Sarah Petty is on the blog today with a special guest post.
What you may have heard about needing to invest a lot of money to get photography clients just isn’t true.
Here’s a way you can use a tool you already have, StickyAlbums, and make $5K in the next 2 weeks.
Before we get into this money-making idea, a few things to remember to make this work for you:
First, forget about what your competitors are doing.
That’s right. What they are doing does not matter.
What does matter is this.
It’s the time of year people WANT photography.
So you have a huge opportunity here to get new clients who are already looking for a photographer.
Tweet this: “Forget about what your competitors are doing.” -Sarah Petty
You just need to offer something you know they want.
What is that? (hint…)
Second, remember you are not your client.
Your clients are sending holiday cards.
So whether you mail a printed holiday card or not, the Greeting Card Association reports that 1.6 BILLION holiday cards are purchased each year.
That’s a lot of cards.
And a lot of opportunity for you during the holiday season in your photography business.
MANY of those cards being sent include images of your clients’ kids.
Here’s your chance to give your clients something they already want and are spending hundreds of dollars on (holiday cards).
Third, many of the most profitable portrait photography businesses DOUBLE or even TRIPLE their revenue in the last 3 months of the year.
Now is one of the few times of the year where you can spend just a little time marketing and get a LOT of business.
Why?
Because, back to my first point, people are buying photography right now.
So if you’re ready to take action and double what you’ve earned so far in your portrait business, here’s one way to make $5K in the next 2 weeks.
Step 1: Create an amazing printed holiday card for this year’s clients.
Pull a few images from a session you photographed earlier this year into a holiday card template.
Then, print a mockup of the card from your office printer and show them what you’ve done.
When they see the rough, printed mockup, they will want to buy it.
When your clients send a holiday card to their friends and family with your images in it (and your logo on the back), it’s free marketing for you!
You get exposure to your clients’ friends and family, all who are probably perfect clients for you!
If 5 of your clients buy 100 cards each at $5 per card, you’ve made your $2,500.
Not sure your clients will pay $5 per card?
Consider this:
The Hallmark photo cards that a client includes their own 5×7 snapshot in costs nearly $5 each.
And the quality of photography isn’t nearly as good as your professional photography.
If you need to charge less for your market: no problem. Just make sure your costs are covered in what you charge your client.
Step 2: Create a digital version of their holiday card.
Be sure to create a StickyAlbum of the holiday images included in their card and include some funny outtakes.
This way your clients can send a digital version of their card to people they may not have addresses for or even send this behind-the-scenes version to their closest friends and family.
I’d make this option available only with the purchase of printed cards.
To give this digital album a holiday flair, pull some holiday greetings into the StickyAlbum and include a value-added incentive for their friends and family to book a session with you, too.
A value-added incentive is different from a discount because it doesn’t cut as deeply into your profits and it doesn’t train your clients to wait for a sale.
When your clients send the StickyAlbum to their friends, be you’re your album includes a value-added incentive offer from you to come in for a holiday card session. This is how you will pick up a new client!
Here’s a value-added incentive you can use: For any session booked in October, you’ll receive a digital album of all images from your session.
If you generate 5 new clients via referral from the value-added incentive shared in your StickyAlbum and your session average is $500, you’ll generate $2,500 in new business.
About Sarah
Sarah Petty is owner of Sarah Petty Photography in Springfield, IL (sarahpetty.com) and the Joy of Marketing (joyofmarketing.com) where she teaches professional photographers who to make money doing what they love.
A highly-acclaimed marketing speaker, New York Times best-selling marketing author of Worth Every Penny: Build a Business that Thrills Your Customers and Still Charge What You’re Worth, MBA and photography marketing teacher, Sarah has inspired thousands of photography business owners to use beautiful marketing to take their business to the next level.