← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
How to Attract Your Dream Clients Without Discounts
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And then they might have the best experience with you ever. And then they're going to see the value and a light bulb is going to go on and they're going to come back and book you for a full price session. The amount of times that this has happened to me, I've lost track. And so I just want to show you that you don't have to write people off just because they tell you that you're too expensive. Plant a different seed for them and watch what happens. Anytime I have ever given a client a discount, I have always in some way resented that choice. Have you ever given a client a huge discount, worked extra hours, and now you feel resentful? Well, today in this episode, we're talking all about how to attract your dream clients without discounting and find clients who appreciate you and will happily pay you full price. If you're ready, let's dive in. 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, mom at a 2 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. When we first get started in our photography businesses, it is very common for us to just throw out a random price on our sessions and run with it. We don't know what it takes to actually run a business. We don't factor in our time. Then as we go on and we gain more clients and we see that people are booking us at this low rate. Now we're afraid to raise our prices because we're afraid of losing those clients or we get caught up in imposter syndrome comparing our work to so and so's who charges X amount and so then we talk ourselves out of it and we never actually charge for profit. And that is the biggest mistake that you can be making when it comes to trying to run a profitable photography business. In order to have a successful business, you have to be profitable. We can't hand out discounts left and right and make up new packages for every inquiry that we have. That's not how you run a successful business. And I know you are in a place right now where you just can't even imagine, you know, being in a place where you can add $100 more or charge double what you're charging now. But I want to encourage you in this episode that you can, and I hope you will, because charging less than $200 per session, and really that number seems to get higher and higher each year, but charging less than $200 per session is not sustainable. When you factor in your prep time, your expertise and value, and your business expenses, that is not a profitable business. So I hope through this episode, I'm going to break down several different areas and help you see how you can attract dream clients who won't ask you for discounts or who won't tell you that you're too expensive. Expensive. But I really hope that you walk away today. And more than anything, I want you to run your cost of doing business, go through my pricing for profit formula, figure out, you know, what your lowest session price is going to be, and then ramp it up from there. And then if you feel like, okay, wow, that number is a dream number for me, but I don't feel like I'm even close to that number, then what I want you to do is I want you to bridge the gap and find a way for you to get there. Whether that is improving the quality of your work or whether that is learning the back end business side or whether that's freeing up time. Maybe you work a full time job or you're a stay at home mom and you have very limited hours to work. There is a way that you can make this happen for yourself. So let's dive in to a couple of the key areas to uncover. Like how do you actually attract clients who will happily pay you full price? First things first, is there is a real cost of your time. Huge. This is so huge. And I think this is the one thing that we don't pay attention to until we hit burnout. We don't think about like what goes into each session that we have. You have all the time that you're prepping the session and then you're working at the session and then you are working and doing, you know, gallery delivery and editing and calling and all the things and your follow ups, right? Trying to get that client back into your sales cycle. You're marketing all of the things and it takes so much of your time. So if we are not charging accordingly, then we are basically not making very much money. Or you might be in a place where you, you're making a lot of money. But if I sat down and I asked you how many hours a week you're working and you would tell me, like 90% of the time I feel like I'm working. That's a problem too. That's a whole other episode, but that's a problem too. Your time is worth something. Another thing that we don't factor into our pricing are hidden costs that we just forget to count, right? Oh, it's a tax write off. I always think of that meme or that real where, you know, I think it was last year, the year before, where the husband was like, honey, where did you get all of this? And she's like, what do you mean? I don't know, they're paying for it and it's like a credit card company or it's a tax write off or whatever it was about. It's just funny because we just think, oh well, it doesn't even matter. Like it doesn't count towards what we are charging for our services. And yes it does. So some hidden costs that you might be forgetting to even include are when you invest in yourself. The strategy calls, the education, the courses, the programs, the