EP 105: What a Photography Marketing System Actually Looks Like

00:00:00 [Alison]
Guys.
00:00:00 [Alison]
Allison here popping in real quick before the episode.
00:00:03 [Alison]
Melissa and I are taking a summer break to be with our kids while they are home.
00:00:07 [Alison]
Knowing when to step back is just as much a business strategy as anything we talk about on the show.
00:00:12 [Alison]
We will be back this fall with brand new content, but in the meantime, we are spending July and the first part of August re airing episodes we think you need.

00:00:20 [Alison]
So whether your time hearing it or your third, there is something in here for you.
00:00:24 [Alison]
Let’s get into it.

00:00:25 [Melissa]
Welcome to Get Booked, a photography podcast.

00:00:28 [Alison]
I’m Allison, active duty Marine Corps spouse, family photographer, and business mentor.

00:00:32 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, a lifestyle newborn photographer turned SEO expert for photographers.

00:00:37 [Alison]
Between us, we have twenty seven years in the industry, nine business relocations, and a lot of lessons learned the hard way through experience.

00:00:44 [Melissa]
We’re here to help you get visible, get clients, and build a business that actually books.
00:00:49 [Melissa]
Let’s go.
00:00:54 [Melissa]
Hey, guys.
00:00:54 [Melissa]
So this week, you get just me, Melissa, in your ears, and we are gonna talk about photography marketing systems.
00:01:02 [Melissa]
So I have a quick question for you.

00:01:04 [Melissa]
Do you have a marketing system?
00:01:05 [Melissa]
Not a strategy, not a plan you wrote in January, you know, something on sticky note on your desk, an actual system where, you know, you start here, and then you do this, and then you do this.
00:01:17 [Melissa]
And at the end of the day, a stranger finds you on Google and books a session.
00:01:22 [Melissa]
That’s what we’re talking about.
00:01:23 [Melissa]
Some of you, you’re like, well, I post on Instagram and I have a website, but that’s that’s not a system.

00:01:28 [Melissa]
That’s a presence, which is good, but there’s a big difference.
00:01:31 [Melissa]
You know, I feel like most photographers have never been taught what a marketing system actually is.
00:01:36 [Melissa]
We’ve all been taught, like, tactics, blog more, post consistently, optimize your Instagram bio, and those things aren’t wrong, but they’re just the pieces.
00:01:45 [Melissa]
I always like to say that I feel like a lot of times in life, I have all the ingredients, but I just need the recipe.
00:01:50 [Melissa]
And I feel like that’s what happens with a lot of photographers.

00:01:53 [Melissa]
We’ve got all the ingredients, but we don’t exactly the recipe or what order things go in.
00:01:58 [Melissa]
So if you’re throwing your flour in with your sugar and your eggs and you’re baking a cake, it’s too soon.
00:02:03 [Melissa]
You gotta wait on that, and I think that’s what we do a lot of times.
00:02:06 [Melissa]
So today, I’m gonna walk you through exactly what I think a photography marketing system should look like.
00:02:12 [Melissa]
There’s five parts to it, and they’re gonna build on each other.

00:02:15 [Melissa]
And so here’s the thing too.
00:02:16 [Melissa]
When you have a system, you’ve got to trust the system, and you need to use the system.
00:02:22 [Melissa]
I know we all get distracted by shiny things, especially on there’s a reason I can’t open Instagram, y’all.
00:02:28 [Melissa]
I start scrolling, and then I’m like, what just happened to the last hour of my life?
00:02:31 [Melissa]
I want you to think about these marketing systems.

00:02:34 [Melissa]
And when you create your marketing system, I really want you to promise me that you are going to stick with it for at least a quarter, so at least three months.
00:02:43 [Melissa]
And I know that might seem like, well, what if I’m not getting any results?
00:02:47 [Melissa]
Sometimes systems take time.
00:02:50 [Melissa]
It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong, but these things all build on each other.
00:02:53 [Melissa]
And so it’s gonna take time to establish authority.

00:02:57 [Melissa]
It’s gonna take time to build trust with your audience.
00:03:00 [Melissa]
And I do feel like we’re in a a day and age where we’re very used to instant gratifications.
00:03:05 [Melissa]
And this is me too, y’all.
00:03:06 [Melissa]
I’m not yelling at you.
00:03:06 [Melissa]
I’m yelling at myself.

00:03:08 [Melissa]
But we get really about something, and then when it doesn’t work out, we quit.
00:03:11 [Melissa]
We’re like, oh, okay.
00:03:12 [Melissa]
Well, that didn’t work.
00:03:13 [Melissa]
I’m not gonna do that anymore.
00:03:14 [Melissa]
And I’m gonna encourage you when you put together a system to really stick with it for a couple months and see how it goes and see where you land.

00:03:23 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:03:24 [Melissa]
So let’s talk about what actually goes into you know, what’s the point of this marketing system?
00:03:30 [Melissa]
And really, it’s gonna have five jobs.
00:03:32 [Melissa]
We wanna get found.
00:03:33 [Melissa]
We wanna build trust.

00:03:35 [Melissa]
We wanna amplify.
00:03:37 [Melissa]
We wanna stay connected, and then we wanna close the loop.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
And y’all were talking about closing the loop.
00:03:42 [Melissa]
So that’s five things.
00:03:43 [Melissa]
And when all five things are working together, that’s when you stop chasing clients and start attracting them.

