PODCAST TRANSCRIPT - EPISODE 333

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR BUSY SEASON ISN’T BUSY

Please note: This transcript was created with the assistance of AI technology. While we strive for accuracy, the text may contain errors and should be verified against the original source for critical uses.

Annemie Tonken  00:00

As photographers, we spend our year getting ready for the busy season. You can basically cue the rocky training montage music and picture us all diligently sending out emails, prepping our systems, fine tuning our websites, and saying a fun farewell to our friends and families as we prepare for this pre holiday onslaught. But not every busy season is as busy as we want to be, right? We kind of stroll into September with visions of a full inbox and a booked out calendar. And sometimes that works out, but other times that September calendar looks like a whole lot of white space and maybe a couple of tumbleweeds rolling by. When that happens, if you're anything like me, your brain immediately starts to spiral, right? Is it something wrong with my pricing? Did I mess up my marketing? Is this just how the world is now? So first of all, deep breath, this does happen to everyone, even those photographers who always seem to be booked solid for months. The truth is, every single photographer I know has had seasons like this, where all the hard work and the planning and the preparing feel like a giant waste of your time. But here's the thing, as frustrating and dispiriting as a slow season may be, it can also be an incredible opportunity. So if your busy season isn't yet shaping up quite as you would have hoped, before you go planning a fire sale, I want you to hear me out, because in this episode, I'm going to talk about how to rationally figure out why it is that this might be happening right now in your business, and then share some of my favorite strategies for turning things around. So Let's cue the music and get into it. Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it, and I can show you how. Okay, so you are staring at this blank calendar, and your first instinct is to change something right, your prices, your packages, your editing style, maybe your career path, right? But before you start pulling levers at random, the first thing you need to do is to take a step back and get curious, instead of being panicked when business is slower than expected. The root cause can usually be traced back to one of two issues, either you have a visibility problem or you have a conversion problem. So let's talk first about what those two things are. Visibility is all about whether enough people actually know that your business exists and that you have availability. So if you're not consistently putting yourself in front of people, whether that's through email, social media or real world connections, chances are your dream clients just don't know that you're available right now, conversion, on the other hand, is what happens after people find you? Are inquiries turning into bookings. Are clients moving smoothly from hey, I'm interested, to where do I sign? If the answer is no, then the issue isn't awareness, it's how your process is guiding them once they reach out. So here's the question to ask yourself, am I struggling to get enough inquiries in the first place, or am I getting inquiries but struggling to turn them into bookings? And that distinction matters, because the fixes are totally different. So first, let's talk about visibility. Right? As disheartening as it is when you're not getting inquiries. The good news is that visibility is an outbound activity. That's something you can control, right, starting by making changes today. Now I like to think of these changes in kind of two big categories. The first is those quick wins, right? The things that you can do right away that might bring in bookings quickly, and then the bigger moves that will then set you up for stronger visibility in the long term. The first quick win solution that I want to share is just email. And I know I talk about email a lot, but it's because I honestly believe in the power of good email to get people to take action. So even if you haven't emailed your list in months, I don't want you to overthink this, right? You are at the beginning. If you're listening to this when I dropped you are at the beginning of busy season. And a short friendly note that says, hey, I've got, you know, X number of. Open on these dates that can really work wonders. But I don't want you to stop at just that one email, right? I generally recommend that you are emailing your list every other week, but if you are looking to you know, really get people to take action and fill your calendar, why not reach out weekly for a while, right? People do need reminders, not once, but multiple times, that you are available, that the time is now. People read those emails. They make a mental note that they are going to come back to it later, and then they don't. So by showing up again in their inbox, you are giving them a second chance to take action. The next thing I want you to do is make sure that you are posting value based content on social media. So I'm not talking here about pretty photos with captions about a session that you had or something that's going on in your personal life, but posts that help people understand what it's like to work with you and what it takes to take that next step. So testimonials, behind the scenes, peeks, client prep, tips, anything like who this is perfect for, kind of a caption, all of those things create connection and urgency and really invite people to reach out and contact you. The last thing that I want to encourage you to do in the quick win category is to reach out to past clients directly. Now, I know that this can feel scary for a lot of us because it does involve some kind of direct selling, but it really and truly works. So again, keep it simple, right? Hey, I know the fall gets busy. Wanted to let you know I have three spots available on these dates. Would you like one that kind of a message is very low pressure. Worst case scenario, they don't take you up on it, but chances are that if you keep at it, you will get some takers. And the truth is that most people are grateful for you reaching out and saying hi in a helpful way.

