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Marketing To Millennials: How To Make It Work

1. Have A Strong Brand Identity

Having a strong brand identity doesn’t mean that you have to work on being the leader in the market. Instead, you could focus on making your brand stand out from your competitors and be unique in its own way. Starting from the logo and the color schemes you choose to developing your voice and photography style, it’s all a part of your brand identity. This may take some time, but it’s totally worth it because these are the first few aspects of your wedding photography business your potential clients will come across. And your brand identity could also be why people contact you or take you out from their ‘potential wedding photographers we can hire’ list. Your target client should be able to identify with you and your art, and if this doesn’t reflect authentically in the brand that you create, you might not be able to give millennial clients the experience they seek. 

Suggested Read: Find Your Voice: Building Your Wedding Photography Brand On Social Media

2. Establish an Incomparable Online Presence

Gone are the days where you could just create a website, add photos, add a contact form, and hope for clients to just come your way. You have to put in a little more work while marketing to millennials online. It’s no secret that they turn to social media for everything, including wedding planning and inspiration. So when they do start searching for a wedding photographer, you ideally want to pop up on the top of their screens (or at least in the first few names). And how do you make sure your name appears in their search for a wedding photographer? Well, SEO optimizing your web content is one of the ways you could do that. When marketing to millennials, you want to make sure that your website is constantly updated. Once they see that you lack consistency or your content is outdated, they might turn the other way. You could also consider blogging for your wedding photography business. You could make it educational, informational, or simply tell your readers about your experiences shooting different weddings. Make sure you include an interesting ‘about me’ page on your website too.

Pay attention to social media marketing to millennials too. Whether it’s what you include on your website or your social media platforms, you also want to make sure that your content is a representation of your brand. So the visuals, language, tone, voice – basically everything should ideally match your brand identity. Also, try to caption your social media posts in a way that will entice your target audience. These days, most wedding photographers tend to be on multiple social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even TikTok. Which platform/s you choose is totally up to you and your marketing goals. If it suits your goals, you could also consider using advertising that appeals to millennials.

3. Ease of Use

We won’t say that millennials are lazy, but they certainly want things to be done with ease. When marketing to millennials, try to set up a process that doesn’t make it too complicated for them to get in touch with you, book you, or even pay you. If it takes too much time for them to even get noticed by you, they might turn to someone else. Be prompt, set up simple processes, and try to get most of the things done online. There might be times where you absolutely have to meet them in person but try not to set up too many meetings. So, if it is practical, set up an online payment gateway that they can pay through. 

If you are not always available, perhaps automate your emails to reply on time. These days, various studio management software can help you do that. Just do what you can to make it easier for them to work with you. Also, try not to be elusive about your prices when they contact you. If you don’t want to give the whole price list, you could provide them with a base price. Try to be as transparent as you can.

Suggested Read: Honeybook: A Client Management Software That Empowers Small Businesses To Own Their Independence With Passion & Purpose

4. It’s The Experience That Counts

Most couples will seek a memorable experience from the contract that they’ve signed with you, and this especially applies to millennials. While marketing to millennials, try to ensure that instead of just pushing album sales or services, you sell the experience your brand could offer. It would benefit both parties if you show them how and why you are the photographer their wedding deserves and what you bring to the table. 

Are you someone who can spend hours discussing the decor with your bride? Or are you someone who just gets the contract signed and meets the couple directly on the wedding day? Checking in on your clients a couple of times before you photograph their wedding is almost always appreciated by them. They are under a lot of stress due to the planning, and getting a call, email, or text from someone who is genuinely worried about their well-being is something clients remember. So think about the kind of experience you’d want them to have with you. Do you just want the testimonials to reflect the type of photos you took? Or do you want your clients singing the praises of how you made them and their guests feel on the wedding day? Listen to what your millennial clients want before you start planning for their wedding. Try not to put everyone in a box. 

5. Stand For A Cause

Most millennials have strong opinions on various social causes. Be it immigration, environmental causes, LGBTQI+, animal rights – they care about issues close to their heart, and they do what they can to raise their voice for them too. So, if practical, try to also take a stand for a cause that’s close to your heart too. For example, as a strategy for marketing to millennials, you could donate a portion of your revenue to charity or find another way to help others – personally or through your business. But make sure you do it with the best and genuine intentions. 

Keep Evolving

Marketing to millennials – these three words might seem like a waste of time to you, or you might even completely dismiss the idea. But with just a few changes in your marketing strategies and workflow, it might not seem like such a herculean task to get a millennial to hire you as their wedding photographer. Start with changing the mindset that millennials don’t want the kind of wedding clients from another generation might want. You can’t simply put everyone in one box based on a study or survey. So hear them out, see what they want from you, and then tell them how you are the right person for the job. In the end, they are a couple getting married, and their wedding day is just as important as anyone else’s. They, too, deserve the best, and it’s on you to show them how you can offer them the best. So pull up your sleeves, and show them you’ve got! 

Further Read: Top 6 Ways To Boost Your Wedding Photography Sales

At ShootDotEdit, we are passionate about helping you take your wedding photography business to the next level – whether it’s through expanding your clientele or adopting smart business practices. We know you already have a lot on your plate, so we try to lessen your post-production workload by taking care of your editing needs with our professional photo editing services. This way, you have more time to focus on your art and business. To learn more, check out our pricing plans.