With photography being such a competitive business, it can be hard to stand out among the other photographers in your area and get clients. Especially if you are brand new! But don’t worry. It is possible to start building up your client list at any point in your photography career, and for you, today is that day!
This post is going to walk you through how with Focal’s help, you will gain more clients.
With Focal’s portfolio and package templates, we encourage our partner photographers to not only convey the price and number of photos included in the session, but the value of the entire experience. Who is the package for? What is it for? Why did you create this package? What happens after a customer books you? By answering these questions, you are building a tangible product that a customer can see when they visit your Focal page and buy more easily. Just like a storefront. When you do this, your customer will be able to pick and choose exactly what they want. And, by having each session described in detail, it eliminates them asking those common questions such as how many photos do I get? How many people can be in the shoot?
By creating detailed packages, a customer will know exactly what they are getting for their $200 or $400 shoot. Here is an example of a Session on Focal.
Note how Naomi describes her session in a way that allows you to start visualizing how it would play out. This is how you are going to capture the attention of your customers. They are going to see that you describe the package so vividly that they won’t bother checking out another photographer’s website because they know you offer exactly what they want.
Here’s a question: If a customer messages you, asking about your family sessions and you drop the link to your website, does that customer have to sift through photos that aren’t family-related? If the answer is yes, then your packages aren’t segmented. It is so important to separate your family packages from your wedding packages because the more steps a customer has to take to book you, the easier it is for them to just click off and find someone else. With Focal, our platform allows you to easily segment your Sessions by separating them into separate Portfolios.
Here’s an example:
When you send a potential customer the link to your Focal page, this is what they would see. Look how easy to navigate this is! If they are looking for a family session, they can click the “Family” button and are brought to all your various family packages. It takes one click and the packages are laid out with prices, hours included, number of photos, and a description of each individual experience. They don’t have to scroll through your headshots or wedding photos in order to find what they're looking for. Once again, if they do have to sort through unrelated photos, it just makes it easier for them to ditch your website because they can’t find what they asked for.
Are you currently booking customers via Instagram DM or Facebook? Or even through a contact page on your website? Well, then you know how long of a process booking a customer is. You have to settle on a package, a time, place, and then you have them pay by e-transfer or some other hard-to-track method. Most of the time, you and your customer probably forget the time and location and struggle to find which part of the email thread it is in.
When I say Focal provides a simple solution, I mean it.
On your Focal page, when a customer is looking at your packages and they settle on the one they want, they can click “Message” or “Message to Book.” This sends an email straight to you, the photographer, and guess what, the client has already decided on the package so now it is just about choosing a time and place. When that’s decided, you can create a booking and send it to them via email. This makes it easier to go back to and remind yourself, “Oh right, this is when my family session is” rather than sorting through 34 emails. Also, if the customer changes the date of the session, you can update the booking and it will automatically send a new and updated booking to your customer.
Another great thing about Focal’s booking system is that your customers can pay with a card as soon as they receive their booking via email. In the example below, it says “Invoice Paid” but if it hasn’t been paid yet, there will be a “Pay With Card” button that allows them to create a Stripe account and pay you right away. Taking payments through Focal via Stripe not only makes sure you get paid on time by customers, but when it comes to tax season, your Stripe dashboard will have all the info you need.
Here is what the customer will see when they receive the booking via email and open it up in their web browser:
Having a simple booking system means less frustrated customers and if they see how easy it was to book you, there’s a good chance they’ll come to you the next time they need a photographer. Otherwise, they will become impatient trying to book a photographer who uses the lengthy DM or email system.
Those are just three ways Focal can help you get more clients. It is all about putting yourself in the shoes of your customers and taking a look at your business to see how you can make it easier for them.
If you would like to start booking more clients today, click below and schedule a demo call of the Focal platform. It’s time to empower your photography business today.