masterminds, the tools that you sign up for in your business. And then again it goes back to your admin time. What would you pay somebody to sit down in front of your computer and do the client reach outs and do the marketing and the follow ups and all of that? That needs to be factored in to what you are charging because you are running a business. Charging low session prices is not going to set you up for success. And I realize we all start from zero. I started charging $50 a session, right. Of course this was back in 2014 and $50 went a little bit further than it does today. But still, if I, if I go back and I looked at, okay, I, the prepping, the planning, the communication with my client, the driving, 45 minutes one way and then 45 minutes back, plus the hour that I'm working with this client. $50 was gone before I even left my house. And so that's also how I feel about a hundred dollars per session right now. Like that is not worth it. That is not profitable for anybody. You've got fuel costs, you got again, you're planning, your prepping, your equipment, all the things, a percentage of all of that needs to be wrapped up into your session, right? Needs to be in that session price. So where I want you to start for this is I want you to take a real good look, and audit your time and audit your expenses and audit everything that you've invested in in the last couple of weeks into 2025. And then I want you to compare that to what you're charging right now and start subtracting. And I want you to answer the question, am I actually profitable? If the answer is no, then move on with me in this episode. If the answer is yes, then stick around because we're going to talk about some ways on how you find clients who actually want to work with you and are happily going to pay you full price. Second thing I want to get into from there is if your answer was no, I'm not profitable, then we have to change your prices. We have to increase them. And so now it's all about finding your sweet spot in your pricing. And listen, pricing truly is not one size fits all. I do think that, you know, if you live in certain economic climates and certain parts of the country in the United States, it's going to be different, right? The person living in Hawaii versus the person living in small town Oklahoma, like me. Two completely different markets, two completely different ranges on pricing. Okay? So keep that in mind as well. But first of all, when you, when it comes to pricing for your photography services, we have to stop asking, what is everyone else charging? And start focusing on what do I need to charge? Where is my sweet spot? Where is my profit point? Okay, it does. I don't care what Sally sue down the street is charging. You are not here to compete with her. You're not even trying to really compete at all. You're just trying to stand out with your own brand and your own pricing and your own photography services. We have got to stop looking to the left and to the right and start staying in our lane because they're truly our clients for everybody. You could, I could pull three of the same, like newborn photographer or family photographers in an area. And I don't want their pricing to be the same because that doesn't make sense because all three of them live completely different lifestyles. They have completely different financial situations going on. And so we don't need to factor in what other people are charging. We just need to focus in on ourselves. I have a very basic formula for you for finding out your pricing for profit point based on your goals, your availability and your financial situation. And that is through my pricing for profit formula. There is a free download@brookjefferson.com. just go there. It's right there at the top. You can sign up for that and download it. I also Have a calculator. So if you guys are not seeing that calculator in that freebie, just let me know and I will release that calculator and if I remember, I will link it into the show notes as well. But you're just going to plug in the information that it asks for on your end and you're going to calculate your business expenses. You're going to put in how many sessions a month you are aiming to book. You are going to put in your profit goal. So if you are writing yourself a check out of your business account every single month, what do you want that check number to be? For some people it's $1000. For some people it's $3000. For some people it's 10k. It just depends on you and your business. But this is going to spit out a number at the end. And whatever number that it spits out at the end, that is basically saying, hey, at minimum, in order for me to hit my profit monthly goal and my profit annual goal, this is what I have to profit out of each session. This is what I have to charge from each session. So I typically save a number that it's that it spits out. That is either your session number. If you just have one package, that is it. If you have three packages, that is the one you start with and then you create higher packages as well. Okay, so hopefully that makes sense. So that was the second thing I wanted to hone in on, was finding your pricing for profit number. The third thing I want to talk about is. Let's just talk about this whole concept of money and sales. Not even probably three or four years ago, I was still very like sales, ew. But I had to, I had to really dig in and ask myself, okay, why am I saying that? What is it about money