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In this episode of the Pro Photographer Journey Podcast, I dive into the essential topic of goal setting for your photography business as we approach the new year. As I sit in my office surrounded by my photography and art equipment, I share my own strategy session and invite you to join me in this brainstorming process.
I outline six key points to consider for your business goals:
- Your Ideal number of Photo Sessions for the Year: Determine how many photo sessions you want to book this year. This number will vary for everyone, so consider your financial needs and current bookings.
- Your Ideal Client: Reflect on the types of clients you enjoy working with. Identifying your ideal client will help you tailor your marketing efforts effectively.
- Marketing Reach: Explore how you will market yourself to reach your ideal clients. I emphasize the importance of networking and being present where your clients are.
- Kickstarting Your Business: Consider strategies to quickly bring in clients, such as hosting portrait parties or events that provide value to your community.
- Your Blogging Strategy: I discuss the importance of having a blogging strategy to boost your local SEO and engage with potential clients. I share my own experiences and tools that can simplify the blogging process.
- Your Newsletter: Lastly, I stress the significance of maintaining a newsletter to keep in touch with past and potential clients. Regular communication can help you stay relevant and provide valuable content.
Throughout the episode, I share personal stories and practical tips to inspire you as you set your goals for the year ahead. Remember, we are all in this together, and I hope this discussion motivates you to take actionable steps in your photography business. Thank you for listening, and I look forward to connecting with you next time!
Timestamps
00:00:00 – Introduction to Goal Setting for Photographers
00:01:38 – Setting Your Photo Session Goals
00:05:34 – Identifying Your Ideal Client
00:12:52 – Defining Your Marketing Goals
00:17:31 – Kickstarting Your Business with Events
00:25:52 – The Importance of Blogging
00:33:32 – Creating and Revamping Your Newsletter
00:40:20 – Recap of Key Points
Prefer to read? Here’s the full transcript:
Introduction
00:00:01-00:00:13
Hello and welcome to the Pro Photographer Journey Podcast. This is Shamira Young, your resident photographer. Let’s get into it. I’m sitting here in my office, surrounded by my photography equipment and my art equipment. And I have some organizing I need to do in my office.
Goal Setting for Your Photography Business
00:00:13-00:00:34
At the same time, I’m also looking to get organized with my photography business. So today I’m going to talk about goal setting for the year ahead for your photography business. You know, honestly, I’m having my own strategy session for my own business in order to get organized with my marketing efforts and figuring out what direction I want to go with my photography business.
00:00:34-00:00:55
And I figured since I’m having this brainstorm session, I might as well record it for the podcast. So I’m going to talk through roughly about half a dozen points. I’m just going to explore ideas and hopefully it will give you some motivation for your photography business as well. Whether you’re full-time or part-time, we need to be planning for the year ahead.
00:00:55-00:01:17
I’m getting organized with my own business. So I’m really I’m talking to myself, but also you by extension. So I mean, we’re all in this together. And hopefully we can get excited as we move forward with our photography business.
Setting Goals: Number of Photo Sessions
00:01:17-00:01:38
So, you know, technically, in my opinion, we should all be goal setting during the fourth quarter of the previous year for the next year. At number one, one of the goals that I am thinking about for myself, and you should be too, is the number of photo sessions that you want this year.
00:01:38-00:01:55
Think about, and this extends to wedding photographers, family portrait photographers. I myself do mostly small to medium sized businesses, business corporate photography, with some family photography and high school photography on the side. At this time, I don’t do weddings, by the way, so shout out to you wedding photographers. Hats off to you.
00:01:55-00:02:21
I used to, and my goodness, it’s a beast. And I was making some good money and taking some really great photos, but I just decided at a certain point I would rather focus on businesses because I enjoy learning and interacting and interfacing with business owners and meeting people that way.
00:02:21-00:02:42
But anyway, no matter what type of photography you do, think about the number of photo sessions that you want for this year and set a goal. Don’t be afraid to nail down a number and don’t just pick a number out of the sky. Think about how many photo sessions you need to pay your bills or to help pay the bills if you’re part-time.
