Ready to Wander Season 2 – Episode 17

Welcome back to the Ready to Wander Podcast! I am so glad that you’re here. Whether you’re an avid reader, listener, or this is your first time coming across my little space here on the Internet – welcome! I am your host, Sydney Breann, and I’m joined today by my virtual assistant to talk about all things in the blogging-sphere. Leveraging your photography business with blogging just got a bit easier. Courtney with CP Productivity and I are chatting about my own experience with blogging for my elopement photography business and the best practices you need to know about. So without further ado, let’s just get into it.

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Blogging for your Elopement Photography Business | Ready to Wander Podcast

This is actually the second time that I’ve had Courtney on the Podcast. She is the owner and CEO of CP Productivity and currently serves wedding and elopement photographers. From content planning to copywriting and a little bit of everything in-between, Courtney has been my right-hand gal for the last 3 years! Last time Courtney joined me on the Ready to Wander Podcast, we chatted about the importance of outsourcing tasks that don’t bring you joy.

Today’s episode is a deep dive into the world of blogging. Whether you plan to outsource blogging or you’re not quite sure where to even begin, we’re covering all the topics. Come get a glimpse into my own blogging strategy, common myths, and the best practices to help your online presence thrive. While this episode is certainly tailored more towards elopement and wedding photographers, blogging is an excellent resource for all photographers (and business owners) alike.

The Importance of Blogging for Your Photography Business | CP Productivity

So you might be thinking, “I already post on Instagram, why do I need to blog? That’s sooo 2010!” And I’ll be honest, I didn’t think people would read my blog either. But before we even get deeper into this episode, keep this in the back of your mind: you do not own Instagram. I might be dating myself a bit here, but remember when Vine disappeared overnight? The number of creators who suddenly lost all contact with the community they had built was gone in a matter of seconds. If Instagram disappeared tonight, would you still have a way to reach your target audience? Would you still have a platform to share your work and resources?

Extension of your Portfolio

I don’t know about you, but I love having an opportunity to see a complete wedding day from start to finish when I go to someone’s website. As a recent bride, I really appreciated photographers who not only a portfolio page, but also had a blog that highlighted love stories. If one of your main goals in your wedding or elopement photography business is to document moments, give potential clients a chance to see your documentation in action. A blog is an incredible tool to demonstrate your business models and strengths.

Couples will be able to look through multiple portfolio pieces and see how you photograph different lighting scenarios, environments, and vibes. All-around, showcasing your work will put any inquiring client at ease knowing they have seen the true representation of your business.

Highlights Your Expertise

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to any photographer would be to become an expertise in your area (and I’m not just talking about location-wise). Utilizing your blog as a place to provide useful resources and education to clients will truly set you apart from others in the industry. If you compare two photographers who share similar packages, personalities, and editing styles, what would be the deciding factor in moving forward with one or the other? In your research, you may discover that Photographer A has a ton of elopement planning content on their website. But when you check Photographer B’s site, they don’t have a blog.

I want to encourage you to become an expert in your area. From the ins-and-outs of vendor recommendations and lodging inspiration, to permitting and legal information. I’m a firm believer that no matter how saturated the photography market, there is a way to set yourself apart from “competitors”. Your blog is an extension of your client experience.

Exponential Growth Potential

You know that acronym you keep seeing floating around the photography community? SEO (search engine optimization)? Yeah, you definitely want to know about that! Courtney touches more on SEO later in the episode, but here’s a little introduction to SEO if you’re unfamiliar. The more fresh, relevant content on your website, the higher you rank in search engines. Through proper strategies and tactics, you can ensure that your website is appealing to search engines (like Google and Pinterest). The better the content and consistency, the higher your rank. The higher you rank, the more likely someone is to click on your site (and hire you to photograph their big day)! I mean, do you frequently go to Page 3 of Google when you’re searching for something?

By utilizing proper SEO strategies in your blog, your odds of visibility and relevancy dramatically increases. And while I wish that I could tell you the secret is really to just post lots of content, it’s not. It takes time and effort to make a solid, quality, SEO friendly blog.

More Leads and Inquiries

Going hand-in-hand with the exponential growth potential in leveraging your photography business with blogging is the lead generation potential. By including clear calls-to-action in your blogs (such as contact forms, email list subscription opt-ins, inbound links to other areas on your website), visitors are encouraged to take the next step in their customer journey. By making the process to book you as easy as possible, you are taking away one of the biggest hurdles in connecting with potential clients.

