Chat GPT-4 for Wedding Photographers

If you’ve heard how amazing Chat GPT-4 from OpenAI is but had no idea what you can actually use it for as a wedding photographer, here’s how our virtual assistants are using it.

Writing Blogs to improve SEO

This is probably the most obvious use case, but it wasn’t so obvious how to go about it. This is the process our Virtual Assistants use to help their wedding photographers

Step 1. Ask Chat GPT-4 to brainstorm blog articles

First, let Chat GPT-4 know about the wedding photographer’s business, then ask it to come up with 10 different blog article ideas. Here’s the answers it gave for a wedding photography business in the Yarra Valley:

Certainly! Here are ten blog post ideas that can help you attract potential clients considering getting married in the Yarra Valley:

1. “The Ultimate Guide to Planning a Yarra Valley Wedding: Tips, Tricks, and Insider Advice”
   • Provide an in-depth guide on planning a wedding in the Yarra Valley, including venue selection, local vendors, and a timeline for preparations.
2. “The Most Romantic Yarra Valley Wedding Locations: From Vineyards to Historic Estates”
   • Showcase a selection of stunning wedding locations in the Yarra Valley, highlighting the unique features and romantic atmosphere of each venue.
3. “Yarra Valley Wedding Budget Breakdown: How to Plan Your Dream Wedding without Breaking the Bank”
   • Offer advice on budgeting for a Yarra Valley wedding, including cost-saving tips and suggestions for prioritizing expenses.
4. “The Top 5 Yarra Valley Wedding Trends for [Year]: From Décor to Photography Styles”
   • Discuss the latest wedding trends in the Yarra Valley, providing inspiration for couples planning their big day.
5. “Capturing the Essence of Your Yarra Valley Wedding: A Wedding Photographer’s Perspective”
   • Share your insights and experiences as a wedding photographer in the Yarra Valley, offering tips on capturing the perfect moments and selecting the right photographer.
6. “Yarra Valley Winery Weddings: A Comprehensive Guide to the Region’s Best Wine Estates for Your Special Day”
   • Present a curated list of the top winery wedding venues in the Yarra Valley, detailing the unique features and services each location offers.
7. “The Art of Wedding Storytelling: How to Create a Lasting Memory of Your Yarra Valley Wedding”
   • Discuss the importance of storytelling in wedding photography, offering tips for couples on how to collaborate with their photographer to create a beautiful visual narrative.
8. “Sustainable Weddings in the Yarra Valley: How to Plan an Eco-Friendly Celebration”
   • Provide suggestions for couples looking to reduce the environmental impact of their wedding, including eco-friendly venue options, catering, and décor ideas.
9. “A Seasonal Guide to Yarra Valley Weddings: What to Expect and How to Prepare”
   • Offer insights on the pros and cons of each season for weddings in the Yarra Valley, including weather considerations, venue availability, and seasonal inspirations.
10. “Real Yarra Valley Weddings: Inspiring Stories and Stunning Photos from Local Couples”
    • Share case studies and testimonials from couples who have held their weddings in the Yarra Valley, featuring beautiful photos and personal stories that provide inspiration for prospective clients.

Step 2. Get Chat GPT-4 to write a blog outline

Next, pick one of the blog article ideas you like the sound of and ask it to create a blog outline of that idea. Here is what it wrote for us:

Title: The Ultimate Guide to Planning a Yarra Valley Wedding: Tips, Tricks, and Insider Advice

I. Introduction A. Briefly introduce the Yarra Valley as a popular wedding destination B. Explain the purpose of the guide and what readers can expect

II. Choosing the Perfect Yarra Valley Wedding Venue A. Discuss factors to consider when selecting a venue 1. Budget 2. Guest capacity 3. Location and accessibility 4. Style and ambiance B. Present a curated list of popular Yarra Valley wedding venues C. Offer tips for visiting and evaluating potential venues

III. Assembling Your Dream Team of Local Vendors A. Discuss the importance of selecting the right vendors B. List essential wedding vendors and services 1. Catering 2. Photography and videography 3. Florist 4. Wedding planner/coordinator 5. Entertainment 6. Hair and makeup 7. Wedding cake C. Provide tips for researching, interviewing, and booking vendors

IV. Creating a Yarra Valley Wedding Timeline and Checklist A. Outline the planning process and suggested timeline 1. 12+ months before the wedding 2. 9-12 months before the wedding 3. 6-9 months before the wedding 4. 3-6 months before the wedding 5. 1-3 months before the wedding 6. Final weeks and days leading up to the wedding B. Offer a printable wedding planning checklist for readers

V. Incorporating Yarra Valley Charm into Your Wedding A. Discuss unique elements of the Yarra Valley that can be incorporated into the wedding theme 1. Local wine and food 2. Natural scenery and outdoor activities 3. Regional history and culture B. Offer creative ideas for wedding favors, décor, and activities inspired by the Yarra Valley

VI. Navigating the Logistics of a Yarra Valley Wedding A. Discuss transportation and accommodation options for guests B. Provide information on obtaining necessary permits or licenses for the wedding C. Offer advice on managing potential weather challenges and contingency plans

VII. Conclusion A. Recap the key points covered in the guide B. Encourage readers to enjoy the wedding planning process and create lasting memories in the Yarra Valley

By following this outline, you can create a comprehensive guide that offers valuable insights and advice for couples planning their dream wedding in the Yarra Valley.

