MARKETING:

1. Word of mouth accounts for the TOP reason people commit to a brand. That’s a MAJOR fact right there! Gather up your past testimonials from your clients and put them all over your visual welcome guide! This lets your potential clients know that you are a legit business, have made tons of clients beyond happy, and makes them want to feel included in your services!⁣ (from 3 Inquiry Response Musts)
2. How can establishing freebies in your business kick the know, like, and trust funnel into high gear? Freebies allow you to get KNOWN by way more people than just your IG audience because you can use them in ads, e-mail responses, and so much more! Once you get freebies in front of people who have never heard from you before, they can begin to like and trust you! ⁣(from 3 Reasons Offering Freebies can Explode Your Business)
3. You can actually automate (my fave word, ever) your newsletter’s welcome campaigns so that when potential clients sign up for a freebie you’re offering, they automatically trigger a set of timed newsletters without you having to send each and every email manually. You can even trigger an entire welcome campaign with as many emails as you want so that as soon as your audience member signs up, they automatically receive your newsletters in their inbox whenever you want them to. ⁣⁣(from “How to Book Clients in your Sleep”)
4. When you educate your potential clients with images of your gorgeous portrait products through your social media, website and upon inquiry, you are showing them that you are a photographer who can give them stunning products to display in their homes.⁣⁣ (from “6 Ways we Love Using Product Mockups”)
5. Educate your potential clients about what is relevant to them AND your brand by showing authority with valuable content – that is the sweet spot you want to go for! So, if you are a senior photographer, educate your IG audience about how to document their senior year or how to use their senior pics at the grad party. Those are both topics that YOU are an expert at (since you’re a senior photographer) and revolve around something BIG that is going on in their life!⁣⁣ (from “3 Ways to Build Trust with your Audience”)

CLIENT COMMUNICATION:

1. Put expectations in RED PRINT in your e-mails. If you have a specific policy in place that is appropriate to include in an email (for example, an e-mail about your minimum order requirement should include a footnote with your contract clause regarding your MOR) include it as a footnote in red. ⁣⁣(from “3 Ways to Set Client Boundaries”)
2. Personalize your email signature with an actual picture of YOUR FACE. No, not your logo – your face. People like seeing who they’re communicating with & they’ll remember your face when considering hiring you.⁣⁣ (from our Power of E-Mails post)
3. Emailing after hours: doing this tells your clients you’re accessible at all hours of the day (no… that’s not a good thing). Separate your business from personal life by carving out solid business hours.⁣⁣ (from our “3 Ways you’re Betraying yourself in your Business” post)
4. Ask your clients why they decided to hire you. This question will give you great insight into why your clients actually committed to your brand. Use their answers to tell your audience why they should hire you too, and build on their answers to help build a solid marketing campaign to showcase those reasons visually to your audience. ⁣(from “3 Questions to Ask your Clients to Grow your Business”)
5. Legal boundaries are an important way to communicate with your clients. If you don’t have a solid contract written by an attorney, it’s time to get one. Contracts help your clients understand what is expected of them, what you are willing to allow, and ensures you both are protected in cases beyond your control.⁣ (from “3 Boundaries to Stop Feeling Guilty About”)

PRICING:

1. You should NEVER allow easy access to premium products! They should not “come with x product,” or in the bottom offering (or even the second from bottom offering if I’m being honest). They should be hard to get. Premium products warrant premium pricing. ⁣(from our premium product series)
2. If you’re receiving tons of inquiries every year, that tells you that people are super interested in your services. If half of your inquiries are booking you, then you may want to think about increasing your prices. If only a few are converting to booked clients, it may be time to re-assess your prices. (from “3 Ways to Know Where You are on the Pricing Scale”)
3. Use the term “most popular” by the collection & products you want to sell the most. It leans into the “keeping up with the jones” effect. Your clients will want to commit to AT LEAST what most of your clients have purchased. (from our #1 Photography Pricing Hack post)
4. When listing out your collections, start with your highest priced offer at the top, then scale down in price. Showcasing high prices first triggers loss aversion as the client considers lower priced items as less in quality because they saw the highest quality at the top with the highest pricing.⁣⁣ (from our “Pricing Hacks” series)
5. When you negotiate your prices, you are quite literally negotiating the food out of your children’s mouths. Until we consider our income an essential need for our family, we will never take our prices seriously. (from this pricing & financial needs post)

SALES:

