Better Photos
From beginners to pros, I'm taking you from photography basics to creative challenges to find your unique passion for photography.
Better Photos
009 The Art of Client Experience: Grow Your Photography Business
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This week , we explore how to transform your photography approach and enhance client experiences from inquiry to the final delivery. We delve into techniques, tools, and strategies that contribute to creative photography work and memorable client interactions.
• Setting an inviting tone for client inquiries
• Providing styling and location guides for clients
• Describe how you get the photos with prompting or posing
• Set the tone for How to get the most out of your session
• Delivering photos in a memorable way
• Weekly challenge: Improving your client experience
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Hey, mama, whether or not you're trying out your camera for the very first time or you've been doing this a while and just looking for some creative inspiration, I've got all that and more. I'm here to help you see your world differently, challenge you creatively and find your passion for photography. Welcome back to Better Photos Podcast. Happy March everybody. I cannot believe that we are in March. I feel like spring is here minus this week. It is so cold. But Saturday we had great weather so I was getting out all my flower seeds, got some potting mix, cleaned out my garden beds and every year I just have this vision of like a beautiful fresh cut flower garden. I had a fresh cut flower garden at my old house and trying to reestablish that in a new house with different lighting and different yard and sloped yard and maybe wanting to do some things different than I did before. And being a photographer is really hard for things because you're always thinking how is this going to look in a photo? I've got to get it with the right light. I've got to get it like what if I was going to have people here, like, where would I shoot from? How do I make it the most like picturesque thing thing. So there's a downside to being a photographer. So we did that, and then this week it's really cold, so now I'm just watering my seeds inside, so that's fun. I am planting a variety of things and the thing is is that when you go to the store they don't have a great big selection of colors of flowers. So I found to go on Etsy or if you follow certain gardens that sell their seeds, then you can have a more specified color palette, because we all know that I love more neutrals, more muted colors, and, yes, I will have some pops of, you know, pink, maybe yellow, I don't know, but specifically I'm going to have ranges of blush and white. So I bought all my seeds and some Dahlia bulbs and I'm still deciding what else. And I'm still deciding what else.
Speaker 1:Also, things that happened was I forgot to tell you guys that last I think it was last week, when I had a family session I finally used my new pocket dispo lens and it was so great, I love it so much. So it feels like nothing's on your camera and it's kind of hard to see through the viewfinder. But and a tip is to shoot um like underexposed for your shots because it gives like a nostalgic, moody, grainy vibe. Um, and this lens is like I think it's like 50 bucks or something. It's pretty cheap and it makes your camera like so lightweight. So I'm thinking when I travel I might take this lens just for like a fun kind of disposable camera vibe, but I don't know Like it's. If you want super sharp images, it's probably not the best one for you. But if you want some of that like vintage feel, then I definitely suggest um trying it out. What could hurt? It's not that big of a dent in your pocket. The hard part is remembering to take things out that I buy and use them because I can get stuck doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:Another thing I did last week was I did a brand shoot for a mobile IV and injectable like vitamin infusion stuff. One of my clients is starting her own business doing that. So we rented a studio loft area thing and did our first session with that and like I don't really I can't say I really like love doing that because it wasn't. I feel like with medical stuff you can't be like as fun and creative. I feel like I would like a branding session more for like I don't know something else like more creative, because it's like, oh, motion blur, you probably don't want that on medical stuff. Or if you want to do a creative like I don't know, like I don't know, there's just like not that much fun stuff when you're trying to do like a brand for um, ivs, um, or maybe I just need to practice more, like get some more inspo. Um, then, what else got some newborns coming up.
Speaker 1:Oh, then I was location scouting. I'm trying to find some like closer locations so that I don't have families driving that far, because I've realized that my clients don't really want to drive that far with little ones and I totally get it, want to drive that far with little ones, and I totally get it. So what I've been choosing, I think, is like so picturesque and like I don't mind driving, but maybe your kids hate the car and getting everybody ready and out the door and getting somewhere, and maybe your husband is like no, like don't care how great of a place it is, like we're not driving that far. So I'm going to start looking for more local places and starting with one that I actually found in my neighborhood. There's a horse farm. If you go down one of the roads in my neighborhood that I never go down and she was so nice and like I walked the property and she was telling me all about the horses and what we can use them for and I'm like just picturing like the most romantic, like family session with these horses, maybe some like cowgirl hats or ranger hats, I don't know. I have a session next week that was interested in doing this, so I'll be posting stuff on my Instagram at be posh photo if you want to see how those turned out.