00:02:42-00:03:06
Think about taking into consideration how many photo sessions you have already scheduled and how many more you need. This number is going to be different for every person, and do not judge yourself on that number. If you’re a wedding photographer, at a certain price point, maybe you only need… I don’t know.
00:03:06-00:03:39
It’s been years since I’ve done wedding photography, so I’m trying to think. Anywhere between, it depends. Let’s say don’t yell at me, wedding photographers. If I pick a number that is not realistic, this is just an example, but let’s say you want to do 24 weddings this year. Okay. 24 weddings. And this will be based on how much you make profit per session.
00:03:39-00:04:00
Of course, that is a number that you should write down because it will influence the way you move forward with your business this year, with how you market your business, how you seek people out, any ways that you want to advertise, it’ll help kind of light a fire under you.
00:04:00-00:04:21
If you’re, let’s say you’re a part-time family portrait photographer and you only want to do, let’s say one photo session a month, that’s fine. Totally fine. No judgment at all. Write down that number. So that would be 12 photo sessions. And let’s say you already have one scheduled this year, since it’s already almost mid-January, you need 11 more.
00:04:21-00:04:42
How are you going to get those 11 additional clients? Will it be through social media? Will you do more networking with your family and your friends, or maybe you join the Chamber of Commerce? And like having a number assigned to the number of photo sessions you wanna do is key, it’s crucial.
00:04:42-00:05:03
And these photo sessions don’t always have to come from different clients, by the way. Again, back to wedding photography. Back in my, back in my day, back when I was shooting some weddings, I do recall, you know, I did an engagement session for a lovely couple, lovely. And then they wanted me to do their wedding a bit later on.
00:05:03-00:05:24
And so for those wedding photographers, maybe you get two sessions out of the same couple. You know, like if they want you to do their engagement session this year and then their wedding later on in the year if they’re on a shorter timeline. And that is two sessions from the same couple.
00:05:24-00:05:34
And again, you’ll need to figure out what your profit is per session. If that number is going to help keep your business sustainable and running in the long term. But think about all that to say, think about the number of photo sessions that you want.
Identifying Your Ideal Client
00:05:34-00:05:44
And number two, goal setting. What type of client? So what are the types of clients that you enjoy working with? Who is your ideal client? You really need to think about that.
00:05:44-00:06:06
You do not want to take on just anybody and everybody. I understand if you’re just getting started out. Maybe you do take on a whole lot more, a wider range of clients than you normally would, or you’re just happy to get the work. And I know I’ve been there. I used to do that.
00:06:06-00:06:28
As you build up your portfolio, and that’s fine, but over time you do really want to refine and nail down the types of clients that are the best for your business and for yourself, for your own personality. Like I said, who do you enjoy working with?
00:06:28-00:06:50
Earlier I mentioned that at this time I focus on business and corporate photography and I work with small to medium-sized businesses and so Full disclosure for myself, I’m still narrowing down who my ideal types of clients are, even within that.
00:06:50-00:07:12
And you know, for example, I have clients, so as far as like small businesses, even individuals, I do business headshot sessions for insurance agents, for real estate agents. And I guess they’re a part of a bigger company, but the interaction is more kind of on an individual basis.
00:07:12-00:07:32
I recently did a photo session for a massage therapist. And she does a wider range of things than massage therapy, but she is her own one-person practice. And we went in and did, I’ve done headshots for her and also a lifestyle type of session for her, for her website, showing her in action, doing what she does.
00:07:32-00:07:54
And so all that to say I work with individuals. But I also work with the second largest hospital here in this area where I live. And so they are my biggest client and they’re wonderful. And for them I go in and I do headshots of their executives and their doctors and their surgeons and their nurses.
00:07:54-00:08:14
Especially when they hire on a new doctor or surgeon and they really want the community to get to know the face of that medical professional. I’ll go in and do photos and then they will put up billboards around town so the community gets to know that new surgeon or that new doctor, which is really great that the hospital does that.
00:08:14-00:08:34
So the hospital is my largest client at this time. I also work with heating and cooling companies. They are awesome, by the way. I love them because they, when they have me come in, it’s not usually just for one person. They want me to take, to photo shoot their entire team.
