Weddings by Chris Leary Photography
www.chrislearyweddings.com
 "After years of being a one-man show, it was such a relief to be able to work with Sūmèr on Life after Launch. I never realized that a small company, such as mine, could benefit from ongoing PR campaigns."
-- Chris Leary, Weddings by Chris Leary Photography |
Customer Profile: 
Weddings by Chris Leary Photography specializes in capturing weddings for couples who desire creative photography that transcends the standard-posed approach. Located in New York, NY, Weddings by Chris Leary Photography's goal is to capture a creative portrait that defines the essence of every wedding day and every couple. Chris Leary's photographs paint the couple's big day in a candid documentary style of wedding photojournalism.
Challenge:
With the past two wedding seasons seeing a huge drop in business, Weddings by Chris Leary Photography was down from a typical wedding year of 25-30 weddings to 12-15 for the last two seasons. Chris attributed the decline to the down economy. He also found that, while his work is top-of-the-line, price became the number one factor in his leads. Also, with his increased workload to try to attract new business, he had little time to market and promote on his own, and his inconsistent efforts produced little results. Another challenge was Chris's blog, which he had started years prior without understanding how it fit into his overall marketing campaign and which never yielded substantial traffic.
Solution: 
Sūmèr created a comprehensive Life after Launch campaign to promote Chris's work, expertise, and services. Our goal was to drive targeted traffic to Chris's website and blog and to increase his overall online exposure. Reaching out to key wedding bloggers for wedding and engagement photo features was essential, as these wedding bloggers have a huge sphere of influence. In addition, we coached Chris on the essential components of his blog, such as content, plug-ins, and setup. We worked with Chris to develop a blog editorial schedule and taught him how to search engine optimize his posts.
Results:
In three months, Chris's news clips rose steadily, resulting in a 33% increase in Twitter mentions, 29% increase in blog mentions, and 25% increase in blog features, including seven coveted photo features on key blogs such as Swanky Chicks, Perfect Bound, Beantown Bride, One Wed, and African American Bride. His work is has also appeared in the recently launched book, The Successful Wedding Photographer.
As a result of our efforts and Chris' efforts, inquiries have increased, and he is reporting at least one prospect inquiry a day. As a direct result of the increased web traffic, he has seen an increase in appointments and is meeting couples twice a week, on average, to talk about their wedding photography. Chris attributes this to our messaging efforts: his online message now states that clients really need to meet him and talk about their needs.
Chris's blog was revised to reflect a sleeker aesthetic and user-friendly setup. He began to post more consistently, and blog content was diversified to include guest blogs from leading wedding industry professionals. As a result, blog traffic has steadily risen each month.
Benefits of Life After Launch - In the client's words:
"I'm getting the blogging exposure I've always wanted, and web traffic is up. I'm getting many inquiries for weddings in 2011, and I have already booked one wedding for 2011 and have a couple of strong leads that I believe may result in contracts.
Working with the Sūmèr team, I have received targeted and professionally written promotion materials for my company and help re-creating my blog, and I am able to spend my time doing what I do best: photographing weddings. You have gone out of your way to understand my company's needs in an increasingly competitive online market and have gone the extra mile to generate online exposure for my business."
"My advice for anyone considering Sūmèr's Life after Launch services—don't be afraid to take off one of your hats and let an expert help you run your business. It's a relief having a service you don't have to manage."