Creating a Submission Strategy and Making the Most out of a Feature

Getting published for the first time is one of those milestone moments for a wedding pro. It’s exciting, makes you feel like you have made it, and helps put your brand in front of lots of new eyes. And, while one might assume that the press translates into a flood of inquiries, that isn’t always the case. Because, even though getting published can do wonders for your brand, it won’t if you aren’t getting published in the right place and then doing the work to make the most out of the feature. Today, then, I wanted to help you get more than just bragging rights out of your submissions. Read on for advice on how to develop a submission strategy for yourself as well as how to capitalize on the buzz.

How to Develop a Submission Strategy

Any press is good press but it won’t convert if you don’t have a plan. So, before you ever hit submit, you need to put a plan in place. And, creating a submission strategy isn’t time consuming or complicated—you just need to document a process and ask yourself a few questions.

“What is my goal?”
Sure, you want to get published but is your goal to build your brand or book clients? If you are looking to build your brand, you can cast a wider net in terms of where you would consider submitting your gallery since you are really just after the press. However, if you are submitting your work because you hope to end up with leads in your inbox, then you need to be very intentional about where you send things. Do your potential clients:

• Go to national wedding blogs for more than just inspiration?


• Buy hard copies of wedding magazines?


• Attend local wedding shows?


• Pick up local wedding magazines or read local blogs?

Depending on who your ideal couple is, where they do their vendor research should be the number one thing to consider when matching a publication to your goal. Create a list of publications you feel confident are going to put you in front of couples who have the right budget, aesthetic, etc. You might even consider organizing that list by your services or package to really tailor your strategy.

“Is the design and timing the right fit?”
Most publications work like fashion houses, meaning they work well ahead of the season because of print deadlines. So, in addition to making sure that the overall aesthetic of your submission fits the publication’s aesthetic, you also want to make sure you are timing your submission correctly. Are you:

• Submitting ahead of the season the gallery is a fit for?


• Doing your homework to make sure they haven’t recently published something similar?

Pro-tip: Work submissions into your internal workflow or have a monthly standing appointment on your calendar. That way, you can ensure that you are regularly submitting and are able to stay ahead of the seasons.

Create your Submission Process

Just like other parts of your business, having a documented process for submitting your work makes it easier to do (even when you are in the middle of wedding season). So, document your submission process somewhere convenient and create a checklist or form that overviews:

• Who is actually going to submit the gallery. If someone on the vendor team advertises with the publication you want to submit to or has previously been published there, you want to consider tapping them as the lead. Identifying and communicating a submission lead to the team will also ensure that the gallery isn’t submitted elsewhere (creating a conflict)


• The information you need to collect from each vendor. This is at minimum their website urls and Instagram handles and it is good practice to get contact emails as well


• How the photographer will get the gallery to the submitter as well as who is selecting the images for submission
  Who will do the write up or a process to get important details from certain vendors

Pro-tip: LBB members get to quick submit their galleries without needing to prep a full submission—a huge time saver!

How to Build Buzz When You Get Featured

First off—woot woot! Getting featured is really exciting and definitely something to celebrate! And, when you get one of those “Congratulations, we’d love to feature your submission,” emails, it’s time to rally the team and build buzz. Just like you’ll have a submission strategy moving forward, you’ll want to have a PR strategy as well (one that is documented so you can use it time and time again).

A PR strategy for you might put together for your features is very similar to a content distribution strategy you might develop for your blog. And, it might go a little something like this:

Pro-tip: If you know the date the feature will go live, send this plan to the vendor team so everyone has time to prepare. You can even send them a calendar invite so they get a reminder the day of.

• Like and comment on the post on the publication’s Instagram feed


• Share your own post on Instagram and put the vendor team in the comments and tag them in the post (you can tag the couple too!); put the link in your profile or using something like Linkin. Bio or Linktree


• Share a story on Instagram and tag the vendor team so they can quickly reshare the story if they are not creating their own


• If the publication shares pins from the gallery on their Pinterest account, repin them onto one of your relevant boards; if they did not but you can pin images directly from the feature on their website, do that
  If neither of those are available to you, create 5-10 pins to pin on relevant boards you have on your Pinterest account and link them to the feature (use the publication’s name and a keyword in the image file name, pin title, and pin description)


• If the publication shared the feature on their Facebook page, share that post (it helps to boost how many people see it); if not, share the link to the feature on your Facebook page
  Share the link on your Linkedin profile (if the content is relevant to that audience)