EP 36: Black Friday Strategies – What We’re Buying and What We’re Selling

00:00:59 [Alison]
One thing I’m definitely thinking about doing, and this kinda goes back to seasonality for photography, is I am going to be offering branding app sessions.
00:01:09 [Alison]
Hey.
00:01:09 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:01:11 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:01:12 [Melissa]
I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:01:17 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine business relocations.

00:01:22 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other’s challenges, and now we want to share our experience with you.
00:01:26 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.

00:01:32 [Melissa]
Alright.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
Welcome back.
00:01:33 [Melissa]
Today, we are gonna talk about where we spend our money on Black Friday for our business, and what sales or incentives we plan to run as a business to get customers to buy from us.

00:01:42 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:01:42 [Alison]
And Melissa, you’ve always been really good at this as something I’ve never really thought about.
00:01:46 [Alison]
So this is your, like, sweet spot, Black Friday.

00:01:49 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:50 [Melissa]
It’s interesting because I have the b to c, the business to consumer side, and then I have the b to b business side.
00:01:55 [Melissa]
And, girl, I am a Black Friday officianton officer.
00:01:59 [Melissa]
Like, I am I can’t tell you how many times y’all I have been sitting at my in law’s kitchen counter with my laptop on Black Friday, like, grabbing the deals that I have hunted down for weeks past and put it on my list.

00:02:12 [Alison]
That’s funny.

00:02:12 [Melissa]
So That’s crazy.
00:02:14 [Melissa]
Although this year, I don’t feel like I have a lot on there, and I’ve definitely gotten a lot more picky about purchasing.
00:02:20 [Melissa]
What am I purchasing?
00:02:21 [Melissa]
And I have a rule y’all now, and that rule is before I purchase something else, it actually has to solve problem in my business.
00:02:27 [Melissa]
So that helps me it’s like my gatekeeping.

00:02:30 [Melissa]
So instead of just buying the latest thing, it’s will this solve a problem in your business?
00:02:34 [Melissa]
If it’s not a problem, then maybe we don’t need it right now.
00:02:37 [Melissa]
I’ll try.

00:02:38 [Alison]
Keep your money.
00:02:40 [Alison]
Keep your money.
00:02:40 [Alison]
So yeah.
00:02:41 [Alison]
So all that to say, you this is not new to you.
00:02:43 [Alison]
This is not a one time thing.

00:02:44 [Alison]
This is an annual reoccurrence for Melissa, and so she’s got good advice.

00:02:48 [Melissa]
So what we decided to do, I sat down and did an outline for this episode earlier this week, and I was like, well, there’s a lot to cover.
00:02:54 [Melissa]
But Yeah.
00:02:55 [Melissa]
First thing we’re gonna do is talk about what have we bought in the past or plan to sign up for this year to get a Black Friday deal.
00:03:01 [Melissa]
And I thought about we’re gonna break this into two categories.
00:03:03 [Melissa]
The first is gonna be new things that we want to buy or sign up for.

00:03:07 [Alison]
For ourselves and our business.

00:03:08 [Melissa]
For ourselves.
00:03:09 [Melissa]
My thought was, typically, it’s courses and things like that.
00:03:12 [Melissa]
I I don’t really have anything at the moment because I feel like I already have a folder full of courses that I haven’t completed.
00:03:18 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:03:19 [Melissa]
So I have put a hiatus on courses right now.

00:03:22 [Melissa]
But I will say this time last year, I did sign up for the email marketing club, and I had this tab open on my phone for, like, months because I knew she was gonna release it Black Friday, and I didn’t wanna forget.
00:03:35 [Melissa]
Because y’all, if it goes off of a tab on your browser or my phone, like, that’s it.
00:03:39 [Melissa]
It’s gone.

00:03:39 [Alison]
A tab is basically a it is.
00:03:41 [Alison]
All your tabs in your browser.
00:03:43 [Alison]
Yes.

00:03:43 [Melissa]
Which is why when I have five browser windows open and 17 tabs on each, I start, like, internally freaking out.

00:03:49 [Alison]
Something that twitch the

00:03:50 [Melissa]
I Twitch.
00:03:51 [Melissa]
I’m sorry.

00:03:51 [Alison]
I keep one for personal stuff.
00:03:53 [Alison]
I keep one for business stuff, for coaching stuff.

00:03:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:03:55 [Melissa]
Oh, I’ve got my laptop and then my desktop, and I do different work on the laptop versus the desktop.
00:04:00 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:04:00 [Alison]
And then the yep.
00:04:01 [Alison]
And then the mobile Did you do it?

00:04:03 [Melissa]
So I that was a big one that I bought last year.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
So, yeah, that so that’s for me, like, where it is for, like, courses and stuff.
00:04:09 [Melissa]
Is there anything current, like, in that category they’ll sign up for, Allison?
00:04:13 [Melissa]
Any new courses or anything?

00:04:14 [Alison]
No.
00:04:14 [Alison]
I am in a place where I don’t really wanna do courses.
00:04:17 [Alison]
Work in time for them.
00:04:19 [Alison]
I probably need to be making more than buying more.