00:08:34-00:08:56
So portraits individually, most recently I did portraits for a heating and cooling company where the owner wanted individual headshots for their badges. So they needed badges created, which I am good doing that. I enjoy helping my clients figure out how to use their photos.
00:08:56-00:09:18
That’s a whole other, that’s a whole other podcast episode. I need to write that down. Educating your clients on what they can do with their photos or helping them. So, you know, after you take, especially with businesses, you take these portraits. Well, they need to know how to use them, right?
00:09:18-00:09:39
Some of them will come to you with things in mind. This heating and cooling company came to me specifically for their badges. They needed photos for badges. But some clients that I have just they kind of know they need a headshot and they’ll need it for their website, social media, business cards.
00:09:39-00:10:02
And so, like, I help them, whatever form they need their portrait to end up in, especially physical printing, I help them. I’m happy to help them with that. I have the resources for that. And so sometimes they’ll come to you kind of knowing that they need it, but not sure how.
00:10:02-00:10:24
So it’s always good as especially business photographers out there have a list of ideas for your client of how or suggestions of how they can use their portraits, because that is very important. And so back to heating and cooling companies with this company, I did photos of all of their team, so individual portraits, again for the badges.
00:10:24-00:10:46
And then later on I designed the badges and then got those printed and hand delivered that to the client. And we also did a team photo as well. And I have found that this is usually the case when, again, for some reason, when working with heating and cooling companies, they’re awesome, I love it.
00:10:46-00:11:07
They need individual portraits and then they want to do a group photo. And they usually have a set, a very set way of how they want to use those portraits. Another heating and cooling company that I work with, we did individual headshots and we did business portraits.
00:11:07-00:11:27
And I think they had billboards up or at least a billboard up around town using that, if I’m not mistaken, it was a handful of years ago. But it was awesome. And so, all this to use me as an example, I know I enjoy working with small to medium-sized businesses.
00:11:27-00:11:48
And I’m open to larger businesses, I just haven’t worked with those. And so, I don’t have the data, the mental data for that at the moment. But if I work with a large business in the future, then I will have some data to figure out if I enjoy that or not. But for now, small to medium.
00:11:48-00:12:10
And I enjoy it. But within that, I’m asking myself, how can I refine that even further? So I used heating and cooling companies as an example. I would definitely put them on my list as far as the specific clients that I enjoy working with. Hospitals as well. I enjoy very much working with hospitals.
00:12:10-00:12:30
And the reason that you need to think about the specific types of clients that you enjoy working with is because it directly influences how you are going to market your business, as in how you’re going to seek out these specific clients.
00:12:30-00:12:52
So for me, because I work with businesses, I know that if I’m going to, let’s say, run Facebook ads, I will be targeting specific businesses, especially, and I’ve played around with the idea of even running a Facebook ad targeting local heating and cooling companies, specifically, because I enjoy working with them so much.
00:12:52-00:13:14
I need to try that. And if I do, I should like do a podcast episode about the process and the results. But it is so helpful. So just using the Facebook ad as an example. If you’ve ever run a Facebook ad, you know you don’t just target that to anybody and everybody.
Marketing Goals
00:13:14-00:13:35
You need to target it specifically to a specific type of person. And so it’s so helpful to know who you’re aiming at, who you’re going for. And even just talking about marketing efforts. So let’s move on to point number three, because I’m already spilling over into that.
00:13:35-00:13:56
And so for goal setting, what are your marketing goals? Now that you’ve thought about the types of clients that you most enjoy working with, and that are the most beneficial for your business, how will you find them? How will you market yourself?
00:13:56-00:14:16
I know marketing is kind of a scary word, kind of a dirty word. It’s really it should not be scary. Really, I find myself getting excited when I think about ways that I can market my business. And so because using myself as an example, since I’m goal setting for myself for this year,
00:14:16-00:14:37
Because I love working with businesses, I know that when I market myself, that when I’m seeking these people out, I’m seeking out the business owners. Where are the business owners? So for the in-person events, the networking that I like to do, I’m part of the Chamber of Commerce here in town.