00:03:49 [Melissa]
So let’s walk through each one.
00:03:50 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:03:51 [Melissa]
So the first thing here is to get found.
00:03:54 [Melissa]
We all know this.
00:03:55 [Melissa]
If no one’s finding you, they’re certainly not gonna book you.

00:03:57 [Melissa]
So getting found is where the whole system starts, and it comes down to two things, really.
00:04:02 [Melissa]
And you guys are gonna love this, I know, because I wanna talk about keywords, and you’re like, oh, Melissa, I just saw an Instagram post last week that keywords are dead and SEO is dead.
00:04:11 [Melissa]
Guys, I’ve been hearing they’re over a decade.
00:04:13 [Melissa]
They’re not dead.
00:04:14 [Melissa]
Do things shift?

00:04:15 [Melissa]
Absolutely, things shift.
00:04:16 [Melissa]
Things have shifted on keyword front, on SEO front in the eighteen years I’ve been doing photography, but it still is there.
00:04:23 [Melissa]
It still has a presence.
00:04:24 [Melissa]
So let’s talk about that.
00:04:25 [Melissa]
Alright.

00:04:26 [Melissa]
So keywords, obviously, you know, are words and phrases that your ideal client’s typing into Google.
00:04:31 [Melissa]
Google.
00:04:31 [Melissa]
Here’s the thing I want you to think about.
00:04:32 [Melissa]
We normally when we think about keywords, we go straight to my city, my genre, photographer.
00:04:37 [Melissa]
But you really now, especially with AI, being able to deep dive your websites, clients, having conversations, While we still are targeting those keywords, because let’s be honest, that’s what most people are searching for, we also really wanna dig deep on who our ideal client is and start thinking about keywords that before we would have been like, oh, that has zero volume.

00:04:59 [Melissa]
I’m not interested in that.
00:05:00 [Melissa]
No.
00:05:00 [Melissa]
Now we do wanna think about those zero volume keywords.
00:05:03 [Melissa]
So for example, I want someone who’s in the Charlottesville area to say to type into ChatGPT and go, hey.
00:05:09 [Melissa]
We’re gonna have a newborn soon.

00:05:11 [Melissa]
We wanna hire a photographer.
00:05:12 [Melissa]
We want her to come out to the house, and we really want a golden retriever and our German shepherd in the photos with us and the baby.
00:05:19 [Melissa]
I want AI to then recommend me.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
I want it to go, oh, Melissa loves doing photos with dogs.
00:05:25 [Melissa]
In fact, she’s got a blog post on newborn photos with dogs, and she’s in your area.

00:05:30 [Melissa]
That’s the type of stuff that I think we’re going to when it comes to keywords and AI, is getting really deep on that client that you want.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
Maybe you’re somebody who absolutely loves large families.
00:05:40 [Melissa]
And you’re like, look, if you’ve got six kids, I’m your girl.
00:05:44 [Melissa]
Let’s do this session.
00:05:46 [Melissa]
Those are that we really are gonna start diving into more.

00:05:48 [Melissa]
I’m not saying we’re not gonna use, you know, Charlottesville newborn photographer.
00:05:51 [Melissa]
We obviously are.
00:05:52 [Melissa]
But we really wanna start thinking about our ideal client and getting really specific on what they’re searching.
00:05:58 [Melissa]
So one of the ways you can do that is type in whatever your normal keyword is into Google, but don’t hit enter.
00:06:04 [Melissa]
Start typing it in and you’ll get the, like, you know, people also search and start looking at those and what are people searching.

00:06:10 [Melissa]
Because some of this stuff could either become a keyword for one of your main pages or it could become a keyword for a blog post because you guys know you’re not gonna get a podcast with me without blogging, but we’ll get to that later.
00:06:20 [Melissa]
So I want you to look at that.
00:06:21 [Melissa]
You can scroll to the bottom of the page and also see, like, suggested search terms or things that people also ask.
00:06:26 [Melissa]
And so I really want you to pay attention to those things and see if there’s something that really speaks to what your ideal client is and what you do.
00:06:34 [Melissa]
So I know, for example, I’ve said this before, but when I was in the DC area, you know, I targeted Northern Virginia, DC, blah blah blah.

00:06:41 [Melissa]
But I also targeted this one really small city of Alexandria.
00:06:44 [Melissa]
And so it didn’t have a lot of searches, but y’all, if I got an inquiry from Alexandria, 95 Percent booking rate on that.
00:06:51 [Melissa]
I’ll take that any day of the week.
00:06:53 [Melissa]
And I was getting enough inquiries from that area, from those 20 searches a month, that I was staying booked.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
You know?

00:06:59 [Melissa]
I was booking up what I needed to book.
00:07:01 [Melissa]
So that’s really what it comes down to.
00:07:03 [Melissa]
I want you to think about the power of some smaller keywords in addition to your larger ones.
00:07:08 [Melissa]
So now we figured out, okay.
00:07:09 [Melissa]
Melissa, I’ve done this research.

00:07:11 [Melissa]
I figured out my keywords and stuff.
00:07:12 [Melissa]
Now what are we looking at?
00:07:13 [Melissa]
Now you need to have a page for them to land on.
00:07:16 [Melissa]
Like, that keyword needs to go somewhere.
00:07:18 [Melissa]
A lot of times, that’s gonna be some kind of dedicated server landing page on your website.