00:04:22 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:04:22 [Melissa]
But I’m

00:04:23 [Alison]
at a crossroads.
00:04:23 [Alison]
I’ve said on other shows, like, I just I wanna spend a little less time working and a little more time, like, investing in myself and my family so I’m not stressed out all the time.
00:04:31 [Alison]
If I were in a different stage of life, yeah, there’s a few things I could do.
00:04:34 [Alison]
Like, I could probably do ads better.
00:04:36 [Alison]
I could probably make courses.

00:04:37 [Alison]
But as of right now, today, this year, not happening.

00:04:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:41 [Melissa]
But I will say, if you guys are thinking about any course, definitely always check out Black Friday deals and see what’s going on.
00:04:46 [Melissa]
It’s the typical time when people are doing things.

00:04:48 [Alison]
And people more and I’ve I’ve been watching some courses I’ve I’ve bought in the past because I did buy one really big course, like, three years ago at Black Friday, but it wasn’t Black Friday proper.
00:04:58 [Alison]
I watched the sale happen the Monday before Black Friday, and it went all the way into, like, Cyber Monday and I think even extended until Tuesday, Wednesday after Black Friday.
00:05:08 [Alison]
And so it’s interesting watching those things just creep longer and longer.

00:05:12 [Melissa]
And we will talk about that later on.

00:05:14 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:05:14 [Melissa]
So, yeah, category we’re gonna talk about is, like, grabbing a deal on something we already use.
00:05:18 [Melissa]
So Yeah.

00:05:19 [Alison]
I you know one.

00:05:20 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
Allison and I both use Tave.
00:05:22 [Melissa]
And I don’t know if you ever got in on their Black Friday deals.
00:05:24 [Melissa]
They stopped doing them when they got sold to ShootProof.
00:05:26 [Melissa]
And I know Yeah.

00:05:27 [Alison]
I think they bought in when I was when they were part of ShootProof still.

00:05:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:31 [Melissa]
And I know I know people are trying to get them to bring back their Black Friday deals because you could get, like, multi years.
00:05:35 [Melissa]
And although I have to say Woah.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
I would only do the one year.
00:05:39 [Melissa]
I wouldn’t do multi years, but then I’m like, why?

00:05:42 [Melissa]
I’ve been with Tave for, like, nine years.

00:05:44 [Alison]
That’s fine.
00:05:44 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:45 [Alison]
I’m not going anything is owns my soul.
00:05:48 [Alison]
It has everything.

00:05:50 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:50 [Melissa]
Look at your CRM.
00:05:51 [Melissa]
See what deals they’re offering gallery software.
00:05:54 [Melissa]
I remember I snagged Pic Time’s deal, and and a lot of times when you snag that Black Friday deal, like, you get to keep that.
00:06:01 [Melissa]
Not all days.

00:06:02 [Melissa]
But I

00:06:02 [Alison]
did that is I did snag their pick times black Friday deal a couple years ago.
00:06:07 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:06:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:06:07 [Alison]
If you do that.

00:06:08 [Melissa]
And then like right now I’m looking at y’all, everything is a monthly subscription now, and I can’t complain because I do have I do offer a monthly subscription.
00:06:16 [Melissa]
Fun.
00:06:17 [Melissa]
Or Yeah.
00:06:18 [Melissa]
I’m looking at I’ve got Zapier.
00:06:20 [Melissa]
I’ve got Airtable.

00:06:21 [Melissa]
Oh, I am getting off Calendly this year.
00:06:23 [Melissa]
I did buy one of the AppSumo’s on a different calendar software, which I had a tab open on my desk, but I had to close it out

00:06:30 [Alison]
pretty soon.

00:06:31 [Melissa]
And I don’t remember now.
00:06:32 [Melissa]
AppSumo.
00:06:33 [Melissa]
So AppSumo lets you they offer deals sometimes.
00:06:36 [Melissa]
So the calendar software, it’s one Onomy recommended.
00:06:40 [Melissa]
So she was on our podcast.

00:06:41 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:06:41 [Melissa]
Listen to her on this can’t be that hard, but she’d recommend this one where it’s a one time fee.
00:06:46 [Melissa]
And it’s basically to replace Calendly, which otherwise I pay 100 and something dollars Calendly.
00:06:50 [Melissa]
So I’m getting rid of that finally.
00:06:51 [Melissa]
So I’m gonna get this set up.

00:06:52 [Melissa]
But I also do now have to remember to turn off the Calendly renewal Yeah.
00:06:56 [Melissa]
Before it clears because I got it on a Black Friday thing.
00:06:59 [Melissa]
But, yeah, I’m just looking and evaluating those monthly subscriptions.
00:07:02 [Melissa]
And I’m really trying to be careful too of how good is the deal.

00:07:06 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:07:07 [Melissa]
If it’s like we’re gonna give you 10% off, but I don’t necessarily know I’m gonna use it for the entire year, then it’s not worth it.

