← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
4 Reasons You're Not Getting Booked (Plus Podcast Anniversary Month)
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Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mama to two and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience, and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here. Just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in. Foreign it is a brand new month. It is April 2026 and I could not be more excited for what's in store for this month. You guys are going to love every single episode that I have coming out every Thursday this month. It's a very special month. This is the anniversary of when I started podcasting all the way back in 2019. And it just so happens I will also publish my 400th episode this month as well, which is just insane. And so I'm pulling out all the stops. We have a special celebration on the podcast and also off the podcast and I will get into all of that here in just a second, but I would love for you to celebrate with me. We're celebrating seven years of podcasting and then we are also celebrating 400 episodes. So I hope you'll tune in. What I've decided to do is recreate the top five most popular podcast episodes. So I am going to update them with upto date advice and then also it's going to be a little bit of nostalgia as we go backwards and we pull the most listened to episodes. So you're going to love it. These are topics that are obviously very important to you. They are episodes that you tuned into to. And so we're just gonna, we're gonna do a little spin with it and you're gonna, you're gonna love it. So the very first episode that we are recreating is episode 182 and it was titled your pricing isn't the Issue. This is. And this podcast episode was primarily covering the real reason that you're not getting booked. You might think it's your pricing, but instead it is actually four different mistakes. So we're going to. I have updated this advice a little bit. It has been, I believe this episode is four years old. And so obviously, you know, the foundation of the advice I gave is still true, and I believe that it is still up to date. But I don't want to just recreate an episode and give you the same exact advice. And so I am covering four mistakes that you might be making. And I really think you're going to love today's episode. So let's dive in and recreate date episode 182. Okay, so here's what I typically see photographers do when they're not getting leads and bookings. They immediately think that the problem is their pricing. And so they go down the rabbit hole. They look at what so and so is doing in their area, and then they try to create similar packages and pricing rather than looking at other factors that might be the real reason that you're not getting booked. And pricing alone can sometimes be the problem, but the majority of the time it's not. I don't want you to panic when you're not getting leads and bookings, and I don't want you to make these rash decisions like lowering your prices or running a bunch of sales or trying to undercut every photographer in your area, because being the cheapest is not a guaranteed way to get you clients anyway. And it's definitely not a guaranteed way to have a profitable business in the long run. So don't make those panic mistakes. But we're going to talk about four other mistakes that might be your bump in the road to getting more leads and bookings. And the first one is that you are simply leading with your prices instead of showing any value. Here's what I mean by this. In. In my mind, I am picturing a pricing sheet. It's a pricing page, a digital one likely created in Canva. And on it there are three packages. There's usually one picture per package. And then underneath those pictures, it looks like a little menu. It has bullet points of what's included. It has a package name and a package price. And that's what you're handing to clients. And if that is what you're doing, you are leaving so much money on the table. Because when people get that, there's so many factors in that one act alone that's going to cause people to, you know, question whether they should book you or, you know, they're likely. They're. They're likely at that point just going to price shop you because they don't see the value. So if this is something that you're doing, then we're going to fix it, because I want you to do something different. Right? You've got to make A change in order to see different results. So remember, you're not handing your leads pricing lists. You're handing them strategic. Either web pages or an investment guide. Right, Like a pricing guide where each package gets its own page and it gets to shine. An investment guide is something that still works to this day. I have had six leads in the last 72 hours, and I have booked five out of six of those. The only reason that I didn't book the sixth is because we had a date conflict. That's it. That is the only reason. And I know that investment guides work because I hand one to every single one of these people and then they're able to make an educated decision. And I'm just going to tell you, I'm not the cheapest in my area and I'm not the top dollar in my area, but I am definitely in the more expensive range for what people are willing to spend here. And I have heard time after time after time that I'm more expensive. But what I've learned is that my investment guide helps me stand out because I'm able to show them the value and not just a price list. So I want you to make sure that you've got value tied to what you are giving