Speaker 1:Location finding is like unpopular opinion. I dislike it. I feel like it's so hard to find like a spot because a lot, of, a lot of places will charge, like flower fields or gardens or those are kind of the same thing greenhouses, or like historic homes. Or there's like a lot of places that you do it by reservation and some of them book up so quickly, like peach trees, they only have, you know, like two weeks of availability. So it's like if you don't get in, then you don't, and so you may not have a client that wants to sign up for that and then you may have a client that wants to sign up for it later in, like April, but there's no blooms left. So just trying to match the client to the location. Um, it's hard when you have like a little timeframe that things are being available. I hope you can't hear my rooster outside. He is like right outside my window and being so loud.
Speaker 1:Anyways, so last week we talked about pricing and contracts and all that fun stuff of starting up your business, and this week we are going to talk about five ways to create an incredible client experience that keeps people coming back. So stay tuned, all right. So what is the best marketing for your business? Happy clients, okay, clients that rave about their session, repost their photos, um, tell their friends about you. I've literally grown my business pretty much strictly through word of mouth and, um, that is honestly like the best way to get clients, because if you are booking like ideal clients, most likely their friends are very similar to them and you will have a whole little group of people that share your same style and interests. So that is great. And so five things to keep them coming back is one you're going to set the tone from the first inquiry is one you're going to set the tone from the first inquiry.
Speaker 1:So as soon as you get that first booking or email, then you want to respond quickly, first of all, and outline your process, tell them how to book, and part of this is like having an easy booking system, which I hate. Um, first of all, I don't want to talk on the phone. So if a photographer is saying like we need to have a call before I'm out. If I don't know what I'm getting, I'm out. If I don't know what the price is, I'm out. So I think of things that like if I had to like call and get my calendar out and go back and forth on dates, I'm out. So I've taught, like taking these things into account. When I've taken these things into account when I've been structuring my experience for my clients is that I want a seamless, easy booking. So that's why I use that Acuity and I'm interested in learning about HoneyBook. But my clients can go on. I've created some PDF things through Canva and they can read about my whole experience, or I can respond in an email about what my experience is like and then it will take them seamlessly to booking the date that they want, adding on the things that they want and making sure that they have, like, signed my terms and conditions and all the things in one spot.
Speaker 1:So if you want to make a welcome guide, then I definitely suggest like Canva and using Canva templates. You can turn those into websites. You can start a website and have that as a page on your website. You can even just put this up in a PDF on Canva and send them the PDF to their email. I can't remember if I just said that Canva has websites. You can make a website link straight from Canva. So those are some ideas on just setting the tone for your first inquiry.
Speaker 1:So second, you want to help clients prepare with styling and location guides. So you can do this by an email, again, like this is what you suggest for them wearing um, it can be colors, patterns, styles, um. And you can suggest like locations of where you want to shoot. I used to respond to each email, um, like stating this all out, but I found it very helpful, like last year or the year before, creating these guides in Canva again. So then I made it another like website link that has my location guide, and then I've made like a Pinterest board with like styles that I like A lot of. The Pinterest board is also linked to my like to know it account, so then I can get commission on those outfits, and then I've also made a client closet link that will show people wearing the dresses, and if they want to pick something from my client closet, depending on their package or their add ons, then they can see it right there online in a link at their leisure, and so that has been so great to just send clients links without having to type out everything in an email each time you get a new email about somebody inquiring.
Speaker 1:The more direction that clients have up front, the more in sync you will be with like what your vibe is, with what you're expecting like. The worst thing that you can do and I definitely didn't learn this like right away is that when you give clients no guide, then you end up shooting things that are not quite what you expected. So the more if you can just give them like colors to choose from. Maybe you even make a color board and say, hey, these work great with my editing. Can you pick some colors that match this? Maybe you create a style guide with Pinterest and you're pinning things that you love. Um, and I also use a third-party styling website thing that's called style and select, and this lets me go in and say how many people are in the family and search by their ages and genders and I basically get like an online closet thing and I can pick out outfits for each person and they are actually shoppable links. So that is included in some of my packages, where they will get a customized style guide with like actual shoppable links for all the outfits and they can see their whole family styled across the board. So that is something that has really changed.