00:07:13 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:13 [Alison]
Little things.
00:07:14 [Alison]
I’m planning to look at some of the month to month subscriptions I’m on, which Yeah.
00:07:17 [Alison]
Talendly’s in there, but I don’t use it enough to pay for a whole year.
00:07:20 [Alison]
I’m on the free now, and it’s working just fine.

00:07:22 [Alison]
But I turn it on and off when

00:07:23 [Melissa]
I Right.

00:07:24 [Alison]
More than one calendar.
00:07:24 [Alison]
And I don’t want it to clog up my Tave.
00:07:26 [Alison]
Because Tave does have that scheduler now.
00:07:28 [Alison]
Taabe, if you’re listening, please display the time zone and the current person.
00:07:31 [Alison]
Like, I I’m sending stuff to people to book their gallery reveals.

00:07:35 [Alison]
And it’s showing they’re like, I think I selected this time my time, but it said 01:45 Hawaii.
00:07:40 [Alison]
Is it what is it mountain time?
00:07:42 [Alison]
And I’m like, this is such a basic concept that you can get together.
00:07:45 [Alison]
Sorry.
00:07:45 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:07:45 [Alison]
Tangent over.
00:07:46 [Alison]
But things like like Lightroom, I’m already on annual.
00:07:48 [Alison]
Y’all, that pissed me off when I couldn’t buy Lightroom outright anymore.

00:07:52 [Melissa]
I’m not

00:07:52 [Alison]
even mad.
00:07:53 [Alison]
But Imagine AI or AfterShoot if you use that, Evoto if you’re using that.
00:07:56 [Alison]
Pave, I probably might need to look and see what some of their deals are because I’m not going anywhere with them.

00:08:00 [Melissa]
I don’t know that they’re doing one.
00:08:01 [Melissa]
I think somebody had

00:08:02 [Alison]
asked already.
00:08:03 [Alison]
Probably not.
00:08:03 [Alison]
They probably not.
00:08:04 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:08:04 [Alison]
And you keep you’re better at keeping up with that than I am.

00:08:06 [Alison]
But Plano

00:08:06 [Melissa]
I like saving money.

00:08:08 [Alison]
I might might need to upgrade to Plano.
00:08:10 [Alison]
If I’m gonna stick with them, y’all.
00:08:11 [Alison]
They I keep they’re not posting auto posting on Facebook right now, and they haven’t been for four or five months, six months.

00:08:16 [Melissa]
Oh, wow.

00:08:16 [Alison]
It’s some tech issue where the president sent out an email to everybody.
00:08:20 [Alison]
And I’m like, maybe I jump ship.
00:08:22 [Alison]
I just Yeah.

00:08:22 [Melissa]
Now’s the time to look at the other this episode’s dropping.
00:08:25 [Melissa]
Gives you at least a week, I guess, almost two weeks before Black Friday.
00:08:28 [Melissa]
So it gives you guys time to, like, really start thinking about, oh, hey.
00:08:31 [Melissa]
Do I wanna try and lessen up some of these monthly subscriptions?
00:08:34 [Melissa]
But keep in mind, y’all, if you go and you buy annual plans for everybody on Black Friday, then next year, all of those bills are coming due again.

00:08:43 [Melissa]
So I feel like for photographers, it’s not too bad because most of us are coming off of, like, fall and it being busy.
00:08:49 [Melissa]
And so we’ve got cash in our pockets for this kind of thing.
00:08:52 [Melissa]
It’s a good time.
00:08:53 [Melissa]
But I know, like, for me, the fall tends to be a little bit slower, like, on the SEO side.
00:08:57 [Melissa]
Mhmm.

00:08:57 [Melissa]
But January, February is much busier for me.
00:08:59 [Melissa]
So there may be certain things that I go, oh, wait.
00:09:01 [Melissa]
Let me go ahead and and pay that bill in January and have it then as something necessarily take advantage of a Black Friday deal because it just doesn’t make sense.
00:09:09 [Melissa]
So just pay attention to your months on your revenue and stuff and make sure that that it matches up.
00:09:13 [Melissa]
And then Allison pointed out, like, what about camera gear?

00:09:16 [Melissa]
And I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot.

00:09:18 [Alison]
This is yeah.
00:09:19 [Alison]
This is when I SD cards.
00:09:21 [Alison]
Remember those SD cards, like, replace them regularly?
00:09:24 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:09:24 [Melissa]
I like

00:09:24 [Alison]
to write the year I bought them on.
00:09:26 [Alison]
I bought them.
00:09:26 [Alison]
And it’s if it’s always if you’re always buying them at Black Friday or around Black Friday, then you’re replacing the old ones with new ones.
00:09:33 [Alison]
And then you’re hopefully deterring the whole corrupted card fiasco if that ever happens to you.

00:09:37 [Melissa]
It’s a

00:09:37 [Alison]
good time to do that.

00:09:38 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:39 [Melissa]
And what you can grab a bunch this way.

00:09:40 [Alison]
And Oh, yeah.
00:09:41 [Alison]
You know?
00:09:41 [Alison]
Four pack.
00:09:42 [Alison]
And actually, I ended up doing this, like, a month ago because I had so many sessions happening at the same time, double shooting, double recording, backing up, and SD cards are

00:09:50 [Melissa]
cheap versus losing someone’s photos.

