Getting your work published on your favorite wedding blogs feels wonderful, doesn’t it? Besides that amazing feeling of accomplishment, having your work published and promoted to engaged couples can be one of the most effective tools in your marketing toolkit. So how do you keep up the momentum and get published more?
For starters, consistency is key. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks of owning a business, but it’s crucial that you leave time in your schedule, even in your busy season, to prepare and submit features to wedding publications. Even if you’re entirely booked for the current wedding season, getting your work published on wedding blogs throughout the year yields awesome SEO benefits for your website and keeps your brand fresh and in the minds of couples planning their weddings. If you don’t have time yourself, consider hiring a part-time assistant to handle wedding submissions, social media, etc.
Aside from consistency in terms of frequency of submission, it’s also imperative that you maintain your brand’s voice and aesthetic in your submissions. The key to doing so is to research the wedding blogs that best fit with your ideal client. There are more than just a handful of wedding blogs now (in fact, there are hundreds of amazing sites with their own unique niche audiences), so spread your submissions around to a variety of blogs that match your brand. You also don’t want to inundate a single blog with all of your submissions unless you have a great rapport with the editor and/or advertise with them.
One of the most important things you can do to get published more, however, is to follow each blog’s submission guidelines and exclusivity policies! It seems like a no-brainer, but how you present your submission is every bit as important to an editor as the content of your submission. Addressing the blogger by name, saving images in the correct size and format, and providing full vendor credits are just a few ways you can ensure that your submission gets an editor’s attention.
Wedding bloggers spend an average of 2 to 3 hours on each and every wedding feature; that includes time to review the submission, select and format the images, write the feature and verify that all the vendors are credited, not to mention promoting and tagging on social media! That’s why it’s crucial that you follow submission guidelines if you want to get published. It shows thoughtfulness and respect for the editor – two things that go a very long way in establishing a fantastic working relationship.
On a similar note, if you’ve been published with a blog before and want to work together again, here are a few things you can do to guarantee the blogger will want to publish your work in the future. The first is the easiest: say “thank you”! Acknowledging that you saw and appreciated the feature lets the blogger know that you value the publicity.
To take it one step further, promote the heck out of the feature on social media! You got published, so toot your own horn – and be sure to tag the wedding blog in your updates. Celebrate each and every feature equally, no matter the size of the blog. Nothing is more disappointing to a wedding blog editor than to see a vendor celebrating features on other blogs but not their own.
Lastly, if the blog offers a “featured on” badge, add it to your website! Not only does it look great to couples considering hiring you, but it’s also beneficial from an SEO standpoint.
These simple steps may seem like common sense, but if you follow them all, you’ll stand out in a wedding blogger’s mind as a top-notch vendor, and the features will just keep coming your way!
Originally published on the HoneyBook blog.