, what is not being represented when can you find your niche in a way that you enjoy? So for you it's outdoor cliffside ceremonies, because you realize that in your immediate network nobody else was really marketing that as like the thing that they were really focusing on.

Ren:

I really like being outdoors. That would be a lovely way to spend my summer, and it happens to be what other people aren't super eager to do.

Alex:

I think that's the point, right. It's like what do you enjoy that other people are not super eager? Can you just make that the thing that you do, right? The next point sort of ties into this, which is back to kind of Jamie and her Instagram and what she was doing. That wasn't really working for her. The other thing was that she was writing captions like everybody else. So the pretty standard wedding caption for all wedding professionals is this couple got married this past week. It was a beautiful day. They got married on their parents' farm. Look how pretty it was. I loved photographing this wedding and this beautiful couple. That's the caption. I've done it at least 20 times. Yeah, like, don't get me wrong, i've've done it too. It's definitely a very easy go-to because it's like I don't know what else to say.

Alex:

A lot of the time it feels better than posting nothing, and it does, and honestly yes, if it's between nothing and that, sure, but it's also not going to necessarily get you more clients. So if your goal is, I want to book inquiries, I want to get people to actually inquire with me. That's not really compelling people to message you and say, hey, can you shoot my wedding?

Ren:

Pulling up on my own Instagram. We giggled our way through the ceremony with the sun beating down on us. Boring, I mean we did. Those are true things. It's a great photo. I really wanted it on my grid, can I?

Alex:

tell you what would be better. Yes, okay. So here's what to do instead Some sort of FAQ what's the best time of day to get married? Where can we go to get married? What's the best? Cliffs, right.

Alex:

Some sort of like answer a question that your clients typically are asking you anyway and give them some information that gets the wheels turning in their head for their wedding. The other option, so either an FAQ or something that entices them to want to work with you. So what makes you stand out? So this could be a we're going to go to a cliffside like picture your wedding day, right. You wake up in the morning, you have a really casual getting ready, we hike out to a cliffside, you have the most beautiful ceremony, full of giggles while the sun beats down. It's still the same caption, but you're volleying it back to your ideal client and putting them in it instead of the people who were in the picture. Picture this, picture this. It's your wedding day. So the person reading it is going oh, I would love for that to be my wedding day, with the most important thing a call to action at the end of every single post.

Ren:

All right, alex, so you just told us that Jamie was writing captions, like everyone else, yeah, and you said that captions should be an FAQ. It's a way for clients to find out more about you and your business and to entice them to work with you, and one thing that you recommended is making the photo that you're sharing in the caption, making it about the viewer.

Alex:

Yeah. So imagine like when you're selling a house, you're not talking about the family that currently lives there, you're speaking to the person who wants to picture themselves in this house. So it's kind of similar with your Instagram portfolio, right? You don't want to talk about the couple who's already in the picture. You want the couple who wants to book you to picture themselves in the picture. And you'll actually notice in a lot of my Instagram if you go to mine, that a lot of the pictures are of people back on.

Alex:

It is or it's kind of far away, and that's very intentional. It's not because I don't want to share my clients' faces I think they're all super hot but it's because it's easier for new clients to picture themselves that way. Okay, when you're not looking at the faces but you're just seeing more, like the landscape, the vibe, and so when I'm at a wedding, I'm being pretty intentional take a few photos that are like a little less recognizable. It doesn't take any extra time, usually just when I'm like following my clients somewhere. So it's not like taking away from the client who's getting married to get those handful of shots for my portfolio, and often the clients also like it.

Ren:

So All right. So I'm looking at your Instagram now, yeah, and I'm going to read some of your captions, okay, and you're going to tell me what you like about them, what you would have done differently, like you're just going to do a little critique.

Alex:

Okay, critiquing my own work. Are you ready?

Ren:

Yep, Super fun. Okay, so this one says it's a photo of a couple looking out at Fort Amherst in St John's. So that's got a lighthouse and the oceans there. There's rolling cliffs. How many lighthouses can you visit in St John's? Come find out for yourself. Want to elope in NL? Send me a message and let's get started.

Alex:

I think that's pretty good because it's volleying it back to the person who wants to get married here, so that's a really good one, I think, for like a colder audience or someone who's like thinking about getting married. They're not quite in the planning stage yet, but I'm trying to entice them to start the planning process.

Ren:

Okay, so anything you would have changed?

Alex:

I think I could have. If I wanted to get like really nitpicky, I could have given like a bit more information about the different lighthouses you can go see I could have made this like a whole big thing. I don't think I needed to. I think that's enough. Yeah, anything you do can be short for medium or long. Just with some easy tweaks, like I could have talked about the different lighthouses and the history behind them and how far away they are from each other, how your timeline would look if you went to all these different lighthouses. Right, there's a lot of different ways. I could have went with that. I think keeping it short and snappy for that particular one works all right, this is another one.

