Why Blogging Should Be At The Top Of Your To-Do List

Listen – it’s taken me over a YEAR to write blog posts for my own website. Trust me, I know firsthand how much blogging can be put on the very bottom of your to-do list. But as a wedding creative, blogging should be one of your main priorities business-wise. “But Sasadya, you’re not a photographer/planner/etc, so why the f*ck should I be taking advice from you?” 

I know I’m not a wedding pro, but I’m a damn good marketer for them. I’ve seen my clients’ Instagram accounts get hacked and lose all of their followers. I’ve seen my clients get overwhelmed with busy season and not have time to post on Instagram. I’ve seen wedding creatives on social media stress about where their next client is going to come from. Blogging can solve every single one of these problems. So, let’s chat about why blogging should be at the top of your to-do list. 

To improve your website SEO

If you have a website, chances are you want that website to be SEO friendly. Unlike other online business owners, your clients utilize both Instagram and Google to book vendors when planning their wedding. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend hiring a professional to optimize your website if you have the budget for it! This will provide the best foundation possible for ranking on various search engines. But once your website has been optimized, how do you keep up with the SEO? When you blog properly, it will drastically increase the overall SEO of your website. With all the juicy keywords and optimized formatting, your website will only become more and more appealing to search engines. 

To have clients find you through Google

Going hand in hand with the last point, blogging will most definitely improve your chances of having clients find you through Google. Why? When you choose the right keywords and figure out what your ideal client is searching for, there’s no reason your articles shouldn’t show up on Google. For example, say you’re an adventure elopement photographer who wants to focus on booking elopements at national parks throughout the US. This means that your dream clients would be searching things like…

  • Best national parks to elope in 2022
  • Should I elope at a national park?
  • Best national parks to elope in the spring/summer/fall/winter
  • How to elope at x national park 

As an adventure elopement photographer, you should have blogs on your site that pertain to this exact topic! Not only that, but you should be making sure that you’re blogging the right way to improve your chances of clients finding your specific articles on Google. 

To simplify your Instagram content

When I tell you blogging will make your Instagram life a million times easier, I MEAN IT. When you’re consistently posting evergreen content, you have a fantastic (and effective) foundation for planning out your Instagram content. For example, say you have 4 blogs planned out for next month. You’ve already drafted + optimized these blogs, and all you have to do is hit “Publish”. If you take these four blogs and post one per week, you have a long form piece of content that can be broken down into 3-5 short form content pieces, like Instagram posts. What could this look like?

  • Your blog post for the week is “How To Choose An Elopement Photographer in 2022” with 5 different subheadings. If you want to post 5 times that week, all you have to do is plan out your feed and break up each of those subheadings into Instagram captions for every post. Or if you wanted to stretch it out, you could post 3 times a week and now you have a week and a half of Instagram content from one blog post! 

To book clients through Pinterest

You already know this, but there are 40 million users on Pinterest in 2022. A ton of those users are utilizing Pinterest to plan their wedding, create their wedding mood board, and look for wedding planning advice. When you have informational + educational evergreen blogs on your website, you can create some kickass graphics to market them on Pinterest!  

Imagine you were planning a destination elopement, and you’re casually scrolling through Pinterest to gather some inspo. All of a sudden, you see an eye-catching graphic for a blog titled “Top 5 Destination Elopement Planning Tips From A Destination Elopement Photographer”. Ummm, that sounds exactly like something you would need! You click on the Pin, and it leads you straight back to the blog. You instantly start scarfing down this content, because let’s face it, there’s a lot that goes into planning a destination elopement. But this blog just gave you 5 tips that simplify the entire process, and you immediately feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. You read in the concluding paragraph that this photographer is still booking 2022 destination elopements (thank GOD), and you start exploring their website to learn a little more about them. You totally vibe with their personality, and their photos are uh-mazing. Next thing you know, you’re filling out their contact form and shooting them an IG DM letting them know how excited you are to hear back from them!

That, my friend, is the power of marketing your blogs on Pinterest. And yes, it can be that easy

To provide support to your clients

We all know that if you’re a wedding photographer, you’re never just a wedding photographer. You become your clients’ hype person, their go-to, and their wedding planning buddy, even if they hire a planner. You’re the one who they spend the most time with on their wedding day, and the vendor that they trust the most. If you decide to blog consistently, this gives you the perfect opportunity to create resources that will provide clarity and support to your couples during what is supposed to be the most special time in their lives. For example, here are a few blogs you can write to make your couples feel extra supported:

  • How To Destress Before Your Wedding/Elopement 
  • What To Look For When Choosing Your Wedding/Elopement Vendors
  • How To Plan Your Destination Wedding/Elopement 
  • Top 5 Things I Wish Couples Knew When Planning Their Wedding/Elopement 

Psst… these blog topics do great on Pinterest as well 😉 

To position yourself as an authority in your industry

Positioning yourself as an authority probably isn’t the first thing you think of when building out your website. But when you think about it, you want your potential clients to know that you know what the f*ck you’re doing.  You’ve invested thousands of dollars into your gear, mentorships, courses, workshops, styled shoots, you name it. You want your content to reflect that! Imagine a couple is going back and forth between you and one other photographer. You’re both in their budget, they’re in love with both of your photography and editing styles, but only one of you has a plethora of planning resources and educational content on their website. Which photographer would you rather be? Which photographer is the couple more likely to book?