00:07:23 [Melissa]
I’m not talking about your homepage that has its own keyword.
00:07:25 [Melissa]
I’m not talking about a gallery page.
00:07:27 [Melissa]
I’m talking about a page designed to answer everything she wants to know about booking before she even thinks about it.
00:07:34 [Melissa]
So I wanna know, like, when she lands on that page, for starters, I want you talking directly to her.
00:07:40 [Melissa]
I want it to be for me example, I photograph in home lifestyle, no poses, no props, no babies in costumes kind of thing.

00:07:47 [Melissa]
So if she’s looking for any of that, she’s leaving my site, which is fine.
00:07:52 [Melissa]
But the clients who want that are like, oh, that’s exactly what I want.
00:07:56 [Melissa]
That’s what you really wanna think about.
00:07:57 [Melissa]
Your ideal client, what can you say on your website that she’s, oh my gosh, you read my mind.
00:08:02 [Melissa]
And then as she goes down your page, she needs to know, you know, what’s the experience of working with you like?

00:08:07 [Melissa]
What makes you different from the other photographers?
00:08:09 [Melissa]
You know, what’s your process from the moment she inquires to when she gets her gallery?
00:08:13 [Melissa]
And I’m not saying you have to get super in-depth on that, but just like a one, two, three process.
00:08:18 [Melissa]
Donald Miller has a great example of a process for I think it’s a lawn care company, and he’s like, have an lawn, hire us, get back your Saturdays.
00:08:27 [Melissa]
And y’all I we do that.

00:08:29 [Melissa]
We have a lawn guy because I was, yes.
00:08:31 [Melissa]
Donald Miller is not wrong.
00:08:32 [Melissa]
I want my Saturdays back.
00:08:33 [Melissa]
So thinking about stuff like that.
00:08:35 [Melissa]
But, you know, what do you include in your sessions?

00:08:37 [Melissa]
And then at the bottom, really, guys, FAQs.
00:08:39 [Melissa]
FAQs and stuff are becoming really big nowadays.
00:08:42 [Melissa]
And so what are the questions that clients have?
00:08:44 [Melissa]
Think back to questions they’ve asked you and include those as FAQs on your website.
00:08:48 [Melissa]
You know, how far in advance should they book?

00:08:49 [Melissa]
What if the baby’s fussy?
00:08:51 [Melissa]
Do you offer payment plans?
00:08:52 [Melissa]
You know, how long till they get their photos?
00:08:54 [Melissa]
What do they wear for their photos?
00:08:55 [Melissa]
All that kind of stuff.

00:08:56 [Melissa]
She should be able to land on that page and as she’s scrolling, feel like every question she was gonna ask has already been answered because that’s the other thing right now.
00:09:03 [Melissa]
I know a lot of people do consultation calls and I think consultate rate for certain clients and stuff, but some of our clients, a good portion of our clients, they just want the information right there so that they can make a decision.
00:09:14 [Melissa]
And then maybe at that point, once they get on the phone with you, it’s a done deal.
00:09:17 [Melissa]
They’re like, yes.
00:09:18 [Melissa]
I just wanted to solidify this.

00:09:20 [Melissa]
Like, let’s go.
00:09:21 [Melissa]
So keep this in mind, you know, that that page, all of that stuff is meant to convert the client.
00:09:25 [Melissa]
So keywords are gonna get them there, and the landing page is gonna make them stay.
00:09:29 [Melissa]
So just for you, you know, a quick win, I want you to go out to Google, type in your specialty.
00:09:33 [Melissa]
Don’t hit enter.

00:09:34 [Melissa]
See what autosuggestcom completes come up with and, screenshot looking at that list.
00:09:38 [Melissa]
And then go look at your service page and start scrolling it.
00:09:41 [Melissa]
And if someone landed there, are they gonna have more questions?
00:09:44 [Melissa]
Are they gonna wonder where do I go to next?
00:09:46 [Melissa]
You know, this can be an easy one to hand to a family member and say, hey.

00:09:49 [Melissa]
Go look at my website, and this is the question you have.
00:09:52 [Melissa]
See if you can find the answer to it.
00:09:54 [Melissa]
And if they can’t, that is your first project.
00:09:56 [Melissa]
There used to be a, a website where you could submit your website and they would, use it as testing.
00:10:01 [Melissa]
And there is nothing worse than watching a stranger go through your website, especially when they’re not an ideal client.

00:10:08 [Melissa]
And they look at you and go, she charged for photos.
00:10:10 [Melissa]
But it definitely gives you an eye opener on how they interact.
00:10:13 [Melissa]
So that can be a really neat thing.
00:10:15 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:10:16 [Melissa]
So she’s found your website.

00:10:17 [Melissa]
She’s reading your page.
00:10:18 [Melissa]
She’s interested.
00:10:19 [Melissa]
She may not be ready to book.
00:10:21 [Melissa]
She doesn’t know you as much.
00:10:22 [Melissa]
She wants to trust you.

00:10:23 [Melissa]
So now let’s get into part two, and that’s where we’re gonna start building some trust.
00:10:26 [Melissa]
And this is where your blog comes in, your strategic blog post.
00:10:29 [Melissa]
I’m not talking about just a session share.
00:10:31 [Melissa]
You guys know I’m anti session shares.
00:10:33 [Melissa]
I wanna point behind that share.