Annemie Tonken  07:03

As far as those bigger moves go in the visibility category, the first idea that I have for you is a pretty straightforward one, and that is to launch a low ticket offer. So mini sessions are the one that everybody goes to but I'm all about like when they Zig you zag, right? So even if it's basically a mini session, I want you to package this up a little bit differently. Maybe call it a half session if you like, a longer format. Consider doing something like front porch sessions or themed sessions back to school, if it's still in that season, Halloween costumes, all of those kinds of things can generate interest and warm up your calendar. The important thing here is to make sure that you are not just kind of desperately trying to grab some quick cash. Small offers should always be giving people an authentic, but appetizer size taste of what it's like to work with you in your normal format, right? What you want to do is give them enough to be enthusiastic and excited without spoiling their appetite for more. Another option is to consider collaborating with a local business on some sort of promotional event. So partnering with another business, like a children's boutique or a dog groomer or a florist for some kind of giveaway or styled shoot or some other sort of promotion, means that you get in front of their audience in a natural, organic way. The important thing here is to be thoughtful about who you approach and how you pitch the partnership. Their audience should align with yours, and you should both stand to get something out of this partnership. Obviously, when you are proposing this to them, you want to lead with how the partnership specifically will benefit them. The last thing that I want to invite you to consider is hosting a community event, and in this case, I actually don't mean anything to do with picking up your camera, just something like a back to school, ice cream social, a pet costume swap, or, you know, a meetup for small business owners. Community events help you build rapport and trust in a low pressure way, and they inevitably lead to bookings and referrals. Now, these aren't always going to mean kind of a quick turnaround and a quick fill of your calendar, but if you get going on creating these community events, they can be one of the best strategies in the long term for making sure that your calendar stays full. So I know that this can sound overwhelming, but the best way to make sure that your business is visible and booked for the busy season is to be consistently showing up in all of these spaces, ideally, well in advance of the busy season. The problem is that often when our busy season isn't looking busy, we can get into this shame spiral that keeps us quiet instead of showing up more. We actually. Do the Homer Simpson thing and like, recede into the bushes. But in reality, that is the last thing we need to be doing. So if visibility is what's giving you trouble this season, I want you to get out there and shout about your business from the rooftops. And as you know, if you feel like, what do I say? Where do I post? What should I write in my email? Come sign up for a month of the consistency club. That is literally what we help photographers do each and every month. So I'll drop a link in the show notes, but you can always find us at this campy, that hard.com/club Okay, so perhaps visibility isn't your problem. Perhaps you are in the camp where you're getting inquiries, but those inquiries aren't converting. People are reaching out, but instead of booking, they're ghosting, or they're hemming and hawing, or, you know, they're disappearing after that first email. That is a conversion issue. And again, this is fixable, just like with visibility. I'm going to break this down into quick wins and then those bigger moves. So most of the quick wins in this category have to do with how you handle the inquiry process itself. First, how are you responding to inquiries? Are you just sending a link to your prices and, you know, waiting for someone to respond back and get in touch? If the answer is yes, this is your problem, right? You need to make sure that you are not getting lost in the shuffle, which is likely to happen if all you're doing is sort of sending prices and then disappearing. My favorite solution to this problem is actually to replace that reply email with a phone call. Invite them to share their phone number with you, schedule a time and get on the phone with those prospective clients. This is intimidating to a lot of people, but honestly it shouldn't be, and it is a game changer for booking rates. I've talked about this plenty in the past. I'm not going to belabor the point, but honestly, it is so much easier to build rapport and trust when you are actually having a conversation with someone, rather than just sending them a PDF or an email with your prices. If phone calls are off the table for whatever reason for you, a close runner up is making short personal videos when someone inquires that you send to them that include their name and details about whatever they reached out about. It's a one way conversation, but it still sort of puts your face to your name and gives you a little bit more personality. So do most of us love being on video? Absolutely not. But then again, most of our prospective clients are pretty nervous about being in front of our cameras, too, so the personal touch here really does help you stand out and again, literally puts a face to a name. The second quick win is to think about what you are asking someone to do in order to actually book you. I have, again, many times, sung the praises of CRMs and how they can make everything in your business work more consistently, more you know, in an easier way for you. But the truth is that when it comes to booking, most CRMs make this process really easy for your clients, right? What I want my goal for you is that your clients should be able to go through the booking process online, in their own home, in their on their own time, in under five minutes. So if that's not currently the way that it works for you, I want you to make this a priority if they need to figure out how to E sign a PDF, if they have to verify the last four digits of your phone number in order to Venmo you. All of those things, even though they seem small, will slow people down, and it might even make them question the legitimacy of your business, because ultimately, that's not the most professional way to book somebody in today's day and age, in the modern technology, right? So again, most CRMs have a proposal feature that allows them to seamlessly enter their details, sign your contract and put down a credit card to cover the session fee. They can do it quickly and easily, without losing steam, and then the last quick win opportunity is to consider how you're following up after you respond that first time to the inquiry. Right? A lot of photographers send out a response, and then they just sit back and wait, and if somebody doesn't respond back to them, they assume that the answer is no. But I want to remind you, people are busy. They are distracted. They get very lost in their inbox, all of these different things. So personally, in my own business, I have a three Follow Up Rule, and I can't even tell you how often I don't hear back until that very last message, which basically is something a. Along the lines of like, Hey, I'm gonna go ahead and release this date if I don't hear back. Just wanted to give you one last chance to grab it. Thanks so much for reaching out. Right? It's super short, it's friendly, it's not high pressure, but it's basically like, This is it? I'm not reaching out again. And nine times out of 10, the reply comes in within minutes saying, you know, oh my gosh. Thank you so much for the reminder. This week has been crazy, so follow up multiple times with every single inquiry. You will be amazed at how that process alone will help you book more clients in terms of bigger moves when it comes to revamping the conversion portion of things, obviously, pricing does come into your booking rate, but it's not always about the number. Sometimes it's about the information that you are providing. So the first thing to do is really think about streamlining your pricing. When people have too many options, they end up in analysis paralysis or decision paralysis, whatever you want to call it. We've all been there, right? If you've got

