Advertising for the Wedding Photographer Part 2b
Advertising with the Hitched.co.uk Wedding Directory
Advertising for the Wedding Photographer Part 7
Wedding Fairs / Bridal Shows
Chapter 1: Wedding Magazines and Print Advertising
Chapter 2: Directories, Google and Facebook cold calls
Chapter 2b: The Hitched Directory
Chapter 3: Google Adwords and Facebook Ads
Chapter 4: Social Media
Chapter 5: Wedding Blogs
Chapter 6: Facebook Groups and Wedding Forums
Chapter 7: Wedding Fairs / Bridal Shows (You are here)
Chapter 8: What works for me
Wedding Fairs and Bridal Shows
Usually when I’ve written these chapters I’ve written the content and added images later.
On this section though, I’ve added the images first because, nothing sums up how I feel about Wedding Fairs more than the above image.
You see I’ve never liked (most) wedding fairs. It’s because I feel like you have to be a market trader, hard selling your goods to get anything from it.
It’s like the Hunger Games but where everyone is nice to each other and nobody has to die
I know that when I’ve done them I’ve stepped back and let people come to me but in many cases you’re sharing a venue space with 9 other Photographers all competing over the same visitors. Some of which are quite aggressive in their sales and attitude. By the time they get to me they hate wedding photographers.
It’s not really for me.
Now actual experience with them:
Ok, so the first wedding fair I ever did was at a small private Airport in Shoreham. The only place this wedding fair was advertised was on their website and we paid £50 for the 6ft table.
This was the weirdest experience ever. Because it was so poorly advertised not one person that walked through the doors was there for the fair. It was a Sunday and they were people just coming in for a Coffee in the cafeteria and to watch the planes landing.
Seriously.
However I took a full day wedding booking, one for Laura too and also a corporate gig for a Medical company who were having their spring ball at the Airport. I still do this companies Spring Ball every year.
Best. £50. Spend. Ever.
Yet nothing added up. Nobody was there for the fair. NOBODY. Not even the couple who booked either myself or Laura. But this was the most successful fair I’ve ever done.
So on this resounding success I ramped up my spend on wedding fairs and jumped in with a few more companies. Stylish Events being the main one.
These guys weren’t cheap. £1700 spent on 6 wedding fairs but they are the biggest for my area (Sussex). They have some serious venues and serious footfall.
Most of the time.
The end result of my time with Stylish Events was bookings worth £1680 – So I broke even.
But I didn’t really break even, not once you factor in the additional time and cost it took to put together a stall for each show, those lost Sundays all add up. I still had to work for two weeks to pay for my stalls.
So breaking even wasn’t baaaad was it? But what if I tell you that the entire £1680 was from one fair? What happened at the other five shows?
Because of this I walked.
It’s also the selling environment I struggled with:
So in order to get a booking I have to step on the Green Square, then the Orange Circle, the crescent Moon, the Pentagon and then the Square?
When I’ve spoken with other vendors at fairs they do all sorts to capture and qualify the business. Some have ‘On the day discounts’, they register emails then chase afterwards by phone or email, have sweets on the tables (usually Cadbury’s Roses) and even walk over and try to poach clients from your stall.
Personally, I don’t like the hard sell. I’m just a nice guy who works hard. I’m slightly introverted in a sales environment (but completely outgoing at a wedding). At fairs though I wait to be approached. I’m not alone in that respect either as I know it would be seriously off putting for someone to push a sales pitch on me. I hate door to door sales and especially those guys who sell double glazing at the exits at B+Q.
It’s worth doing for the life experience.
If you ever want to see a room full of interesting suppliers, then wedding fairs are the place to go to.
- There’s the sitters
- The stand and stare at nothingers
- The wanderers with no direction
- The ‘I’ll walk past your stall and look at your work but pretend I’m not interested’ types.
- The ‘He’s gone for a coffee let’s look at his portfolio’ types (when I’m actually behind them)
If you want a classic experience though you won’t have lived until you’ve experienced the enigma that is the Debenhams and John Lewis girls.
