How to Fill Your Fall Calendar

Summary

In this conversation, Christa shares tips on how to fill your photography calendar. She advises making a list of where your top clients came from and understanding the value they received. She emphasizes the importance of identifying where your top clients are coming from and making changes to attract more of them. Christa suggests strategies such as word-of-mouth referrals, social media marketing, email list marketing, and SEO. She also recommends doing giveaways, model calls, and personally inviting ideal clients. Christa highlights the need for intentional marketing and having a sustainable framework in place.

Takeaways

• Make a list of where your top clients came from and understand the value they received.
• Identify where your top clients are coming from and make changes to attract more of them.
• Utilize strategies such as word-of-mouth referrals, social media marketing, email list marketing, and SEO.
• Consider doing giveaways, model calls, and personally inviting ideal clients.
• Focus on intentional marketing and have a sustainable framework in place.

Thanks for listening! We’d LOVE if you left us a review!
Connect with Christa on Instagram HERE!
Enjoy a free 20-min training on adding $50k in income from products HERE!
Apply for Uncapped HERE!

Transcript

Join us for a free 2 day workshop this month on August 27 & 28 where we will talk about how you can add $20K to your photo income this Fall with products! Register HERE

Christa (00:01.05)
Okay, I wanted to share some quick tips on how to fill your photography calendar. If you're maybe in a bit of a funk or a booking role or you know something needs to change and you're not sure what to do. And this is gonna be at a higher level. I do have a episode towards the beginning about like booking clients that will really help with getting more clients in the door. So I'm gonna be speaking to you though at a higher level as if you have already had clients come in the door consistently.

because my advice would change if not. Okay, so let's start. What I would first do is make a list of where your top 10 clients from this year or last year came from. Write it down. Don't just sit there thinking about it. Like make an Excel doc or something for yourself and write it down and then write where they came from. How did they find you? If you're not asking where they're finding you on their inquiry form, you need to, and if you're not sure, reach out to them and ask, hey, I enjoyed working with you.

I want to work with more clients like you. How did you hear about me? Now, your top clients aren't always necessarily gonna be the past biggest spenders. Now, let me talk to you what I mean by that. So if you followed me for a while, you know that I'm very passionate about being full service, about serving past the digitals, about not capping yourself or your client. So if you've been shoot and burn, you might've had clients that spent 500 because that's all you were offering.

And you might say, well, they didn't order anything else from the online gallery. Yeah, that makes sense. My clients don't order much from the online gallery either. So it doesn't mean that they weren't a top, like they weren't a top client because some ordered from the online gallery, some didn't. If you're not sharing the value, online gallery sales are going to be low. So really think through. And also if you upped your rates partway through the year and you're like, well, these people spent more than these people. Yeah, because like that was their option. Other people didn't have the option to spend more with you. Okay.

If you are full service already, yay, it could be spent. But what I wanted to encourage you is I, for instance, had a client this year for a special shoot that was in a family session. And it was about two grand for that session. And they didn't want to buy more because they wanted to wait until a family session later to buy more wall art. Because with this specific shoot,

Christa (02:19.016)
They didn't want to buy as much Waller as they did with they want to wait. So even if that wasn't a top spender to me, that's still a top client because price was no objection. They knew what they wanted. They understood the value. They listened to me. And even if I had clients spending more than them, I would still count that as a top client. So if you are shoot and burn and maybe right now you are capping your clients, I would love to help you pass that. have a program that teaches how, but what I would say is think through who valued photos, who came with their a game. Like you could

They took this seriously. They showed up ready to go, invested in how they looked in their outfits and making sure their kids looked appropriate and just really valued this experience with you. And the reason it's not always spent is some of my top clients, you wouldn't look at them and think, they've probably spent thousands on photos because they just prioritized what they value and they might not have drive up in the nicest car, but they really valued photos and this experience and having these on their walls.

