Carolina Guzik – Content Marketing for Wedding Photographers

INTRODUCING CAROLINA GUZIK

MIAMI WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER & PODCASTER

Carolina Guzik has been a Miami wedding photographer for the past 10 + years! She started her business and quickly realized her degree in Mass Communications & Advertising and her previous work experience working in marketing wasn’t for nothing – the knowledge and experience she had in marketing was equipping her to serve my brand and clients well.

A few years back, she created The Tog Republic Podcast because she wanted to share her knowledge of marketing strategies with other photographers. Since then, her podcast has been downloaded over 150k+ times with listeners from over 30 countries.

Carolina’s goal is to share with you this knowledge, so you too can have a business that you love + supports your lifestyle!

Hi, I am Aida, host of My Wedding Season -The Podcast!
If you prefer listening, this blog post is also available in audio format on my podcast: Episode 60

MY WEDDING SEASON – THE PODCAST

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PODCAST SPONSOR – PIC-TIME

ONLINE PHOTO GALLERIES FOR PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

Disclaimer: I will earn a commission from Pic-Time, if you use my code – it has no extra cost to you, it is just a way to support me as a content creator! Read: Referral Programm / Affiliate Disclosure

Pic-Time is an advanced online gallery platform for photographers, offering beautiful galleries, a built-in print store, marketing automation, a slideshow creator, and blogs. They are enhancing their services using AI technology. Depending on the plan, you can use the AI Writing Assistant for Blogs, AI Image Filter and AI Photo Search for Clients.

If you have been tuning into this podcast long enough, you already know that I am a huge fan of creating SEO-optimized content, in the form of blogs, to attract potential clients.

Pic-Time now allows you to easily use your images that are already uploaded in a gallery to create a blog post. And then, with just a few clicks, you can easily generate SEO-optimized text for your blog. Don’t worry about it sounding machine-generated, because you can always go in and make changes for it to sound like you. It is just there to assist you in the process!

And now, you also have the ability to quickly filter through images in your galleries. This is particularly helpful when you want to share images with vendors after a wedding. Or you can use it to select images to share on social media – make sure you check out the newly revamped Mobile App!

Your clients are now also able to search through the gallery to find people or by using keywords. This feature allows them to easily share images and has proven to increase the likelihood of print orders because it is directly linked to the store.

And the cool thing is that multiple languages are supported including Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese.

When you are ready to upgrade to a paid plan to gain access to all these features, be sure to use the code AIDA to earn 1-month free!

MY WEDDING SEASON – THE PODCAST

INTERVIEW WITH CAROLINA GUZIK: MAIN TAKEAWAYS

(I, Aida, have at times paraphrased and other times directly quoted what Carolina and I have said in the episode to make it easier to understand – this is not a direct transcription.)

There is the old way of blogging, where you just share images of the wedding day and tell the story of the couple. And now there is a new way of blogging which is content creation. The content that you create should be geared towards attracting new clients to your wedding photography business. In this article, Carolina shares exactly how we can do that! Consider this a little Masterclass!

WHAT DOES CONTENT CREATION LOOK LIKE IN 2024?

Aida: As wedding photographers, when we are creating content for our website (not social media), what does that look like?

Carolina: Instead of simply blogging the images that you shot from a wedding to showcase your work, use it to give information to future clients. For example, you can talk about the venue, or even a tradition that they broke (e.g. they wore a different type of attire, that could be a source of inspiration for other people).

Aida: As a first step, it makes sense to know what kind of clients you are trying to attract, right?! That dictates the type of content that you are going to go ahead and create.

Carolina: That’s right.

Aida: As a photographer serving a premium market in Miami, it makes sense that you are creating content about inspiring style choices and breaking norms. Whereas, photographers serving a different market will need to create different type of content. And the aim is to be found on Google through the content that we create.

Carolina: That’s correct. It’s great when my clients refer me, but I always need more eye’s on my business. Even though Miami is a huge city, the majority of my clients are from out of town. Since I do not travel for weddings, I need to attract couples getting married in Miami.

HOW TO BOOK CLIENTS IN YOUR LOCAL MARKET

Aida: How can photographers go about attracting clients getting married in their local market?