00:10:36 [Melissa]
So your landing pages answer your questions in short form, but your blog is where you can get in-depth and targeting these specific questions she’s already googling.
00:10:44 [Melissa]
So and then every post she sees is a reason to choose you.
00:10:48 [Melissa]
And one of the things we always do with our client landing pages is we put recent blog posts or whatever that genre is on that page.
00:10:54 [Melissa]
We put those on the page.
00:10:55 [Melissa]
So while she’s on that page, when she gets down towards the bottom, before the FAQs even, she’ll see these blog posts that are answering questions she has in much more depth, you know.

00:11:04 [Melissa]
Because in an FAQ section, you got, like, two or three sentences.
00:11:07 [Melissa]
But you can really go hard in a blog post and showing examples.
00:11:11 [Melissa]
You guys have beautiful.
00:11:12 [Melissa]
So getting all of that in there.

00:11:15 [Alison]
For years, Melissa told me to start a Facebook group.
00:11:18 [Alison]
For years, I said no.
00:11:19 [Alison]
And then I thought about 2018 me.
00:11:22 [Alison]
Mid move, rebuilding my business, moving from Okinawa back to Virginia from scratch, just desperate for someone who had been through it.
00:11:29 [Alison]
Someone to ask dumb questions, get real answers, and not feel so alone in the process.

00:11:33 [Alison]
Someone who wasn’t going to tell me to just start over like that was a totally normal thing to say.
00:11:38 [Alison]
I wasn’t the first person moving my business because photographers and the military are a dime a dozen.
00:11:43 [Alison]
That’s exactly what Booked Anywhere is.
00:11:45 [Alison]
It’s a free Facebook community for women business owners like you who are relocating, rebuilding, or refining, and it’s the place I wish had existed when I needed it most.
00:11:55 [Alison]
Inside the group, you’re gonna find women who have been exactly where you are.

00:11:59 [Alison]
You can ask questions without feeling stupid, get real feedback without the fluff from me, from others, share your wins with people who actually understand what a big deal it is instead of a deadpan face from your husband, or connect with the community that gets the unique chaos of building something that has to move with you.
00:12:14 [Alison]
No gatekeeping, no judgment, no lurking alone, wondering if anyone else is going through this because they are and we’re gonna find them.
00:12:20 [Alison]
The link to join is in the show notes.
00:12:22 [Alison]
So come.
00:12:23 [Alison]
It’s free, it’s active, and your people are already waiting.

00:12:28 [Melissa]
So think about her journey as a client.
00:12:30 [Melissa]
What is she even gonna ask?
00:12:32 [Melissa]
So she’s asking maybe why should she book a professional photographer?
00:12:36 [Melissa]
So you write a post about that.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
And then she’s asking, okay.

00:12:38 [Melissa]
Well, when should I book my newborn session?
00:12:40 [Melissa]
You write a post about that.
00:12:41 [Melissa]
You know, how does she prepare for that session?
00:12:43 [Melissa]
What should she wear to that session?
00:12:45 [Melissa]
What to expect?

00:12:46 [Melissa]
What happens after?
00:12:46 [Melissa]
These are all ideas for FAQs and for, like, these full blog posts.
00:12:51 [Melissa]
I would go all the way into when does she get her gallery?
00:12:53 [Melissa]
What does that look like?
00:12:54 [Melissa]
What options for prints and products look like?

00:12:56 [Melissa]
And you can even back it up too on things, like I said, of newborn photos with dogs.
00:13:00 [Melissa]
Think about your ideal client and those sessions that you just love.
00:13:02 [Melissa]
What did you love about that session?
00:13:04 [Melissa]
So maybe it’s a client with six kids, and you love the chaos, and you are specifically gonna call that out.
00:13:09 [Melissa]
Because I feel like if I had six kids, I would be looking for someone who has a lot of experience in that because I would know my world is chaos, and you have to be able to chaos.

00:13:19 [Melissa]
So every single FAQ you answered on that landing page, turn that into a full blog, images, real client stories.
00:13:25 [Melissa]
That’s another thing.
00:13:27 [Melissa]
And then that blog is gonna work as, like, a trust builder.
00:13:29 [Melissa]
Not to mention, with those questions and answers, your blog helps build trust, but it also is is helping bring people in and getting you found.
00:13:36 [Melissa]
Because every one of those blog posts is gonna be something that somebody is searching for.

00:13:40 [Melissa]
And so now they’ve searched, they found this, now they’re building trust.
00:13:43 [Melissa]
And make sure on that blog post, you’re linking back to whatever your whatever the genre is that landing page for it.
00:13:49 [Melissa]
Now they’ve kind of gotten to know you a little bit on your blog.
00:13:51 [Melissa]
Now they’re jumping over to your landing page to see what happens, you know, how they book you and stuff like that.
00:13:56 [Melissa]
Your action tip is to write down every question a client has ever asked you before booking, every single one.

00:14:02 [Melissa]
You know, even if you need to go back through your past emails and stuff, and that becomes your blog content calendar.
00:14:07 [Melissa]
You know, start with the questions you get asked the most and write that post first.
00:14:11 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:14:11 [Melissa]
So you’ve got your landing page you’ve that they’re finding.
00:14:14 [Melissa]
You’ve got blog posts that people can find.