No Bi***, they’re going to use OUR wedding gift list
The trouble with some suppliers at fairs is BOUNDARIES. They don’t have any and don’t respect yours. You’ll have someone approach your stall, look at you, smile and BAM! That Debenhams girl is there stealing your pitch. Woman, GTFO.
In most cases where I’ve attended independent Wedding Fairs I’ve had poor results. A lot of the time price has been an issue.
You know price is an issue when you tell them the figure and you can hear this silent scream. If you say it’s without an album they just exhale and it takes a few seconds for them to respond. It’s not exactly a scientific way to qualify a client but it seems to ring true in most cases.
The most common thing I’ve been asked to supply is a days cover and an album for sub £1000.
The thing with wedding fairs is that they are just so…random
There are big exclusive wedding fairs that charge a fortune to attend and there’s these tiny village hall ones that cost little yet I’ve not seen or heard anything to suggest that one is better of worse than the other.
One time I was even asked to do a wedding fair in a disused branch of Millets. I kid you not.
What I DO know is that Wedding Fairs are being monopolised and there are many more than there used to be. One wedding fair I attended shared that day with at least six other fairs which seriously diluted the footfall through the doors. That devalues the fair and affects your bottom line.
Speak to most vendors at a wedding fair and many are considering if they will be doing another. Then there are some that just never quit. Wedding Fairs are an odd one, that’s for sure.
Then there’s the dirty tricks
That’s nice of them, especially as it’s their first post
on the forum
Nothing suspect here at all either.
I wouldn’t invest in any fairs that use these tactics as it’s worrying they have to use them at all.
Fairs where you’re a recommended supplier
So I do these regularly. At these fairs you’re a known face and it’s one big happy family. Everyone knows everybody and it’s a different vibe. So that means I get loads of business right?
Hell no.
This is at venues I average 10 weddings a year with, that I’ve loads of experience at, with lots of supportive suppliers around me. And it’s no different from any other fair.
But I do enjoy being there networking and talking shop with an honesty I don’t see and the public fairs.
So what gives?
Well I’ve always thought that wedding fairs are for people to get ideas and to find the lay of the land. Then they go and find someone elsewhere. At least in the realms of wedding photography that is.
I do the same with an electrical purchase. I’ll go to the Apple store and try out the latest Mac, work out which one I want and using the stores Wifi find the cheapest price online and order it. I have literally bought an Ipad from Amazon.co.uk whilst in an Apple store.
For the price keen this is an obvious thing to do.
I’m still on the fence with regards wedding fairs because even the free ones with a qualified footfall (as in couples who are getting married at the venue) are not converting into many, if any, bookings.
Next: What works for me
Comments are open
Related posts
Wedding fairs are hard work and expensive.
We find Wedding Fayres our second best form of advertising and client bookings, Recommendation being the first.
We exhibit at around a dozen a year and would say we get an average of two bookings per Fayre. As Chris says it also about networking with other suppliers. These people if they like you can also recommend you to their clients
My first Fair at Hazlewood Castle, my teeny weeny table was completely swamped by a Pantechnicon of display material from Andrea Barrett.
It taught me to up my game.
My second wedding Fair was at Oulton Hall in Leeds and I booked 9 weddings!!! NINE WEDDINGS!!! I kid you not. I thought wedding Fairs were totally incredible. Since that day, a decade ago, I think I’ve booked maybe three more weddings from I don’t know how many fairs. WTF?
I have only done smaller wedding fairs, but have always found them a beneficial experience. I agree with Chris, it is extremely important to network with other suppliers. I find that for referrals and bookings, this has always been the more successful method than the hard sell. I believe my products sell themselves, and my albums are always the selling points at wedding fairs. However, there are pros and cons to doing smaller fairs. Less competition, but a smaller footfall. Many of the brides that I encounter are getting married two, three years ahead and I find it difficult to peak their interest. At the last show that I did, I offered a Hen Party Boudoir Experience with a makeup artist, and this was a major selling point. I believe, with wedding fairs, it isn’t about the on the day discount or added value, it is about finding a niche within wedding photography that other sellers will not be offering.