00:14:37-00:14:58
And I love it. It has been one of the most wonderful things for my business. And the Chamber of Commerce is awesome because that is where business owners go. That’s where they flock. Right? If you’re a business, you join the Chamber of Commerce. And they have wonderful networking meetings.
00:14:58-00:15:20
Every week here, we have an active chamber. Like I said, it’s awesome. I love it. And so I go where the business owners are. And I found, especially when I moved to this town a handful of years ago, a little over, oh, about 10 years ago, actually, I knew I needed to get to know people and I needed to get to know businesses.
00:15:20-00:15:41
So I joined the chamber and I would just show up. And it’s not, when you show, when you show up to a networking event, you don’t want to be pushy. You do not want to try to, you know, sell, sell, sell before people get a chance to know you, especially in the town where I live.
00:15:41-00:16:04
It’s not like a huge city we have. Ooh, I don’t even know if there are 30,000 people in town, which is still a decent size, but it’s not like, you know, New York, you know. So when I first started showing up to these networking meetings, so I knew I wanted to, you know, get to know businesses.
00:16:04-00:16:25
I show up and it was, you know, I talk about what I do, but I also made an effort to get to know other people and learn about them and get to know other businesses and the people behind the businesses and show that I care because I do.
00:16:25-00:16:46
One of the main reasons I chose business photography is because I love getting to know people who run their businesses, people involved in business and how they operate their businesses. I love it. I nerd out on that stuff. So I would show up consistently to Chamber of Commerce networking events and get to know people and they would get to know me.
00:16:46-00:17:07
And over time, the business started coming in. So it’s a process, especially with networking in person. It can take sometimes months for that investment, that time investment to pay off, but it’s totally worth it.
Kickstarting Your Business
00:17:07-00:17:31
So how are you marketing yourself? If you are a pet photographer, where are your clients hanging out? Maybe they’re hanging out at pet salons, for example, which there’s a partnership opportunity possibly right there if you partner with pet salons in your area, something mutually beneficial where they bring you business and you help bring them business.
00:17:31-00:17:54
Think about where your people are. If you’re a wedding photographer, and I know wedding photography is such a general term in and of itself, right? Because there’s so many different kinds of wedding photographers out there. So let’s say you focus on small barn weddings. I always thought those are so cool.
00:17:54-00:18:16
We have those in my area because we have a lot of rural areas out here where barn weddings are a thing. And I think they are so cool. So let’s say you’re a wedding photographer. You focus on small weddings that focus on like that type of barn wedding. Where are your clients? Where do they hang out?
00:18:16-00:18:37
You need to go to them and find them. Maybe they’re at wedding shows. Maybe you partner with local florists in your area because you know they’re interacting with your clients too, right? Florists supply flowers for weddings and so you both share the same clients, but you’re not competitors.
Event Strategies
00:18:37-00:19:01
How can you partner with them? So think about how you’re going to market yourself to your ideal client. Let’s go on to point number four. I’m like caffeinated and rambly right now and I love it. So hopefully you’re following and if my thoughts kind of wander off into tangents, just bear with me, but I think we’re doing pretty good.
00:19:01-00:19:24
So number four, as far as goal setting. For me, again, I’m thinking about my business. Is there anything you can do to kind of kickstart your business? To bring in more clients relatively quickly? So this is kind of, in my mind, an event type of thing.
00:19:24-00:19:47
So, for example, portrait parties. For me, strategic business portrait parties have been awesome. That was, strategy-wise, something that I did last year, and I’ve done it a handful of times. It’s not something I do too much because for me, I want it to be special, but it is an event that I usually partner with another organization that really helps kickstart my business and bring in clients and also people for my newsletter relatively quickly.
00:19:47-00:20:10
And when I say relatively quickly, I mean like 90 days, so not overnight, but It’s so in my case, and I’ve talked about this before on the podcast, I’m pretty sure I’ll definitely be talking about it more because it is so helpful.
00:20:10-00:20:34
So over roughly a 90 day time period. Last year, I partnered with networking, a business networking group that has been trying to really grow their businesses and they have like their members, their members are business owners. And they have a good amount of businesses that have been joining, and so I joined the group.