00:14:16 [Melissa]
So part three is getting more eyes on these.
00:14:18 [Melissa]
So part three is amplifying.
00:14:20 [Melissa]
And this is where social media and Pinterest come in.
00:14:23 [Melissa]
I really want you guys to pay attention to where this sits in the system.
00:14:26 [Melissa]
It’s part three, not part one.

00:14:29 [Melissa]
I know most people lead with social media and then skimp.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
You know, you sit there and you spend four hours trying to figure out what to post.
00:14:35 [Melissa]
I mean, y’all, I just did a post on Instagram the other day, and I was like, oh my gosh.
00:14:39 [Melissa]
This is taking forever.
00:14:40 [Melissa]
I had to format the post.

00:14:41 [Melissa]
I had to, like, come up with a copy for the post because I did not take my own advice and use it from a blog post.
00:14:46 [Melissa]
But I actually I did pull from my sales page, so I will say I did use something else for inspiration on it.
00:14:52 [Melissa]
And that’s kinda my secret with social media.
00:14:54 [Melissa]
When you’re just posting to social media though, and you’re not necessarily posting consistently and it doesn’t lead to somewhere specific, like, a lot of times we throw a photo on social media and a fluffy caption, and then we wonder why no one booked.
00:15:08 [Melissa]
And it’s because we basically gave somebody content to scroll and look and appreciate, but not stop and not take action.

00:15:15 [Melissa]
It just becomes noise, you know?
00:15:17 [Melissa]
So when you have a landing page and blog posts for them to look at, now social media has a job.
00:15:23 [Melissa]
So every post you put on Instagram or Facebook can point to one of those blog posts.
00:15:27 [Melissa]
Every pin on Pinterest can drive traffic to your landing page, to your blog posts.
00:15:31 [Melissa]
And I love Pinterest because it works like a search engine, and it lasts for a time.

00:15:35 [Melissa]
I have pins that years later are still driving traffic to my website.
00:15:39 [Melissa]
It’s pretty crazy.
00:15:41 [Melissa]
And then, honestly, guys, your Google Business profile.
00:15:43 [Melissa]
Oh my goodness.
00:15:44 [Melissa]
So many people miss this, and don’t touch it after they set it up, and they kinda half ass set it up.

00:15:49 [Melissa]
So make sure you are setting it up all the way and then posting regularly.
00:15:54 [Melissa]
There’s some new things coming out, some new news that posting to your Google Business Profile once a week is kind of the minimum at this point.
00:16:01 [Melissa]
And here’s the thing, they’ve made it even easier now, guys.
00:16:03 [Melissa]
I know I just did a video a couple weeks ago about your Google Business Profile and schedule posts.
00:16:09 [Melissa]
I love that.

00:16:10 [Melissa]
So you can go in there and just go ahead and schedule four posts for the month, and then you don’t have to worry about it.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
Like, it’s ready to go.
00:16:16 [Melissa]
Now you could always post more than once a week, but at the very least, you know you’ve got a post coming out every week.
00:16:21 [Melissa]
So keep in mind, it can just be it’s a photo, a few sentences, lets Google know you’re active.
00:16:25 [Melissa]
You can link it back to a blog post, link it back to your landing page.

00:16:28 [Melissa]
Google rewards all of that stuff.
00:16:30 [Melissa]
And so that amplification is the layer that keeps the new people flowing into the top of your system.
00:16:36 [Melissa]
But it only works if there’s a system underneath.
00:16:38 [Melissa]
That idea of, okay, hey, maybe they didn’t find your post on Google, but now you’re sharing it on socials, and now they’re seeing it there.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
So next time you publish a blog post, I want you to share it on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Google business profile, the same day.

00:16:51 [Melissa]
Point people directly to the post.
00:16:52 [Melissa]
That’s your content working across multiple channels at once instead of just living in one place.
00:16:57 [Melissa]
And my favorite thing to do is to take that blog post and turn that into my all of my content.
00:17:03 [Melissa]
So especially with AI and stuff like that now, you could take your everything you’ve written in your own words, pop it into AI.
00:17:09 [Melissa]
I wanna create three social media captions from this using only my words.

00:17:13 [Melissa]
Don’t make anything up.
00:17:14 [Melissa]
Don’t steal anything else.
00:17:16 [Melissa]
And then use those and, you know, you’ve done the work, so you might as well repurpose it.
00:17:21 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:17:22 [Melissa]
So she has found you.

00:17:24 [Melissa]
She’s read your blog.
00:17:25 [Melissa]
She’s seen you on social media a few times.
00:17:26 [Melissa]
She’s warming up, but she’s still not ready.
00:17:28 [Melissa]
So part four is how do you stay in front of her until she is?
00:17:31 [Melissa]
This is really where I want you to stay connected with your clients as much as possible, and that’s gonna be your email list.

00:17:37 [Melissa]
And I want you to stay connected with potential clients too.
00:17:40 [Melissa]
So that’s somebody who found your website, read a blog post, and followed you on Instagram.

00:17:44 [Alison]
She likes you.

00:17:46 [Melissa]
She’s just not ready yet.
00:17:48 [Melissa]
So maybe the timing isn’t right.
00:17:49 [Melissa]
Maybe she’s still in her first trimester.
00:17:51 [Melissa]
Maybe a friend of hers worked with you, and so she’s aware of you, but she’s still thinking about it.
00:17:56 [Melissa]
She might just need a few more touch points before she said you know, hit send on that inquiry form.