Speaker 1:With style and select, you can see color combinations. You can see like at the very beginning of the page. You get to pick whether you want bold, whether you want classic or whether you want muted earth tones. I bet you can guess which one I'm going for and then you can select colors. Like which two colors do you want to see within the clothes? You actually get like four colors. Like which two colors do you want to see within the clothes? Um, you actually get like four colors but two choices. So with me I still do just black and white and brown and cream. So it adds in like some other like tones, and then obviously I can add in like blush, or maybe for the holidays I'm wanting red or some of those jewel tones.
Speaker 1:Then I get to decide and I can send these to my clients and they can shop their closet if they want to. They can shop the their local store or they can shop the link directly. And I make sure to say that, like, if, like this, these are just suggestions. I don't want anyone to feel like they have to wear all these things, because if I'm like forcing them to make suggestions on things that only I like, like these are their photos, so I don't want them to be unhappy with choices that I made them make. So I always say like this, these are just styles and colors that go best with my editing and with my vision. But like, if this doesn't fit your family's vibe, then totally wear. Like whatever you want and sometimes that's great and sometimes it's not but like then at least I've said like this is what I suggest. And like, if you go with something else and you hate them, then then they know it wasn't like something that I suggested, but if they followed along, you know it's like it puts the power back in their hands, while still helping me guide them, because sometimes I mean most of the time people don't know what looks good in photos.
Speaker 1:I always say like the, the dress that you may wear to the baby shower is not necessarily the dress you would wear to a photo shoot, a maternity session, because the way things like lay and move on your body can be great for photos and maybe not great for your baby shower. When you're wanting like a tighter fitted dress to like show off how great you look, you know, or even fall photos are kind of like that Like moms you've been working out, like so good, you look great. You want like a really tight fitting dress and um, and sometimes like that's great for like a work party or whatever, but it's not great for um family photos when you're all sitting on the ground or like being more casual. So it's just you know, being up front with what you're looking for and what you offer. That can help guide them in the right direction and y'all can be more confident together in the way the photos will turn out All right.
Speaker 1:Number three is using prompts and movement to create natural moments so you can tell your clients ahead of time like I'm not expecting you to be models, I am not expecting you to know what to do in front of the camera. I will literally tell you everything to do. Like I do not expect people to like show up and be giving me all these like exactly the right pose, the right face, the right you know, whatever. Sometimes that can look like too stiff anyways, and so I'm like, don't worry, like don't look at the camera. Unless I ask you to look at the camera, I will prompt you the entire time and if I'm not saying anything, just keep doing what you're doing, cause I'm getting like exactly what I want, and so that helps them feel more confidence, because I think that's like a scary thing for people to um book a photographer and then be like so what do we do? Like where do you want me to look? Are we looking at you? Are we looking at each other, which I still have. People ask that, which is totally fine, but I'm constantly queuing and directing and just making it not feel so awkward, and so you can say that that's what you incorporate into yours or into your sessions, or how do you make sessions feel effortless and authentic? All right.
Speaker 1:Number four is keeping the energy relaxed and fun. Please don't be stressed on the day of your photo shoot, because it will make clients feel stressed, and when clients and parents feel stressed, it makes the kids feel stressed, and there's nothing that's worse than like having so much tension because people are fighting and not doing what they expect in front of the camera, if that makes sense. Like okay, I know you want photos of like your kids smiling in front of the camera, but like spanking them to make them smile, just oh, it like hurts my heart. So, um, I try to like just tell parents, like you know, just take a deep breath, like here's what to do, to like hope for the best you know with your kids is like making sure they get a good nap, making sure that they are well fed before they get there, maybe bringing some snacks that you don't mind them having during the session. Don't bribe ahead of time, especially when you get to those like five-year-old, six-year-old, seven up, because they are constantly going to be asking the whole time like do I get my toy now? Do I get my toy now? Do I get my toy? Like, oh, like, what do I have to do next? Like you know and it's like that is not the vibe I want to set for my sessions I want families to be like hey, listen, we are going to go and spend some time together, we are going to play, we're going to laugh.
