In 2009 we decided to try our luck at a bridal show in San Francisco. We got the bug and LOVED IT! From 2009-20012 we showed in about 4 shows a year. This allowed us to build our business to the point where, starting in 2013, we only showed in one MEGA show a year. Bridal shows are a BLAST for us! We love the craziness and the chance to meet with hundreds of bridal couples all at one time. We have learned a lot throughout this process and have tried many different things – some worked, others did not. Throughout the years we have come up with 5 key tips that we feel help all photographers do well at a show.

5 Key tips:

BRAND!

A brand is not just your colors, font or logo. Your brand is you. It is what you represent. It is the experience your clients will enjoy when they hire you. Know who you are and embrace it!

Our brand has always been centered around family and our marriage. We have incorporated that in our fliers, website, and social media. When people think of Dee & Kris they very often comment on our boys. (Yes, they are adorable – we would be silly not to brand around them). We want our couples to feel like they are joining our family – The Robinson family. We want them to feel at home when they are with us. Like they have known us for years.

We also want our work to stand alone. We went for a very clean look in designing our booth – white everything except our images. We have always liked a very “Apple Store” feel and that worked very well for us. We removed clutter and just let clients view our work. We didn’t want ‘fluff’ to distract from our photography. That has always been our brand and feel – family, love, and clutter free. Sounds funny but it just is what we are. We know that and have embraced it. We tend to attract couples who love their families and are SUPER organized. I didn’t go about on purpose, but when I fully embraced who we were the right brides were attracted by that.

We are JUST now getting professionally branded and will launch this next month. By professional branding I mean colors and logo; but don’t need to have a full on HUGE brand to be successful. Just know who you are and be ok with it. Know how you want your clients to feel when they walk into your booth. If you feel comfortable with you then so will your ideal bridal couple.

This is very different for every photographer. Just because we went with a clean look, that may not be authentic to another brand. “Fluff” will attract another kind of bride and that is ok. The awesome thing about a show is you are putting “YOU” out there for brides to either be attracted to or un-attracted to. You want to attract your ‘ideal’ couple. If you are authentic in your brand, you believe in your brand, and your truly represent you brand, then your ideal clients will automatically be drawn to you.

GO BIG!

Depending on the size of your show, this will make a big difference. If you are doing a mega show (200+ brides = 400-500 people), then this can make a REALLY big difference. At a mega show there can be upwards of 20-30 photographers. Your work has to be seen from across a large room. If you only have prints as large as 20×24 then it is very easy to be lost in a warehouse size room. If the show is smaller (less than 150 brides) you can often get away with smaller prints, but even then, larger is just better. Make a splash and make it loud!

I recently did a small vendor show (only about 30-40 brides) at a local venue. We were asked to come as preferred vendors. Now I should know better as I have done a lot of bridal shows in the past, but silly me, I decided to just bring a few 11×14 matted prints. I thought, “It is just a venue, I don’t want to be to showy.” WRONG! I got there to set up and 2 other photographers had 30×40 metal prints. Lesson learned!

At the mega show we do, we go really big. A double booth and 30×40 prints. You can see them across the room and you know we are photographers without even seeing our name. It works!

GO BOLD!

You are judged by your worst image at a show. It is better to show 3 AMAZING images and make them HUGE, versus 20 mediocre images. We show “show stoppers” (images that make people go, ‘now that is cool!’) as well as a few classic images. Picking these images are the hardest thing we do all year. It is hard to nail down what you want potential clients to view. I lay out a diagram on photoshop so that I can see what it will all look like when we have it printed out and hung up, that way I don’t have any surprises later. Sometimes pictures don’t look good together (for example one black and white image with all color images), so it is important to make some form of schematic pre printing.

Something else to be aware of is to be sure your color processing is consistent. Your editing style should look uniform. If you are still experimenting with your style of editing and shooting then wall can look messy and make you appear to be an unexperienced photographer. That also goes for your albums. Something we do is we put our show stoppers on the wall, and use our albums to showcase more traditional looks. That way bridal couples stop at our booth because the work they see is unique, and when they go through our sample albums they are happy to see the classic, beautiful pictures as well. We also go bold in the albums we showcase. We like to show unique alums versus the classic leather bound. This allows us to stand apart.

Another important point to make is that what you show should also be apart of your collateral. Your wall art should be all over your fliers. Make sure your face is on that flier as well. If your flier images don’t match your wall then how will potential clients remember, “that one photographer that I liked”, when they are surfing through hundreds of papers in their bag over the next week.

GET INFORMATION!

This may be the most important of the 5 tips. You HAVE to collect leads. But why would ANYONE want to give you their information knowing they are going to get emails after?? It has to be enticing. There has to be a good enough incentive to make them want to spend the time to fill out a lead slip and knowingly sign-up for emails. Many photographers offer a free engagement session, a gift check, etc. Make it something that will be good enough to fill out a lead slip, but also a way to book the wedding.

FOLLOW UP!

Follow up, follow up, follow up. This is so important. You get home from a long show, you are tired, all you want to do is go to bed. Not Dee & Kris. We stay up until 2am entering leads into our booking system and sending out 100-200 emails that same night. We make sure that the email we send is personal (has their names and wedding date in the email – no mail chimp). We also include a picture of us in front of our booth. This way they remember who we were! Many vendors wait for the bridal list to be released before they email the couples. That is SILLY! That can take weeks. By then many of the brides have already selected their vendors, or they forgot who you were, or they have moved onto other things. Get them while they are still buzzing about the show. Offer a booking incentive to book a meeting with you. Get them involved in a conversation. Get them excited.

We follow up with our couples (unless they say they have booked someone or they are not interested):

1. The night of the show
2. 3 days after the show
3. 1 week post show
4. 3 weeks post show
5. 6 weeks post show
6. 12 weeks post show
7. 5 months post show

I have booked clients up to a year after the show (in fact I just did yesterday). Do not give up until they say they have found another photographer or let you know they are not interested.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us