00:09:52 [Alison]
They are.
00:09:53 [Alison]
They are.
00:09:54 [Alison]
So do that camera bags, gear to make your life easier, lenses, all the stuff.
00:10:00 [Alison]
Batteries.
00:10:01 [Alison]
Batteries.

00:10:01 [Alison]
Whether they’re the rechargeable backup batteries for your camera or they’re the ones for your flash that your flash is gonna eat nonstop by

00:10:08 [Melissa]
I like to get batteries for my flashes.
00:10:11 [Melissa]
And then that way, I

00:10:12 [Alison]
Okay.
00:10:12 [Alison]
I

00:10:12 [Melissa]
get them on

00:10:13 [Alison]
the that.
00:10:13 [Alison]
I haven’t used those, but they seem to go out so much faster than just regular batteries.

00:10:18 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:10:18 [Melissa]
I mean, I could see that.
00:10:19 [Melissa]
But with the nice thing is I don’t have to then keep because batteries are not cheap, man.
00:10:23 [Melissa]
They’re not cheap.
00:10:24 [Melissa]
Just the regular double a, triple a.

00:10:26 [Alison]
You do use your flash a lot more than I use mine.
00:10:28 [Alison]
I just buy Amazon pack last two

00:10:31 [Melissa]
years.
00:10:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:31 [Melissa]
And now I will say I do just keep just some extra, like, regular batteries in my camera bag at all times, but I try to use my Onaloupes.
00:10:37 [Melissa]
But if for whatever reason I forgot, like, I always have that just in case.

00:10:40 [Alison]
What’s Onaloup’s better?
00:10:41 [Alison]
I haven’t even heard.

00:10:42 [Melissa]
I don’t know.
00:10:43 [Melissa]
It was just a couple of years ago, somebody did the research and recommended them.
00:10:46 [Melissa]
And so that’s what I started buying.
00:10:47 [Melissa]
And so I’ve just

00:10:48 [Alison]
Amazon link in show notes, guys.

00:10:50 [Melissa]
I’ll figure that one out.

00:10:51 [Alison]
For me and you.
00:10:53 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:10:54 [Alison]
Hey, girl.
00:10:55 [Alison]
Yes.
00:10:55 [Alison]
You.

00:10:56 [Alison]
The one stuck in that business quicksand, it’s Allison here.
00:10:58 [Alison]
If you’ve been staring at your pricing overwhelmed by SEO, social media, email list, or just feeling like you’re spinning your wheels trying to make things profitable, I’ve got you.
00:11:08 [Alison]
I’ve been there.
00:11:09 [Alison]
Right now, I’m offering a $100 off one on one to for my podcast listeners.
00:11:14 [Alison]
Book now and you can schedule your coaching session during any time of December 24 or through February 25.

00:11:19 [Alison]
This is your chance to get personalized direction, and I mean personalized.
00:11:23 [Alison]
Eyeball deep in your business on the things that matter most.
00:11:26 [Alison]
Whether it’s upping your pricing, strategizing a move, or just finding more clients ready to give you all their money and make it rain dollar bills.
00:11:34 [Alison]
Let’s stop feeling stuck.
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Get out of your own head.

00:11:36 [Alison]
Start building a business that serves you and your family.
00:11:39 [Alison]
Click the link in the show notes, reach out and tell me you want that $100 off, and let’s keep

00:11:45 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:11:45 [Melissa]
So now let’s talk about how you’re gonna make some money to pay all these Black Friday deals.

00:11:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:52 [Alison]
Okay.
00:11:52 [Alison]
So these are the things that we are gonna do for our businesses.
00:11:55 [Alison]
These are the Black Friday offers that Melissa and I are offering our clients, current and future clients, or things we already have going on in our businesses.
00:12:02 [Alison]
So not what we’re gonna buy for ourselves, but what we’re we’re gonna offer to other people.

00:12:05 [Melissa]
Yep.

00:12:06 [Alison]
So, Melissa, what you got going?

00:12:07 [Melissa]
So I have Onami’s Slay Your Sales program, and Allison and I participated in that, like, years ago.
00:12:13 [Melissa]
Beta.
00:12:14 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:14 [Melissa]
And Cool.
00:12:15 [Melissa]
Access to that.

00:12:16 [Melissa]
And so I’m gonna look at reaching back out to past clients and really try to get, hey.
00:12:21 [Melissa]
If you didn’t buy all the files, are you interested in buying them now?
00:12:24 [Melissa]
Even maybe going back a couple years and putting that offer out there.
00:12:27 [Melissa]
It’s gonna depend on how much time I have because I gotta put the I gotta look and see who’s basically, if their gallery is not in pick time, then I’m not No.

00:12:34 [Alison]
We’re not reloading anything.

00:12:36 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.

00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.
00:12:37 [Melissa]
No.

00:12:38 [Melissa]
This has to be where I can just turn it.
00:12:40 [Melissa]
And I think even with pick time, you don’t even have to turn it on.
00:12:42 [Melissa]
You can set their holiday app, right, and then pick which galleries, and they’ll it on for you.