So really think that through, like who would value photos? Look at where they came from and make note. What is speaking the loudest? This is gonna differ, okay? So I have a level I coach very intensively and one of my students, hers is word of mouth. And she was like, I am so good at just connecting with people and bringing them in so much so she said one time she was in Publix and booked a wedding client because she heard someone say.

we're getting married and she was like, my gosh, I'm a wedding photographer. Let's sit down and chat and took them to Starbucks and they booked a wedding with her, okay? Like that's pretty awesome. That's amazing. So for her, we looked at great. How can we facilitate and nurture more of these word of mouth referrals? How can we stay front of mind with these clients who also keep coming back to you? For someone else that might look like Instagram, all my clients are from social media.

For some, looks like email list marketing, which even then I would say, how did they find you and get on your email list? And how can we 10X that? Which Christa, that's huge 10X thing. Yeah, think through that. If I were to get 10 times more of this type of client, how can I do that? Are you getting a lot on social media now and barely posting? Great, let's ramp that up. Are you getting people from your email list and emailing a couple times a month? Great, how can we get that even further?

Christa (04:39.58)
If it's word of mouth, how can I connect even further and stay front of mind? Right? So get really clear on where your top clients are coming from. And the reason this is higher level is this shifts. This isn't a how to book your first client podcast episode. That looks different because we don't have top clients yet, but this is assuming that we do and you know who you want to get more of. And look at what do I need to change for me to get there? So right now.

If you are getting all of your clients from social media and you know you need to spend more time on social media, but you don't have the time to do it, something has to shift. We're probably spending time on areas of our business. We might not need to because we're not spending time on the main thing that's getting clients in. So I would look at what are you like, what are you doing that could be taken out even to be able to get there? What am I wasting time on in my business? I'm doing XYZ and nothing's coming from it. That's okay.

But Christa, it works really well for her. It doesn't matter. Like you're doing something that's working really well. So let's figure out how we can do that now. We might want to also be doing other ways. I don't want to just have all of my eggs in one basket. So I would also encourage building up SEO and having inquiries come in that way, building up your word of mouth referrals as well. So still build up these other things, but make sure that we don't get so busy doing other things in our business that aren't even marketing that we miss the main thing that's bringing in clients.

So then look also at where are you lacking, right? So right now I have so many clients word of mouth. Okay, how can we get more clients via social medias? Because you're already spending time on it. How can we get that working for us too? Right now, if you're saying I don't get any clients finding me on Google, how can we build that up? What do we need to do? Is there a course we need to invest in? Are we not blogging like we should? And we know that that's a key. Are we making the time we need to build that up so we're having clients?

come to us from all fronts because marketing's like a funnel. We want a lot of people coming up the top because not everyone comes out the bottom and that's okay. And then again, look at where you're wasting time. What am I doing? Nothing's coming from it. Now there's a difference between, long -term it's gonna make sense. For instance, I've used the example before of blogging. You're not gonna blog a few blogs and then overnight get a bunch of clients. Long -term it makes sense. So I'm not saying stop doing blogging, but if you're not doing blogging in a way that's intentionally ever going to rank for SEO, like you don't really know what you're doing,

Christa (06:59.698)
Let's wait until you do know how to do it intentionally in a way that you can rank so that you are gonna see the results from it and you're not wasting time. Now let's look at being proactive though and getting new clients. So if you did need that marketing push and if you are like looking back at your clients and maybe they're not ideal, which that can happen and that's okay. I give you permission to say a lot of my past clients, Christa, are not really ideal clients with where I want to grow. That's totally fine. And you're actually probably gonna get a step ahead than the photographer

who is so worried about people pleasing and so worried about losing clients that they never entered that next level of their business. So a couple of things you could do, you could do a giveaway. And my students, I suggest doing a gift card giveaway because they're full service, sky's the limit. The client can buy as much as they want. And so by doing a gift card, it's not just the farm where it's the session, all the digital's and calling it good. No, it's a gift card they can use towards anything. So yes, they have the session fee. They have some of their favorites in digital and nice prints.

but they also can use that gift card towards buying more from them, more images, wall art, albums, things like that. So even in doing a giveaway, the winner can easily spend hundreds more, even thousands more, and then they can reach out to others who entered as well and give them a smaller gift card to get them in the door. So it's really cool because there's still money on the table that they can have by not just giving them everything. And then same with a model call. So right now, if what you're doing and sharing and posting isn't what you want to book more of,

