Tips for Building a Strong Client Relationship and Generating Repeat Business

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Sometimes it’s hard for photographers to find new clients. However, there is an advertising goldmine just waiting for you. It’s your previous clients.

Developing a client relationship can yield tangible results but won’t happen by accident. A client relationship often begins before you ever snap a single exposure. We really show ourselves and our work off when courting a new customer. The trick is to keep that positive effort going past the delivery of the goods.

Photography client management is one of the more important business tips for success. Maintaining a client relationship can be put on equal footing with doing excellent photography work regarding how vital it is to a photography business.

The Basic Idea Behind a Client Relationship

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The basic idea behind building and maintaining a photography client relationship is simple: People like to do business with a known quantity.

To put it into slightly different terms, people searching for someone to provide them with a product or service they need or want are more likely to choose a provider they’ve used before. Or, if new to the need or want, they will be more comfortable with a business their friends like.

Think about when you last needed a car repair, your lawn mowed, or a haircut. Who did you use? You likely either used the person or company you've had a good experience with or someone one of your friends recommended.

The same thing happens with photography. You could be a wedding photographer, a portrait artist, or a real estate photographer. When a person hires a photographer, they go with who they know, what’s familiar, and a company they can trust.

You, the photographer, want to build on that initial great feeling you gave a customer when you delivered the excellent work you do. Take that smile of satisfaction your client had and make it into repeat or referral business.

That is a client relationship, photography client management. Here are some photography business tips for how to do that.

Mailing List for Client Relationship Management

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Whether via the postal service with physical mail or by using email, a mailing list is a must-have tool for having and managing a strong client relationship. One of the first steps in building a client relationship is to acknowledge their business.

A simple thank you card or an email goes a long way. If using physical mail, create a postcard that shows your photos and logo and use a friendly (though professional-looking) font to say “Thank You!”

For some clients, an email may work better. Knowing who to postal mail and who to email is an important move forward for photography client management. You should have a file of your clients and their preferred contact methods. Text messaging is another viable alternative.

Periodically send out notices of your photography business promotions - perhaps a sale, bonus extras for a sitting or session, or a new service or product added to your business model. As some form of cold contact, you can also send general mailings to existing clients, just like you may already do.

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Tickler File for Important Dates

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What has worked for many business models for years is a tickler file with important dates for your clients listed. The phrase tickler file originally described actual file folders arranged by important dates.

For example, instead of looking through their entire Rolodex, a B2B salesperson would pull out the current day, week, or month file and contact existing and previous customers on or near certain dates that matter to them.

Those dates could be a wedding anniversary, a child’s birthday, or something important to that client. A wedding photographer has an opportunity to extend a strong client relationship by offering family portrait packages, boudoir images, or maternity photography. Similar ideas will work for other styles and genres of professional photography.

Referral Rewards Keeps Client Relationships Fresh

We want to remember that a strong client relationship is not merely about getting a former customer to return for more but also about gaining new customers through referrals. As an incentive for providing referrals, some form of reward is effective.

Whatever your photography business model, there is something that can be offered as a reward incentive. Something as simple as a discount coupon for their next session or some printed photos of their images can be used.

If we choose to provide a physical item as one of those rewards, a collection of photos we made for our customers compiled into a softcover book or a photo calendar will work amazingly well.

The advantage of a physical item like these is that they are inexpensive for us to make, and they keep advertising for us long after the client initially receives them from us. Photo Book Press is an excellent source for getting these made. Not only are they reasonably priced, but they are also exceptionally high quality.

Maintain Client Relationship - Reply to Comments

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A fantastic method of building and maintaining strong client relationships is social media or a blog on our own website. In addition to reaching new clients, we can maintain a strong client relationship by interacting with current and past customers who comment on our page or account.

If you want to keep a website clean and positive, you can employ moderated comments settings. This allows you to take care of an unhappy client in a positive way without the conversation looking adversarial. It may take some work to stay on top of comments, but it really does work out well most of the time.

Developing and maintaining strong client relationships is a key to up your photography business. Get return business and referral business by tapping into that goldmine of past and current clients. You’ll be glad you did!

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