00:12:47 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:12:48 [Alison]
They will.
00:12:48 [Alison]
And you get to select which ones.
00:12:50 [Alison]
Do you wanna do Black Friday?
00:12:51 [Alison]
Do you wanna do Thanksgiving?

00:12:52 [Alison]
Do you wanna do pre Christmas, post Christmas?
00:12:54 [Alison]
Like, it’s there’s a whole slew of holiday sales.
00:12:57 [Alison]
You can opt in, do one choice, apply it to whatever galleries you want

00:13:01 [Melissa]
Yep.

00:13:02 [Alison]
And then do nothing.

00:13:03 [Melissa]
Yes.

00:13:03 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:04 [Alison]
That’s about all I plan to do.

00:13:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:07 [Melissa]
And so that’s an idea.
00:13:08 [Melissa]
I know for me, because I do print credits, it’s always a little awkward.
00:13:11 [Melissa]
I have to pull out the people who still have a print credit because I don’t necessarily want them doing the print credit and then doing a discount.

00:13:18 [Melissa]
I’ll have to look.
00:13:18 [Melissa]
I don’t think I have very many people have a print credit out.

00:13:20 [Alison]
So for me and I so I don’t do the print credit, but Mhmm.
00:13:24 [Alison]
People, when they purchase from me, whatever they choose to print, they get that matching digital file for.
00:13:29 [Alison]
But I only give away.
00:13:31 [Alison]
So what I call full resolution files, which are only printable up to eight by 10.
00:13:35 [Alison]
So they still if they want bigger prints, they’ve gotta come through my gallery because that’s the only way they could actually get it.

00:13:41 [Alison]
So that’s something I’m probably doing.
00:13:43 [Alison]
I’ll probably offer something pretty substantial, 40% off.
00:13:46 [Alison]
They’re not cheap.
00:13:47 [Alison]
It’s all fine art.
00:13:48 [Alison]
It’s all really big fine but I’ll probably just do that through Pic Time.

00:13:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:52 [Melissa]
I wanna say in the past, I have tried to go back and sell files that they didn’t purchase and stuff.
00:13:56 [Melissa]
And I don’t know.
00:13:57 [Melissa]
I don’t think I had anybody purchase when I did that.
00:13:59 [Melissa]
It was like So I was thinking of doing

00:14:01 [Alison]
that too of but it’s not as easy as pick time.
00:14:03 [Alison]
So, like, I can go back a year to all my clients from the year who didn’t purchase the whole gallery, and we could do some crazy drastic sale to make it enticing.
00:14:12 [Alison]
But is that gonna devalue the brand?
00:14:14 [Alison]
Is that going do I want I wanna take the time to?
00:14:17 [Alison]
Is it gonna be worth it?

00:14:18 [Alison]
Who do you even want it?
00:14:19 [Alison]
Because with my whole approach, like, I’m acknowledging you don’t need 90 photos.
00:14:25 [Alison]
You need your favorite ten, twenty, thirty, and you should be fine.
00:14:28 [Alison]
And, hopefully, they realize that.
00:14:30 [Alison]
So I don’t is it worth my time to even do that?

00:14:31 [Alison]
Because no.
00:14:32 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:14:33 [Alison]
And then how would I execute that?
00:14:34 [Alison]
I’m not sure.
00:14:35 [Alison]
So we may do it.

00:14:36 [Alison]
We may not.
00:14:37 [Alison]
We’ll see.
00:14:37 [Alison]
But one thing I’m definitely thinking about doing, and this kinda goes back to seasonality for photography, is I am going to be offering branding half sessions.
00:14:46 [Alison]
I think I mentioned a while back, I joined the Chamber of Commerce here in Hawaii, and I love it.
00:14:51 [Alison]
It’s such a tight knit community of people.

00:14:54 [Alison]
People local it’s actually the Kailua Chamber.
00:14:56 [Alison]
It’s not even Hawaii, like, at large or even the whole island.
00:14:59 [Alison]
It’s just my little town.
00:15:00 [Alison]
So everything happens right outside my door.
00:15:02 [Alison]
These people live and work right in town.

00:15:04 [Alison]
And it’s everything you would think of Hawaii.
00:15:05 [Alison]
Like, people come with no shoes, like, in their bathing suits.

00:15:08 [Melissa]
I was like, oh,

00:15:09 [Alison]
I’m like, I’ve never met you before, but I’m gonna hug you.
00:15:11 [Alison]
Like, but we have a general membership meeting coming up next month.
00:15:14 [Alison]
And so what I’m planning to do is make some sort of, like, branding offer to them for January and February.
00:15:21 [Alison]
We’re too busy but it’ll be something like a mini session, but they’ll get more for it.
00:15:26 [Alison]
So maybe thirty minutes, I’m coming to you.

00:15:29 [Alison]
It can only happen obviously, these people live and work here, so it has to happen in Kailua.
00:15:33 [Alison]
I’m coming to you.
00:15:34 [Alison]
We’re not bringing a whole light setup.
00:15:36 [Alison]
I’ll use a flash, headshots, team photo, whatever you need for, like, maybe $500.
00:15:42 [Alison]
And then I don’t know how many images I’ll include in that, but I’ll come to you for thirty minutes daytime only.