To book more aligned clients

Your blog is a great opportunity to attract only the type of clients that you want to book. How so? If your heart is set on only booking intimate weddings & elopements, your content library will be full of, well, intimate wedding & elopement resources.  If couples who are planning a big, traditional wedding visit your website, they’ll immediately know that you’re probably not the photographer for them. And that’s exactly what we want! To only attract clients that you’re over the moon excited about. ‘Cause if it’s not a “hell yes”, it should be a “hell no”. 

To diversify your marketing platforms

Last but certainly not least, blogging is the one of the best ways to diversify your marketing platforms. Remember when Instagram was down for a day and all of us lost our shit? Yeah, well people who didn’t just rely on Instagram for their inquiries weren’t very stressed about it. Social media platforms come and go, but Google has been around for quite some time, and doesn’t look like it’s becoming obsolete anytime soon. To ensure the future of your main source of income, I recommend not putting all your eggs in one basket.

If you read this article and thought “Oh shit, I need to start blogging consistently” then YAY! I’ve officially done my job. Whether you hire someone to blog for you and decide to tackle it yourself, you’re taking a step into the right direction. 

If you ever need some advice on what to blog about (or what the f*ck SEO is), I offer 60 or 90 minute intensives where we can cover anything you want! I only book  a limited amount of intensives per month, so if you’re thinking about it, feel free to shoot me a DM and we can chat it out 🙂    

Let's Talk Timelines,

November 2022 -

Kayley follows me + books a pinterest & blogging  VIP week for the very next month

Decemberr 2022 -

We complete our VIP Week and knew we were were fr gonna be soulmates

February + may 2023 - 

Kayley hires me on for a 6-Month Blogging Retainer, then she books a Website SEO project to lay the foundation for her blog posts to grow

September 2023 -

Kayley’s Pinterest pins from her VIP Week are blowing up

September 2023 -

Kayley’s first blog post hit the number one page of Google!

October 2023 -

Kayley books an A La Carte blog project to continue showcasing her favorite galleries and increase her SEO + gets her first-ever inquiry from Pinterest 

The Projects

Kayley Booked:

VIP Weeks are my most popular starter projects for wedding creatives who aren’t quite ready for a 6-month retainer (whether it’s due to budget or hesitancy from hiring someone you didn’t love in the past) but still want marketing support in some capacity. The current deliverables for a Pinterest & Blogging VIP Week include:

Pinterest & Blogging VIP Week

  • Onboarding Questionnaire + Strategy Session
  • Keyword Research + List of Suggested Blog Topics
  • 6 Blog Posts - 3 Evergreen & 3 Portfolio 
  • 90 Days’ Worth of Pinterest Content (scheduled in Tailwind)

This project truly set the foundation for Kayely’s growth on Pinterest/Google and gave her a jumpstart before her retainer!

KAYLEY'S FEEDBACK

After working together on her VIP Week, Kayley knew she wanted to jump into a retainer with me sooner rather than later. I was SO excited to continue our working relationship because the vibes were VIBINGGGGG!

Investing in a 6-Month Blogging Retainer is the natural next step for anyone who has already had experience working together and is ready to go full send on their SEO/marketing. The deliverables for this project are:

6-Month Blogging Retainer

  • (Onboarding Questionnaire + Call if we’ve never worked together)
  • 3 Blog Posts/month - 2 Portfolio + 1 Evergreen
  • Ongoing SEO Rank Tracking 
  • Optional Monthly Strategy Call

KAYLEY'S FEEDBACK

Honestly, props to Kayley for truly going ALLLL in on her SEO because that shit PAID OFF! She has multiple projects/payment plans going on at once and it seriously means the world that she entrusted me to have such a strong impact on her SEO. 

Although I don’t offer this specific project anymore, the closest service would be a website copy project (The Mini Project, to be specific!) because I’d be completely rewriting your copy from an SEO and messaging standpoint. 

For the website SEO project I did for Kayley, we worked together over the span of 2 months to redo her copy/optimize her site. This was a done-with-you project, so we met every other week to comb through her site together. I did all the research + suggested all the implementation steps + educated her on the strategy behind it ALL. 

Website SEO

After her retainer ended, Kayley continued to bring me on for standalone blogging projects to showcase her newer galleries and maintain her SEO. By this point, she was seeing amazing results from Google Analytics and wanted to keep building her momentum!

A La Carte Blogging

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