00:20:34-00:20:57
I was there. I’m still a part of it, by the way. But I took a good, I don’t know, six months, you know, to get to know the group and how it operates. And we decided to plan a strategic business portrait party because business owners being part of the group needed headshots.
00:20:57-00:21:20
And for some people, businesses, it was very apparent. The ones that were using like cell phone photos of them sitting in their car. No, you definitely want that updated. So I propose that we throw a portrait party where they get a very good special rate that is, in my case, far less money-wise than my normal business portrait headshot package.
00:21:20-00:21:43
So they got a discounted rate. I’ll use the word discount. A promotional rate. I like the word promotional better. Where they come in and we had it set between the hours of, I think it was just like four to six o’clock and went past six o’clock.
00:21:43-00:22:06
It was two or three hours. I’d had business owners sign up beforehand for their headshot. They got a very good promotional rate. Although granted, I only spent about 10 to 15 minutes with each person. So really it, I mean, it works out. It’s not like I was cheating myself.
00:22:06-00:22:29
I wanted to do something beneficial for them. But I was still, I mean, I was offering value without overly discounting my price because it was a much shorter session than they would normally get with me. But we had people sign up beforehand for their time slot and they came in and got their headshots.
00:22:29-00:22:52
And it was nice because I only set up and break down my equipment once, which again, allowed me to offer that promotional rate. But it was awesome teaming up with the networking group because they were able to offer their members something of value.
00:22:52-00:23:15
And so they helped market this event for me. That’s the amazing thing, by the way, about teaming up with another organization that shares your same clients. And when you throw an event that’s beneficial for them, they will help you market that event.
00:23:15-00:23:38
So I was providing headshots at a very, very affordable rate for their members. And they found that awesome because they were saving a bunch of money on what they would normally spend on a headshot, and they were getting great headshots. And it was a fun event, by the way.
00:23:38-00:24:01
We lined up a speaker, an awesome speaker, a business coach, to come in and talk. And we had food, and it was great. And the speaker got exposure because there were business owners there listening to him. And the business owners were further benefited, so they had the option to get a headshot with me.
00:24:01-00:24:24
But if they didn’t want a headshot and they just wanted to show up for the food and the business coaching, then they could do that. And so they came in and they were able to listen to a business coach. It was awesome. It was really awesome.
00:24:24-00:24:47
And that brought in a good number of clients that night and also people from my email newsletter as well. I’ve thrown business portrait parties in the past. I’m trying to think how many I’ve done by now. Oh, three or four, where people come in and even if they’re not getting a headshot, I can still sign them up for, with the permission, my email newsletter list.
00:24:47-00:25:10
I think I’ve done this. And it’s awesome. It is wonderful. I had a sign up, yes, a sign up sheet. And you get, you capture that information of people coming in. And you know, if you’re going to send them an email newsletter, let them know, please, like get the information, of course.
00:25:10-00:25:34
But even people in the past who have come to my portrait party and they just came for the networking and they didn’t necessarily need a headshot, they were still able to see me, to watch me interact with people who were getting headshots.
00:25:34-00:25:57
And that goes a long way. They were getting to know me. They were just seeing me in action, just went so far because there were people who followed up after the party that ended up scheduling portrait sessions.
Blogging Strategy
00:25:57-00:26:20
And by the way, you’ll get that as well. Again, if you’re gonna do this whole business, I’m going to be talking about this in future podcast episodes. Like I said, oh my goodness, there’s so much there. But people who show up to your portrait party, so the ones that don’t get portraits, but also I have found the ones that do get portraits, they will sometimes sign up later for a full session.
00:26:20-00:26:43
Because some people want more than 10 to 15 minutes, right? Some people want like a full session with you, a full private session, which is awesome. So I mentioned earlier in this episode about the massage therapist, where I did both portrait session with her and a more full like business marketing lifestyle session showing her in action, tastefully, you know, giving like doing massage and other medical techniques on a person.
00:26:43-00:27:06
And that was great. But the first session I did with her was actually a super quick promotional session during the portrait party. That’s how we met, actually. She heard about the portrait party and decided to show up. It was her first time meeting and she had signed up for a time slot.
