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Blog Post Ideas for Content Marketing

ideas that extend past just the classic I shot a wedding all right let's go through some of the other things that we can do obviously I'd even list when you shoot something there's a story there there's maybe multiple stories and you can block about that that's great but what about all the other stuff that you can talk about because I do think it's important that you don't just block about every shoot you're doing and stop short of it we talked about I remember who we're talking about with but oh in the chat rooms we're talking about you know the mountain weddings and the ability to talk more about you know tips for experience in the mountains I love that that's a great idea great way to take your authentic message and apply it toa who you're speaking to um okay so siri's syria or something that we start to do a lot of shoot dot at it and they've been a huge hit it gives us an opportunity to talk about something that we know photographers really want and value and syria or something th...

at all of you can be doing so he goes over to the block it shoot dot at it you can see we have I think twenty I think we have eighteen or twenty of these now and it is top five tips and then it's a siri's of things that professional wedding photographers have is a challenge and so we do a big serious about that and we try to pull out the top five areas that they can improve on that one specific topic right away it's a siri's that we've done um at obama photographers bombing lunch was really a series it was a serious we started it wasn't about any of the ones we shop it was a siri's um I don't want to feel the thunder but I know the young grins when they get up here and talk on on wednesday we'll probably touch on some of the siri's that they've started they have a lot of successful siri's on their block um siri's are a great way for you to talk about different things you can go through and identify all the different areas you can talk about all the different paint points that your customers might have in the form of a siri's so what's a great example of serious for a wedding photographer you know you could go through the different types of uh let's see that everywhere what is it the a siri's basically interviewing different vendors at each step along the way of the wedding process you could just do a series on details at a wedding how to select details you could do a series on picking your colors and how to pick your colors you could do a siri's where you interviewed past brides and asked him what was the one thing they wish they'd known before they got engaged that could be a whole siri's five or six interviews with five or six past brides there's all sorts of siri's you guys going put together to add content and as long as it's driven towards your target market solving their problems then it's gonna be a great siri's number two is guest post so again this is thing we've done a lot of guests as she got at it and we just started it recently and it's it's really it's been great so we're gonna continue to more of it some of the siri's that we've done with guests cia we combined siri's with guest post so we've got a guest siri's it's building both one and two finding great shooting locations balancing your business and a baby these are things that we know our target market pro wedding photographers are struggling with they it might not be struggling with it right now but they might be struggling with it down the road but it's something that they have identified to us as a need that they have and through guest post we can get an expert to talk about it rather than just us so it expert can come in and talk about and that's really how you want to frame that is as an expert coming in stories so telling stories on the blogged behind every image is a story now I keep saying this I knew years have heard me say it behind every images of story tell stories it's hard to flex that muscle I get it we're photographers or not usedto having to talk about her images I'll tell you what the most impactful thing that you can do is to actually put words behind those images um I love when I heard job using speak about how he meets with couples he just takes a new image and brings it up it's a mounted image and he just tells the story behind the image when he's done he puts it down there's another image he just tells the story behind the image doesn't talk about the image he talks about the story behind the image and he just does that with twenty five thousand hundred photos and just tell stories and everybody who's seen joe talk knows he knows how to tell a story gets you to lean in he's good that way you won't know what what a great model for all of us tell the story behind the image I get it we're photographers it's more natural festive disco shoot more images but you need to tell the story behind the image remember guys content marketing is so great for photographers because we already have that content there for us we've already gone out shot it now you to do is tell the story behind the image really powerful stuff really is when you begin to flex that muscle you can really tell stories in a manner that help give the context what you're trying to save your target market number four our contests seems like a bit of a deviation but contests are a great way to use your blawg to drive traffic to your target market contests are fantastic in areas to dr attention but also to get people to continually share your other content interesting how having a contest on your blogger will get people to read all the other parts of your vlog and go to all your website and stuff because it drives so much attention justin mary marantz I think that is really well they have a blawg comment contest so when they're done on they published a wedding on their block they