Hi Guys,

I'm looking to get into filming weddings and ive been looking into the best ways to get advertise and promote services.

I was just wondering if anyone would share what methods of advertising that works best for them.

Thank you

First and foremost a website that ranks highly in Google.

Word of mouth, tell everybody.

Then consider trade shows ...

Be very good friends with every photog you work with, they are one of the first that get hired and brides often ask if they cahn recommend a videographer, maybe offer them a commission on every client they refer.
Also the venue, very important as they are the very first that get booked, try to get on their list of preferred vendors, maybe make a short promo of their place as you will be shooting there anyway during a wedding and give it to them as a freebie so they will be inclined to refer you as well.

Yes, a good website.

Social media. Once you have something to share, share it. Your clients will do the work for you, IF its worth while.

Word of mouth, of course, which social media is just an online version of. There are two sides of this: the clients, and the vendors. Having one or two of the right vendors who recommend you (like a good photographer) is worth its weight in gold (almost literally). I work with 30-35 weddings a year. As much as 25% of those can come from just TWO vendors (a photog and a banquet manager). [getting vendors to recommend you is all about what you do for them. I am good at what I do, sure, but its just as much that I make a wedding day just that much more hassle free for the vendors, they appreciate that, so they recommend me]

Finally, paid ads. This can be a bridal/trade show. It can be a website (for me, WeddingWire), or paid ad placements in the search engines.

I do a paid website (WeddingWire) because it covers my contracts (click to sign), and a paid listing means I can list both sides of my business (videography and MC/DJ). Oh, and in my relatively rural area, the listing isn't expensive.

A good website and eventually lots of samples on You Tube/Vimeo. Set up a facebook page. Also create accounts on Twitter/LinkedIn/Blogger/Tumblr and anything else you can think of even if you don't really use them as they can provide valuable backlinks to your site.

Your website should be registered with Google/Bing/Yahoo and contain relevant information and make sure you update it regularly.

Befriend photographers at each wedding - I get quite a bit of work this way. Also get to know some of the local competition - I befriended a couple and we now swap dates that we cannot make with each other.

Eventually, if you are good enough and your price is right you will start to get referrals - that beats any marketing.

What Peter says about samples is critical ... Many years ago I had my first website, full of information and the first thing brides asked was "Where are the samples" .. Luckily I did a wedding for my niece as a wedding gift and a high light video embedded into the site worked wonders .. I got bookings based on just the one sample but with bookings I could then add more samples and it went from there.

Make sure you have at least one example of your work on your site, even if it is a freebie ...it's all part of the marketing process as very few brides will book you based on fancy text descriptions

The most powerful marketing help still is word of mouth so the more weddings you shoot the more brides will be attracted to your work! For me online wedding sites with on good ad still work the best to attract brides to your site but you still need some content on there too!

Chris

Also with your samples include relevant text about the venue/s - sometimes brides will search for wedding videos also using the name of the venue/s

Thanks for the advice, something that I can look into. Appreciate it.