Are Photography Contests Worth It?

There’s a lot that goes into running a successful wedding photography business—behind the camera and behind the scenes. In fact, your post-production workflow is just as important as capturing those unforgettable wedding day moments. On top of tasks like responding to emails and editing, every photographer should be frequently submitting their work to photography contests.

You might be wondering, are photography contests actually worth it? Our answer in short is yes. Photo contests aren’t about vanity or bragging rights—well maybe a little. But mostly they’re a smart business decision that puts you in front of a new audience, motivates you to evaluate your work, and gives your SEO a boost.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned industry professional, photography contests are extremely valuable to the growth of your business—seriously. We’re breaking down how photography contests will benefit your wedding photography business here.

Photo by Carol Oliva Photography

Use A Photography Contest to Increase Exposure To Your Work

Submitting your work to contests is an easy way to expand your reach and grow your social media audience—which means more clients. Getting featured as a photo contest winner is your introduction to a new global audience. If reaching more interesting clients is your goal, winning contests is an awesome way to achieve it.

Photography Contests Give You Credibility

With a contest winner badge on your website, you automatically set yourself apart from other photographers. Winning photography contests adds credibility to you, your images, and your website. It’s an extra added bonus that’ll help transform website viewers into loyal customers.

Self Evaluation Through A Photography Contest

Submitting to contests presents the perfect opportunity to do a deep evaluation of your work. Gathering all of your favorite photos might help you discover that most of your couples look the same, so it’s time to reach a more diverse audience.

You could have a variety of great portraits, but not many moments you’d like to share. Or realize that your editing needs more consistency. So no, we don’t think that winning a photo contest makes you a better photographer, but the process of evaluating your work on a regular basis will.

Receive Outside Feedback

If you want to keep growing as a wedding photographer, we can’t stress the importance of receiving feedback. Feedback from different perspectives like clients, other photographers, and contest judges will give you many perspectives on your work. In turn, this will give you opportunities to grow! Negative and positive feedback is crucial to the growth of any business.

Photo by Ender Ozcati

Use The Photography Contest To Boost Your SEO

Say hello to the front page of Google. Getting featured in a popular photo contest gives you great SEO juice. Your Google rankings will increase when credible sites are linking to you.

“I have entered Junebug Weddings’ photo competitions for the last three years and have been lucky enough to be featured in the winning collections for the past three years. To say being featured in the collection helped my business is an understatement. Not only did it gain me a lot of exposure, but it also got me so many amazing backlinks to big websites, which has been invaluable for my SEO and has allowed my Google ranking to increase significantly. I was even featured in the national news in New Zealand (on the front page of their app) which led to a lot of people in my home country seeing what I do. I have been completely blown away by the response to being a winner in this competition. iIt has been so worth the tiny entry fee in terms of the marketing opportunities it has given me.” – Bethany Howarth

Feature Your Work In Our Monthly Photo Challenge Round-ups

After seeing all the benefits of a photography contest, what are you waiting for? If you haven’t ever submitted to a photography contest and aren’t sure where to begin, check out our Photobug Community Facebook group where we host monthly challenges. Doing this will get you more experience and exposure in a group of other wedding photographers.

Photo by Mohit Jaura Photography

We love featuring the work of photographers and videographers from the Photobug Community. For a chance to be featured in next month’s photo challenge round-up, be sure to join our Photobug Community Facebook and follow us on Instagram for updates.

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