Speaker 1:We're going to chase each other, tickle each other. Like I just want pictures of me loving on you and like loving this family and um, and then being okay If your kids are smiling, if your kids are, like you know, feeling like not the best or they're shy or whatever. Like I still love those photos too. Like let me show what it looks like to be a mom right now to this child. Let me show what it looks like for you to comfort your child to this child. Let me show what it looks like for you to comfort your child. Let me show you know you, your future, you, your grandma, you, you know your future kids, or your kids as they're older, how you were a mom to them. You know, like I think that can show up so well in photos and the stress that can come also shows up in photos.
Speaker 1:So you want to make sure that you do anything you can. If you need a glass of wine before you come, do it. If your husband needs a beer, whatever. If you need whatever you need to. Like just take the edge off, like come that way and so that you can just be present and be okay with, like what unravels because, overall, like authenticity, like authentic photos and emotions will pull at your heart more than the smiling ones that were spanked or bribed or whatever to smile in that picture. And during the session, you just want to keep conversation moving, which, again like trying to find your ideal clients or friends. Of friends, it's easy to to bring up conversation I always talk about like kids or pets or just work. There's like so many things that that you can talk about during the session, um, and if you need to take small breaks, then that's fine too.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you can go get some detail shots of flowers or you know, like maybe you're peering through something at the family, just maybe not focusing like straight on the kid. If they're like absolutely do not take my picture, maybe you are showing them your camera, like a lot of times I'll let them take a picture with my camera or pressing the button or letting them take a picture of mom and dad and just incorporating like them into it and just helping families feel at ease and that like I've had toddlers before. So I know that they can be unpredictable, I know they can be crazy, I know that they can be like not themselves on photo day and I just go with the flow, like it is, like no one has to apologize for the way that their kids are acting or behaving, and like I hear it all the time like, oh, my kid normally does this, you know, well, it's, it's fine, it's picture day, and that can be normal to um, to be a little bit of reserved, or the opposite, like super in your face. Um, and that's why I a lot of times I don't suggest many sessions for people because I'm like your kid is going to be crazy for the first 15 minutes and when they finally warm up to me and this idea of photos, then your time's up. So I like the longer family sessions so that we have time for all of that. Um. And number five um deliver the photos in a way that your clients feel valued, um, so whether you put them on an online gallery or you do a little slide show or you send them a message or um, for some of my sessions I send like USBs and a little like Polaroid, anything that I can do to make my clients feel special and feel seen, especially the ones like before they're expecting.
Speaker 1:I'll send, like a little gift, anything to make moms feel like you know they do so much for their kids that sometimes it's nice to receive something that's just thoughtful for them. And then sometimes it is a good little thing to send something for the kids, you know, just to remind them, like, how great the photo session was and like, oh, like you got a piece of candy after. Or oh, like she sent bubbles or a lollipop or whatever like for us, like I can't wait to see her again. You know like I try to make sessions like not only like I can't wait to see her again. You know like I try to make sessions like, like, not only like great for the parents and the family, but I want, I want to like, uh, kiss up to the kids so that they, they want to come back and see me, you know. And so that is part of um, making your clients feel valued and seen and just reminding them that that you're used to this and like this is all part of life and you're there to capture that. Um.
Speaker 1:So this is your week's challenge you are going to write out your client experience from start to finish. Um, what do you do right now when someone emails you about a photo shoot? What does your process look like all the way to finish, and are there any areas that you could make smoother? Like I said, when I was typing out each email responding to a client about locations and you know all the things, and then I decided just to make a visual guide. Things like that can help your business run smoother and that's what I love, kind of like, evaluating each year is just seeing like, where could I improve, how could I add a little bit more value to what I'm giving, because obviously there's so many photographers there's like such a saturated market, but making yourself stand out in different ways maybe of how like um, how organized you are, how like um, how much on time, how much you guide them, how much you make them feel less stressed and how you um deliver their um photos to them and how you wrap the whole thing up and um, that makes a big difference in your client experience.
Speaker 1:So I hope you can take all these things and um tweak what you have and just make it the best that fits your business, and clients will definitely want to come back and tell their friends about you, and next week we are going to be talking about marketing your business, and so this is one of the ones I am like super excited to talk about, because I love marketing stuff, especially like just to see, like analytics and what works and what doesn't. So join me back next time and until then I hope you go out and make better photos. Thanks, bye.