Archives for 2016

The holidays are right around the corner, and this is the perfect time for you to plan and book holiday sessions for your clients. Holiday sessions are a great way to add extra income during the slow season, and help you meet new clients who are perfect for your photography business. You may be thinking how adding holiday sessions may add too many tasks to your plate, but we have the perfect solution for that. Below, we share how to properly plan and promote holiday sessions so you can book more clients. Plus, ways to encourage add-ons from every session!

Plan Holiday Sessions

Take some time to write out everything you need to successfully plan your holiday sessions. The steps you need to take involve deciding upon these items:

Number of sessions you offer. Choose how many sessions you will shoot (within reason) for holiday sessions. Keep in mind, holiday sessions are quick, but can add too much work to your plate if you overbook yourself. Set a number of sessions you want to book during this holiday season before you move on to the next steps.

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Are you a photographer who cringes at the thought of selling to your clients? In-person sales are often one of the most challenging aspects of your job, but can also be a lucrative addition to your yearly income. But, without a process in place, it can be difficult to maximize your profits with wall art sales, especially during the busy wedding season.

In our Online Training: Simple Steps to Sell Wall Art to Every Wedding Client, Chris Scott of Swift Galleries shared ways for you to sell wall art to every client, and the importance of setting and maintaining expectations throughout the client lifecycle. Here are the top 5 tips from his training you can implement into your process today.

1. Attract the Right Clients

Do you find yourself offering wall art, but not selling it to clients? To find success with every client, you must attract the right type of client to your business. If you attract clients who do not want wall art, chances are you will sell less wall art to them. To keep wall art top of mind for potential clients, place examples on every platform they can access. This means place wall art examples on your website, blog, and social media platforms. When you place wall art everywhere your clients look at your work, you have a higher chance of the right clients reaching out to you.

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What’s the real secret to happy clients after the wedding day? Is it excellent service throughout the process, every important memory documented during the wedding day, or timely deliverables? In truth, all of those aspects combined create happy clients. But, there is one thing in particular that sets the tone for the entire experience. We’ll get to that in a minute, but first let’s talk about the client’s lifecycle.

Even before a couple becomes a potential client, their experience with you begins. Think about it this way: an engaged (or nearly engaged) couple sees a wedding image you shot in the past on social media. Maybe they intentionally searched for it, or they saw it on a friend’s feed. This is the first impression they receive of you (unless they see your website first). If you match their vision for their wedding day, they reach out to you (most likely through email). You then talk briefly on the phone and set up a client meeting.

During their initial meeting with you, you can take steps to make sure you have happy clients after the wedding. So, what is the secret to happy clients? Delivering fewer images to them and managing their expectations about this throughout the entire process. Here are a few steps to help you manage their expectations from the beginning of their lifecycle with you.

Discuss in Person

When you first sit down with your client after the initial inquiry, discuss image count with them. This is the second place to manage their expectations. As you review the pricing options, as well as the products and services, discuss the number of images. Inform them that these numbers are ideal, and they will get everything they want from the wedding day shoot.

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