MARKETING:

1. Show authority with valuable content: educate your potential clients about what is relevant to them AND your brand – 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)
2. The best thing you can do is diversify your marketing efforts. Spread your communication efforts out among different platforms like blogging, mail campaign, newsletter, IG, Facebook, etc. and watch your relationships and conversion rates grow. (click here to learn how to build communication into your marketing efforts)
3. What does your brand have to offer that others don’t? Learn to highlight what makes your brand valuable & put it front and center in your inquiry response resources.⁣ For example, if you offer makeup & hair services in your sessions when other local competitors don’t, showcase that info to your potential clients!⁣ (from “3 Reasons You Didn’t Book that Client”)
4. Retargeting & cross promoting allows your content to live far longer than the allotted 24 hours and allows your audience to slip into rabbit holes that benefit them. In this way, you’re able to build a library of relatable information that is valuable to your target clients and allows them to consume your content much longer than a single post can.⁣ (from my #1 Social Strategy Secret)
5. Keep a link to your most popular freebie (aka lead magnet) in your email signature so anyone you communicate with can become a subscriber. (from 5 Places to Offer your Freebies)

CLIENT COMMUNICATION:

1. When following up on an unanswered inquiry response, I like to point them to a few helpful resources on my site, in the form of blog posts: I like to compile a short list of high value blog posts I’ve written that not only hit their pain points, but show off my expertise as a senior photographer in my area! (from “5 Tips to Follow Up Emails”)
2. Fighting with client procrastination? Writing timelines and deadlines into your contract is a MUST if you want to enforce them. Make sure they can be upheld in court just in case a client wants to call your bluff.⁣ (from “How to Combat Client Procrastination”)
3. Want to write an inquiry response that works? Quickly outline all the value points in your inquiry response magazine so they will know they’ll find what they’re looking for in that awesome resource!⁣ (this is just one of five tips to “Writing an Inquiry Response that Works)
4. My number one top tip that you can start doing TODAY is sending your clients a tangible or digital VISUAL guide specifically showcasing the WHY behind the issue. Lay it all out for them.⁣⁣⁣ (click here for 3 examples of how to do this in specific situations)
5. My Honeybook Pro set up an entire pipeline that begins when a potential client inquires with me and books with me, all the way through image delivery! Every single step of my client workflow, including payment plans and systems, are set up and in a beautifully automated system that will take care of itself without me.⁣⁣ (from “How Hiring a HoneyBook Pro Saved my Sanity”)

PRICING:

1. 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 this Money Monday reel)
2. I keep my complete list of prices for my inquiry response guide. When someone emails me and inquires about a session, they can see my full price list after viewing a visual showcase of the experience my brand provides my clients. They get to see the VALUE I provide before they see my full price list.⁣ (from “Should I put my Prices on my Website?”)
3. Are you keeping your prices low in hopes of bringing in more clients? While we sometimes feel this may be the right decision, your prices should never be used as a marketing tool to lure in clients. Your prices should be based off factors like your cost of running your business, product costs, and more.⁣ (from “3 Misconceptions that Prevent Photographers from Pricing Themselves Correctly”)
4. Underpricing yourself can look like not having a minimum order requirement to ensure you make a standard rate of per hour worked.⁣ (from “3 Sneaky Ways You’re Underpricing Yourself”)
5. If you are working your tail off and you are not or barely able to meet your family needs every month, it may be a sign you’re priced way too low. Higher prices may mean less clients, but you’ll make more per month with 7 clients at an average sale of $1,000 rather than 10 clients at an average sale of $500 if you’ve priced yourself correctly. ⁣⁣(from “3 Ways to Know Where You are on the Pricing Scale”)

SALES:

1. 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 Money Monday Reel)
2. If your sales session is the first time your clients are seeing your product offerings, it’s time to change that. ⁣Showcase your products on your social media platforms and have your samples set out while they’re in your studio during their shoot. Send them home with a product magazine with specific instructions to measure their walls and help them SEE the products in their home before even buying them. ⁣⁣(from “Confused to Confident Sales in 3 Easy Steps”)
3. If you’re wondering why you’re only selling digitals and not products, check your IG. When’s the last time you posted one of your beautiful products? Feature one product every month and watch your sales averages start to climb!⁣ (from “Top Mistakes Photographers Make when Marketing on IG”)
4. If you want to sell more products, you must photograph, showcase, and highlight visuals of all your samples, client orders, canvases hanging on the wall, your client browsing an album, etc. If you sell products, you must show what you sell. Without these images, nobody will know you have anything to offer other than a shot and digital images.⁣ (from “Must Have Images for the Ultimate Brand Presence”)
5. Want to sell more senior grad cards while sitting on your couch? Establish a grad card sales system! Before I figured out a grad card sales system, I would email each and every client I had individually about our grad cards and then schedule a design & sales session where they would come in to the studio, see the different cards I offered, then watch me customize them on the big screen, then place their official order. I was spending so much extra and unnecessary time in the studio when I realized things could be done so much more efficiently. Now, after implementing my grad card sales system, I not only save tons of time, I have tripled my grad card sales all from the comfort of my couch.⁣ (learn about the system I use here)
   