A model call is a really great way to build that up. You have to be sharing consistently what you want to be booking consistently. So let's say you wanna do a pivot and you wanna do more seniors in the senior space. You might go ahead and do a model call for, I'm looking for a senior who, I don't know if there's, you what you need, ramifications in this city, right? And you could do a model call and again, do a gift card to cover some of their favorites so they have the option to spend more.

you have more for your portfolio and you're able to post and share more of what you want to book more of as well as get in their circles where their friends now will see that you did that. So you could do a giveaway for a senior or a model call for a senior. So that's a really great way to get new clients in, not only like from just connecting marketing wise with the winner and with others seeing your stuff, but connecting with everyone who enters it. That could possibly be a good fit. Another thing you could do is just personally invite your ideal client in.

Christa (09:24.124)
If your ideal client has shifted, totally fine. Just get clear on who it is. Who is that in your community that's affluent, that's connected, that could get you with more people like that, more clients like that, and invite them in for a session with you. Again, with my students, we do it via a gift card, but however that looks, you have to get connected with them. Maybe it's someone you know of that you've crossed paths with or worked at an old job with or a family friend. Like whatever that looks like, bring them in so that they can go through that experience with you.

and they can refer you and then you even have those images to share. And then you can use those images from this on social media. You can use it on your blog to update your website. And so you're multi -purposing, repurposing all of this incredible marketing content. And so that way, let me give, I'm gonna give a poor example of what I did one time. When I was starting my business, I one time did this setup in my parents basement, which they had like a nice basement, it was finished,

I did kind of like a newborn set up, like a little backdrop and everything. And I had decided at the time that I didn't love doing newborns. I like it more now because I do more of a lifestyle, but this was like very posy baby newborns. And it just didn't resonate with me. And I shot that and I served that client well, but realized, okay, doing like the pose of newborns just isn't the direction I want to go.

But because I posted that image, I kept getting all these newborn inquiries, right? Because I posted it and shared it. People assumed that's what I was doing. So that's a negative example of you're gonna get more of what you post more of versus, let's say when I wanted to shift more into weddings, what I do. I got people in their wedding dress to come out and model for me. I found ways to second shoot and have content. Like I did these tasks because I understood

For someone to book me, I need to have great work representing what I'm able to accomplish. And so even now, when I shifted from weddings to portraits a few years ago, I still took on weddings, but shifted mostly to portraits. I had to become really proactive with getting people in the door because people knew me as a wedding photographer. I hadn't even been posting portraits options. So I'd get a few inquiries here and there, but it would be like, hey, I don't know if you do family. And I'd be like, yes, I do families. Yes, I do. I used to not, but now I do. And I'd love to serve you.

Christa (11:36.562)
And not only was I serving them, but I had switched from shoot and burn where they were getting like the farm for a couple, a few hundred dollars to shifting to being full service. And so that was a huge shift, but because I marketed intentionally and did the right steps, I went from then filling my calendar with over a hundred sessions in the coming years. And so I want to share like marketing is everything. Your marketing matters. You have to have a good framework in place first, because right now if to hit a five K month, you're having to take on

whatever, 2030 shoots, that's just gonna be unsustainable marketing efforts to get an average of that in, right? So you have to have a good framework. So right now, get clear, like, is it a marketing thing or do I have enough clients? I'm just not being paid enough and move on from there. And so in my uncapped program, I teach exactly how to set your full service structure up for you and your business and your clients and your goals. And then that's only then we look at marketing. And I felt like I should say that because

I would feel bad as a coach teaching you how to market something and maybe marketing wasn't the key. So make sure first of all, like your process is sustainable. Shoot me a DM if you want more details on my Incapt program where I teach exactly how to set this up. It's incredible. It's a six month container. It does not take six months to set up. I just like supporting students past that point where I've helped students. One girl is a mom of two. She was a former teacher burnt out and she went from a $300

average to over $1 ,000 and actually tripled her income doing 10 less sessions. Like results like that are so incredibly possible if you're willing to do these marketing tips, but we have to have the right framework first. Shoot medium if you'd like details on that. And I hope these tips are helpful as you work on filling your calendar for the fall.