Annemie Tonken  16:08

80 different things to choose among, it becomes very difficult, whereas if you're only choosing between one or two, then you can easily say this one works better for me. So think about the way that you present your pricing if you've got eight different packages with add ons and upgrades and all of that stuff, that's not necessarily a problem, but if you put all of that upfront and someone is expected to figure out which one works best for them, then chances are your clients are going to stall out and walk away. So at least in the beginning, make sure that you are just giving them the information that they need in order to kind of take that next step to book with you. If you keep your basic offers simple and easy to compare, and then later on, you can kind of walk them through the nuances of things, you will do a better job getting people to take that next step. The other thing that I encourage you to do if pricing, the actual number is a problem, is have a small ready to go option that you keep hidden, like it's not something that's available publicly on your website. It's not something that you offer up when you first reach out to somebody who has inquired, but now you've had a back and forth with them, and they've gone through your basic offer, and they come back to you and they say, You know what, all of this looks amazing. I think it's just out of budget right now, if that person seems like a good match for your business, and you believe that in the future, they might come back and be you know, ready to book your full offer, if just they get the opportunity to get to know you and like you and all those kinds of things, then having this back pocket offer that gives them a smaller option will allow you to take that next step, to keep that person as a potential client, and even if it's not a full session, to start to warm up your calendar a little bit. So just like mini sessions, you want to make sure that your back pocket offers don't cannibalize your regular offers. But again, sometimes booking a smaller session is better than no session at all, and it can lay the foundation for that long term client who just needed the extra boost to get over the booking hump. Obviously, at the end of the day, some people just aren't going to book you because of budget, because of timing, or, you know, maybe because they clicked with somebody else. That is normal. We cannot win every client, but what we can control is making sure that anyone who does reach out feels seen, they feel taken care of, and they feel guided through a clear, simple process. When you do that, your conversion rate will rise, if nothing else. Here's what I want you to take away from all of this today, a slow season doesn't mean that you are failing and it doesn't mean that your business is broken. It just means that there is information here for you, right? Maybe that information is telling you that it's time to show up more boldly to get your work back in front of people who would love to hire you. Maybe it's telling you to tighten up your systems so that when inquiries do come in, they are converting instead of slipping through the cracks. No matter what the reason is, you are not powerless. In fact, you are the boss, and you have more control than you think. You don't have to slash your prices. You don't have to close down your business. This season may not be the one that you pictured, but it can be the one that helps you strengthen your business for the long run, busy or not, you've got this and I am cheering you on every step of the way. That's it for this week's episode of This can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. If you like the show, be sure to check out. This can't be that hard.com. To explore all the resources we have for photography. First, and of course, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review of the show on iTunes or Spotify as always. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.