encouraged the couple to drive as many people to the bloggers possible that more comets to get the more they can win prince things like that and it drives people to go the blawg and it drives for that interact with the block it could be really wonderful has a good effect and then the people that air there start to engage in the rest of their content they go to their website they read other blawg posts they get involved and they get integrated and so it's really wonderful because it allows for people that are also their target market member your couples of your target market no other couples they tend to hang out with people of the same birds of a feather flock together right and so this is a great way so use your blawg content to get more of your target market to your block and then interact inside your website and saw your block inside of all those things okay so what I want to do is I want to kind of quickly go around the room here I want to ask you guys for some ideas you have right now to top your head after hearing some of this that you can do on your block to add to it some areas you could expand upon you might not have your target market perfectly defined that's okay but when I want to hear from each of you are different ideas you have for how you can use your blawg to better intersect and member blawg equals brand in action so how can you take your blawg and come up with a new idea teo share stories to use contest to use siri's to just use your weddings to tell stories that attract your target market so lets see which side shall we start with you want to start with you trina you mentioned something that I've been thinking about for a long time and just haven't done it yet but is interviewing other vendors but it also goes back to the whole solving a problem for someone they're not necessarily my clients these vendors but they also have problems like you know the florist has the bride that want to do the do it yourself and aren't going to them so I can have you know interview the florist about why it's important to go with the professional four so I'm solving a problem for them you know and maybe getting referrals and return and also helping the bride understand the process of hiring a florist and why it's important to go with the professional I think it's great when you incorporate other vendors because you know the wonderful symbiotic relationship of including people is that that ben is probably going to share it with all of their followers too and they're going to go and publish it out there and they're going to put it in front of their vendors another great wait you can really focus in on the interviews is to make sure that the interview itself has to do with what your target market is wanting in a florist in a you know me and it's going to be it's going to depend greatly obviously if you're a mountain bride versus a beach bride versus you know a bride who is you know if your target market is best suited for tattooed brides for the decadent bride you know these are all different areas and so the florals are going to be very different for outdoor mountain wedding versus a decadent over the top wedding you know in a wonderfully exotic location and so you can really even start to focus and taylor your interviews to really target your your market that you know you're talking market they're great well I'm pretty lacking in the blogging so that's gonna be one of my little things I take care about this but you're looking in the pants but I I like time all about educating and because I think that for me um sometimes I'm my bride's air disappointed say they choose to have a ceremony at four o'clock on august when it's bright and its people are squinting so I'd like to dio something where it kind of educates them on lighting and some stuff that they could be maybe proactive more about what would you say is they're planning what would you say they're disappoint at the is it too hot to sonny's nineteen it might maybe half the ceremonies and shade and halfs and bright light so not maybe their vision of beautiful even lighting so there's a problem you think that they know they have or is it a problem we don't even know that I don't think they know they have that we don't even know they have no so you gotta be proactive so that solves it before you can use your image is to tell about that you can interview past couples to talk about it you can provide me that's a great guide idea right there yeah I mean even going morse in the blood but here's how guides get started with what we'll talk about it with guides guides get built off a block post our first guy that she thought it was how to grow your wedding photography business it's still our most popular guide you go downloaded at that she died dot com for free and it is our most popular guide to this day you want was built off of a year's worth of blawg post in helping photographers grow their business that's the great thing about blogging is that that's where guides come from that's where your ideas who e mail come from and then by the way once you're done with that it also khun turned into a wonderful website fodder and website content hall creates this wonderful circle so so you can start doing some blogger post on it and then down the road without even have to do much extra work you already have the makings of a guide and now that guide gets intersected with your couples after the book you before they even know they have this problem of what time to pick a ceremony that's great I think it's wonderful yeah that is a big problem to no one realizes that four o'clock in the afternoon on a summer saturday brings with it a whole host of problems like your addressed like this and you're going to sweat a time that's one thing I always the guys every single time I would shoot a wedding the guys would be like man he's tux is are awful I'm like yeah you're in