your leads so that they can make a decision to book with you. Right. They need to be able to see themselves and they need to be able to, you know. Yes. Compare you, because it's going to happen no matter what, but they just need to feel confident in their decision. So lead with value, not just price. Okay, mistake number two. It's your portfolio. It's the images that you're showing your leads that's causing you to not get booked. Typically, what this means is that you have an inconsistent editing style across the board. So if you were to say, brooke, can you come audit you know, my photography business and tell me what. What's going on? A lot of times this is what I see is that when I'm going through your investment guide or I'm looking on your website or I'm even scrolling your Instagram feed, I can't really tell what your style is because there's no consistency. One minute you look like you're a dark and moody photographer. The next it's super light and airy, and the next it's super colorful and true to color. And the list just keeps going on like, I don't know what I'm going to get if I was to book you. And so when there's confusion about your editing style, that's going to cause people to choose somebody else. And that makes sense because they're wanting to know exactly what they are going to get when they invest their hard earned money in you and if your portfolio is off, or it's showing every single type of photography that you do and it's not really showing a specialty that is also going to cause people to want to book somebody else. You don't want to showcase that you can photograph every single thing in the world. You want to really make sure that you're curating your portfolio to where you're showing the best of the best of your work and that it is consistent across the board. If it's not, I'm telling you, this is your biggest reason why people are not booking you. So how do you fix this? For this mistake in particular, this is going to come with practice. So if you need a consistent editing style, what I'm going to suggest is either go back to your older galleries that you still have the raw sport and update it with an editing style. Go back and try to edit every single one super consistently to where they all look similar. I'm not saying every single gallery that you ever have is going to look exactly the same. That really doesn't make sense. Especially when your location changes, your lighting changes. Some days you've got super sunny skies, some days it's going to be cloudy. Some shoots might be indoors, while others are outdoors. I get that. But across the board there should be some kind of consistency. You should be able to tell somebody in three words what your editing style is. And if you can't do that, then that's a sign that you need to really hone in what your editing style is. Go look at preset packs to help you get more consistent. Go take an editing mentorship with somebody to help you get consistent. Watch YouTube videos. There are so many free editing videos through reels on Instagram and also on YouTube. Find someone that you really look up to and try to model the way that they edit and then create a style for yourself. So make sure that your portfolio has consistency across the board and also that you are showcasing the best of the best images. The third mistake is that you're not using enough social proof to help dictate someone's decision. So what I mean here is that you need to have your testimonials and reviews literally everywhere on your website, throughout your social media content. Have a little highlight bubble on Instagram, on your Facebook. Let people leave reviews if that is still an option for you to do. I've heard mixed Things about whether that's still a thing. I know you can. It's just not as big and popular as it used to be. Get Google, yeah, Google Business reviews. And then also put them in your investment guide. This helps drive decisions because they want to know what somebody else, what their experience was and what they have to say about working with you. And so when you can highlight things that you do really well. We're not looking for generic testimonials where people are like, it was a great experience and our photos are beautiful. They could literally say that about anybody. You could totally make that up. I'm looking for specific things. So if you are trying to specialize in newborn photography, then I want to see reviews that are specific to how you work with babies or what they thought about their gallery or how you helped prep them for their session. You're looking for things like that to showcase that you give a high level client experience. So work on getting better reviews, Work on getting reviews at all, because I know that can be a struggle. And then once you have those, put them everywhere, use them over and over and over again because that's going to help your leads make a decision to book with you. And that's what we're after. Okay, the final mistake, number four is that you are not following up with your leads. So of course you're going to miss the booking every single time if you're not following up with people. We are humans, we are busy. And if the majority of the people that you're working with are women who are booking things, you guys know how we multitask, right? I edit and I also can listen to a podcast and watch tv. I can have music on in the background, have a conversation with my child and be washing dishes or folding laundry. Right. We can multitask, but sometimes when we're doing that, we are easily distracted. So, for example, I followed up with a family that