Are you confident in the relationships you build with your couples and their loved ones during the wedding process? The more you get to know your couples, the better their experience is with you and the more valuable products and services become. How can you ensure you make genuine connections with each couple so you can increase your overall profit for your business?
In our How to Generate $10k per Wedding Shoot Webinar, Business Coach Steve Saporito shared why you aren’t making $10k from every wedding, and how to fix that through making lasting connections with your couple. These are the top 5 tips for generating $10k from Steve’s webinar you can implement into your photography business today.
1. Switch Communication Methods
When couples search for a photographer, they may not know the importance of the experience or relationship they can build with you. Today, most inquiries are done through email. To personalize the experience from the beginning, in your email template for the initial inquiry response, make sure to include your phone number and inform the couple you would love to set up a call. With this gesture, you are giving your couple the attention they deserve to make this an overall positive experience.
“Those people that are getting on to the phone are finding that their clients are so overjoyed that someone has picked up the phone, and that they get to talk to a human being.” – Steve Saporito
This makes it easier for you to connect with the couple before you meet them in person. Initially, they might be uncomfortable with you in person, as you are just getting to know them. Use the phone call to ask questions to help them feel more comfortable with you, so when you meet them face-to-face, they are ready to share more about themselves and are open to your suggestions for products and additional services.
Related: What pricing model works best for you? Our Pricing Guide for Wedding Photographers can help!
2. Be More Than their Photographer
When you have the intention of getting as much information out of your couple as possible, they will be more inclined to get to know you as well. Start with questions about who they are as individuals, and then ask them questions that help them fall in love all over again, such as when they first met, or what qualities they love about one another. These questions let them think back to their happiest moments and allow them to discover who they are as a couple and what this wedding means to both of them. Plus, when you mention the post-event sales, they will be thrilled to discuss what prints they can hang on their wall of this special day.
Not only does this give your couple a reason to fall more in love with each other, but it also gives you shooting inspiration. You will have a more focused goal in mind when you shoot the wedding day, and what moments you want to capture between the couple. These are photos the couple will want to purchase for their album or prints because they see their love in the images.
3. Build Relationships with Family Members
Everyone wants to be heard and loved, including the bride and groom’s family members. After you get to know your couple a bit more, take some time to reach out to their parents. This is a great way to continue to understand who your couple is, especially since their parents see them in a different way. When you build a relationship with family members, you create a positive experience for them, as well. Depending on the family dynamic, you may even be a part of bringing them closer together.
The relationship you build with your couple and their family members helps them trust you and be more apt to purchase add-ons after the wedding day. Parents often spend more money on average than other family members, so the connection you have makes it easier for them to make decisions for their prints or albums.
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4. Offer Family Sessions
As you build a relationship with the family members, they will start to feel as if they are part of the entire wedding experience (well before the wedding even takes place). During this time is the perfect opportunity for you to suggest a family session before the wedding day. To avoid sounding like a salesperson, remind them this is a chance for the family to spend quality time with the bride and groom, where they can create special memories together. So that it is more incentive for the couple and their family, include products that will help them remember the moment, such as prints, an album, or wall canvases.
When Steve offers these sessions to his clients, he shared that most people spend an average of $5,000 on the family session and the products that go with it!
Tip: Don’t forget to speed your turnaround time with a wedding photo editing company, and sell more prints with Extra.
5. Create a Forever Session
Because you have spent time working with your couple and allowing them to get to know one another all over again, the forever session is the time for you to document their love. A forever session is similar to an engagement session; however, Steve makes these unique by giving couples specific questions about who they are as individuals and also as a couple two or three weeks prior to the session. Leading up to the session, the couple has time to dig deep and think about what they really love about their partner. When they arrive to the shoot, they are even more in love and bring a high and exciting energy. This moment is something they will remember and will be more likely to purchase prints from the forever session to hang on their wall.
Tip: Since you have built trust with the couple, as well as their family, always plant the seed for your products. This way, you don’t overwhelm them at the end with a high price tag, and they are aware of what they want to purchase from the beginning.
When you start to make more money from every wedding, you will see the benefits as you take on additional projects and do more of what you love. Learn more about how to set up photography pricing for your business with our free Guide, Pricing for the Wedding Photographer. We feature tips from Vanessa Joy, plus how to know which pricing model is the best for you. Click the banner below to download it today!
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