like four layers and it's like the middle of a summer saturday there's so many things that spin out of that it's a great topic great barbara I don't have the block but when I do I I was thinking about I'm still tourney about my category which one what of my portrait work is the one I want to focus on but if I'm both families and seniors I have some of this exact same issues and that's clothing so first I thought oh I could do one about you know what the guy needs to bring and on dh shot for and you know tell him ok you don't want to do this your mother's insisting here's here's what you can do to tell her and all make sure you get what you want and then maybe do like stay tuned you know we're going to the gallows next week or something like that some kind of syriza clothing or if it was families it could be you know okay you want the really bright modern look or you want a classic look what's the difference and how to make those choices and by the way to go you know you could interest to see everybody else's I guess a lot of what you're talking about two and this this touches back on something you were saying that sometimes when they don't know they have a problem but it is a problem in what helps is to kind of lean in in that opening paragraph of that opening area and kind of remind them that you understand this is a pain point kind of flush it out a little bit so they could go oh my gosh they're right this does kind of stink I hadn't thought about that yes we do it to make a decision about what time the wedding ceremony is and uh yes we do have to pick out outfits from you you know for the session and I don't know where to start with that my mom chipping in my ear about what she wants me to wear and I got this and that it's not leaning in a little bit when you're writing it in the beginning will really help them I understand why they needed more on really lean in to say I do need to know about this okay let's do this and then you educate them and now that trust is going up and then trust more trust you build you know it's just that's where that's where all the social currency comes from the buying currency the ability to connect with them that trust is started right there when you start to solve their problem probably maybe they don't even know they have just that something is easy is amplifying publishing just take a screen grab of a blogger post like a national editorial block post I know that you've been published somewhere else and say a few words about that and what would that be doing uh giving expert positioning um show that it's you know valued elsewhere beyond just yourself saying it's a great wedding and things like that I wouldn't even try toe try to focus on what makes that publication unique and the things that they chose in your wedding and why they chose the feature it putting the words behind what the accolade is you know oftentimes accolades are good but they might not be known outside of our industry you know and so you can even take that a step further by kind of explaining of flushing out the details that go into that accolade and why that that actually matters you know why that why that's important I think it's great that because if you have those accolades oftentimes we get exactly what we don't really know to do with um we don't know how to feature them we don't learn how to share about them and so giving yourself the opportunity to talk about it in a manner that really educates the client on why you're so good at that is a really powerful way on the block teo bring that to light the feedback from editors I found us you know they're trying to traffic to their sites as well so they always appreciate it any extra missed you can give them socially process cap yep exactly social reciprocity fire it was an athlete and outdoor enthusiast living in bend oregon which is a mountain town I you know I looked back and I think about all these clients that we have that are also adventurous types they're uh athletic adventure is professionals and so I think well I could do a siri's on how to stay fit before your wedding uh when you don't have a lot of time has much time think about the trunk club and think about how great of a model they set for us in all go dive into the truck club because they just do a really great job of really highly focused content like had a full day you know how to fold your I don't even what they call that your pocket square it seems so simple how to fold your pocket square had a pick cuff links all these little things because there's so focus it sounds like you're able tto have that real focus professional outdoor enthusiasts that's a pretty small market but in bend oregon it's the it's the world's playground for that kind of stuff it's great I still haven't been to bend I really want to go there so we don't do weddings someone listed significantly different but we do things for like amazing local businesses that we adore and support that kind of stuff the reciprocity stuff we talk a lot about parenting and went to feed your kids and those kinds of things because it's more r genre one that's a thing so let's have a little bit more what kind of things can you talk about for parents that could help them out that can solve real problems that they're having we struggle so our kids are older now but you know like even taking your kids to dinner five years ago or seven years ago was a really difficult thing where we are and so there were a couple specific mom and pop restaurants that we could go to and be comfortable and not have to worry about scaring off the other people and you know that kind of stuff so there's probably process you had to go through turn that understand that there was probably a process where one of my crazy I can't find my way home when you can take my kids to just you know you tipped them like an extra twenty bucks yeah great and then russ I'm sure