Step 3. Get Chat GPT-4 to write each section of the outline, one by one.

Since there is a character limit to the answers Chat GPT-4 can provide, you’ll need to break the blog down into manageable chunks. We asked it to write out each section of the blog outline, one by one.

Step 4. Copy and Paste the blog sections into your website.

Once Chat GPT-4 has finished writing out the blog sections, copy them all into a new post on your website. Be sure to go through it, adding images, correcting any mistakes, adding inbound and outbound links where you can, creating H1, H2 and H3 tags to the headings etc. In this example we added in a section linking to venue pages on our website.

You can see the complete Chat GPT-4 blog here: https://rickliston.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-planning-a-yarra-valley-wedding/

Blogging each wedding.

At Wedding Workflows, we believe every wedding should be blogged (approval permitting). We also understand what a massive headache it is to try and write unique content for every couple and we know how much time it takes to put together a slideshow and a gallery and link all the vendors.

That’s why this is one of the first tasks we recommend outsourcing to our VAs. For the unique text for each wedding, you can feed in blog answers that your couples provide in your pre-wedding questionnaire (available here) into Chat GPT-4 and ask it to write a blog for that wedding. Your VA can produce the slideshow, and create a gallery, and then use our Vendor Details App for the links to all the vendors to finish off the blog.

When you blog each wedding, you can link these blogs to your pillar Venue pages to improve their SEO. This is an integral part of our strategy of showing up in results whenever couples google their wedding venue.

Instagram Captions

How much time do you waste with an Instagram post open in your hands trying to think of yet another way of saying “what a stunning wedding”? Trying to think of new, authentic instagram captions is the main reason we get so backlogged in posting to socials.

This is another great task for Chat GPT-4. Just feed it some of the answers from the Speed Date Questionnaire and Pre-Wedding Questionnaire available in our workflow and ask it to create an Instagram caption for you. I also find it helps to provide Chat GPT-4 with something that happened on the day and it will churn out a well written, unique caption based on the couple’s history mixed with that event you mentioned that happened on the day.

You can also then use our Vendor Details App to easily paste all the instagram handles of all the vendors.

Writing Google Reviews

While I certainly suggest putting some time into refining these, Chat GPT-4 can definitely help you form the bones of a great google review for the wedding venues you’d like to shoot at more.

The beauty of this strategy is that you can attach the photos you’ve shot at that venue to your review, so that when couples are looking for venues, reading their reviews, they are exposed to your photos and see that you’ve shot there before and what a helpful guide you will be for them. If you can gather enough likes of your reviews, you may find they stay at the top of the ‘Most relevant’ reviews for that venue.

Website Development

Given Chat GPT-4’s apparent ability to code, I was so curious to try this out as we dedicate a decent portion of our budget on development.

So I thought of something that I’ve been wishing I had for a while, a Wedding Photography Timeline Generator. I had made one myself previously using a spreadsheet, but the formatting was awful. So I set about getting Chat GPT-4 to code one for my wordpress site.

It took a while to make any visible progress, as it is restricted to online information up to September 2021, so it could not view it’s own work and troubleshoot. It just had to guess why it might not be working.

Several times, I had to prompt it with “is there a simpler solution you can think of?” to which it would then come up with something that was indeed simpler.

I suggest breaking your task up into chunks that it can complete, then move onto the next part, as it would often forget parts of earlier code when retyping it out to include the newer additions.

While dealing with GPT4, I noticed it was misleading me, saying things like it had checked my site and found that a certain script was blocking some code. It can’t actually check the internet and therefore can’t check my page, so it disguised inferences as knowledge, which I found strange.

If you’re interested in seeing the final timeline generator it built, you can do so here: https://rickliston.com/wedding-timeline-generator/

It is not something I have incorporated into my business yet, and not sure that I will, but it certainly was incredible to see it be built by AI.

Empowering our Virtual Assistants

AI is an incredible servant but makes a poor master. 

We are using it to empower our Virtual Assistants to be able to deliver vastly more value to photographers, replacing what was previously needing Domestic assistants for such as copywriting and development. 

Every strategy we come up with, we share with our team so they can implement it for our photographers. We want to make sure our accounts have an unfair advantage over everyone else who isn’t using a Wedding Workflows VA. With the help of GPT4 and AI editing, it’s going to be really tough to compete against for someone who still insists on doing everything else themselves.

Does AI generated copy actually rank on Google?

Take a look at this paragraph taken from the number one ranking photography studio for “Melbourne Wedding Photographer”:

I mean, it’s utterly hilarious if not for the fact that this page ranks first!! 

So does it work? Currently, this would certainly suggest so! Will it continue to work? Who can say? 

Conclusion

While it certainly terrifies me just how quickly things are advancing. I feel probably more comfortable than most that wedding photography is more or less protected as a human to human service, where AI is currently just making our jobs easier rather than threatening them. Getting people to feel comfortable and amazing in front of the camera is not an easy task for humans, let alone a bot. But who knows? 

I’ll leave with this last thought. If the IQ of GPT4 is already at 155 (source), how quickly will it become significantly smarter than any person who has ever lived? Next month? Next week? And what happens then once it does have access to the internet, to our websites, socials etc? It will all come down to what goal it has. That’s when we put our full reliance into whomever programmed it initially that they had our futures in mind 😬. 

By Rick Liston

Header image created by AI using Midjourney V5.