011: Senior Photography Business Strategy Q&A With Jena Golden

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011: Senior Photography Business Strategy Q&A With Jena Golden

Wanna go behind the scenes of some real life business coaching? In this episode of the Senior Studio Success Podcast I’m answering photography business questions from right inside my coaching groups.

Let’s continue the conversation in the Facebook Community & connect on Instagram. And as always, you can grab any links I chat about here in the show notes.


p.s. Join me on The Road To CEO, my free 3-part business workshop starting 10/19/21 just for senior photographers 🎉 Come hang out with me!!!

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006: 5 Mistakes Senior Photographers Make On Their Websites

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006: 5 Mistakes Senior Photographers Make On Their Websites

Our websites have one job - to get potential clients to take the next step towards booking a session. In this episode of the Senior Studio Success Podcast I’ll share 5 big website mistakes that could hurt your senior photography business, and I want just the opposite for you - success! Subscribe to the show for weekly chats, join the Facebook Community to continue the conversation, connect with me on Instagram & grab any links or resources I chat about here in the show notes :)

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Is Brand Inconsistency Slowly Killing Your Business?

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Is Brand Inconsistency Slowly Killing Your Business?

One of the best things you can do for your senior photography business is to understand your brand’s personality & the message you want to put out into the world. Sending mixed messages about who you are & the type of service you offer is what leads to confusion in the minds of your potential photography clients. Want brand clarity? Start with 3 brand words that describe your photography business. By the end of this blog post you understand why they are so vital for your business.

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Should You Send A Senior Magazine To Every Inquiry?

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Should You Send A Senior Magazine To Every Inquiry?

The senior photography inquiry magazine should be used strategically to help book senior sessions that you weren't able to book in a phone call or consult. This is exactly why I created my senior magazine templates the way I did, to help you know what information to actually send to an inquiry vs what information to send to your senior photography clients to get them 100% prepared for their senior session experience! ⁣

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Why Every Senior Photographer Needs Email Templates For Their Photography Business

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Have you ever laid in bed at night wondering how if you sent that email to your client with all the information they need for their upcoming senior session? You’re pretty sure you did, but there’s just something you feel like you’re forgetting.

Or even worse - you are so tired that the words just won’t come out as you sit in front of a blank computer screen trying to come up with the best way to word an email to a client?

Copy and paste sure would be nice right about now, huh?

With over 30 different senior photography business email templates, these are perfect for every phase of the senior session experience to prep your senior photography clients for their senior session day and increase senior session sales. #seniorpho…

With over 30 different senior photography business email templates, these are perfect for every phase of the senior session experience to prep your senior photography clients for their senior session day and increase senior session sales. #seniorphotographybusinesstools #photographyemailtemplates #seniorstudiosuccess

I’ve been there. I got tired of coming up with perfectly written emails for my senior photography clients ONE BY ONE. And I dropped the ball way too many times to count until I finally learned my lesson. Over the years I’ve developed a wonderful set of emails that work beautifully in our senior studio to communicate EVERYTHING our clients need to know for a great senior session experience.

So if you’re tired of not knowing what emails to send your senior photography clients, I’ve been there!

 If you’re not sure how to best prep your seniors and parents for their session day and their order, yep, been there too!

Dropped the ball and forgotten to send that ordering appointment prep email? Guess what? Me too!

Wondering how to draft up the perfect testimonial request email? You know what I’m about to say!

I got you!

I am so excited to let all my senior photographer buddies know about this set of email templates is available for you now in the shop to customize for your very own senior photography business!

These email templates have saved me and my senior photography business SO many times . . . and SO much time! 

That’s right, these are the EXACT EMAILS that I use in my senior studio on the daily to prepare my clients for their senior sessions to book senior sessions and to increase our average sales!

Whether you’re just starting your senior photography business or if you consider yourself a senior photographer veteran, these emails are for you!

This email template series is perfect for the senior photographer who:

  • Feels like there’s just not enough time in the day to answer emails

  • Struggles explaining processes via email to clients

  • Has no idea which order or even when to send emails to clients

  • Literally any senior photographer who wants to make client communication a BREEZE

With over 30 different email templates, these are perfect for every phase of the senior session experience:

  • Inquiry Emails: Use these emails to lead your prospective clients to book their senior session by following up!

  • Pre-Session Emails: Prepare your clients and yourself for an amazing session! This series includes everything you need for the day of the senior session with a timeline, senior session prep, consult, and questionnaire emails to make sure you and your clients are ready for the perfect senior session day!

  • Pre-Sales Emails: Get the client testimonials you want to gain future clients and the sales you need with these emails to prep your clients for their ordering session!

  • Post-Sales Emails: Take care of your clients with order updates and follow up! Increase your senior photography sales with Christmas and spring resales emails included in this series too :)

What it all boils down to is this email series gives your clients the communication they want and the information you need to not only maintain your business, but help it grow! 

This part of your business shouldn’t be hard! Let this email series simplify the parts of your business you don't love and get you back to the things you do love - creating those beautiful images!

You can find this perfect set of senior photography email templates in the shop now! Woohoo!

Could Your Photography Business Survive If Social Media Disappeared Tomorrow?

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Could Your Photography Business Survive If Social Media Disappeared Tomorrow?