you've got some people who are virtually our timing is absolutely one of the ones that has been mentioned a couple times is video doing and actually well interviews in particular interviews with experts in a field that's related to what you do is a good way to do it and they were questioning whether you would recommend doing a video interview or written interview with a few photos both both we always briefly about video as a potential for block I'd love to that and you know it's funny because I it's like on the back burner listed if I have time and I'm glad that we brought it up video is is rapidly becoming the most one of most predominant content vehicles there is you know you have been the number two number two number three I'm not sure if fluctuates last I checked it was number two but it does bounce back and with the number two search engine is uh is youtube people search on youtube almost as much as google and more than any other platform in the world facebook if you notice have you noticed your news feed get chock full of videos lately facebook has determined that you like watching videos more than you like anything else waken lied to them about whether right or wrong but you know they've got a lot of money and a lot of people behind figuring this stuff out video is one of the best way's to intersect what you do with not only current culture but the way they consume it I talked about this a little bit when I spoke a little while back a w p p I because I'm good friends with roy from triple scoop music and roy is ah musician by trade and has now started building license free music on dh again no affiliation I don't have any affiliation with them but I just love talk with roy about the power that music has to influence images and the way people interpret images and roy has spent a lifetime trying to understand the power that music has when it's put in combination with photos I think it's really interesting because I hadn't thought about it much but that's what video gives you the power to do is the power to put video started power put your images along with written and spoken words and along with the power that music brings and you can't do that in any other medium um so the problem is getting video done well but the great thing is in a lot of symbiotic relationships for photographers and videographers and some think it's a great a great union to really explore a lot of on dh two really dive into as a marketer I think you really should try to be getting your message out there your authentic brand message with video as much as possible certainly when you publish it on facebook on youtube it really catches on a life of its own you can embedded in your block and so that's a great way to share it on your block and then you can use facebook and all these other mechanisms to share that video we're gonna talk tomorrow about how to share video on facebook itself but if it is a fantastic way live interviews voiceovers all those sorts of things are fantastic and I want to make sure to reiterate that the website is the first impression now again I don't really want to get in I understand some for sometimes people the bloggers that first time they see you and they moved their website on the web site could be the first thing they see any of the blawg but the bottom line is the website is really that first impression because it's a collection it's where your brand lives it's the home and it's the if you go at it it's it's the image and not the story behind the image so going that example of we have image we can publish on our block and the story behind the image the website really is the image you know if we look at it that way it's the image uh yeah good going back to dating okay going back to dating um remember how we how much time and effort we spent preparing for that first date we had you know me with their significant other would not we meticulously planned out what we were wearing we've been meticulously planned out where we were going to meticulously planned out what we were doing that night what with the different things we're going to do and you know what that said a lot about us what we chose toe where what we chose to do that said a lot about us we knew that was that was the image we report train did you pull up in a bmw or you pull up in a toyota corolla did you go to a fancy dinner and a movie or did you go to aa baseball game and a beer and hot dogs did you wear a sport coat and blazers or did you come in jeans and a t shirt these are all things that we project and that's like our website light our website is like our brand's image it's like it's like the I don't know I guess going back to it it is the first impression but we all know that inside of the date what really makes a date successful and wonderful is the conversations that happen inside it's the interaction it's learning that you guys both went to the same high school and you never knew each other it's discovering that you both camped for your entire life and both your families had ten trailers you never knew it is discovering all the little nuances that make that person special the things that actually create the stick the things that make the first impression not matter anymore it's all those stupid little things that we have that we interact with that make the first date turned into the second date and a third date and more and more and more and that's what we need we can't just survive on that first impression alone on our first date our second date that impression one gets us so far there has to be that connection the blogger is that connection the blawg are the stories in between inside the first date inside of all the impressions were trying to keep up and make so you're blawg is where you flush out this story lines that impact your brand the bloggers where you really connect whereas the website is where you model your message