86: 2026 Marketing Help Overview

Helpful Links:

Website Lab Small Group Coaching  $75 off with code BF26

We lay out a clear path for family photographers to grow in 2026: build a trustworthy website, add steady visibility, and keep momentum with weekly support. Courses alone go stale; a system plus community creates consistent bookings.

• Black Friday context and 2026 offer overview
• Why membership beats standalone courses for marketing
• The website as the true foundation of trust
• Small-group Website Lab structure and goals
• How visibility fails when the site breaks trust
• Facebook ads support and course updates
• Seasonal booking strategies beyond the algorithm
• Money check-ins and weekly planning calls
• Ideal path: Website Lab then membership for ongoing support

I will put a link in the show notes to that

My Instagram + My Membership

Transcript

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Black Friday Offers Overview

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello. Okay, so I quickly wanted to go over what I'm offering for 2026, as I know a lot of you guys are going to be making decisions with this being Black Friday and people offering things and how what are you learning about when it comes to photography and where are you spending your money? So I wanted to give you an overview of my first struggles to define how to help people, which has been an ongoing thing. Um and then not just putting out resources that people can easily just check into once and then it's easy to just let them go. Um, so that's been the the biggest struggle. So the bottom line is my favorite way to help people is the membership because I'm showing up there every single week and it's literally only $35. The issue is that excuse me, because it's $35. Hello, okay. I wanted to jump on here really quick and give you guys an overview of what I'm gonna be offering in 2026 because I know that today is a big this being Black Friday 2025 is a big buying decision day for a lot of photographers when it comes to education and even things like presets and other things that you may think will bring your business to the next level in 2026. So I wanted to give an overview of what I'm offering, um, just to give you an idea of something else if you want to take your business to another level in 2026, which is of course my goal for everyone.

Why Membership Beats Standalone Courses

SPEAKER_00 1:36

So the bottom line, the best way to do marketing or like have support with marketing is the membership because marketing is ongoing and it never stops. So it's not a standalone thing that you can learn because everything is constantly changing, um, best use practices are changing, the seasons are changing, what's needed is changing, the way we're showing up, the algorithms, it's always changing. And so in the past, when I've done standalone courses, within three to four months, they're outdated. And like I just do not like having outdated education. So that is why I love the membership. I'm trying to make it as much of a no-brainer as possible. At $35 a month, I think that's possible. My my goal is to get us to 75 members in the beginning part of 2026 and then see how that feels in terms of how much I'm able to help and all of that stuff. But so far, where we are, we're we're we're at 50-ish right now, and that's a good number. Like people are able to get all their questions answered in the Monday morning chats, and I love just getting to know people's businesses and seeing them actually implement the marketing ideas, and even if they aren't implementing them yet, knowing that they have the resources that they need to be able to do it, because I know that it's overwhelming and there's a lot of mental stuff when we talk about all that, all that as well. My issue is that the way I see marketing in my mind, like if I had a baby new photographer and they're like, what do I do first? Beyond like getting figuring out what you want to do, which is the very first thing. Like, what type what type of session are

The Website As Marketing Foundation

SPEAKER_00 3:16

you offering? What are you what's your specialty? Like, how are you, what, how are you being perceived within the market? What are your processes? Who's your ideal session? Like who what type of session is your my most ideal? Those are like the baseline questions. But then the second foundation of all marketing is that you just need to have a good website. And that's been my struggle is that like I can teach pieces of a website within the membership, but it's too much information for someone to have like just in the membership every single week. I can't like go through with a group of people and be like, okay, here's here's what we're doing, and here's how we're building this, and here's the pathway to booking, right? It's like it is time-intensive. So for 2026, I created a website lab for family photographers, and it's small group learning. In the past, I've done small group learning and I've really, really loved it. As you guys know, I did one-on-one, which was really awesome, but it was hard for me to do that consistently when I got into my own busy time because it's a lot of like one-on-one is very intensive. So the favor the best way to work with me one-on-one, if you're not interested in group,

Introducing The Website Lab

SPEAKER_00 4:26

is to come into my studio if you're local and we can have um a three-hour one-on-one mentorship in my studio where we just are computer to computer working on things side by side. And then I also include 10 fun headshots in that that can kind of like jumpstart your marketing from there. So if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, the best way to do that is in person. Now, why I needed why I created this website lab is because I ideally the most frustrating thing for me is is knowing that I'm helping someone with marketing, like with visibility. Let's say I'm helping them with visibility. So we're we're marketing more consistency, we have marketing more consistently, we have a plan, but the website that the potential clients are going to is breaking trust. It's like for me, that's so hard because I don't want to help you build visibility to something that is broken. So that's why I think the foundation of all marketing for family photographers is within this website. And many people have websites that are technically good that they may have had for a while, and even they maybe had them professionally made, but they're not actually trust-building and they're not actually providing a way for people to book easily and learn easily about your process and everything that they need to know. Um, so because it's like a huge passion of mine and I've reviewed so many websites. If you want more information about like how I view websites, I've done website reviews on the podcast before. So I have a January website group and a February website group. And basically it's going to be

