This miraculous thing has happened over the course of the last year: we started blogging more, and we just about tripled our wedding bookings. Next year is halfway booked already (something that’s never happened before New Years!) and we’re getting inquiries into 2017 already.

There’s a lot more to booking a wedding than just writing a great blog, but, we swear: there’s a BIG connection between blogging and booking more clients. Why?

Blogging and content marketing go hand in hand.

When this blog first started, I only blogged a few sessions and I didn’t blog consistently. I didn’t blog every shoot I did (I was slammed for time because I was undercharging and overworking), and I had no idea how vital a blog could be to our success. Fast forward five years and the blog has basically become the most important extension of our business: this is where people can learn more about that post they saw on our Instagram, or where they can see our weekly advice column for our RAD Weddings family, or to see all our recent work.

The Blogging Circle of Awesomeness

So when you start blogging, it gets you rolling on what I like to call the “Blogging Circle of Awesomeness.” You post content, which leads to more searches, which leads to better SEO, which leads to more bookings … which, you guessed it: leads to more content!

The five reasons consistently blogging and content marketing is so important:

• Clients LOVE to see themselves on the blog (and they usually LOVE to share … which means more website traffic … which means higher SEO rankings).
• Clients’ friends and family LOVE to see them on the blog (and they usually LOVE to Pin their favorites to their Pinterest boards, and they start looking around your site … and they remember you when they get engaged!).
• It showcases your style (which means potential clients can automatically tell if your shooting style is going to mesh with their ideas).
• It allows clients to get to know you (which means when you meet for the first time, they can already feel a bit more comfortable with you because they know you a bit better).
• It showcases your ability to tell a story with photos (because being a photographer is telling their story with your lens).

At every single meeting we’ve had this year with potential clients – whether it be in person or on Skype – they’ve all asked us about Randy’s home renovation projects, or the kids, or the dogs, or my love for Gilmore Girls. Every. Single. One. Which to me, suggests that not only are they following us on social media and reading the blog, but it shows that they are really interested in us.

The more they know about us before our meeting, the more likely they are to book with us. 

And, they’re our dream clients: they are the exact type of people we want to work with, they share our values, they share our style, they love the same things we do. We love the same TV shows, we read the same books, we enjoy the same atmosphere and they value us as people.

So the gist of blogging and content marketing:

Make your Brand personal … and Blog your Brand!