00:27:06-00:27:29
And it was awesome. And we did a headshot session and it was great. We spent about 10 to 15 minutes together. And she was immediately interested in getting a more full photo session for her business. She was in the process of getting her website set up and she needed photos for it and it worked out perfectly.
00:27:29-00:27:52
We ended up booking another photo session together, a full photo session soon after that. And we did that full marketing session and it turned out awesome. And I never would have gotten that client if I didn’t do the portrait party.
00:27:52-00:28:15
So for me, that is like the number one way that I recommend running or the number one way that I recommend kind of kickstarting your business and bringing in clients relatively quickly. Again, like I said, like 90-ish days.
00:28:15-00:28:38
And I’ll talk about that more. I do offer a business portrait party kit that breaks down the process of what you need to do. There are templates that are supplied. As far as printing your flyer, there are email templates, communications, what you say to your clients. I have that all broken down. I do offer a kit for that.
Blogging Strategy Continued
00:28:38-00:29:01
And it has been awesome. Okay, number five. Wow, the caffeine is really kicking. Number five, goal setting for your business. Are you blogging? Do you have a blogging strategy?
00:29:01-00:29:23
Now, I will say off the bat that I am guilty right now for not having a blogging strategy in place. And so I am talking to myself when I say you need a blogging strategy. It is a great content strategy for really helping to like boost your local SEO in your area.
00:29:23-00:29:45
And I’ll correct myself. I do have a bit of a blogging strategy written down. I haven’t implemented it yet. I’ve started to and I need to do it. I know there’s so many of us where you go to their, we go to our photography blog and if we have the blog link even active in our menu, you click on it and it’s like a graveyard of just like an abandoned blog that never happened.
00:29:45-00:30:07
There’s maybe one or two or a few posts and then there’s nothing. We need to do better. I need to do better. So I am working on a strategy right now. I know we didn’t get into photography to necessarily spend a whole lot of time writing.
00:30:07-00:30:29
There are tools out there that are quite helpful. Right now, I’m exploring a particular tool, and maybe I’ll talk about it more later in a future podcast episode when I have fully tested and vetted it. There’s a bunch out there more and more where okay my own particular I’m trying to figure out the best workflow for myself for creating blog posts.
00:30:29-00:30:51
I find I get quite chatty and rambly when I’m caffeinated like right now and so what I’m testing is speaking out just not even necessarily dictating but I literally take out my phone and I have a recording app on the phone. I hit record and I will talk about a particular idea and it’s aimed towards my ideal photography client.
00:30:51-00:31:13
By the way, that’s super important. When you’re blogging, it should be aimed towards the type of client that you want to get. Imagine you’re talking to them. So I’ve started recording my thoughts on the biggest questions I get from my clients.
00:31:13-00:31:35
I’m recording those thoughts. So in my head I’ll think about, let’s say for example, and I haven’t released this blog post yet on my own photography website, but tips on what to wear. That’s one of the biggest questions I get. For my clients, they want to know what they should wear for their photo session, right?
00:31:35-00:31:57
And this is a big question that I’m sure many of us get. Photographers across the board. And so I had three main points in my head that I wanted to cover. I hit record on my phone. I didn’t even break out my podcasting mic, which I could have, but I didn’t. Just my phone was there.
00:31:57-00:32:19
And I talked about the three main things that my business clients should keep in mind as far as what they should wear to their photo session so that they can show up confident and comfortable, which absolutely makes the difference during their photo session.
00:32:19-00:32:41
So, I recorded that. It took all of about 10 minutes, 10 to 12 minutes. Or I just talked about those three main points. I just I gave a quick intro in the beginning. Hey, I’m going to talk about this. What to wear during your photo session so that you can show up comfortable and confident.
00:32:41-00:33:03
I’m going to talk about three main points. I briefly say these are the three points. Let’s dive into each one. I talked about each point in detail and then I gave a quick recap at the end. That was it. It was awesome.
00:33:03-00:33:25
I emailed myself that audio recording and then I used a particular software that transcribed it for me because I know AI. Oh, another hot button word. Sometimes a dirty word, but sometimes helpful. There’s some AI software that will transcribe the audio for you.