CLIENT EDUCATION:

1. Want to know how to help your clients with their #1 session concern? Offer them a What to Wear guide! Having a PDF guide for your clients that helps them put together their session wardrobe will be such a relief to them! It not only helps calm one of their biggest concerns, but it also gives you a better portfolio! (click here to learn about 5 things you should put in your What to Wear guide)
2. Automate your client session prep education. This is the part where you can save tons of time. When you can create a pipeline that triggers itself without your presence, that’s huge. Imagine being able to educate your clients without even having to be there, or have them follow a pipeline without your management. THAT is automation in its purest form.⁣ (from “3 Factors of an Effective System in your Business”)
3. Need your client to hit a deadline in their process? we have to compete with our client’s busy schedules and sometimes sending an extra reminder email or two is exactly what they need to remember to complete their task.⁣ (from “How to Combat Client Procrastination”)
4. 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 “My #1 Top Tip for Educating Clients”)
5. Here’s 5 things to include in your Client Welcome Guide: 1) a personalized welcome note,⁣ 2) a what to wear guide,⁣ 3) face prep tips, ⁣4) nail prep info,⁣ 5) final packing list. (from this post)

BUSINESS HELP:

1. Want to become a photography industry leader? If you’re scrolling your FB photog community group and see someone ask a question about your zone of genius, get in there and answer it! Share the information you know, your past experience about that topic, and anything else you can think of. This will start to build your position in the industry as someone who has valuable knowledge on that specific topic and is willing to be transparent about it.⁣ (just one of five tips from “How to Fast Track your Presence as an Industry Leader)
2. Let’s say your home office is 10% of the size / square footage of your home… that means 10% of your home expenses like cable, water, trash service, pest service, house keeping services, etc. can all be deducted at that percentage for your business! (learn more about home office deduction secrets here)
3. In the case of a sole proprietor (which unfortunately, most of you reading this are), if a client sues your business for any number of reasons, your personal assets are not protected and could be used to fund any judged financial claims the plaintiff brings against you. That means your house, your savings, your everything comes into play. Friends, that should terrify you. (learn more about becoming and LLC here)
4. When you make a purchase with your business account, write out what exactly that transaction was for in the top margin of your receipt! This way, if you get audited by the IRS in the next 7 years (their audit threshold), you’ll be able to remember what that purchase was for & prove your business deduction claim! (from this Money Monday video)
5. First and foremost, you need to have a CPA that specializes in small business. PLEASE do not get your taxes filed by a large tax prep service company like H&R Block, Turbo Tax, etc. Those companies are better for individuals who have a simple W-2 from their employer with simple filing needs. I’ve seen tons of photographers lose thousands by using these companies who are not equipped or educated enough in small business tax legislation.⁣ (from “5 Questions to Ask your CPA After Every Tax Season)

3 BONUS PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS:

1. Have a culling headache on your hands after every shoot? You’re probably not creating the image you want in frame. In order to get your culling time down, you MUST be extremely purposeful in all aspects of shooting: composition, light, posing, and even allowing framing for products. The biggest tip here is to SLOW DOWN on your shoot and don’t press that shutter until you have the exact image you want in your viewfinder. And once you have it, move on to the next image.⁣⁣ (learn more reasons here)
2. College gear minis: whether it’s college t-shirts, banners, or flags, your seniors will jump at the chance of getting pro pics of their college spirit. You can market these minis by talking about how great these pics will be for their grad cards & by offering bestie group sessions with all their different colleges t-shirts on display.⁣ (from “3 Senior Session Minis”)
3. Want to get the best light from your reflector? Point it towards the brightest part of the sky… especially when in an open shade situation, you’ll want to find the light from the opposite side of the shade and reflect that onto your subject. Don’t reflect the shade. ⁣(from “My 3 Reflector Secrets for Beautiful Light”)

Looking for MORE tips and advice like the ones found here that can turn your photography business into a successful machine? Consider joining the A-List Society! The A-List Society is a community full of photographers like you who want education designed to transform your business into a client booking, income producing, and evolving machine that works FOR you. Every week, members receive LIVE trainings, guides, & resources to stay on top of the ever changing industry while going behind the scenes with Amanda Holloway. Imagine how much time & stress you can save every month by being a part of a community that gives you the secrets to success while building your confidence & income at the same time.