Let’s pretend that Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and Snapchat disappeared. Bam! Completely gone. Could your business survive without those social media platforms? So I want you to take this possibility seriously and set your photography business up for success if social media does disappear. It’s always good to mix up your marketing efforts and not rely on one thing anyway. #marketingideasforphotographers #seniorphotographymarketing #seniorstudiosuccess

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Why I Decided To Use A Client Management System In My Photography Studio

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Why I Decided To Use A Client Management System In My Photography Studio

Someone once told me to start acting TODAY like the business owner I want to be TOMORROW. Once I started following that advice I never looked back. The decisions I make today in my business are ones I hope my future self will make. And investing in a system like Honeybook has helped me through growing pains and much more organized and professional in front of my clients and inquiries. #seniorphotography #seniorstudiosuccess

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12 Pay It Forward Ideas And Graphics To Share For Senior Photographers

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The idea behind Pay It Forward is for a person to do something kind and in return that person does something kind for another. It’s supposed to keep going and going and going. As a senior photographer I wanted to create something for our senior girls to pass on to their friends to celebrate this day (hopefully lots of days actually) and encourage one another.

There’s just something about receiving a sweet message that can completely change your outlook on a day. In our studio we believe in building up confidence and inspiring each other to do big things. I hope our high school senior girls will use these little graphics to brighten someone else’s day, and I want to share them with you too to use in your own photography studios. Maybe challenge your model teams and your senior clients to do the same thing.

Happy Pay It Forward Day!

 

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Setting Your Senior Photography Business Apart In Your Market

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I couldn’t be happier and more honored to have Kristin Jones of Any Angle Photography as our very first guest blogger here to talk to us about setting our senior photography businesses apart in our markets!  

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Kristin Jones

Any Angle Photography

Photo Credit: Belle Marie Photography

Kristin is an amazing senior photographer and is such a gift to our industry.  She’s based out of her residential studio in Maple Grove, MN and averages 35-45 seniors each year.

A little bit of her story . . .

Seven years ago she took a photoshop class just for fun and was told she needed a better camera.  Of course she bought one! After taking pictures of everything her own high school kids were part of, two of her son’s friends asked her to take their senior pictures.

She never looked back.  

Kristin has been in business for 6 years now.  Last year she quit her ultrasound tech job of 25 years to pursue photography full time.  And we are so glad you did girl!  

Here’s a few of her most recent accomplishments:

Voted Senior Style Guide Hot 100 Icon Status the 2 years 2017, 2018

Voted Senior Inspire 50 to Follow the last 2 years 2018, 2019

Voted The Twelfth Year Top 50 Established Photographer 2018

TCPPA (Twin Cities Professional Photographers Association) 3rd Place Senior Photographer of the Year 2018

TCPPA Board Member 2019 (Member at Large)

Published in Modern Teen Style Senior Magazine 2018 and 2019

I twist balloon animals and can do magic tricks. 


She also has a witty sense of humor if you caught that last line.  That helps with photographing seniors!!

And with that, I will turn it over to Kristin :) 

How To Set Yourself Apart In Your Local Senior Market

Do What You Love and They Will Love What You Do

I picked up a camera for the first time at the age of 45. I learned how to work my camera photographing my sons’ high school theater productions.  I loved capturing them on stage and quickly learned I loved capturing all the kids on the stage.  Any pictures I took, I gave to the directors to use. My first pictures were not good, but I loved taking them so I kept at it.  Through this I met many of the students involved in the productions and once my kids graduated I had improved my work and started to receive compensation for photographing the shows.  This evolved into taking many of these students senior pictures. I continue to photograph the shows (just finished my 8th year), now take pictures of all the choirs, bands and orchestras at our local high school and take several senior picture sessions each year.  

This has been successful, I believe, because going into this I already had a deep love for theater, band and choir and loved photographing the enthusiasm of the students on stage, behind the scenes and in the pit orchestra.  It has always been work I enjoy and that comes out in the images I take year after year.  

Through photographing the musicals and subsequently taking many senior pictures of the participants I have learned how much I love to capture a senior doing what they love.  I started with musicians and performers, but I equally love capturing athletes, seniors with their favorite pets and seniors with their different talents and passions. The love they have for their “thing” comes out in their faces and body language, and we create amazing images collaborating and working together. 

These students are unsung heroes.

They are talented, diligent and work hard to perfect their craft. I have been the lucky one to be able to capture images for them that show their abilities and their personalities.   

Volunteering at my local high school created my business.  Building rapport with the students, leaders and teachers led to senior pictures booked with next to no marketing.   Students came to me and asked for pictures. Once friends saw those images, others asked. 

How can you do this in your own senior photography business?

1.  Identify what you like to photograph then identify ways you can create business around that.  If I had started photographing sports, I don’t think I would have had the same success.   

2.  Find a way in.  Is your kid or other relative involved in an activity you could photograph? Any friends involved in something you could photograph? Work through your contacts and find those in authority over what you enjoy to photograph and then volunteer.  Let them see what you can do for their organization. Be generous to them.  

3.  Once your value is seen, find ways to advertise your other services through their organization.  Flyers, promotions or emails, word of mouth all work.  

What Not to Do

Do not volunteer your services, then hold the pictures hostage. This should be a good will gesture. Make sure intentions and terms are clear at the beginning and there is good communication. Prove your value, then renegotiate terms.  

Reaching out to offer your services is not comfortable.  It’s hard work.  There is competition and the rejection is hard to take.  To be successful, you have to keep trying. It only takes one successful job to engage another, then another.  Find something you love to photograph and find a way to volunteer your service. Hopefully you will find the same fulfillment I found and create a successful senior photography business of your own too.  

Thank you so much for your contribution to Senior Studio Success and to the senior photography industry! We wish you many more years of success!

To find Kristin online visit her here:

Website

Instagram

Facebook

Here’s a little bit of Kristin’s awesome work with seniors too!

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