Hi Chris- this was exactly the same experience we had with fairs- we spent £2k on one very big fair (close to a Thames crossing near Dartford- ahem) and only got 2 bookings off the back of it. You have to be very pushy to get the bookings, and it’s just not our style… Thanks for sharing these articles- Have you tried the premium ads in HItched (about £180 a year)? – we’ve had an excellent return from this.
Hi Matt, you mean Glow at Bluewater? Whenever that comes around you see people popping up on hitched, new forum members acting as if they got ‘a cracking deal’ with the tickets. It’s highly suspicious.
In the last couple of years suppliers exhibiting there have gone AWOL stuffing the couples who’ve booked. It’s worrying.
I’ve not had a premium listing on hitched. I had one before but didn’t get much from it. Yet, it was something I did in my first year. Things have changed so it may be worth a go!
Hi Chris- Yes it was the Glow wedding fayre- I don’t think fayres are our thing as we’re too ‘laid back’- we hate pressuring couples into booking us on the day.. we have a premium ad for Kent and Surrey on Hitched- it’s about £180 a year for each county, but the good thing is you can pay monthly- so you may just want to run an ad Dec to Feb to see if you get any enquiries- if not, you’ve only lost £50 or so! We ran an add for Surrey for a year and got 5 bookings- not bad for £180.. I would say that getting real customer reviews on your ad makes a huge difference to whether it works or not.
Hi Matt,
I’ve given the National listing a go at £180. SO far, two weeks in an nothing. 3 hits per day on average. I’ll let you know how it goes. They have two weeks left then I’ll give the premium listing a go instead.
Hi Chris,
I’ve been reading your blog postings on advertising and have found it to be very helpful, honest and sometimes amusing.. I’m fairly new to the wedding photography game having set up my second website showing my wedding & family photography, but so far this year I have done 3 wedding fairs; one tiny one in Horsham with one other wedding photographer and about 7-8 suppliers (no bookings). The next one was at the Grand Hotel in Brighton with PMN Wedding Fayres, there were about 10 other wedding photographers and the event was far too crowded for me. Like you I’m not the pushy type abs prefer for a couple/bride to come over to me. I did get a wedding booking from a lovely young couple whose wedding I photographed for them at the Pavilion in Brighton in September. The next one I did was at the Triangle in Burgess Hill, West Sussex (Stylish Events) 9 other weddings togs there and again it was over crowded. No bookings from that one, although I did have a flicker of interest from one bride to be who loves my work and will get back to me nearer to her wedding date (2017). I do ask the couples who come over to my table if I can take their emails as I like to send them some more info about my wedding pricing and photography, but I never push it… I have come from a background of editorial portraits and interiors and have worked for a range of clients from Elle to Vanity Fair magazine and Harvey Nics to F&F. Kind Regards, James
I am just starting out as a wedding supplier and have found this very informative as I am terrible at the hard sell – I used to do craft fairs and got little or nothing out of them. They are so expensive to attend, I think my best plan is to think of other ways of marketing myself! Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Success at a wedding show: 1) Be social, not selling! Ask questions, find out their story even if they say they already have a photographer, offer advise, make a connection because it’s the only way they will remember you. Plus people walking by seeing you engaged in a lively conversation with another bride-to-be will be curious! 2) If you’re an introvert, why? If you don’t show passion or enthusiasm about your job and are excited about working with whoever, might be time to really think internally! If it’s just not you, bring someone who can engage people for you and talk about your work and then when they’re warmed up send them your direction. 3) Bring unique, touchable products that get people to say “oh that’s a neat idea” or “never seen that before” while showcasing your best work. Giving something to keep a persons hands busy while you give your elevator pitch helps degrade the “hard sell” perception. 4) Be persistent in follow-up by email. If people are annoyed they can unsubscribe, if they’re interested, they will reach out.
Just what I’ve learned! I recommend doing at least one a year to network with vendors and update your email blast list if nothing else.