00:15:47 [Alison]
And, of course, it’s really close to me, so it’s not gonna be a huge deal.
00:15:50 [Alison]
And maybe I’ll only do it like, hey, Tuesday, Thursday only.

00:15:53 [Melissa]
Right.

00:15:53 [Alison]
Just not going all over the place.

00:15:55 [Melissa]
Maybe I

00:15:55 [Alison]
can stock a couple.
00:15:56 [Alison]
Do you

00:15:56 [Melissa]
find that Hawaii gets busier though with, like, travel January, February?

00:16:00 [Alison]
No.
00:16:01 [Alison]
And that’s the beauty of it.
00:16:02 [Alison]
So it’s lower.
00:16:03 [Alison]
So it’s one of my lower seasons because we the travel turnaround Thanksgiving for holiday, then it picks up again around Christmas and New Year’s.
00:16:11 [Alison]
And then everybody’s back in school, both college and high school, around January, February, February,

00:16:14 [Melissa]
February, February.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
That’s right.
00:16:15 [Melissa]
So Families.
00:16:16 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:16:17 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:16:17 [Alison]
So that’s a natural dip for me for my stuff.
00:16:20 [Alison]
So if I can pick up one to four sessions a month for January, February, I’ve replaced a few client galleries.
00:16:26 [Alison]
Right?
00:16:27 [Alison]
And Mhmm.

00:16:27 [Alison]
They’re fun, easy people right off the back door that are gonna be easy to serve.

00:16:33 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:33 [Melissa]
I forgot about that.
00:16:33 [Melissa]
That was different.
00:16:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:35 [Melissa]
I was thinking, like, in South Florida, January, February, March were, like, busy.

00:16:38 [Melissa]
I would get so many babymoon people.

00:16:40 [Alison]
That’s why

00:16:40 [Melissa]
I thought.
00:16:41 [Melissa]
But That

00:16:41 [Speaker 5]
makes sense.

00:16:41 [Melissa]
I forgot.
00:16:42 [Melissa]
With you doing families, you don’t necessarily get, like, the babymoon.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
And I don’t know that people wanna be on a plane that long when they’re pregnant.

00:16:48 [Alison]
So No.
00:16:49 [Alison]
Well, you’d be surprised.
00:16:50 [Alison]
Tons of people are doing that from California and the West Coast.

00:16:52 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:16:53 [Alison]
Because it’s a short, like, three hour flight for them.

00:16:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:56 [Melissa]
That makes sense.

00:16:56 [Alison]
But but, yeah, for families, I yeah.
00:16:58 [Alison]
I’m too expensive for a babymoon.
00:17:00 [Alison]
I just and I don’t like shooting just couples and adults.
00:17:04 [Alison]
It’s weird for me.

00:17:05 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:17:06 [Melissa]
So that kinda covers what we’re doing for that b to c, that build consumer type of thing.
00:17:11 [Melissa]
What are you doing, like, on the b to b side?

00:17:13 [Alison]
Okay.
00:17:13 [Alison]
So for coaching, and I only thought about this because we were prepping for this episode.
00:17:17 [Alison]
Thank you, Melissa.
00:17:18 [Alison]
I am actually paying for the same reason.
00:17:20 [Alison]
I am going to be offering a $100 off my business coaching.

00:17:24 [Alison]
So alisonbell.co, $100 off whatever you choose to do for the only the months of of December, January, and February.
00:17:30 [Alison]
So I’m not sure about the exact stipulations for when you need to book, but for any set anything booked, maybe you just I don’t know.
00:17:37 [Alison]
I’m not gonna say anything.
00:17:38 [Alison]
I’m gonna have to

00:17:39 [Melissa]
commit myself to it.

00:17:40 [Alison]
But a $100 off

00:17:42 [Melissa]
There’s a deal.
00:17:42 [Melissa]
Just go out to our site and you’ll find it.

00:17:44 [Alison]
Coaching sessions.
00:17:45 [Alison]
And whether that’s one or two sessions or if you need a couple months, we’ll we’ll prorate that deal and extrapolate that, but only for the months of December, January, February for the same reasons.
00:17:54 [Alison]
Like, it’s a low time for me.
00:17:55 [Alison]
It’s a low time for most people on the Mainland.
00:17:57 [Alison]
That’s when people need to be thinking about it.

00:17:59 [Alison]
And if you are pivoting

00:18:00 [Melissa]
and this is you don’t have to

00:18:01 [Alison]
be moving for this kind of coaching.
00:18:02 [Alison]
Like, if you’ve got a pricing restructure coming up like, I was talking to a photographer local here in Hawaii that is already working on some stuff.
00:18:09 [Alison]
She was asking me questions, but she’s launching it January 1.
00:18:12 [Alison]
Let’s talk about it.
00:18:13 [Alison]
Let’s work it out.