00:33:25-00:33:47
And so I’m testing out that software and it did a really good job transcribing it. And then it wrote content based on the audio that I uploaded, like it wrote an article for me. And I was like, Hey, this is awesome. And it provides it in a number of different ways, actually.
00:33:47-00:34:09
So it wrote articles for me and it wrote like a summary recap for my newsletter so that if I wanted to email my photography client list, a newsletter saying, hey, you should check out this post I just put on the blog. Here’s quickly what I talked about. If you want to read the full thing, click here.
00:34:09-00:34:31
Like you wrote that out for me. It was awesome. And it just took so much of the pain out of writing an article. And so for me, I’m finding that if I just take 10 minutes to record myself, answering a question from my client.
00:34:31-00:34:53
If I just take that 10 minutes, I can upload it to the software and then it does the writing for me. And of course I have to go in and like tweak things and stuff, but I love that. I know it’s AI. Okay. Yeah. But it’s based off of original content that I provided in the audio recording of my voice.
Newsletter Strategy
00:34:53-00:35:15
And so all this to say for this content strategy of blogging, think about a blogging strategy that works for you. Your workflow does not have to be my workflow. Maybe you just sit down every Friday and take half an hour and write about or answer questions from clients that you got this week.
00:35:15-00:35:37
And write it into a quick article and put it on your blog and include some photos, you know, some portraits that you do or something to have some visual interest in there. Maybe you go through your emails and look through the most common questions that you have received in the last six months and copy and paste your answers to your clients into an email or not an email into a blog post.
00:35:37-00:36:00
Take out any identifying information about your client so that they have their privacy but those answers that you spent time writing can make awesome blog posts with just a little bit of tweaking so think about blogging for your business?
00:36:00-00:36:22
And also, how many blogs do you want to do? How many blog posts do you want to do every month? I’m still figuring that out for myself. Maybe for some people it’s once a week. I’m finding that because I’m in the beginning stages of revamping my blogging strategy, I have a bunch of stuff I want to talk about.
00:36:22-00:36:44
And so I find myself recording a lot and these are gonna make awesome articles and so I’m looking to do more than once a week right now we’ll see I don’t want to like say it and then not do it so this is not like a firm commitment that I’m gonna do a bunch of articles every week but at least one a week and then I really I’d like to do like two or three to begin with as I get my articles, my blog articles going, because I have a bunch of ideas.
00:36:44-00:37:06
And when you get inspired, just kind of flow with it. You know, maybe for some people, you don’t want to stick to a set number every week, but just as inspiration flows, which is great. Except don’t let six months go by, you know, before you start between every post, because that’s a little bit too much space between blog posts, I think.
00:37:06-00:37:28
So find out what that number is or range is for you and your business.
Conclusion
00:37:28-00:37:43
Okay, and so point number six, and this is my last point for this episode as we set goals for our photography business. Do you have a newsletter? But again, I’m talking to myself, right? Like for your business, do you have a newsletter that you are sending out to your clients?
00:37:43-00:38:05
I’m so guilty. I have not done this in the longest time and I need to start doing it again. And so number one, do you have a newsletter? Number two, how many newsletters are you sending out a month? Figuring out, that’s what I’m doing.
00:38:05-00:38:27
So I am using my particular photography business software that I use. I believe they have a built-in newsletter feature. Since they already have my client’s information anyway, or I can send out occasional updates. You don’t want to spam your clients. You don’t want to overdo it, of course.
00:38:27-00:38:49
But even once a month, we can all do once a month, right? I can do once a month. And when you send out something that is educational for me, I’m going to be sending out something. Let’s say if I stick to once a month, an educational piece, sending them a link to my blog, because we just talked about blogging and how we’re going to do our blogs, right?
00:38:49-00:39:11
And get content up there. And so for your newsletter, for my newsletter, I’m going to send them a link to the blog with a Quick recap, a quick summary of what the blog post is about, and I’ll say click here to be taken to the full blog post.
00:39:11-00:39:33
Again, make sure it’s information that is beneficial to them. This newsletter is for your clients. Your blog should be aimed for your clients as well. It should be helpful information that will help them if they are looking to potentially get portrait services from you again.