and sales and making money that is making me feel this way? And so I had to dig into it. And of course they say when you start digging into things, you can trace it all the way back to your childhood. And. And I did. And it was in the way that my parents handled their money, talked about money, how I saw other people with money and without money, and all these opinions that formed even when I was just a child. And I challenge you to do this for yourself. If I say sales or if I say so and so makes $80,000 a year in her photography business. What is your initial reaction? What are those feelings? I want you to write that out on paper and, and just start asking yourself why 100 times over. Why do I feel like this. Okay, but then why do I feel like that? Why did I write that on my paper and really dig into it. You will uncover a lot of lies and misconceptions about money that you have that are literally just limiting beliefs and negative thoughts. And you can change every single one of those. Now I think of sales and money as in, listen, this is just money is an amazing tool that I have to create impact and to create time freedom and to create memories with my family. That is what money is to me. It is no longer a negative or a positive. It is just neutral. Money is just a neutral tool for me to get from point A to point B. I'm able to serve other people. I am able to exchange my knowledge and my business, you know, A to Z method with photographers. And in exchange someone is saying, okay, I want to stop spinning my wheels. I don't want to feel like this anymore. My biggest pain point is I need a profitable photography business. And you've done it. And you've done it for, you know, 200 plus photographers. I want that too. So it's just an exchange. I'm, you know, you're handing me your pain point and I'm handing you a solution that is all money and sales is. And so if we flip that for photography, same thing. People have a desire or they have a pain point, their pain point could be, hey, we haven't had family pictures in five years and my kids look so different. And I know that through this session I'm going to feel like a better mom. Whether that's valid or not. That could be someone's pain point. And so they are hiring you saying, hey, I really need updated family pictures. And in exchange they're paying you for it. And you're giving them an incredible, incredible experience with an incredible gallery. And they are happy because you met their pain point and their desire. Okay, so we gotta rewire that. The other thing that we have to rewire is how to handle the, your too expensive comments that you get when people tell you that, oh, it's way out of our budget. A couple things that you could say, you know, is I totally understand that if something changes or if you have a little bit of a Runway where you could, you know, budget for this or save up for me in the future, I'd love to work with you. So that way you're just planting like, oh yeah, duh, like I could totally save up for this. And some people, this is not going to work, but some people will. And I always love to tell this story I had a single mom, I think she was like 19 or 20 at the time. And she had the sweetest little boy and she saved every paycheck she got. I don't mean the whole amount, I mean a little bit each paycheck for over six months so she could afford a session with me. And that is how she did it. And I was just like, wow, people really can do whatever they want, right? People can save, anybody can save. It's just the choice whether or not you're going to. So that's a new idea for how you could respond to people. The other option for when people tell you that you're too expensive is you could simply invite them to join your email list for the next time time you run a mini session or a Black Friday sale. Now again, you're only doing this a couple times a year and so that's going to scoop up these people that think they can't afford your higher packages. But they might come in at a mini session price or at a smaller discount, like a one time discount situation at Black Friday and then they might have the best experience with you ever. And then they're going to see the value and a light bulb is going to go on and they're going to come back and book you for a full price session. The amount of times that this has happened to me, I've lost track. And so I just want to show you that you don't have to write people off just because they tell you that you're too expensive. Plant a different seed for them and watch what happens. Okay, the fourth thing, and this is the one you're waiting for, is how to attract dream clients without discounting. The biggest thing I'm going to tell you is that you have got to start marketing to your ideal clients. Most of you are not doing this. I know you're not doing this because I can see your post. I can see the way that you're marketing and you are still marketing to a very generic audience. You are not getting specific. You're, you're the one that's like, hey, I'm here for anybody. If you're a family or a senior or whatever, or you maybe you have niche down, but yet I'm still seeing you say you know anybody, any family, any reason, or you're constantly flipping back and forth for the different things that you have. You have got to start speaking very clearly to the person you are trying to attract. One of the tips and tools I have for this is to think of your best client or your Best couple of clients that you've ever