Ren:

It's a photo of a couple on their wedding day uh, just walking down a wooden staircase. There's ocean. There's oh listen, there's always going to be ocean, it says. Here's what I say when asked what my style is. People in love in the, in this remarkable place. For some it's home the place. One or both grew up, played spotlight and ran barefoot with a pack of other kids who are all equally excited for you and for an excuse to come back. For some it's a memory, a place they're visiting, a place they, a place they want to show their partner the magic of Play tour guide of their favorite place to their favorite person. For many it's just a dream and excited we could go there, to this beautiful island. And while we're there, why don't get married While they start researching and planning this epic adventure? Why don't get married While they start researching and planning this epic adventure? For every couple, it's a way to make the place a part of their story together.

Alex:

Did I get a call to action for that one?

Ren:

No.

Alex:

Ooh, if I had a call to action, that would be, I think, a top 10 winner that loved it. This was a Fogo Island one, okay. So I think the reason that caption works and I like it is it's speaking to my three target demographics. Okay, I have three very distinct clients I figured over the years who are most likely to hire me. One is the people who are from here who've moved away. Two are the people who either went to university here or visited here and loved it and want to bring their partners here and get married here, yeah. And three are the people who've always wanted to visit newfoundland and they have a reason to. Those are the three types of people who I work with. They make up 90 of my client base.

Alex:

You did paint the picture really well, so it's like do you fit into one of these three categories? If so, I'm the photographer for you. All right, it's basically what that's saying. Why do you think you left out a call to action? I don't know, I'm not very smart, sometimes I just forget, but I think a like which one are you could have been a good call to action, a very simple one, like are you number one, number two, number three, or like what's your dream elopement destination in newfoundland, like what town are you going to get married in? Could have been a fun call to action, a classic. That's just DM me if you want to start planning yours, yeah Right, all you're doing is bringing them into the conversation. That's all. A call to action is it reminds them?

Ren:

that you're speaking to them.

Alex:

Yeah, it's a two way street, right, it's not just me speaking to the void, it's like I'm talking to you and I'd love for you to engage with this. Ok, it's a piece of sales copy. Yeah, right, and that's why I only post every few weeks, like that's why I'm not posting every day. It takes a lot of work, it's a lot of effort, but what I'll often do is I will boost a post, yes, and let it kind of marinate, so I'll post it, I'll let it sit for like 48 hours and then I'll boost it for like usually like 12 bucks and get it out to a wider audience, so I'll boost it outside of my followers because most of the people, if your goal is inquiries through your social media, the people following you have, like they've already come into your funnel and a lot of the time, like, booked your services, yeah.

Alex:

So if you want new inquiries for, yeah, I'm reaching out to be done then you have to use your account beyond the people following and honestly, I find instagram boosted posts work super well, like for me, like the way that I'm doing it with the sales copy and boosting to a very particular audience. It's very, very effective method of advertising for me and it books me many weddings Right. So for like 12 bucks I'll often book like a $4,000 wedding Cool.

Ren:

The return on investment is nuts Right and it gives you, like it buys you, some time where you don't have to be posting Exactly All right. So let's hear your third point.

Alex:

So the third point I think ties in really well to that, which is that if you don't feel like social media is working for you kind of bringing Jamie back into it is that you're not using Instagram for what it is, which Instagram is the starting point, not the ending point, and a lot of people use it like it is the only point. So what I just described essentially is that I have a marketing ecosystem. Instagram is not the be all end all for me. It's often a place where I will boost an ad or I will kind of use it as, like an entry point into my world. But my marketing ecosystem, as we call it right because it's not just one funnel, it's a lot of different things that I'm doing.

Alex:

It includes a really, really effective website. It includes blog posts that are SEO, like they're optimized for search, so people are Googling, like Newfoundland photographers or Newfoundland elopements or weddings. I'm showing up. I'm using ads on like Instagram, facebook, google. I'm running a lot of different ads in a lot of different places. All these things contribute to my ecosystem, along with real life things, right, so like vendor referrals and client referrals and bridesmaids, and there's all these different things. I'm not putting all my eggs in the one basket of Instagram. I am using it as one very small piece in the ecosystem of my marketing. If you feel like Instagram isn't working for you the way you want it to, it's because you're using it like it's the end point and not the starting point.

Ren:

It's the starting point for the potential client.