Visibility Without A Broken Site

SPEAKER_00 6:00

a small group of photographers over three weeks working on the website because then once that foundational work is done, then you can go on to have marketing strategies on Instagram or social media. Everything you do on your email list, it just sends people back to a trust building place. Ads that you run actually go to a good website. So though these are my test groups for this. Ideally, what I would love to be doing is having them every other month or so running the website lab in a small group format. And then what I would want those photographers to do in an ideal world is then be part of the membership so that they can continue to market and get marketing resources at $35 a month. And then if you need if you're leveling up and you need help with Facebook ads, then one thing I'm adding in 2026 to the membership is a monthly Facebook ads call. It's it's specifically for Facebook ads questions, concerns, technical things like that. I have a Facebook ads course that has like the the the outlines on how to run uh three or four different types of ads, not how to run them like how like what the copy says, but ph physically how to do it, like how to run a page, run an ad from your Facebook page, how to run an ad from the back end, how to boost a post on your

Ads Support And Course Updates

SPEAKER_00 7:18

actual Facebook page, not boosting on Instagram. So it's that's the technical aspect of that. So before 2026, I'm gonna be beefing up that course. Um, so let's say you're a photographer and you have built a trustworthy website, you're working on visibility on Instagram, which we know is difficult. So you want to accompany your overall marketing strategy with ads, you will get a discount on the Facebook ads course by being in the membership, and then you will be able to get ongoing support inside the membership with Facebook ads. So that is how I'm thinking about like how a photographer should come through the layers of marketing and actually be successful because there's offers that I could put out there and just like be like, oh, it's a course, like go buy it. But I know human behavior is that most people do not finish courses. And I've been in that place too. It's really hard to motivate yourself to actually go out and finish the work. So that is why the ongoing support of the membership is so powerful. So the other thing in the membership, we're going to be working seasonally and putting a big emphasis on different types of booking strategies that are not reliant on the algorithm, which is what I think will set most photographers apart in 2026. I think there's gonna be a lot of photographers just chasing the Instagram algorithm. And I want us to build systems that are based around our seasons that are actual strategy. Instead of just

Seasonal Strategies And Money Calls

SPEAKER_00 8:43

saying, like, oh, I'm gonna jump on this trending reel and hopefully I can get some bookings from there. I want it to be very strategic. We we're gonna talk about there's also gonna be a monthly money call. So we're gonna be talking about are you reaching your income goals? So the the membership is the place to be, but if you don't have a good website, it doesn't make sense to send, to spend time getting visibility for a website that breaks trust, a website that is clunky, that has whole images, that doesn't have good pathways, that doesn't have good processes, that doesn't showcase your booking strategy, and help people while you are asleep or out shooting build trust with your brand. So that is the goal of the website lab, and that is the thing that is on sale for Black Friday, $75 off. So I will put a link in the show notes to that. Um, there's not a sale on the membership because it's $35 a month. Like I already, when I tell people what is in the membership, they're like, why is it $35 a month? Because I I love group teaching on a

Black Friday Deal And Community Value

SPEAKER_00 9:49

long-term scale. And the photographers who've been in there for the seven months that we've been doing it, who've stayed. I just the feedback I get about them feeling like every Monday they log on, every Monday morning they log on, and it's like the week lines itself out. They're like, okay, I know what I'm working on. I've I've met with this group of other photographers. This job can be so lonely. So I love the community aspect of just jumping on the call. It's silly, it's not, it's not like you're doing it wrong. It's like we talk about all the crappy mindset stuff that happens, the comparison, the frustration. Um, every question that anyone has, I'm an open book and willing to answer. And so um, that's basically how I you do not even know the turmoil internally that I've had about trying to figure out how I could take a photographer who wants more visibility but still needs help with their website. So, in an ideal, ideal world, people start with the website lab, get their website super dialed in, go to the membership that gives you the discount on the other standalone courses if you get to the place where you need to work on Pinterest or Facebook ads, but then you stay in the membership and get ongoing support. I feel like if if you had that option had been available to me when I came on the market as a family photographer, it would have saved me so much heartache. So I know you have a lot of decisions when it comes to how you spend money as a photographer,

Ideal Path: Lab To Membership

SPEAKER_00 11:15

but I truly believe that this type of work is what is going to help you reach your goals faster than presets, faster than a client closet, faster than even AI help, like AI in AI culling. Like if you can, if you can get this lined out where you have seasonal booking strategies and a group of other photographers who are also in the same boat and everyone's learning together, and all the visibility that you work hard to create is leading back to a trust-building website that books for you while you're doing other things. That is what I want for every photographer in 2026. So I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, you can always chat to me on um DM on Instagram, Fiona Margo. I'm

Final Invite And Contact

SPEAKER_00 12:03

on there. I'm will be happy to help you or answer any questions that you have. And yeah, I would love to help you with your website in 2026. Um and if you're thinking of joining the membership, now is a great time to do it because every time, every day, every day is a great day to join that silly little goose. Okay, hope you guys have a good weekend.