How to Properly Format a Blog for SEO

Formatting your blog while keeping SEO best practices in mind is key to achieving those big goals listed above. Courtney shared that one of the main resources she utilized when learning how to optimize the blogs she was creating was Yoast! Yoast is a free plugin option for WordPress blogs. (If you have a ShowIt site, the blog platform you utilize is WordPress!) In utilizing Yoast, you are given a “checklist” of important things to keep in mind when putting your post together. If you don’t have access to Yoast, here are the main components to include in your blog:

SEO Elements to Include in Your Blog

• Descriptive, Keyword Rich Title
  • Example:
    • Montana Elopement vs. Intimate Destination Wedding in Kalispell, Montana
  • No word limit, but keep it concise to ensure complete visibility on search engines
• Text Length
  • A solid blog will include 300+ words
• Headings + Subheadings
  • Any portion of text that includes more than 300 words needs to be separated by a heading or subheading
  • Include keyword rich words in each heading and subheading
• Key Phrase (3-5 words)
  • Example: Estes Park adventurous winter elopement
  • Must include key phrase in the Title
  • Must include key phrase a minimum of two times
• Meta Phrase (50-160 characters)
  • See example below*
  • Provides a general synopsis/summary of what the blog is about
  • Must include key phrase
  • Displays on search engine results

Additional SEO Elements

• Outbound Links
  • Example: “You can find more Montana elopement inspiration over on my Pinterest (@sydneybreannphoto)!”
  • Direct traffic to relevant, external sites
  • May link to other vendors, your Instagram, email list, etc.
  • Demonstrates your site’s authority
• Inbound Links
  • Example: “Searching for Northwest Montana and Glacier National Park elopement tips? Check out the BLOG!”
  • Viewed by search engines as an indicator of high-quality content
  • Increases ranking in search engines
• Images + Alt. Text
  • Must include images
  • Each image must include Alt. Text that describes the photo
  • Do not name each image with the title or key phrase
    • Depends on how many images you have
    • Yoast states, “if your content has more than 4 images…the percentage of images with the key phrase in the alt text falls within 30 and 70%.”

Don’t Forget about Blogging Readability!

The readability of your blog post is just as important as each SEO element. There are a variety of factors that dictate the readability of a post. A readable blog is important not only for ensuring your audience can digest the information with ease, but that they stay on your site. If a blog is difficult to read and includes complicated industry-lingo, visitors will not stick around. Alternatively, if you have a very repetitious vocabulary, visitors will get bored and exit your blog.

If you aren’t a super strong writer, this is a great task to outsource! Some readability elements include:

• Word Complexity
• Quantity of Transition Words
• Use of Passive Voice
• Sentence Structure
• Sentence Length
• Subheading Distribution
• Paragraph Length

Debunking Common Blogging Myths for Photographers

“Blogging is only for good writers.”

As we just learned, readability is important when writing a blog. However, everyone starts somewhere! What it really comes down to is your ability to write effectively and communicating your passions, expertise, and unique perspective. For some photographers, the thought of compiling a lengthy educational resource or recounting a wedding day is intimidating. If this is the case, I couldn’t recommend utilizing external tools or outsourcing all together. As Courtney mentioned, there are SEO tools like Yoast that are designed to lighten the burden. Odds are, your website and blogging platform have a similar guide to follow or plugin available. Spend time poking around to give you some peace of mind.

“My portfolio on my website is enough.”

While having a strong portfolio is crucial for photographers, it’s not enough to sustain a thriving business in today’s competitive market. Blogging provides an opportunity to go beyond showcasing images and allows photographers to share their creative process, clients stories, testimonials, and important resources. Clients want someone that they can trust and someone that is an expert. Just showing your pretty photos doesn’t really establish that trust or paint you as an expert.

“Blogging doesn’t actually lead to more clients.”

While it may not always result in immediate leads, consistent and strategic blogging can indirectly lead to more clients. By improving search engine visibility, establishing credibility, and fostering trust with potential clients, you will rise in the ranks. Over time, a well-maintained blog can contribute to a photographer’s overall marketing strategy and help attract a steady stream of inquiries and bookings. I have literally had past clients say, “I was looking at a few photographers for our elopement, but I did a deep dive into your blog and it was SO helpful and informative and that’s ultimately why I decided to book you.” Statements like these are proof of the impact blogging can have on your photography business.

