Since Screaming Light has been participating in the Open Source Photo forum, attending more conferences, and networking more with other photographers, both local and nationwide, we've noticed a few trends in the industry, we've been subject to a lot more peer review and critiques, and we've become much better photographers. In a spirit of giving back, this section of our website is a portal to information for other photographers, regardless of specialty, and other wedding professionals, with whom wedding photographers share a lot of similarities. It also serves as a sort of online scrap-book, where we comment on people commenting on us, tutorial collection, where we link to tutorials we've found useful, and general repository of information we've found useful and think you might too.
Trends in Marketing: Las Cruces and El Paso
Posted on January 5, 2009
Christine at ThinkLikeABride has just put her finger on some of the issues facing all of us as small business owners. Her article, called Personal Engagement Marketing (I found it on the Read More section of her site), hits close to home.
When I first started in this business the single best way to market yourself was through personal engagement with your customers. That meant one thing: Bridal Shows.
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We all loved bridal shows because we got to talk to the brides. We got to show our personality and our passion. In truth, it was about the only way to market. Oh there was the Yellow Pages and maybe one local magazine put out annually by the newspaper, but other than that there was little else.
That is exactly where Las Cruces and El Paso are right now. Christine’s talking about something that she saw 10 years ago, but in many respects, Las Cruces and El Paso are just now starting to embrace these trends. We have the “How to Wed in Las Cruces” guide, published every January by the Bulletin; we’re just starting to see some local wedding magazines, although as yet none of them are high-quality enough to mention by name, and none of them has a website to link to.
If today’s bride isn’t using her time to read periodicals or watch mindless TV what the heck is she doing with all those freed up hours? She is sitting in front of her broadband connection talking to friends all over the world in one window, shopping in another and looking for advice in a third. All while playing around in a graphics program working on her save the date cards.
So what you’re saying is that today’s bride is just like us? Let’s see… Facebook? Yeah, it’s open… Photoshop? Check. Twhirl, Mail, iCal? Check, check, check…. All while I’m writing a blog post? Bingo! Sounds like she works the same way I do.
Even with these advances in personal engagement online, in many respects, there’s just no substitute for meeting your brides face-to-face in as many ways as possible. Bridal shows are the best way we’ve found to get the attention of unplugged brides. We reinforce the time-tested methods with Facebook (check out our fan page), Twitter, and all the other high-tech communications solutions we use in our day-to-day lives, but we’re always available for some f2f time, especially with the unplugged bride.
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What’s in a logo?
Posted on December 14, 2008
A logo is possibly the single most important part of marketing your business.
When you’re investigating starting your own business, you hear this repeated until it becomes a mantra: Business Name, Website (URL), Logo. I’ll address business name and URL later; this post is all about the logo. What the heck is so important about the logo? (All of this holds true whether you’re just starting out, or re-branding your business, so even if you have a logo already, read on.) Why your logo matters »»
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Review: Some Comments on Bridal Shows
Posted on December 13, 2008
Some comments Jason made concerning how to get the most exposure out of bridal shows, and our photo of last year’s booth, were apparently useful enough that Christine Boulton of The Agency at ThinkLikeABride.com posted a review, and the photo. Guess we should’ve moved the cat off the sofa before we published that photo, huh? Read it! (While you’re there, check out the rest of the series on marketing at bridal shows; lots of useful info in a great series of articles! Thanks Christine!)
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Chistine December 14, 2008 6:53 am UTC
Hey there, thanks for the link love.
No, King Edward is what makes the photo!!
Thanks for the shout out. I’m just now starting to catch up after my recent bridal show incident. LOL