How to up your marketing game and get more leads knocking on your door!
Scale your portrait photography business with gift vouchers
I’d like to share a story, something that I did in the early days of running my family portrait business. I had exhausted all the potential clients that were within my “inner circle” of family and friends, so it was time to step on the gas, hustle and find some new clients!
I started thinking of all the different businesses that could potentially refer clients to me. I don’t know why, but the first idea hit me like a sack of potatoes. Are you ready for this? It was orthodontists!
I mean, I don’t know if I was overly caffeinated that day or if I was hungover, but of all the businesses in existence, for some strange reason the idea of orthodontists just landed in my head.
So this was the idea. Someone has been wearing braces for 2 years. They’ve been shy, they’ve been hiding their pearly whites, they may have even lost their mojo and were feeling self conscious. But now, today is the day their braces come off. Suddenly, we have someone who is beaming! Their confidence is through the roof, they’re smiling from ear to ear. What a great opportunity to do a photoshoot! Boom, the idea was solid!
My plan was for the orthodontists to give out a gift voucher of mine to every patient who finished their orthodontic treatment. That voucher would entitle them and their families to come in and enjoy a photoshoot and get a 8” x 10” framed print, all valued at $395, for FREE.
The result. The patient is super happy because they get a free photoshoot at a point in their life when they are feeling awesome and wanting to show off their brand new beautiful smile. The orthodontist is super happy because they’re providing more value to their patient, giving them a free photoshoot. And I’m super happy because I get a new customer. It was a win / win for everyone.
So I got to work. There’s no secret sauce here folks, you grab a cup of coffee, turn off your socials, put your phone on flight mode, put your head down and just get busy. I spent the day finding, researching and emailing orthodontists all around the Melbourne area. It was a grind, but by the end of the day I had sent just over 200 emails. A solid effort I thought to myself, so let’s call it a day and I signed off.
The next day I woke up and had 3 replies! Three orthodontists liked my idea and wanted to meet up. I met all three that week, they loved the idea, they loved my enthusiasm and we agreed to give it a go!
I quickly designed some gift vouchers, printed them off at a local printer and dropped them off at each orthodontist.
The next day, my phone rang and I booked my first “real” client.
Here are a few other scenarios that will get your creative juices flowing:
- If someone just finished a 12 week fitness challenge and they’re looking and feeling better than ever, maybe the personal trainer could give them a gift voucher as it could be a great opportunity to get a photoshoot.
- If someone just bought a new puppy, maybe the pet shop owner or breeder could give them a gift voucher as it could be a great opportunity to get a photoshoot.
- If someone just bought a new home, maybe the real estate company could give them a gift voucher as it could be a great opportunity to get a new family portrait done to put up on the wall in their new home.
Now I know there are a lot of different ways to run a portrait photography business. You may sell packages up front, you might do photo shoots for free and sell products afterwards or maybe you have a subscription model and charge families a little bit on a monthly basis and in exchange do regular photoshoots for them. Regardless of your business model, I hope these ideas have got you thinking and got your creative juices flowing with new marketing possibilities.
Have a think about your ideal client. Who are they? What do they do? Where do they hang out? What do they like buying? Once you’ve answered those questions, get out there and start building relationships with those suppliers, maybe they’ll love to refer you to their clients if the offering is right!
Scale your wedding photography business with referrals
Now, here are some ideas for all my wedding photographer buddies in the audience!
As the old saying goes “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, which in this case basically means, building relationships and getting referrals. Everyone knows that word of mouth is one of the most powerful types of advertising, so how do we make it happen?
To get an idea of how best to attack this strategy, we need to break down the booking process. In a nutshell, it looks kind of like this:
Stage 1: Getting engaged.
- Buy an engagement ring.
- Book a hotel, resort, dinner, boat ride, something romantic, etc and propose!!
Stage 2: Confirm a date.
- Book a reception venue
- Book a ceremony venue (if it’s different from the reception)
Stage 3: Book the suppliers.
- Book a photographer
- Book a videographer
- Buy a dress/suits
- Buy a bouquet and flowers
- Buy a wedding cake
- Book a marriage celebrant
- Book music/entertainment
- Book wedding cars
You get the idea. So, the mission here is to get as many of these businesses to refer clients to you as possible! But, how do we do that, I hear you ask?
