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If you’re having trouble learning how to get photography clients during the pandemic, you’re certainly not alone. Between news stories of photographers working over Zoom to news stories about photographers not working at all, it’s definitely been a hard year.

Photography clients have been really hard to come by the last year, which makes keeping your current photography clients even more important. 

So, if you should be focusing on how to get repeat business, what are some tactics you can use to do so? 

In this article, I’m going to walk you through a few ways I’ve tried to get repeat photography clients over the past couple of decades.  

Reward Referrals

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I created a referral incentive within the first year of my photography business being opened because it was one of the photography business tips I kept hearing over and over again from older photographers.  

While a referral program isn’t necessarily focused on bringing back your old photograph clients, it does so. Perhaps your old photography clients aren’t coming back to your business to do a new photoshoot, but they are coming back to receive their referral reward. 

Plus, when you use a referral program, your old photography clients are bringing new photography clients to your business.  

There are endless options for the way you want to set up your specific referral program. I like to offer my photography clients the option to either use a larger credit towards a session with me or a smaller credit towards a print product of photos from their last session.

I would say that around 6 out of 10 times my photography clients choose to book a new session with me. It’s really hard for people to see a much larger number on paper and turn it down.  

Create Special Birthday Rates

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People love to feel like you’re thinking about them. One of the easiest ways to do this with your photography business is to create special birthday, anniversary, or holiday rates.

When I worked as a wedding photographer, I would automatically put each new wedding date in my calendar for the next 3 years. Then, when that wedding anniversary came back around, I would send my couples a handwritten note telling them how much I enjoyed our session, how I hoped they were doing well in their first few years of marriage, and offering them a discount on an anniversary photoshoot. 

Very few businesses have this level of personal touch anymore, and even my photography clients who couldn’t afford to do another photoshoot with me would reach back out to say how touched they were and to promise they would use me again in the future if they needed photography services. 

The trick to getting this one right is to make sure you get some basic information from your photography clients when you first start working with them. I have what basically amounts to an intake form that I give to my photography clients so that I can get basic information about their birthdays and holidays. 

Learn More:

• These Portrait Photography Techniques Will Vastly Improve Your Images
• How to Use a Reflector for Portraits

Send Handwritten Thank-Yous

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This is another easy way to get photography clients to come back time and time again. Plus, it takes barely any time. 

I take one two-hour block of time every month and set it aside for thanking all of my photography clients that I worked with in the past 30 days. 

The notes that you are writing don’t have to be especially in depth (mine are usually just a couple of sentences). But, they do have to be handwritten. People don’t have time to read emails, no matter how personal they are. They will always have time to read handwritten mail because these sorts of pieces come so infrequently. 

Make It Easy to Stay in Touch

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One of the biggest problems with getting your clients to come back to work with your business again is that photographers are frequently really busy.

I know from personal experience that if I’m trying to reach out to someone to perform a service for me, I won’t send more than one email or text message. I figure that if they really need the business, they will get back to me promptly.

Of course, as a business owner, I know this isn’t realistic. Messages get lost. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve shot up in bed at midnight after forgetting to respond to one of my photography clients. 

So, the best thing you can do to make sure none of your clients go to other photographers in your area after working with you is to make it easy to stay in touch.

Of course, if you are running your entire business by yourself, this is easier said than done, which is why I recommend a little help from technology.

Podium is a messaging platform that basically makes sure human error doesn’t get in the way of your business’ communication. 

It is a software that pulls every single message your business receives, from Yelp to Facebook to your text messages, and puts it on one, easy to read platform. 

This platform also tracks the amount of time it takes you to respond to your photography clients. This has helped me tremendously, because when I first got Podium my average response time was well over a few hours. Now, I have it down to under 30 minutes. 

Podium doesn’t just allow you to keep track of messages you’re receiving though, because it also allows you to send your invoices to your clients via their text messages and it also allows you to track the way your business is performing with reviews online.  

If you read PhotographyTalk frequently, then you know that begging for Yelp reviews is a very difficult, real part of running a photography business. Podium helps make it just a little bit easier. 

Plus, Podium is currently running a deal to let you try it out for free to figure out if it actually works well with the flow of your business.  

Learn More:

• These Portrait Photography Techniques Will Vastly Improve Your Images
• How to Use a Reflector for Portraits