00:18:00 [Melissa]
And here’s the other part of staying connected.
00:18:02 [Melissa]
You know, right now, we’re kinda pitching this as a new client, but how many old clients do you guys have?
00:18:07 [Melissa]
You know?
00:18:08 [Melissa]
You at least have a handful of old clients.
00:18:10 [Melissa]
How often do you keep in touch with?

00:18:12 [Melissa]
I’m gonna go with probably not very often.
00:18:14 [Melissa]
And then you wonder why they went to a different photographer, that the next fall because why didn’t they come back to you?
00:18:22 [Melissa]
You’re like, I photographed you last year.
00:18:24 [Melissa]
Why didn’t you come back to me?
00:18:24 [Melissa]
Well, maybe you weren’t doing all of this stuff to steal to keep them, and so someone else stole them away.

00:18:30 [Melissa]
So I really want you to think about, even with these blog posts and with the social media, but especially with this connection, is keeping your clients in your orbit, keeping them coming back to you.
00:18:41 [Melissa]
And that’s gonna be, you know, email, your email list.
00:18:44 [Melissa]
It’s the only audience you own, y’all.
00:18:45 [Melissa]
Instagram everybody knows Instagram could disappear tomorrow.
00:18:48 [Melissa]
It’s always funny to me when Instagram goes down and everybody loses their mind and all of the email gurus come out and say, well, if you had an email list, you wouldn’t be stressing out right now.

00:18:58 [Melissa]
I can’t be the only one who sees those posts.
00:18:59 [Melissa]
Right?
00:19:00 [Melissa]
But your email list, it is.
00:19:02 [Melissa]
It’s yours.
00:19:02 [Melissa]
You know?

00:19:03 [Melissa]
And, yes, sometimes people unsubscribe, and after you get a dozen unsubscribes, you no longer care.
00:19:09 [Melissa]
You have to really look at it as, okay.
00:19:11 [Melissa]
You know, that’s not the right client, or it could be the right client, but not the right time.
00:19:15 [Melissa]
I can’t tell you times I’ve gotten overwhelmed.
00:19:16 [Melissa]
My inbox is out of control.

00:19:19 [Melissa]
And I’m just like, we’re gonna unsubscribe from everything and start fresh because I need to Marie Kondo this thing.
00:19:26 [Melissa]
Sidebar, quick math.
00:19:27 [Melissa]
Two hours a day on social media is like sixty hours a month for content that’s gone in forty eight.
00:19:32 [Melissa]
What if just one of those hours built something more permanent?
00:19:35 [Melissa]
That’s where the blogging club comes in.

00:19:37 [Melissa]
One blog post written right can book clients for years, and our members are sharing wins every month, blog posts that book them real clients.
00:19:45 [Melissa]
And no, ChatGPT can’t do this for you.
00:19:47 [Melissa]
It writes bland posts that don’t sound like you and sometimes aren’t even correct.
00:19:51 [Melissa]
The blogging club helps you write with your own expertise and stories, so people actually want to book you because they connect with you.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
So go to the bloggingclub.com and use code get booked to get 50% off your first month.

00:20:03 [Melissa]
Ninety days from now, you could have a blog that books clients while you sleep.
00:20:08 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:20:08 [Melissa]
So here’s how this is gonna work in this system of staying connected.
00:20:12 [Melissa]
So for starters, you’re like, alright, Melissa.
00:20:13 [Melissa]
Well, she’s on my blog.

00:20:14 [Melissa]
How do I get her to my email list?
00:20:16 [Melissa]
So you’re gonna wanna offer something for free in a trade for her email.
00:20:20 [Melissa]
And I’m not talking join my email list, y’all.
00:20:23 [Melissa]
I well, I could get on a soapbox about that.
00:20:25 [Melissa]
If I if I land on your website for the first time, and within two on your website, I get a big pop up box that says, join my general email list, and that’s it.

00:20:36 [Melissa]
I mean, come on.
00:20:37 [Melissa]
That feels like I’m I’m just interested maybe in a first date, and you’re like, let’s move in together.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:20:42 [Melissa]
How many kids do you want?
00:20:43 [Melissa]
That commitment is really high, and it’s kinda boring.

00:20:45 [Melissa]
Like, join your email list?
00:20:47 [Melissa]
No.
00:20:47 [Melissa]
No.
00:20:47 [Melissa]
I don’t wanna give you my email.
00:20:50 [Melissa]
But if you wait a little bit and you let me get to know you a little bit, and then maybe you have an inline form or an exit intent pop up, I’m definitely those either, and you offer me something juicy in return for my email, I’m like, oh.

00:21:06 [Melissa]
Oh, I like that.
00:21:07 [Melissa]
That that’s something that okay.
00:21:09 [Melissa]
Now I’m getting down with this.
00:21:12 [Melissa]
So you wanna offer something, a checklist, a guide, a list of tips.
00:21:15 [Melissa]
To be honest, guys, you can pull some of this stuff from your blog.