00:39:33-00:39:55
So something educational is good. I know for me, I would also like to include something, an update of what I’m doing in the community or a recent photo session that I did with a business owner, kind of like a highlight, just to show that I am active in the community.
00:39:55-00:40:15
And those two components for me right now are enough. So something educational and then a portrait update from a previous client that I just recently worked with. Once a month. That’s my goal right now for me.
00:40:15-00:40:30
Think about what you want your newsletter to be. The wonderful thing about being a photographer is that we have such wonderful stories that we can tell as we interact with our clients.
00:40:30-00:40:50
It doesn’t matter if you do business photography or wedding photography or pet photography or even product photography. There’s so much content that can be put into a newsletter. A newsletter is great because it helps you really keep in touch with your past clients and even your potential clients.
00:40:50-00:41:10
If you have a sign up box on your website that says sign up for my newsletter, you’d have a list of people that maybe necessarily haven’t yet received services from you, which is wonderful because what an opportunity to educate them about the process.
00:41:10-00:41:30
They signed up for your newsletter for a reason, right? So they have some interest in the type of photography that you do. Well, send them educational tips, tell stories of you working with other clients and by the way you don’t always have to divulge all the information about your clients that you work with in particular like names and all that you don’t necessarily have to do that you can keep it general or showcase a photo or two while still respecting their privacy you know it’s a case-by-case basis but a newsletter is a wonderful way to keep in touch with potential and past clients and I need to do that so
00:41:30-00:41:50
and by the way I was talking earlier about the blogging strategy where I record myself exploring an idea, an educational content, an educational topic, educational content that benefits my clients. Me recording it and then using the software to write a blog article about it.
00:41:50-00:42:10
As I mentioned, it also can be used to write like newsletter content as well. And that’s really awesome. So if you can find a way to, especially for the educational content, I’m finding. Like if I record something educational for my potential client and then I use the AI software, it will write the article and then it has a specific option for the newsletter.
00:42:10-00:42:30
The newsletter is a great place to include educational content. So find the workflow that fits best for you and your business. But think about your newsletter this year. And if you do have one, how can you make it better? How can you make it more beneficial for your clients?
Recap
00:42:30-00:42:50
Because the overall goal, of course, is to provide beneficial content to your clients and potential clients. So those are the six points. Just a quick recap.
00:42:50-00:43:10
Number one, think about the number of photo sessions you want to do this year. Number two, think about your ideal client that you want to work with? Who do you really, really enjoy working with? What type of client?
00:43:10-00:43:30
Number three, marketing. How are you marketing yourself? How are you marketing yourself towards your ideal client? So that’s why it’s so important to know who your ideal client is because that is who you are marketing to. What marketing efforts are you making online and offline, in-person events?
00:43:30-00:43:50
Don’t forget those, super important. Number four, what can you do to kickstart your business and get more clients relatively quickly? I talked about the portrait party that I like to do for business owners that brings in a number of current and future clients relatively quickly.
00:43:50-00:44:10
Again, when I say relatively quickly, for me, that’s like 90 days from planning to execution of the portrait party. Number five, we talked about blogging. What is your blogging strategy? Have you figured out a workflow that is easy and painless that will allow you to start blogging on a regular or semi-regular basis?
00:44:10-00:44:30
Number six, think about your newsletter if you don’t have a newsletter. You need to have a newsletter to stay in touch with your current clients, also potential clients who may sign up from your website to get updates.
00:44:30-00:44:50
If you had a newsletter at one point, like I did, and you let it fall by the wayside, how can you revamp that newsletter? So newsletters don’t have to be scary. It can even be once a month.
00:44:50-00:45:10
And I did not mention that you can schedule that content out in advance if you think of 12 months worth of content. Of course, don’t forget holidays and all that, holiday specials, etc. So think about the particular month that your newsletter will be going out, of course.
00:45:10-00:45:30
But if you were to schedule out all 12 months in advance or six months at a time or a quarter at a time, that will help reduce the workload on yourself. What are your thoughts about this? Did I leave anything out? Feel free to comment and let me know because we are all in this together.
Closing
00:45:30-00:45:50
Thank you for listening and I will talk to you next time.