is wanting to book an extended family session. And she had originally told me that she just needs to coordinate with her daughter's work schedule in order to get all my calendar. Calendar. And so we talked over the weekend. I think it was Saturday. And today when I'm recording this, it is on a Wednesday. And I went ahead and followed up with her just to see because I saw that the booking hadn't come through yet. And she was like, oh, yeah, no problem. This is actually her first day off. And so we're having that conversation right now. They were able to book the date that they wanted. And here we go. Now if I would have Never followed up, then there's a chance that she could have been so distracted that she put it off for a couple more months. So I want you guys to realize you're not being annoying by following up with people. You're just, you're their reminder, right? You're just helping them. You're serving them because they reached out to you. It's not like you messaged them first and started the conversation. They reached out to you. And so it is your due diligence to follow up with people. Follow ups in my business are the number one reason that I end up getting people to book me or sign up for my senior team or whatever the case might be. So make sure that you have a follow up sequence or you set follow up reminders for yourself to give someone a couple of days and then circle back with them. I'm telling you, if you will do this, you will be so surprised by how many more bookings you get just by doing follow ups. Okay, so let's recap really quickly what the four mistakes were. Because likely it's not that you're not booking because of your pricing alone. It's likely that one of one, two, three or maybe even four of these things are missing or faulty in your current business. Mistake number one was that you are leading with a price list and you are not showing any value. Mistake number two was that you don't have a consistent and curated portfolio and so you need to make sure that you do that so people are confident where they are investing their money. Mistake number three, you're not using enough social proof or client reviews. And mistake number four, you are missing a follow up sequence. So go through identify which mistakes identify or identify which mistakes relate most to you and then highlight them. Make a note to yourself, schedule an hour or two this week or next week where you have time to sit down and really work on these things. Maybe you need an updated investment guide. I have those that you can purchase. You don't even have to make your own. And those are@shopbrook jefferson.com Go check them out. Most of them are like 20 bucks. Go grab one and use it. And they are strategically designed. They are designed the same format that I use in my own business and they still get me clients. And they have since 2014 also. And we've updated a lot of the designs too, so keep that in mind. I don't mean that the template was created in 2014. Most of these were created like 2022 through 2024. And then we just went and we updated them, so they are totally up to date. Go grabby one if that's what you need. I have podcast episodes on almost every single one of these points and so feel free to type that into whatever podcast platform you're using and you can deep dive into these mistakes a little bit more. But I have two asks from you and then I want to tell you about this super fun thing that I am offering all month long because we're celebrating 400 episodes and seven years of podcasting. So the first ask that I have is that if you haven't ever left a five star review or left me a written review at all, I would love for you to take some time and do that. You can do it on Spotify, you can also do it on Apple podcasts. I would love to read your review. I would love to know how long you've been listening to the podcast and what kind of value you find from it as well. The second ask that I have is that you will simply share this episode. Help me celebrate 400 episodes and seven years of podcasting by sharing this to your Instagram story or sharing it directly with a photographer friend that you have. That would mean the absolute world to me. I have a goal of how many photographers I would like to reach through this podcast this year and that is just one way that you can help me out. And now for the exciting announcement I want to I wanted to do something that really is going to impact your business and give you literally the A to Z strategy so that you can make sure everything is buttoned up, you have the exact framework that you need to have the photography business of your dreams. We're talking real income. No more guesswork, all of the things. And so I have decided to put my fully booked method on sale. So to celebrate 400 episodes, it is available for $400 all month long. April only. So you have from April 1st until April 30th and then it's gone at that price and it'll go back up to the $500 that it normally is. And so if you are someone that is like, oh, I want coaching from Brooke, I want weekly step by step what I'm supposed to do in my business. That is what the fully booked method is for. You can go to brookejefferson.com fully booked and I already have the coupon code set so the price is already lowered. And so all you have to do is check out. I cannot wait to see your name come across this month. I get to coach you every single week in your business and it is going to be so amazing. You can read all those details. Brook jefferson.com fully booked and I will see you next Thursday as we recreate the second most popular podcast episode.