5 January planning ideas for photography client booking success
For some of you, January is warm, green and you are still taking clients. For many of us it’s cold, snowy and we aren’t actively photographing. Or the weather is good but clients are spent from holidays and are also taking a break from obligations. Either way, January represents the start of your year, and that’s typically the timeline we are working on for our goals and finances. This is the perfect time to start planning your year. Christmas 2023 sessions? The plan should be done now! Does it feel far off? Well for something seasonal like Christmas themed sessions, the best time would have been during the ones you just finished - in terms of assets anyways. Hopefully you have material to use for next year, but if not, the second best time to do this is NOW.
Sometimes we get ideas through the year for interesting photo sessions, or we need to make a change because we have new information, or need to make an adjustment to stay on track. Fair enough; life and work needs to remain fluid and you shouldn’t wait until another January (like if you need to raise prices, do it when it needs to be done). But planning now gives you the advantage of reflecting during a time where life isn’t chaotic, and when you aren’t juggling family and weddings and newborn editing and a million other things. It helps to establish your path forward, taking pressure off of trying to do anything on the fly.
What to work on this month:
Cost of doing business for photography
Now is the time to revisit your cost of doing business. Think of what you may want this year in terms of salary, workload, education, camera equipment upgrades, props, studio changes. If your salary also contributes to household, make a note of where extra investment may be required: food, rental or mortgage costs, etc. Inflation has been killer and it’s affecting us all.
Be honest here, with all of it. Sit in your numbers even if they make you uncomfortable, because as we all know, fear dissipates the more familiar you are with something. Of course, you could cut expenses drastically to avoid raising prices to keep or increase your margin, but then remember that you are working with bare bones. Cutting gallery delivery software in favour of a free tool may save you a few hundred, but then it can affect how your clients receive their images and they may perceive that even the price they paid wasn’t equal to the value received. If you cause the client experience to suffer, then it can be just as difficult to find good clients as it would be to steel your nerves and ask for a higher price. Run numbers for a dream business, not a skeletal one, and if indeed things are too rich, see where you can make any concessions that won’t derail the dream. Better, engage in further education and mindset work to find the courage to ask for the prices you need to thrive.
Photography campaign planning
A campaign could be your themed sessions (no longer calling them minis), your seasonal offers, your engagement sales page development, your model calls. Basically all that you aim to do in the year. I up my efforts for wedding marketing in January, as many get engaged at New Years. This involves catching up on my wedding blogging and the creation of an SEO-rich wedding sales page. This year I’m running model expansion calls (details to come in another blog post) in February and March for fresh maternity and newborn content, as almost all of my clients from 2022 requested privacy (that’s ok, I welcome that as it shows that my clients can fully trust me). I usually craft a Spring offer for paid advertising on a popular local mom website for families to fill my summer calendar. I made up my own holiday, called Joy Day, on June 27th in honour of my mother. So I run a campaign around that too. This year especially, I’m revamping some of my family packages, so I consider that to be my Summer/ Fall campaign. Those are my big buckets and I sit down now when things are quiet to plan. Each will get a rough timeline so that I know when to start certain things. For example, I know that the paid advertising (business of the week) fills up fast for late May and that’s the time I want. In order to get the week I want to advertise in, I have to think about all the content and offers well ahead of time.
Brand Audit for your photography website
Maybe it’s time to critically go through your website to see if it’s still relevant to all that you’re doing. You want to check all your links and test your contact form to ensure all is in good order and that you don’t miss a contact because a link has been broken. You may want to go through an exercise like a ”Present” Vision board exercise to see where your business currently stands relative to your vision and adjust a few things. Maybe the portfolio needs to be updated or curated of older work, maybe the portfolio needs to be cut down and cleaner. Have you blogged recently? Add that to your campaign planning and mark some topics and timelines to ensure the site doesn’t get stagnant.
Revisit your photography website SEO
Check out websites like Fuel your Photos, or Neil Patel to find some free SEO resources. Without a large investment there can be several simple fixes to improve your discoverability. Or, look into more serious education (see next point.)
Decide and invest in your photography education.
We all want to evolve and grow in our business - for our creativity and for our profitability. Even if you can’t afford something just yet, write down a list of courses, mentorships, or memberships that you’re considering or aspiring towards. Writing it down helps anchor your mind and those opportunities could come quicker than you think. You can also digest your mentor’s free content or low-cost content through Youtube, Creative Live, or even Audible until you can pull the trigger on a paid product. Mine included! You are already in my free resource and you can find my paid products here. In one of his YouTube videos, entrepreneur Dan Lok suggests devoting one quarter per year to one topic to learn. That way, you aren’t jumping from one thing to the next but dedicating yourself to a deeper education. If you aren’t following a course, this is a good way to create a disciplined educational approach which can yield amazing results. The more you know about something, the easier it becomes. For example, if you bounce around a few SEO articles you may end up more confused than ever, but if you commit to really learning and understanding (even bootstrapping with free resources), you may come out feeling like an expert after just 3 months!
These are just a few ways you can kickstart your January planning, on your way to booking more photography clients in 2023. If you want even more creative and marketing ideas, sign up below to receive your free “Kickstart your Art” PDF, with exactly 60 ideas to spark your imagination and business growth!