00:21:19 [Melissa]
What if you have written all these blog posts about, you know, the complete ecosystem of booking a newborn session?
00:21:24 [Melissa]
You’ve answered all the who, what, when, where, why, how.
00:21:27 [Melissa]
Every question a client could ever possibly have about booking a newborn session.
00:21:31 [Melissa]
You’ve got a blog.
00:21:32 [Melissa]
And now you go through and you grab each one of those questions, and you kinda take it, or you could even go to your FAQ page maybe on your website for your that genre.

00:21:41 [Melissa]
And you just create a a free checklist or a free download of, like, top 10 questions new moms have before booking a session.
00:21:48 [Melissa]
Like, get them all answered right here and make it short and sweet.
00:21:51 [Melissa]
So then I’m like, oh, I don’t actually have to go and read 10 blog posts.
00:21:54 [Melissa]
I can just download this and get everything.
00:21:56 [Melissa]
Sweet.

00:21:56 [Melissa]
So I want you to think about stuff like that.
00:21:58 [Melissa]
Obviously, anything local to to your area, you know, best baby stores for decorating or shopping for baby clothes or the top parks to take your toddler to.
00:22:07 [Melissa]
Stuff like that, you really wanna think about your ideal client, your location, and creating a freebie that works with that.
00:22:14 [Melissa]
So she wants this freebie.
00:22:16 [Melissa]
She downloads it.

00:22:17 [Melissa]
She’s on your list.
00:22:18 [Melissa]
And then you wanna create just a short sequence.
00:22:21 [Melissa]
It’s gonna run-in the background.
00:22:22 [Melissa]
And here’s a secret too, guys, that I like to use.
00:22:25 [Melissa]
I do a lot of freebie downloads, you know, and I don’t wanna create a welcome sequence that’s different for every single one.

00:22:31 [Melissa]
That makes me wanna pluck my eyeballs out.
00:22:34 [Melissa]
So what I do is I have one to two emails.
00:22:36 [Melissa]
Usually, it’s just one that delivers the freebie, and then they go into a more general get to know us email sequence.
00:22:44 [Melissa]
So even if you have freebies for these different things, for different genres, you could still then deliver that freebie and then have one general kinda get to know us nurture sequence.
00:22:54 [Melissa]
So that way and, you know, depending on your email platform, you can just have people dump into those different workflows.

00:23:00 [Melissa]
So those emails, they’re gonna build more trust, they’re gonna share more of your expertise, and they’re gonna naturally move her towards booking.
00:23:06 [Melissa]
So you’re not being pushed.
00:23:06 [Melissa]
You’re just staying in her world so she’s ready when she’s when she’s ready, you’re the first person she thinks of.
00:23:12 [Melissa]
I love a VIP segment.
00:23:13 [Melissa]
So if you have something that’s coming up, getting people onto your VIP list is a great way to do it, and then reward them for being on your VIP list.

00:23:20 [Melissa]
They literally need to get something that your the regular list is not going to get.
00:23:24 [Melissa]
They are gonna be your warmest leads.
00:23:26 [Melissa]
I can tell you when I am pitching to a VIP list, I typically have closer to, like, a 40 or 50% closing rate or sale rate compared to just my general list on things.
00:23:37 [Melissa]
So that VIP list, I’m I’m ready to book.
00:23:40 [Melissa]
So you wanna have that there.

00:23:41 [Melissa]
And so you really wanna think with your email and stuff like that of just even staying in touch once a month, giving them just an email newsletter once a month where you’re sharing whatever your latest blog post is, you’re sharing something going on in your community maybe, maybe a tip.
00:23:54 [Melissa]
You’re just staying top of mind.
00:23:56 [Melissa]
Okay?
00:23:57 [Melissa]
Action tip.
00:23:57 [Melissa]
If you don’t have a lead magnet, I want you to think of one question gets asked before every session and turn that into a simple download, or go look at your FAQs and turn those into a simple download.

00:24:07 [Melissa]
And that’s your doorway into your email list.
00:24:09 [Melissa]
Alright, Gio.
00:24:10 [Melissa]
She trusts you.
00:24:10 [Melissa]
She’s on your list.
00:24:11 [Melissa]
She’s been hearing from you.

00:24:12 [Melissa]
Now part five.
00:24:13 [Melissa]
This is where you actually ask for the booking.
00:24:17 [Melissa]
Part five is closing the loop.
00:24:19 [Melissa]
And guys, this is a part most photographers skip because it feels uncomfortable.
00:24:23 [Melissa]
I know.

00:24:23 [Melissa]
We’re not salespeople, but here’s the truth.
00:24:25 [Melissa]
You have to ask for the booking.
00:24:27 [Melissa]
This is why you lose your client to someone else is because we don’t ask.
00:24:31 [Melissa]
And I’m not saying to ask in a pushy salesy way.
00:24:34 [Melissa]
I’m talking about being clear and confident of here’s what I have availability wise.

00:24:39 [Melissa]
Let’s go.
00:24:40 [Melissa]
So, you know, this could be all you’re sending out an email that says, hey.
00:24:43 [Melissa]
We’re booking sessions for the the fall.
00:24:45 [Melissa]
Everybody wants fall family photos.
00:24:47 [Melissa]
This is the availability I have.

00:24:48 [Melissa]
There’s four spots.
00:24:50 [Melissa]
Not a vague, you know, just just inquire or blah blah blah.
00:24:53 [Melissa]
This is your email list.
00:24:54 [Melissa]
These people are already warm to you.
00:24:56 [Melissa]
So being very specific, I have three Saturday morning sessions open in October.