00:18:14 [Alison]
Let me role play a a client.
00:18:16 [Alison]
If you are moving, if you are completely switching your genre, if you just feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water and need somebody to look into your business and give you some next steps to streamline some things, Let’s do it.

00:18:30 [Melissa]
Hey, fellow photographers, Melissa Arlena here.
00:18:32 [Melissa]
Does SEO feel super overwhelming to you?
00:18:35 [Melissa]
I get it.
00:18:36 [Melissa]
But guess what?
00:18:37 [Melissa]
SEO doesn’t have to be complicated.

00:18:39 [Melissa]
I’ve spent fifteen years in photography and ten years in IT before that cracking the SEO so that you don’t have to.
00:18:45 [Melissa]
Whether you’re eager to learn or you just want somebody to take care of it for you, I’ve got your back.
00:18:50 [Melissa]
With my SEO coaching and done for you services, you’ll get noticed online, attract more of your ideal clients, and keep doing what you love most, photography.
00:19:00 [Melissa]
Ready to boost your website’s visibility without the headache?
00:19:03 [Melissa]
Visit pictureperfectrankings.com, and let’s make SEO simple and effective for you.

00:19:08 [Melissa]
Let’s get your calendar booked.
00:19:10 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:19:11 [Melissa]
No.
00:19:11 [Melissa]
It’s definitely having that that other person.
00:19:13 [Melissa]
I know I messaged my business coach yesterday, and I was like, I shouldn’t have bought something.

00:19:16 [Melissa]
What do you think I should do?
00:19:17 [Melissa]
And then I was like, maybe you just need to talk me off the ledge too.
00:19:20 [Melissa]
And she was like, yeah.
00:19:20 [Melissa]
We need to simplify.
00:19:21 [Melissa]
She was like, this is what you should do.

00:19:22 [Melissa]
And I was like, you’re right.
00:19:23 [Melissa]
That’s exactly what I should do.
00:19:24 [Melissa]
And in my end, I was like, and that’s why.
00:19:26 [Melissa]
So, yeah, having just having that person to talk to.

00:19:29 [Alison]
Again, that’s how this whole podcast started with us on Marco Polo.
00:19:32 [Alison]
So yeah.
00:19:33 [Alison]
So whether you want one session, a couple sessions, a month, or a couple months worth of it, there will be prorated offers for that for Black Friday.

00:19:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:41 [Melissa]
So for me on the SEO side of the house, like, I always run my Black Friday sale early for that because I’ll be honest.
00:19:48 [Melissa]
I want you to spend your money with me before you run out of it with everybody else.

00:19:52 [Alison]
God.
00:19:52 [Alison]
It’s such a good strategy.

00:19:53 [Melissa]
I have no shame.
00:19:54 [Melissa]
But that we’re usually traveling the week of Thanksgiving.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
And so the last thing I wanna be doing while we’re on the road is troubleshooting, like, a Thrive card issue or something like that Yeah.
00:20:03 [Melissa]
Payment issue.
00:20:04 [Melissa]
Or miss a

00:20:04 [Alison]
sale because of it.

00:20:05 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:06 [Melissa]
Or, oh, I got forgot to turn this on or turn this all of that kind of stuff.
00:20:09 [Melissa]
I would rather be at my desk during the week, like, a normal work week than when we try to travel and stuff.
00:20:15 [Melissa]
So I started doing it where I just was doing it earlier.
00:20:19 [Melissa]
This year, we’re actually staying home for Thanksgiving because we’re gonna travel in, December, but I’m not gonna rock the boat.

00:20:25 [Melissa]
I’m still gonna keep it that week ahead of time.
00:20:27 [Melissa]
I would rather

00:20:28 [Alison]
And you’re home on that.

00:20:29 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:30 [Melissa]
And so the way we do things is we will do and if you guys are hearing this, the the sale has started today.
00:20:35 [Melissa]
So it’s running between from today till Friday.

00:20:38 [Alison]
Did I do that?

00:20:39 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:20:40 [Melissa]
And I do it till Friday because I’m like, look.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
If you’re gonna wait till Saturday, Sunday, that’s too late.
00:20:44 [Melissa]
But it’s gonna be 25% off our shop products, like courses, audits, that kind of thing.
00:20:49 [Melissa]
Anything that’s in the shop is 25% off.

00:20:52 [Melissa]
And what it is, we kinda highlight different products every day.
00:20:56 [Melissa]
And there may be a deal on group coaching, so I haven’t figured that one out.
00:20:59 [Melissa]
But if you go out, we’ll be able to see what’s going

00:21:02 [Alison]
on.
00:21:02 [Alison]
Okay.

00:21:03 [Melissa]
Oh, and then you get a bonus.
00:21:04 [Melissa]
So if you purchase during Black Friday, anything that you purchase during Black Friday, you’ll get one month free in the blogging club.
00:21:10 [Melissa]
So that’s the gift with purchase.

00:21:11 [Alison]
Oh, that’s exciting.

00:21:13 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:21:13 [Melissa]
So you get to join the blogging club, test it out for

00:21:16 [Alison]
Okay.
00:21:16 [Alison]
Question.
00:21:16 [Alison]
Does that month start as soon as you purchase, or do you get to start that month in January when you have time?

