Are you a brand new photographer wondering how to book clients in the next 30 days? Maybe you’re an established photographer, but you’re not getting consistent bookings and you’re looking to book more clients. Perhaps you’re the established photographer that is coming out of a slow season and you’re looking to start booking clients soon…
- GOAL SETTING
Let’s dive into your 30 day roadmap to booking more clients.
I’m not talking about the fluffy goals we set where we wish we are making $100,000 or more. I’m not talking about trying to manifest stuff, either, and, hey if you want to go down that road & give it a shot, you do you. What I’m telling you is, I’ve tried that & the truth is, it doesn’t work. Instead, you have to leave room for faith in your business.
Here’s how I rely on my faith in my business, the exact way I begin my own goal setting process. I start with prayer. I pray over my business and I align my goals, my vision and the way I’m serving others within my business with my faith. From there, I give God room to move in my business and book more clients, those clients I was designed to work with.
After I pray over my business, I get to the nitty gritty of it all, the numbers.
The first number you need to know when walking through the goal setting process is your income goal. In order to find that number, you simply ask yourself “what do I want to profit for the month?”. One thing to keep in mind as a photographer, your income goal will likely fluctuate depending on what season you’re in, or at least it does for me.
If you have never walked through my FREE Pricing for Profit Masterclass, I highly recommend you join the FB Group, Social Selling for Photographers: Book More Clients so you can grab the link to that Masterclass. I have recently updated this training, it now includes how to set aside money for taxes, how do you actually plan to truly profit, how do you know what you need to be bringing in, etc.
The next thing I need to know is the exact number of sessions I need to reach that income goal for the month.
The first thing I do when determining how many sessions I need in a month is grab my calendar, I start writing down all of my personal obligations, this allows me to see what dates I have availability to take sessions. Based on how many sessions I need to book (for me this is about 5-10 a month) to reach my income goal, I then circle about 12 dates on the calendar. I know some of you are likely asking why 12? Well, by circling more days than I need, I’m telling myself I need to leave certain days open so that clients can get booked when they need to get booked.
From my paper calendar, I go to my digital booking calendar, Iris Works.
If you don’t have an existing client management system in place, I recommend you get one. It doesn’t have to be Iris Works, although, that’s my software of choice. I have multiple podcast episodes on Iris Works, I have a YouTube Channel with Iris Works Tutorials and if you’d like to give it a try in your own business, you can do that here: Iris Works. If you love it, you can use my code BROOKE for 20% off any of their plans.
- HOW TO ACTUALLY BOOK THE CLIENTS YOU NEED FOR THE MONTH
The first piece step 2 is this: YOU HAVE TO BE COMMITTED & GO ALL IN WITH ONE FOCUS.
I get it, you’re new to the whole photography thing, you’re not really sure what your specialty is yet and right now you’re taking on all genres and clients. The truth is…this isn’t going to get you anywhere, it’s certainly not going to help you book more clients.
Or, maybe I’m talking to the established photographer, you’ve been around the block, you’ve found two or three genres you love photographing, but you still don’t have consistent clients coming through the door.
So, I need you (whether you’re a new photographer or you’re an established photographer) to go ALL IN with one focus for the next 30 days. This means, you’re committing to going all in with ONE type of photography genre that you’re focused on booking your calendar for.
The easiest way to do this, is taking a solid look at the things that absolutely don’t light you up. Choose the one genre you find joy in shooting & go all in with that one for the next 30 days.
Trust me, this commitment will change the game for you!
So now that you’ve decided what genre you’re focusing on booking clients for, you have to decide on ONE social platform to focus on for the next 30 days, too. I get it, you have multiple accounts (we all do), but, for the next 30 days, you’re picking ONE. This is going to be the one place you’re showing up for 30 days. Decide which one it’s going to be for you by determining which one is best for you AND your audience.
Now that you have your ONE focus for bookings + your ONE platform of choice, let’s dive into marketing strategies.
- MARKETING
I do not expect you to commit to posting every single day for 30 days. I do want you to commit to posting 6 days out of 7, though. That means, you’re committing to showing up and being active for 26 days of the next 30 days. That means I’m giving you FOUR rest days in the next month. I know it’s important to unplug and step away from social media for a while.
If you have chosen Instagram as your platform of choice, you’re going ALL in with Instagram for the next 30 days. I want to see you in your stories, in some capacity, every single day. You’re posting four to five times a week on your feed. You’re posting at least one reel — yes, that’s right! I’m challenging you!! Reels are so easy, you don’t have to get on, be super creative and dance, you can literally do a 30 second clip of a client tip, add a caption and POST!
If you have chosen Facebook as your platform of choice, here’s where you should be focusing…
Facebook pages will get you no where. I know, I know, but it’s the truth. Facebook pages are the bottom of the barrel in terms of social media marketing. Instead, you need to be on your personal profile. Show us who is behind the camera, show us your a sneak peek or a favorite image from a recent gallery, tag your client & tell us about her.
If you have chosen your Facebook Group for this, now is your time to shine. Revamp your group, spice things up, get conversations going and let’s see who is paying attention to you.
Remember, you’re not showing up in multiple places for the next 30 days, you have ONE FOCUS. Commit to it and dig into ALL the features the platform of your choice has to offer!
Do you want to dive deeper into booking more clients, regardless of what season you’re in as a photographer? Head on over to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast to listen now!
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