Alex:

Yeah, it's a place for them to see you get a brief look at your portfolio. Imagine themselves in the pictures and then click the link to your website or send you a dm where you can take it to a phone call, take it to a zoom call, take it to a meeting. You're bringing them to email. It's like you're they're not staying in my instagram. It's like your cv. Yeah, it is like I've heard. Like know, instagram is your handshake, right, it's your business card. It is the you want it to be, like a very aesthetic overall view of what you have to offer. So that's why I think including FAQs and things like that is really important. For a lot of people, it is the first look at what you have to offer.

Ren:

It's not the last look, which is really interesting, because I've seen some advice on instagram that like to grow your instagram account, which is a different goal than using your instagram account for inquiries, um. But I think that the advice can get kind of twist, like we can interchange them when we shouldn't. But I've seen like using your professional page like a personal page I mean, there's absolutely nothing wrong with sharing behind the scenes.

Alex:

I think being a likable person that clients can get to know is also really good A lot of the times. For example, the weddings and elopements that I have booked for this summer, most of them now, I think, follow me on Instagram, whether they found me there or not. Let's say, out of the 30 plus weddings I have have, I don't even know, let's say, 20 of them follow me. Yeah, it's good for morale for them to see what I'm up to. Right, if I'm like, oh, I'm going on a little adventure today to check out these locations, or I'm going for a hike in the winter and this is what, like, the location that you're getting married at in the summer looks like it's behind the scenes, but I'm still using it in a way that, like, speaks to my, my ideal client, right, I'm like, oh, I'm at this nice restaurant that I love going to, which is a venue that I recommend often, right, right, I'm going on this hike to this place that I often go there for weddings, but in a different season.

Alex:

Behind the scenes that make sense for what you're doing. Cool, I'm not sharing necessarily. I don't know. Like, this is the weird like I'm not sharing my like me going to the climbing gym? Yeah, for example it. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just like doesn't really tie into my ideal clients, if you were trying to grow your following just for the like.

Alex:

If the, if you were using your instagram account with the goal of growth, that could work I don't not really like if you're going to become an influencer, but like is that what we're doing here? Like I don't think.

Ren:

So I think I think being a wedding photographer using instagram to get inquiries that lead to bookings is probably, I think we can.

Alex:

Well, if I had 20,000 followers, then that would be happening is the idea, but not necessarily I mean the thing is is we don't know, like oftentimes I'll go up I'll see someone who has like 20,000 followers and I'll be like okay, they must be really good. But then I start going through their posts and I'm like they're getting like three likes Right, like they're about their followers or what they're posting isn't resonating, or what they amassed their followers by doing is not what they're like what they profit from, or a lot of their followers, are other photographers.

Alex:

Right, which, again. If you're like in the education space, great. But if you're trying to book weddings, yeah, other photographers, unless you were trying to photograph weddings for photographers, which is a target market for some photographers, but if that's not you, it doesn't really make sense. Yeah, all right.

Ren:

So we'll uh, we'll come back to jamie. Yep. So let's say, jamie has stopped posting every shoot she's doing and just started posting the shoots that she wants more of. Yeah, she's writing captions that tell potential clients more about her and her business and bring them in to imagine the day with her. Yeah, and using Instagram as a start point, this is where the relationship begins, but it's not likely where the booking gets, you know, finalized. Yeah, is there anything we're missing here?

Alex:

That's basically right. I mean, that's Jamie and I can kind of I can tell you exactly what she said from all of it, which, to quote her, after changing these things she said, my business completely skyrocketed. I went from doing occasional photo shoots for fun with friends to getting serious inquiries to shoot weddings. People in my life have been commenting on my photography completely unprompted, complimenting my work, inquiring about shoots. I've seen so much growth, wow, yeah. So those were the tweaks, those are the main tweaks.

Alex:

And when it comes to social media, again like it's more about building out your whole ecosystem so that you can get more inquiries and you can actually post a lot less. So if you were like I don't really love using social media and I feel like I'm doing way too much, I'm getting not very many results, I would recommend doing less. You know, like work smarter, not harder. So a big thing I help with in the all-in club is this it's creating the whole ecosystem, right. So it's like instead of putting all this time and energy into Instagram and probably wasting a lot of money on ads and stuff too, like a lot of my students are pointing to me, they're spending so much on ads. I'm like literally the amount that you're currently spending on ads and not seeing results, for if you put a tenth of that into joining the all-in club, you would see a lot better results, right Like putting your money in a smart place.

Alex:

It takes a little bit of time and effort to set up this ecosystem. You know the goal of social media is to get clear on what you want out of it. So once you get clear and you kind of have that set up, you create that ecosystem with your website, ads, seo, everything kind of working together. It becomes so much easier, like you do not have to work harder, you can actually just put in smarter effort and put in less time, less effort to get better results. This was the All In Wedding Photography Podcast. Thanks for listening.