00:21:21 [Melissa]
Nope.
00:21:22 [Melissa]
It starts when you purchase.
00:21:23 [Melissa]
But here’s the deal.
00:21:24 [Melissa]
The way with the blogging club and stuff with the templates, you can jump in and download them.
00:21:28 [Melissa]
And, obviously, it’s a club, so every month you’re getting new template.

00:21:31 [Melissa]
So even if you go ahead them and then you can’t work on them till January, they will they’ll disappear from the club after when the month is up kind of thing.
00:21:38 [Melissa]
But all you gotta do is spend three minutes to pop in there, grab the download link, save them to your Google Drive or whatever.

00:21:43 [Alison]
And you’re good to go.

00:21:44 [Melissa]
And you’re good to go.
00:21:45 [Melissa]
In the master classes, I try to keep them short, but they’re, like, something tangible that you can take away and stuff.
00:21:49 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:21:50 [Melissa]
I think this month’s master class is, like, on creating a blog series.
00:21:53 [Melissa]
You know, how to do a series on your blog that’s gonna be a regular series and updating it.

00:21:56 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:21:56 [Melissa]
So yeah.
00:21:57 [Melissa]
And then because I know I do like to sit down on Black Friday and Cyber Monday and look for deals, I didn’t want for the people to have nothing.
00:22:04 [Melissa]
So we then reopened the sale, but it’s only 20% off at that point.
00:22:08 [Melissa]
So wanna get the bigger discount, it’s gonna be this week.

00:22:12 [Melissa]
And then if you miss it or if you listen to this podcast later after this week’s over, we’re still before Black Friday, then then you can go ahead and do that.
00:22:21 [Melissa]
And I run that from Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
00:22:23 [Melissa]
So I know Allison was talking about, like, you can extend things out.
00:22:26 [Melissa]
It could be that Tuesday after Cyber Monday, you find the sale still up, and it just means I haven’t logged in to turn it off yet.

00:22:32 [Alison]
Still go look.

00:22:34 [Melissa]
And that is definitely know.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
I know.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
It’s funny.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
There are times where I’m like, oh my gosh.
00:22:39 [Melissa]
This still has, like, the sale price on there, and it’s a week later, and I forgot to turn it off.

00:22:43 [Melissa]
But yeah.
00:22:44 [Melissa]
And that could be a good strategy to run with your gallery sales too, is still have a Black Friday sale.
00:22:49 [Melissa]
You got Cyber Monday through Black Friday, but or vice versa.
00:22:52 [Melissa]
Or do it a week early.
00:22:53 [Melissa]
Get ahead because we all know people are suddenly they’re trying to grab the kids Christmas gifts and all that kind of stuff.

00:22:58 [Melissa]
Christmas cards, that’s something I always get at Black Friday, like, personal wise.
00:23:02 [Melissa]
So if your clients are, like, ready to spend that money, like, just try and get in front of them a couple days.
00:23:06 [Melissa]
If you do it the Monday through Wednesday before Thanksgiving, start then.

00:23:11 [Alison]
And then

00:23:11 [Melissa]
a big tip for me is to start a VIP list ahead of time.
00:23:15 [Melissa]
So email your clients and say, like, early November.
00:23:18 [Melissa]
Obviously, it’s a little late now, but you could still send it out.
00:23:21 [Melissa]
Anyone who wants to get in on the deals first, get in on the VIP list, and then the sale gets released to them before anyone else.
00:23:28 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:23:28 [Melissa]
I’ve done that with, like, when I ran my birthday sale and stuff.
00:23:31 [Melissa]
And so the sale may have started, like, on Tuesday, but on Monday, it started for my VIPs.
00:23:37 [Melissa]
I may do that this year.
00:23:38 [Melissa]
So if that’s the case, you wanna get on the VIP list.
00:23:41 [Melissa]
Even if you join the VIP list that day, you’ll get immediate access kind of thing.

00:23:45 [Melissa]
We’ll see.
00:23:45 [Melissa]
But just getting them on the list and letting them know ahead of time, like, what’s going on, because that’s gonna be, like, really strong people because they’re opting in to say, yes.
00:23:52 [Melissa]
I’m interested in buying your products.
00:23:54 [Melissa]
Please let me know.

00:23:55 [Alison]
For them.

00:23:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:23:56 [Melissa]
Please let me know as soon as it’s available because I wanna buy.

00:23:59 [Alison]
Awesome.
00:23:59 [Alison]
So that’s everything that we were talking about for Black Friday.
00:24:02 [Alison]
We’re gonna keep a pretty long list, probably longer shown as the normal.
00:24:06 [Alison]
So we can link up to some of these things for you for things we’re buying, we’re suggesting that, and then, of course, the things we’re offering as well.
00:24:12 [Alison]
Make sure you look at those show notes.

00:24:13 [Alison]
Bye

00:24:17 [Melissa]
bye.
00:24:17 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:24:19 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:24:21 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:24:23 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.

00:24:24 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, no spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.
00:24:30 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:24:32 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Rankings.
00:24:42 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.