Carolina: Start with the venues that you want to work at. Most of the clients that you want to work with will find you! Talk about the venue – start with the facts: location, opening hours, capactiy, rooms, restrictions etc. What makes it really cool for photos? Is it centrally located with hotels nearby? And when you want to move up in the market, you can start aiming for venues that you have not yet worked at. You can go to the venue and talk to the sales person – you can take some photos and write an article.

Aida: Yes, it is also a process of creating a relationship with the venue, right?! I have seen on your website that you create specific venue-based guides – and it is clear that you can demonstrate your knowledge about the venue and you are able to showcase your photography work. And I think it helps build trust with potential clients by making them feel that they are in trusted hands.

Carolina: You have to always lean into what the client is looking for. Even if you have not photographed at a venue before and you get an inquiry, you can tell the couple that you can do a walk-through and that you have fresh eyes for photographing there. Don’t just say “I have never photographed there before, and I am afraid.”. Tell them about similar venues where you have photographed before.

DON’T FORGET THE CALL-TO-ACTION

Aida: What we don’t want is for people to read our content and disappear – it makes sense to have some sort of call-to-action. How are you integrating that in a way that feels organic enough but also say “hey, I’m your girl, book me.”?

Carolina: That’s a great point. Whatever content you create on your website should have a call-to-action. You do not want to lead people in to a dead-end. This is what it says on my website “Looking for a wedding photographer? Let’s chat!” with a button to contact me. And that button goes to my contact form. In addition to that, there is another line that says “Don’t leave yet, take a look at these love stories & get inspired.” And I have three different blog posts attached to that main blog post that are similar. So for example, if it is a wedding guide about a garden venue, I am going to have at least one more garden venue as an additional love story, and perhaps a guide for engagement sessions and perhaps a couple on the beach. That way I give them three options to stay on my website.

The goal is to create breadcrumbs. Create breadcrumbs around your website so that people don’t leave. Eventually, they will leave. You want to make sure that there is enough information on there for them to be like “I have been on this website for a while.” The should think “I love the photos, she is giving great content, I feel comfortable with this person.”. That is what you want. That is good for SEO, because people are spending more time on your website. There is also increased brand awareness. And you position yourself as an expert.

Aida: That’s so good!

Carolina: It should help them take the next step and contact you. It doesn’t guarantee a booking, because next is the discovery call.

CURATE IMAGES THAT SELL

Aida: Once people land on your website, you just want to leave them with no choice but to book you!

Carolina: The content creation that I want is for people who are going to Google to search for Miami wedding or Miami wedding photographer or a particular venue. I want to make sure that they see me everywhere. And once they get to my website, that I create enough content. And the curation of images is very important. Sometimes there are images that we absolutely love but they are not the images that are going to sell the best, and we need to be aware of that.

And when we write, we want to make sure that it sounds like us and be intentional about the tone that we are using for the post. All of it has to make sense in order to get the client.

FOSTER RELATIONSHIPS WITH VENDORS

Aida: You focus heavily on being found on Google. What else do you do?

Carolina: Relationships with local vendors is crucial – wedding planners, venues etc. I want to be in every single venue list that I like in Miami. I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I have a blog post about the best planners in Miami.

Aida: Yes, especially if you want to work with planners, what better way to do it. Especially if you offer to take their photos. It is a long-term strategy, and even if nothing comes back, you have done something good.

Carolina: Sometimes it has taken years for vendors to refer clients to me. It is not going to work overnight and it is not for the faint of heart.

CONTENT PLANNING

Aida: How do you go about planning out your content?

Carolina: I have a montly tasks that consists of three things. I have to blog for SEO at least once a month and from that piece of content, I create content for other platforms. For example, I recently did my favorite photos of 2023, which will turn into several Instagram posts. And then when I write reviews for vendors, I will use those images.

Aida: That is amazing! How are you structuring everything?

Carolina: I literally have a calendar with three major things that I need to get accomplished in a month. I give myself 1-2 hours to think and research what I am going to write about. I want to make sure that it is a topic that people are searching for – I want to utilize keywords that people are using. On Mondays, I create 2-3 Instagram posts for the week. I try to do reviews once a month.

If you plan and schedule it, it is doable in order to attract more clients to your business.