Are there any here that have celebrated their 5th, 10th or 20 something years in business by making one client happy with a discount or offering something extra free of charge that is on a option list or even go wild and do a wedding for free?

I"m just thinking that as my business exists 10 years next year it would be nice to bring that into attention with some kind of contest where couples could subscript and where I get to pick one lucky winner that get's a bonus when they book me for a wedding, but not so sure yet what exactly to do and if it will be worthwhile.

Hi Noa

I would seriously just quietly celebrate yourself! If you did get a bride winning your "free wedding" competition it would just be your luck that she is a bridezilla and complains about everything!!

I think the any anniversary special offer is more a marketing ploy than anything else ..."Our giant 10th birthday sale" ... I guess from a marketing POV you could offer a special??

Chris

I celebrated my retirement with a drink and kissed my wife! Does that count? (at least I think it was my wife)
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It is a great idea and you could combine it with a radio station for max publicity. You want to be sure the rules are VERY clear or it could turn out to be a nightmare. I know a program owner (radio) who gave away a quincenera and had a mountain of problems. Make the rules clear, get someone to make an independent selection and you have a winning combination for a gift to your community and some free publicity.

I celebrated my retirement with a drink and kissed my wife! Does that count? (at least I think it was my wife)
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I"m also retired and that was the reason to start shooting weddings as I needed something to keep me occupied, for me the fact that I managed to keep on doing it for 10 years is actually a reason to celebrate and I thought it might be fun to share that feeling with one of my clients.

My retirement was from shooting weddings. OR anything at all. I haven't picked up a camera in over a year and I honestly don't miss it. Sounds bad I know but what can I tell you!
Enjoy the years.

I also don't miss the job I had when I retired, but that was because I didn't like it and I only did it to make money, as soon as weddings give me that kind of feeling I will stop doing them without a thought.

Tim, it's a good idea to increase publicity on such a contest but I was thinking of keeping it small and simple, just a notification on my website would do, I do agree that having clear rules is very important.

I think the any anniversary special offer is more a marketing ploy than anything else

Ofcourse it is, what else? :) but in my case I don't actually need the extra publicity because I get my year booked without such a stunt,I actually want to celebrate it and what better way to do it with one of my clients and make someone happy (I could spend it on myself but where is the fun in that, I can do that every week if I want for no reason)

Well, just brainstorming here but it looks like something like this is not so commonly done under weddingvideographers?