00:25:00 [Melissa]
You’ve been thinking about booking a family session this fall, now is the time.
00:25:03 [Melissa]
And then give them the dates.
00:25:04 [Melissa]
Give them a reason to act.
00:25:05 [Melissa]
This works for mini sessions.
00:25:07 [Melissa]
It works for full price sessions.

00:25:08 [Melissa]
It works for any offer you have.
00:25:10 [Melissa]
You’ve got to tell people that you are booking.
00:25:12 [Melissa]
Don’t just, oh, will they know?
00:25:14 [Melissa]
These people on your list are warm.
00:25:15 [Melissa]
They’ve been following you.

00:25:16 [Melissa]
They just need you to tell them the door is open.
00:25:18 [Melissa]
And here’s the thing.
00:25:18 [Melissa]
That’s an easy one for families.
00:25:20 [Melissa]
You know, for some of you, you’re like, well, I do maternity and newborn.
00:25:22 [Melissa]
There’s not a season for that.

00:25:24 [Melissa]
You’re right.
00:25:24 [Melissa]
There’s not.
00:25:25 [Melissa]
But you know what?
00:25:25 [Melissa]
Most of your clients, especially if they’ve got young kids, they know someone who’s pregnant.
00:25:30 [Melissa]
Once you get pregnant, you suddenly know all kinds of other pregnant people.

00:25:34 [Melissa]
So what you wanna do is be asking them and telling them, hey, I have two spots open for newborn sessions this month.
00:25:40 [Melissa]
Do you know someone who’s having a baby?
00:25:42 [Melissa]
Forward this over to them.
00:25:43 [Melissa]
You know, let them know that I’m an amazing photographer and you love me and they’ll love me too.
00:25:47 [Melissa]
Again, this is not salesy car salesman stuff.

00:25:50 [Melissa]
This is just putting it out there, closing that loop, getting them to book.
00:25:55 [Melissa]
Want to book with you or they wanna book with somebody, so they might as well book with you.
00:25:59 [Melissa]
So this is how you close that loop back to part one.
00:26:01 [Melissa]
Because every time you send one of these emails, you’re gonna get some kind of reaction, some kind of people booking, some kind of people clicking over to your landing page to remind them of, oh, yeah.
00:26:10 [Melissa]
That’s who they are.

00:26:11 [Melissa]
They may forward it to a friend who becomes a new lead.
00:26:13 [Melissa]
The whole idea is this system starts feeding itself.
00:26:15 [Melissa]
And that’s the whole thing, guys.
00:26:17 [Melissa]
That’s the five parts.
00:26:18 [Melissa]
I want you to get bound.

00:26:19 [Melissa]
I want you to build trust, amplify, stay connected, and close the loop.
00:26:23 [Melissa]
So with all of that, here’s the thing.
00:26:26 [Melissa]
When all of those parts are working, that’s a system, and that’s what helps you start building things.
00:26:31 [Melissa]
It’s like the snowball effect kind of thing that starts to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:26:35 [Melissa]
And if you’re sitting here thinking, okay.

00:26:37 [Melissa]
I know what I need, but I don’t have the bandwidth to build all of this from scratch, we do have some done for you marketing systems inside our shop.
00:26:43 [Melissa]
So each one is right now, we have two, and the goal is to have one have a lot of them by the end of the year.
00:26:50 [Melissa]
So with these, right now, we have an heirloom photographer’s marketing system, and then we have a Santa sessions marketing system.
00:26:57 [Melissa]
So if you’re thinking about offering either of those, genres anytime soon, then this will be a great way to just grab that system and get started.
00:27:06 [Melissa]
It’s gonna walk you through all of the stuff.

00:27:08 [Melissa]
We’ve done the keyword research for you.
00:27:10 [Melissa]
We’ve shown you what that landing page framework should be.
00:27:13 [Melissa]
There are blog post outlines ready for you to tackle, and there’s email sequences in there ready to go.
00:27:19 [Melissa]
So everything is connected, and we’re trying to add new ones.
00:27:22 [Melissa]
I I would like to say every month, but these are a lot of work to build.

00:27:27 [Melissa]
So we may be doing them every other month.
00:27:29 [Melissa]
So if you head over to rankings.com/shop, you can see what’s available.
00:27:32 [Melissa]
We’ll make sure there’s a link in the show notes.
00:27:34 [Melissa]
So if you wanna DIY this, remember, start with part one, find those keywords that your clients are searching, then build your landing page, and then everything else builds from there.
00:27:42 [Melissa]
But either way, now you know what a system actually looks like, and I can’t wait to see you in action with it.

00:27:47 [Melissa]
And remember, don’t give up after the first week.
00:27:50 [Melissa]
I really want you to build this out for at least a quarter and follow through with it.
00:27:54 [Melissa]
Well, till next time, guys.
00:27:55 [Melissa]
I hope you have a wonderful summer.
00:27:57 [Melissa]
Alice and I will be taking a little bit of a break, but we will be back in fresh new episodes.

00:28:02 [Melissa]
And, we can’t wait to see you then.
00:28:04 [Melissa]
Happy summer.
00:28:07 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:28:08 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:28:11 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.

00:28:13 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:28:14 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.
00:28:19 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:28:23 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at Allison Belle Photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:28:32 [Melissa]
Check us for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.