Ahhh I have the answer. I’ve put together 10 different ways to do this, and don’t worry portrait photographers, a lot of these ideas will also apply to you too, so listen up.
Create an “Inner Circle”
If a potential client sends you an enquiry and you’re already booked, what do you do?
Wouldn’t it just be amazing if you teamed up with 1 or 2 other photographers and recommended each other whenever you were unavailable on a date. This one strategy alone could completely fill your diary!
Make friends with vendors while you’re on the tools.
There are plenty of opportunities to joke around with the celebrant before the wedding, rub shoulders with the videographer while walking backwards up the aisle or smash a beer with the band or DJ in between sets.
Make an effort to get to know the suppliers and if the relationship grows, you could start sharing referrals with one another.
Stop lurking, start posting on the socials.
Get involved, participate in the conversations, ask questions, answer questions, give feedback. Slowly get to know your industry buddies in these social groups.
After a while you will see relationships beginning to form and again, maybe you could end up sharing referrals with one another.
Rock up to industry events and mingle.
Go to expos, networking events, information nights and parties. These are great opportunities to mingle and exchange war stories with like minded people and as I keep mentioning, maybe you could end up sharing referrals with one of them.
Tell someone you like them.
Let’s try doing it the old fashioned way. Find a supplier that you would love to partner with, tell them that you love their videos, flowers, dresses, whatever it is that they do and offer to buy them a coffee and have a chat. Easy peasy.
If things go well, you’ve just created a new friendship and potentially a new partnership and can start sharing referrals with each other.
Shoot with the supplier in mind.
Every time I’m out shooting a wedding, I’m always thinking in the back of my mind, which suppliers would like to receive these photos? For example, I could send close up photos of the bride to the makeup artist, I could send photos of the flowers to the florist, funky shots of the band, scenic shots of the venue, you get the idea.
If you can find the time and just spend an extra minute taking photos with the supplier in mind, they would be absolutely thrilled to receive those photos and you’d be one step closer to getting on their preferred suppliers list.
A favour for a favour.
Every year I offer a few wedding dress designers a free photo shoot. Sure, I know shooting for free sucks, but a dress designer might sell 300 dresses a year and if they can personally recommend me to 300 brides, I’d say that’s a pretty good deal!
Another idea is to offer a wedding celebrant some new headshots, for free. It’ll take an hour or so of your time, it’ll give you guys an awesome opportunity to bond and laugh and hopefully they’ll be so happy with the results that they’ll happily refer you to their clients too.
Sweeten the deal.
Look, there may be a situation when the vendor is a little more commercially inclined and simply giving them love is not enough! In this case, you have two options:
Option 1: you could offer their clients a discount. For example, if a supplier refers clients to me, I could offer those clients 10% off my photography packages. The result is, the vendor looks great because their customers are getting an awesome deal, the couples love it because they are saving money and I’m happy because I’m getting more leads, win – win for everyone!
Option 2: you could offer to pay a commission back to the vendor. For example, if a supplier refers me and I book the client, I could pay 10% commission back to the vendor. This might incentivise them to refer more couples to you because they get paid, essentially passive income for doing nothing.
The gift.
This strategy is very similar to the orthodontist example that I mentioned earlier. I partnered with a jewelry shop and the deal was that every time someone bought an engagement ring they would receive a ‘gift’ from the jeweler which was a free engagement shoot with me. Another win/win for everyone.
The couples loved receiving this gift. The jeweler looks great because they’re adding value to their customers’ experience. And finally I’m happy because I get to photograph newly engaged couples who are looking for a wedding photographer. 9/10 times they love their free shoot and booked me straight in for their wedding.
Give, give, give, receive.
Another really nice way to create business relationships with other suppliers is to refer your clients to them first! For example, there was a band that I loved working with and whenever we were at a wedding together we always had an absolute ball. So, anytime a couple asked me if I knew any good bands, I would instantly recommend these guys, it was a no brainer. After three referrals, the band got in touch with me, thanking me so much for referring couples to them, and added me to their preferred suppliers list and started returning the favour. Boom, another win!