1. Want to know why you’re not selling your goal numbers? One reason might be that you’re not leveraging your social media platforms to showcase the products you offer! It’s time to get those products of yours front and center on your Instagram feed! Let your audience know what your clients are purchasing and what you offer! ⁣⁣(from “3 Reasons You’re Not Maximizing your Sales”)
2. A confused mind says NO. If your clients are bombarded with too many products, they’re also being bombarded with a ton of choices. And if they’re not confident about those choices, they’re going to shut down and say NO. Too many choices leads your clients to question if they’re making the right decision. ⁣(from this post)
3. One of the reasons you may be experiencing low sales is because you’re not visually educating your clients about what you have to offer. This goes far beyond just having samples & posting on social media… pre-educate them by showing them all of your incredible products in a magazine or pdf. Get testimonials from your clients about how much they love their products, what a real collection looks like, etc. You only SELL WHAT YOU SHOW, so show it all.⁣⁣ (from “our post about maximizing your sales)
4. Before building our collections, we first need to understand what a premium product is. It’s not what you think… most creatives think that a premium product is something THEY love and want to sell. NOPE. It’s actually what your CLIENTS LOVE & will spend the most money on. This requires you to be really in touch with your sales & understand the psychology of your clients. Is there one or two products that EVERY ONE OF YOUR CLIENTS is choosing at their sales appointments How about a service that you offer that they’re going crazy over? THESE are premium products! (our post on the biggest pricing mistakes photographers make)
5. 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. ⁣(from our Black Friday Sales series #2 of #4)

CLIENT EDUCATION:

1. After your client has booked and before their session, send your clients a professionally designed client hub complete with what to wear resources, face prep guides, and nail guides to help them prepare for their session with me. They will come fully prepared every time and you won’t have to spend hours educating them yourself, on each topic. ⁣(from “Client Education on Autopilot”)
2. The more education your clients consume, the more they go into the session knowing what to expect and what they can do help their session run smoothly. I’ve had clients be so appreciative of the lengths I went to in order to help them prepare for their sessions by providing them a welcome packet or client prep hub.⁣ (from “3 Things that Happen when you Pre-Session Prep your Clients”)
3. Want your clients to come to their sessions with beautifully polished and clean nails? List a few places to send them for a mani, your fave neutral colors, and the top reasons why perfectly polished nails will make their session so much better. ⁣⁣(from our post about educating your clients)
4. I like to send my clients home with a small magazine displaying my top collections using images of products. It really gets them excited for the ordering session as they begin to think about what products they are going to fill their home with. (from “6 Ways we Love using Product Images)
5. Want to know how to be a super hero in your clients’ eyes? HELP THEM. Give them resources to help them prepare for their session. ⁣Help them: understand how to put a well curated outfit together⁣, how to complement their kids without being too matchy-matchy⁣, how to get their face ready for airbrush makeup⁣, what to do & what not to do, etc. (from “How to Create an Elite Client Experience”)

BUSINESS HELP:

1. Even if you’re not ready to pay to become an LLC, at least sit down with attorney for a free consult and let them explain to you the pros and cons. If you want bonus points, talk to them about what becoming an S-Corp can do for your taxes too! (from “Sole Proprietor to LLC – What’s the Difference?”)
2. Squeezing in extra shoots always sounds like a good idea, but when you’re actually in the middle of it, you think, “What the hell have I done?” Try restrictive scheduling – it will change your life.⁣⁣ (from 3 Ways we Betray Ourselves in our Business”)
3. If you don’t have a solid contract written by an attorney, it’s time to get one. Contracts help your clients understand what is expected of them, what you are willing to allow, and ensures you both are protected in cases beyond your control.⁣ (from “3 Boundaries to Stop Feeling Guilty About”)
4. Do you need to create space for your ZONE OF GENIUS? If you’ve hit your hourly income ceiling, and / or you’re handling every piece of your business, then it’s time to automate and outsource some of your work. Get some extra hands in there for help and you’ll suddenly see your billable hours explode… and that means more income for you! (from our “Income Growth Hacks” post)
5. On the first of every single month, you’re going to authorize an automatic withdrawal from your checking account to your retirement fund. It’s such a simple task, but it has the ability to change your life forever… your future… your family tree. When you pay yourself first you are taking care of yourself and your family in a very real way. You’re ensuring that you don’t have to financially depend on your kids when you’re 90. (from “Prioritize Positive Spending”)