Leveraging Your Blog

1. Write educational, engaging, and informative content. Some topics could include elopement planning tips, advice on selecting locations, permitting tips, or how to build out a timeline! If you’re a past bride, think about what you found yourself needing some extra help with during your wedding planning process. Again, establish yourself as an expert. Answer your clients’ questinos before they even ask through providing them with useful information upfront.
2. Showcase your portfolio. While your blog should offer more than just a portfolio, it’s still a valuable place to showcase your best work. Use high-quality images to create visually appealing galleries that highlight your unique style and creativity. At the end of the day, people have to like your photos; if you can share a full gallery, do it!
3. Feature real client stories. Potential clients want to see what their wedding day could look like through your eyes. By highlighting a love story or recapping a wedding day, you are giving others a look at what their big day could look like. Show that you care by mentioning how the couple met, your favorite part of the day, how the groom wiped a tear from his eye during the vows, etc.
4. Write about your passions and interests. Don’t be afraid to inject your personality into your blog posts! Personally, I am passionate about traveling and being out in nature. Occasionally, I feature blog posts about exactly that! By showcasing your passions and interests, it shows the humanness of your business. For example, if your about page says how much you love to be out on the lake, I want to see a post featuring you reviewing the best lakes in your area.

Sydney Breann’s Blogging Strategy

One of the most common pitfalls photographers make when it comes to blogging for their business is focusing on quantity over quality. There’s no magic number of blogs you need to be putting out, so long as your content has quality. Not to mention just how quickly burnout comes in the photography community. A sustainable blogging schedule will give you the confidence you need to scale your business and utilize it to its’ fullest potential.

With the help of my virtual assistant, we post 1-2 times per week. Currently, we post 1 blog post weekly, and a podcast “transcript” every other week. Over the course of our time working together, this is the schedule that has best suited both of our businesses. However, we typically scale back on the podcasts during busy season! As an elopement and intimate wedding photographer, elopement planner, and podcast host, I know I have a lot on my plate. Establishing a sustainable schedule has helped me avoid burnout and still have a solid work-life balance.

In case you weren’t aware, the blogs on my website are pretty much exclusively written and compiled by CP Productivity. The only exception is a few of my earliest posts; other than that, I have a ghostwriter!

Blogging with a Virtual Assistant

Depending on you and your own needs, this workflow might not work for you. My workflow with Courtney is housed in Asana, which has helped immensely with keeping us organized.

1. We brainstorm educational topics in Asana.
2. I list out portfolio pieces I want to blog.
3. Once a task has been titled and assigned to me, I write up a little blurb about the topic or the session. Courtney is an administrator in my Honeybook which gives her the ability to reference client questionnaires to get a fuller picture of a couple’s vision and love story.
4. For portfolio pieces, once Courtney has all the notes she needs, she will download her favorite images from my online galleries and upload them into Narrative Publish. After spending years working together, Courtney knows which photos are my favorite based on how they are presented in my online galleries. For educational content, I’ll typically gather images for Courtney to choose from in a blog-specific online gallery.
5. Then, Courtney arranges the images in a custom layout with Narrative Publish. Each image is named properly with alternative text.
6. After all images in the custom layout are named, Courtney gives the blog a key phrase, title, and meta description before publishing the blog as a draft to WordPress.
7. As soon as the blog is drafted to WordPress, Courtney writes the copy for the blog. Each blog is written with the above mentioned “best SEO practices”. We focus heavily on keyword research when compiling copy, which has helped my SEO immensely!
8. Once a blog has been published to sydneybreann.com, Courtney then adds the blog photos to Pinterest as another means of traffic. Frequently, my Pinterest account sees over 200k monthly visitors, thanks to keeping fresh content circulating with the help of Tailwind (and my VA)!
9. To stretch our content even further, Courtney has created templates like the one below (and throughout this post)!

Advice for Wedding and Elopement Photographers

If you take anything away from this episode, I hope that it is this: you can see great success in leveraging your photography business with blogging. It doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s truly the most gratifying thing to watch months of hard, consistent work pay off.

Hung up on blog topics? Consult with your current clients and social media followers. Ask folks what they want to see. You can also browse wedding websites (The Knot, Brides.com, etc.) or Pinterest to come up with topic ideas. But at the end of the day, if the very thought causes overwhelm, don’t be afraid to outsource.

Montana Elopement Photographer and Educator | Sydney Breann Photography

Leveraging your photography business with blogging is one of the easiest ways to experience exponential growth (for free). Whether you choose to dive into the world of blogging firsthand or give outsourcing a try, I couldn’t recommend it enough. Bringing your audience to a platform that you have control over is invaluable for the growth of your business.

I hope today’s episode of the Ready to Wander Podcast provided you with the confidence and knowledge you need to help you keep kickin’ butt in your biz! Searching for more photography business tips and chats? Check out the full list of podcast episodes here.

Be sure to follow along on my Insta to keep up with my latest adventures (@sydneybreannphoto). And while you’re over there, give my VA a follow (@cpproductivity). So what do you say, are you ready to wander?