hey guys.. so I've been at this game for a little over a month. I've got 4 tentative weddings for next fall in my calendar (meaning they are in pencil, no deposit yet, but I think its likely after the holidays). I was wondering how many inquiries you guys average a month? How many site visits do you get? I'm averaging about 4-5 site visits a day, basically using just word of mouth and some facebook posting.

Rich

I don't get very many inquiries. Usually when people contact us they are pretty much decided already. I would say we get 2 to 4 inquiries in a busy month but we normally book them all.
I have all our package and pricing info on the website I imagine that is why.
I have 9 weddings booked with deposits for next year and expect to do appx. 25 weddings this next year. I do this part time so that is about all I really want to do.
I don't know how may site visits I get, my site is on Smugmug and I avg. 130,000 hits a month...whatever that means....

If you have only been at this a month and have 4 tentatives looks like you are off to a good start...

I am around the same starting point you are Richard. Starting my online marketing about 2 months ago, I have now booked 3 weddings for the spring (deposits in) and several fall inquiries. Another thing to note is that as you do these weddings you're going to notice a snowball of reference work. So if you are going on marketing and advertising alone you will notice a much smaller inquiry rate at the beginning.

I am averaging about 3 inquiries a month from online marketing only (of course I am still in infancy)

Mike,
Coming from an online background your 130k hits a month seems very high for your 2-4 inquiries. I haven't seen your site, but if I were getting 130k hits in a month I would be molding my site to make sure my conversion ratio were alot higher. Not to mention I would probably evaluate what it is I am doing to draw such traffic, including putting ads on each page as a way to monetize your traffic.

briankaplan wrote:
I am around the same starting point you are Richard. Starting my online marketing about 2 months ago, I have now booked 3 weddings for the spring (deposits in) and several fall inquiries. Another thing to note is that as you do these weddings you're going to notice a snowball of reference work. So if you are going on marketing and advertising alone you will notice a much smaller inquiry rate at the beginning.

I am averaging about 3 inquiries a month from online marketing only (of course I am still in infancy)

Mike,
Coming from an online background your 130k hits a month seems very high for your 2-4 inquiries. I haven't seen your site, but if I were getting 130k hits in a month I would be molding my site to make sure my conversion ratio were alot higher. Not to mention I would probably evaluate what it is I am doing to draw such traffic, including putting ads on each page as a way to monetize your traffic.



Brian... I definitely agree. I think that word of mouth snowball effect will definitely happen as I get a few notches in my belt. When the spring semester starts I'm going to do a little flyer campaign on a few of the local college campuses... I think it will be cool to find some younger college couples that maybe can't afford to have a top photographer but are willing to do some more unconventional stuff.

Hits does not mean visits. A "hit" is shown for each photo, icon, etc. throughout the site and can be from search engines and spiders as well as actual users. 130k hits doesn't tell much. Booking almost all informed inquiries says his customers are pre-qualifying themselves and what he's doing is working for him.

Richard, do you have another site besides the myspace account in your www link? I didn't see any mention of weddings on that.

Hi Brian,
People find me on line and then go to my website.
The people that book us are about 50-50 word of mouth and my internet wedding photographer add.
As I only do this part time I am fine with the low number of inquiries and an almost 100% conversion rate.
I am on the top line of the internet wedding photographer search for my area and also on the top line the local wedding professional services book.

Most of the hits I get on my website are from around the country, people who are just looking at my pictures. A lot of traffic goes back to my website from various on line forums that I frequent...and just general internet and Smugmug search traffic.
I also have landscape, wildlife and sports action photos for sale on my website, about 80% of my hits are on my portrait and wedding galleries.

This is my third year of doing wedding photography and business has more than doubled each year so we are doing ok for now.
I wish I could see where the inquiries were coming from but I am pretty positive the majority of them are not from my local area.
Thanks
Sorry Richard..not trying to hijack!!!

Linda... yes I do, sorry www.richlphotography.com I thought I updated my FM profile, but perhaps it didn't hold.

Hey Mike,
Gotya.. I am impressed, good work. Thanks for clarifying.

Richard,
Flyering is a good idea, also be sure to use facebook ads, craigslist, and other online means of targeting your area.

Something I recently did which is helpful is going to apartment complexes and offering to shoot their buildings for their website in return for move-in advertising. The reason I targeted apartments is because you typically will find your younger couples there.

So when people move in to the apartment they get a coupon for wedding photography. I know it sounds cheesy, and I havent seen anything from it yet, but I think it will at least get the word out a bit.

Anyways, good luck..

Wow... I had 20 hits on my website yesterday.. and another inquiry today.