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This post was written by Christopher Lin. Chris is the co-founder of Lin and Jirsa, an award-winning Los Angeles wedding photography and cinematography studio founded in 2006. Chris has used his marketing, SEO and business expertise to help build Lin and Jirsa into a company that shoots over 300 weddings annually serviced by over 30 talented creatives. Along the way, Chris and his two business partners also created SLR Lounge, where an international team of writers and photographers share their education with the community.

Pinterest and weddings are a perfect marriage; brides and grooms need a place to gather and share ideas and Pinterest provides that perfect, pretty, organized platform.

But as wedding professionals, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. Whether you’re a photographer, florist, planner, or any other wedding vendor, you’ve probably all had clients send you links, saying, “I want something that looks like this,” with a link to a board they created. So how do you take advantage of this situation to drive traffic to your website? For our photography studio, Lin and Jirsa, we receive around 12% of our traffic from Pinterest, as you can see in the screenshot of our Google Analytics below:

Here are the 4 simple steps to getting more traffic from Pinterest (modified from our book, Photography SEO and Web Marketing):

Step 1: Upload Images to Your Blog or Website

Pinterest can drive a ton of traffic to your site because the images on Pinterest are linked directly to the site from which it is originally pinned. So, the first step is to upload images featuring your work on to your blog or website. Do not upload images directly to Pinterest, because then you lose the link value.

Step 2: Add The Ability to “Pin” Directly On Your Website

If your website is on WordPress, there are plugins like Pinterest Pin It Button. If you’re on Squarespace, follow these instructions here. Every content management system should have an easy solution. If you can’t figure it out, hire an expert – this is an investment worth making. Continue reading →

Christopher Lin, Lin & Jirsa Photography This post was written by Christopher Lin. Chris is the co-founder of Lin and Jirsa, an award-winning Los Angeles wedding photography and cinematography studio founded in 2006. Chris has used his marketing, SEO and business expertise to help build Lin and Jirsa into a company that shoots over 300 weddings annually serviced by over 30 talented creatives. Along the way, Chris and his two business partners also created SLR Lounge, where an international team of writers and photographers share their education with the community.

Having consistent referrals from wedding planners, florists, DJs, videographers, makeup artists, and other wedding vendors can make a huge impact on your photography business. In fact, it’s not uncommon to encounter photographers that rely solely on the referrals from two to three wedding planners for most of their bookings.

How do these photographers establish such a strong, beneficial relationship? It starts by making all the professionals involved in the wedding happy; and here are 6 ways that wedding photographers can do just that:

1. Provide Images Immediately. Preempt the other professionals asking for images by sending them out to them as soon as they are ready. At Lin and Jirsa, we have our blogger personally call each one to let them know that the images are on the way. The feedback from this method has been overwhelmingly positive, since the other pros can better plan their blog posts, real wedding submissions, and more.

Lin & Jirsa provides watermarked images to all vendors as soon as they are ready within one month of the wedding.

2. Give Social Media and Blog Credit. When we first started out 8 years ago, we didn’t think much of giving credit to the vendors involved when posting to social media or our blog. It takes a lot of work hunting down every vendor, and we were very understaffed at the time. However, since we’ve started taking the time to find each vendor and mention them on our blog and social media, our shares have increased as well as our referrals. Create a spreadsheet to keep track of each vendor’s Facebook URL, Instagram handle, Twitter handle, and email address – it will come in handy! As a photographer, you may have done an excellent job capturing the details of the wedding, but these other vendors made that possible with their artistry and hard work. A shout out goes a very long way, and a failure to mention someone can even be seen as a sign of disrespect. Continue reading →

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