Here at Dirty Boots and Messy Hair, we love blogging about all things wedding photography.

It’s truly one of our favorite ways to engage with our wonderful wedding photography community!

If you’re thinking about starting your own blog, we really couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

Why?

Well, blogging is one of the best ways to reach out to potential customers, engage with current clients, and share your wedding photography with the world!

And trust us, in terms of marketing, it really delivers results — both by connecting with your audience, and hello SEO!

So, we want to help you get started on your blogging journey, too!

Want to start blogging but not sure how? Need some advice on how often you should be writing content for your blog? Want to produce content that actually drives customers to your wedding photography business?

Then you’re in the right place!

In this blog, we’re exploring all things blogging — we know, how very meta of us.

Read on for our 6 insanely simple tips to getting started with blogging right now.

When getting started with your blog, it just makes sense to begin with the very thing that matters most — your wedding photography!

A blog can be a fantastic way to share your work with the world.

What’s more, we’re all perfecting and refining our photography skills every single day. So a regularly updated blog is a great way to show off how you have grown and developed as a photographer.

What’s more, it will quickly have a really obvious and direct impact on your business!

Think about it: you wouldn’t book someone from any trade without seeing some previous examples of their work, right?

And we all know that this particularly matters when booking a wedding photographer. After all, no one wants to end up with poor quality photography of their special day!

So, regularly sharing your work on your blog is a great way for potential clients to be able to see exactly what you can do. This will give them extra confidence and trust in your business — making them much more likely to book you for their own wedding!

So, how do you go about blogging your wedding photography?

Well, quite often, the photos will speak for themselves. But it’s also really important to tell the story behind the image too.

Check out this piece on a wedding in Ontario over on the DBMH blog. This is a good example of a simple and straightforward format for your blog posts.

A short introduction followed by lots of vibrant images is sometimes all you need!

However, if you’re writing a blog about one specific commission, your readers might also be interested in reading about all of the details of that particular wedding.

Why?

Well, a potential customer’s dream wedding might be very similar to one you’ve already worked on.

For example, if your blog showcases your work for a energetic couple who got married in Vegas — and a potential customer is planning on doing the same — this might just convince them to book you for their wedding, too!

So, feel free to write about the location, the weather, the personality of the couple, and so on. Really tell the story of that commission.

In short, writing about absolutely anything that inspired you to create your images in the way that you did is a sure-fire way to attract customers to your business.

Which leads us to…

When setting up a blog for the first time, it’s really important to think about who you want to talk to and why you want to talk to them.

The great thing about a blog is that you can write specific posts for specific groups of people.

Creating blog posts that are directly aimed at potential clients is one of the easiest — and most effective — ways to draw more people to your business.

So, think about what your ideal customer might be researching online. In other words, what do you think they’ll be asking Google?

Perhaps they’re wondering what things they should be considering when choosing their wedding photographer. Or whether to invest in a professional photographer for their engagement portraits. Or even how much they should expect to spend on wedding photography.

Guess what? You’re the best person to answer all of these questions — and more.

So, create blog posts that do just that!

When writing content for your blog, focus on including keywords that you think potential clients are likely to be searching for. This will help your blog to rank higher on search results — and drive more traffic to your site!

You should also try and use language that your potential customers will be able to understand and relate to. Don’t over complicate things by using technical terms or overly long sentences. And don’t be afraid to be a bit informal.

Try and write in a way that’s entertaining, friendly, and helpful — and you’ll be on your way to being a first-class blogger in no time!

In the same vein, launching a wedding photography blog is a brilliant way to engage with your current customers, too.

A regularly updated and informative blog is a great way to communicate with people who have already invested in your business — and help to answer any questions they may have in advance of their wedding day.

Couples who have booked you for their upcoming wedding are already excited and invested in your photography business — and will enjoy following your work in the lead up to their own special day.

What’s more, current clients — who already trust you and your business — are likely to share your blog posts far and wide.

This might just give you the exposure you need to attract even more customers!

So, what blog topics might your current clients be interested in?

Well, this will depend on you, your business, and the personality of the clients you are currently working with.

But here are a few ideas to get you started:

• How to prepare for your upcoming engagement shoot
• My top 5 wedding planning topics
• What to wear on a photoshoot with me

Some of you might be providing an online PDF or wedding guide for your clients to help get them prepped for their photoshoot or wedding day. Why not grab a few sections from your guide and divide them into a few different blog posts to share on your site?

Ultimately, if you’re writing about something that will interest your current customers — or help to to answer any of their questions — then your blog is sure to be a success!

Since starting up the Dirty Boots and Messy Hair blog, we’ve found that blogging is another really great way to expand our amazing photography community!

Sharing tips and ideas on how to run a successful photography business, how to meet other photographers online, and how to grow your client base, is a fantastic way to feel a part of something bigger — and remember that you’re not in this crazy industry alone.

By writing blog posts specifically for fellow photographers, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to openly share your knowledge and experience with others in the industry.

And knowing you’re helping others just feels wonderful, doesn’t it?

It’s also a fantastic way to build connections with photographers all over the world. Not only does this feel great (we all love making new friends), but it also gives you the opportunity to promote each other’s business — it’s a win-win situation!

When you’re just starting out on your blogging journey, laying out your blog in an easy-to-use format can be the ultimate key to success.

Over on the Dirty Boots and Messy Hair blog, we like to categorize all of the blog posts that we publish.

Our categories include ‘Photographer Tips’, ‘Inspiration’, ‘Wedding Planning’ and so on.

This means that our readers can easily find what they’re looking for — and we can cover a whole range of topics!

Laying out your blog in a similar format can be a really great way to ensure your blog is easy to navigate — and gives you the opportunity to produce content for more than one audience.

You know what’s likely to result in a failed blog?

Forgetting to actually add any content to it.

While beginner bloggers are likely to worry about all the things that could go wrong — this is probably the number one mistake to avoid.

After all, what’s the point in a blog that hasn’t had anything added to it in over a year?

A blog that’s been forgotten about is a really quick way to actually turn customers away from your business — so don’t let this happen.

“But how often should I be updating my blog?”, we hear you cry.

Unfortunately, this is a bit like answering ‘how long is a piece of string?’, as there’s really no perfect answer.

What’s most important is that you dedicate a certain amount of time each week to writing and publishing content. Whether that results in 1 post a day, twice a week, or 10 times a month, what matters most is consistency.

We hope these tips have helped you to feel more confident about starting your own wedding photography blog.

Ultimately, our most important advice is to kick those fears aside and just go for it — we can promise you, you’ll be really glad you did.

Ready for some tips on how to level up your Search Engine Optimization with your blog posts? Click on over to our blog post with all our tips and tricks for SEO.