Most photographers fly by the seat of their pants when it comes to Black Friday, holiday or other sales only to be disappointed. I’ve been there… it’s the morning of Black Friday and we see all the sales in our inbox and on our feeds and think, “Hmmm…. maybe I should do a sale!” We spend an hour creating a graphic and throw some sale details in our caption and hit the post button. We wait a few hours, run to our inbox and NOTHING. Not even a single email!?!? Where is everyone? Why aren’t they responding to this AWESOME OPPORTUNITY?!? Raise your hand if you’ve been there, friend.

Believe it or not, A LOT goes into a successful sale campaign. I know, I know, who wants to work that hard? But guess what? If you want it to be a success, you’re going to have make it a priority and plan. Just like any other decision to make more income takes work, a sale does too. And executed correctly, a sale can bring in A LOT of extra income too!

So this year, I decided to put together a mini-training on BF sales and what you, as a photog, can do to prepare for and plan out a successful sale! I broke it up into four phases for you to attack so make sure you take your time and plan accordingly.

PHASE #1: Goal Planning

In this phase, we are going to focus on three main factors:

• Who are you selling to? Are you selling to your past clients (grab an album from your session at 25% off)? Or are you selling to new potential clients (book now and save $100 off your session)? Maybe both? Outlining WHO you are selling to is really going to help when it comes to our next part of this series: messaging.

• What are your goals? Do you want to make an extra $2,500 for your sale? Do you want to book an extra 15 clients during your campaign? Do you want more followers on your page? Your sales goal for Black Friday should be clearly defined long before you ever put a plan into motion.

• What kind of sale or contest will you run? While this may make the most sense in the planning process, it will be even easier when you answer the above questions. If you’re running multiple sales for different audiences, having this decided ahead of time will increase your chances of success.

PHASE #2: Audience Messaging

This phase requires us to look at two factors:

• Pain Points: what are your audience’s pain points when it comes to what you are selling? WHY do they need that album? WHY do they need a portrait session with you? What will happen if they don’t commit? How will their lives be better for working with you? These are questions that you need to answer when talking to your sale audience.

• Solutions: this is where YOU sweep in and help solve the previous pain points. They NEED to print their images into an album? You can help with that! They NEED to document this time in their life? You’re a professional at that!

Using these two factors as talking points in addition to your sales facts will bolster your sale for increased success.

PHASE #3: Campaign Planning

• Start using audience messaging WEEKS out in advance. This is not hard selling & don’t even mention your sale at this point… it’s simply priming your audience. Remind them that you understand their struggles and pain points. If you’re putting albums on sales to your past clients, start talking to them about the fact that they don’t have albums and what they’re missing out on. Show them your gorgeous albums and feature testimonials from past clients who did buy albums and love them. Lay the foundation early and then build your campaign from there.

• Plan out your open and close dates for your sale. Also consider a 24 hour launch bonus savings to get in early sale commitments. Now that you know what the sale is going to look like in you calendar, you can plan graphics, captions, and other methods ahead of time. Pre-record your story videos and schedule out your campaign to be published on the specific dates. You do not want to be spontaneous with this. Plan accordingly.

• Also plan out your response to those who are wanting to buy in to your sale. Have your booking system or ordering system primed and ready to go so that it’s a smooth transition from sale purchase to confirmation.

PHASE #4: Marketing Methods!

No matter HOW you decide to run your Black Friday sale, it won’t matter unless you market it! A complete marketing plan is the vehicle to get those sales in and it’s time we talk about where to market your sale!

• SOCIAL MEDIA: this is a no-brainer, but I want you to think about the avenues of social media and not the platform as a whole. It’s one thing to say you’re going to market on IG, but how? In your stories? Posts? DMs? How about a Reel? ALL of these are separate pieces to the platform and need to be considered when planning out your marketing campaign.

• NEWSLETTER: these subscribers are considered warm leads because they’ve already chosen to receive emails from you. These and past clients will be the easiest audience to convert for your Black Friday sales so it’s definitely time to start priming them now!

• PERSONAL: why not email or text your past clients and tell them about your super secret Black Friday sale for your brand clients only?!? They’ll appreciate you reaching out & you’ll be able to answer any questions they may have!

Ready to launch your Black Friday sale?!? Take it to the next level by having all your social media design work and captions done for you! Heck yes to all the time saving tools, am I right?!?

That’s what our brand new SOCIAL SALE BUNDLE is for! We’ve curated a collection of Instagram sales graphic templates and caption text to help you market a successful sale campaign! It’s the perfect solution to help save you tons of time for your Black Friday success!