Get More Photography Clients by Nurturing Leads
- No-Contact Photography Business Tools You Should Continue to Use
- How to Get Feedback from Clients the Easy Way
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Photography clients are hard to come by nowadays. I think it’s been well over two months since I gained any new photography clients and I consider myself lucky because I have plenty of returning clients to keep me and my business going through the pandemic. But, what if you need new photography clients right now?
There are plenty of ways to get more photography clients right now. Nine times out of ten the problem isn’t even that you need new photography clients, it’s that you need to learn how to nurture leads. If potential photography clients are coming to your website, but they aren’t booking photoshoots with you, then you need to learn more about lead generation for photographers.
Thankfully, we have plenty of photography marketing strategies in this article that will help you to gain new photography clients by the end of the week.
Figure Out Your Lead Generation System
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As a photographer, marketing phrases like “lead generation system” are a little overwhelming for me. But when you break it down, a lead generation system is really just a way for you to cultivate connections with different people.
So, the first step of setting up a lead generation system is figuring out who your target audience is. If you’re a wedding photographer, then you might try to target people in their 20s and 30s. If you’re a portrait photographer, then you may be looking to work with high school or college seniors.
Once you’ve established your target audience, you will need to set some campaign goals and figure out what would attract your target audience to your business.
Then you can set up an email campaign to help bring those customers to your website. While the lead generation system is largely about driving traffic to your website, when you break it down into steps it isn’t as overwhelming.
Don’t Forget About Targeting Old Clients
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One pretty common mistake that people make when setting up a lead generation system is that they forget to try and attract photography clients that they’ve already worked with before in the past. And that’s a shame because old photography clients are way easier to get into your lead generation system than new photography clients.
In fact, if you’re trying to sell something to your old photography clients, you have a 60-70% chance of being successful in that endeavor. However, if you’re trying to get new leads, the chance is only between 5-20%.
So, how do you sell to old clients? By getting in touch with them...
Perhaps you need to include a specific email marketing campaign that is targeted to your old clients. Perhaps you should send a gift to your old clients for a birthday or anniversary. The goal is to simply remind them that your business still exists, that it is still operating through covid, and that you’re looking to get them booked for another shoot.
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Respond to Leads Quickly
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One of my favorite photography business tips is to respond to leads as quickly as you can. In our world, people can send questions to dozens of businesses within five minutes and a lot of the time the first business to respond will get that client. In fact, 50% of all leads go to the vendor that responds first. Websites like Yelp definitely don’t help with the competition factor.
If you’re losing out on that many leads because it takes you a few hours to get back to potential leads, then you need to get some help.
Thankfully, Podium exists. Podium is an all-in-one messaging platform. It allows you to directly contact all of your clients and leads via text message. For instance, if someone comes to your website and uses your live chat option, then you will get a text message with that person’s question. You’ll also get their phone number. That way you can respond to them directly on their phone.
But, even if you do decide to implement a program like Podium, the number of clients you get boils down to how quickly you can respond to potential clients. According to a study that Podium did, “If there are two identical businesses using Podium, but one responds to all their messages in an hour and one responds to all their messages in five minutes or less, the second business converts 25% more of its leads to paying customers.”
That’s huge. Podium knows that. It’s why their software also keeps track of exactly how long it takes you to respond to potential customers. With this average number, you can figure out what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.
While Podium is not a free service, they do offer a free trial so you can figure out if it’s something that will work for you.
You can request a price quote right here.
Use Your Website for Leads
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One huge part of your photography marketing campaign is your website, but a lot of photographers don’t treat it like it is.
I was helping one of my friends with their photography website the other day and it was so frustrating. I got on his website and the entire website was focused on him and his photography. Of course, you want your website to showcase your photography, but unless you’re a celebrity photographer (and I’m guessing you’re not if you’re reading this blog), then your website also needs to be focused on your potential clients.
This means that you should have a portfolio on your website, but you should also have a blog with useful information that your potential clients would find interesting. If you’re a wedding photographer, then you could write a blog about creating a shot list for weddings. If you’re a portrait photographer focused on senior portraits, then you could write a blog about creating the best LinkedIn portrait.
Those blog posts will not only convince potential clients already on your website that they want to work with you, but it will bring in a different audience that is specifically looking for information about wedding shot lists or LinkedIn portraits. Give it a try - it’ll help you nurture those all-important leads!