had. Write down, grab that piece of paper out again and write down what did you love about that person? Was it that they were prompt from their inquiry to the booking? Like they didn't even hesitate? Once you set your booking calendar, you saw it come through within a couple of hours. Great. That's a characteristic. The other thing, did you love that they were a family with small kids and they were willing to do whatever you asked at the session? Right. What is it about that client that you loved or their session or the experience? And write those things down and pretend like you're talking to him or her every single time you create content every single time. It's not, oh, I'm talking to anybody with a family. It's no, I'm. I'm going to talk to Trisha. I don't know, it's the first name I thought of. I'm going to talk to Trisha every single time I post. So that is one tip that I have for you. The other one is that you are not marketing in the places that you need to be because that's actually where your clients are. So what I mean by this is your dream clients are not hanging out in the buy sell trade groups on Facebook. They're not. They don't have time for that. Your dream clients are not going to go to a public local forum asking for recommendations. Now they might do that on their personal Facebook page and ask the people that they know in their warm circle, but they're not going to go to some public page asking for recommendations. That is not where your ideal client is. Your ideal client also is not scrolling their phone 24 hours a day. She's likely only checking her social media one to two times a day. You need to figure out what are those platforms and what are those peak hours for her. I will give you a hint if you are trying to target any mom at all. What time are you on your phone the most? For me, I'm on my phone the most between the hours of dinner time and bedtime. And that is when I do the majority of my posting. Because that is when I am catching the majority of my engagement, the majority of my DMs, the majority of my email inquiries. So you have to figure out what that is for you. Where is your client hanging out? Your client is also probably a little, I'm going to use the word higher end, but I don't mean that she's trying to be luxury. I know that is some of yalls niches but for most of us, it's not like we're trying to go for the person that is spending $2,500 on a session. That's not what I mean. But your person is probably, you know, following some well known brands or some more well known people in your community. And so how are they getting their information and their recommendations? Are they involved in the community? Do you need to do more local outreach? Do you need to get out in person and share business cards? Do you need to partner up with places that they're shopping at or people that they're working with or hiring? You have to figure out where your client is and the method that they prefer to communicate. So is that email marketing? Is it social media posts? I also want to give a little caveat. I know we're not talking about social media specifically in this episode, but posting and marketing only through social media. Hoping that your dream clients are going to find you is likely probably not going to happen. You need to be focused on SEO. Having a website that converts, you know, maybe showing up in your stories on social media because those are sometimes seen a little bit better. Doing your local collaborations, having that Google business profile, making sure that other people in your community know your name and are going to refer you. And the biggest method is through their best friends or coworkers and their immediate family members. So again, you have to get to know people. You have to constantly be expanding your audience. If you continue to market to the same people over and over and over again, you're going to have zero different results. It's going to be the same. You're going to stay stuck and you're going to continue to have all of these people that are like, oh man, I want to work with you. I love your work but I can't afford you. You have to do something different. And so again, this is different. This is different for everybody. But really, really hone in on clients who would be more than happy to pay you. Right? Who are they? They say we're always within six people. I actually don't even remember what the saying is, but you're six people away from the person you want to meet. And so again, what can you do to get closer? How can you put your foot in the door for these circles? Okay, my last tip for you with all of the methods and all of the ways that you are marketing to really attract clients who get it, who want to pay you and who are your dream clients is to show off your expertise without bragging. So how do you do that? Well, you're sharing helpful tips and tricks. So you're showing up in your stories and reels on your feed. You're showing up in your email marketing, that's a huge one. And you're just saying, hey, here's what I recommend or here's how I choose to do this, or here's what goes down with you and me at a session. And you show them and you help them get to know you and your expertise and the way you run your business. The other one is showing behind the scenes videos and photos. That's what people want to see. They want to see you in action. I say this all the time. In fact, the amount of times I've talked about behind the scenes content in the first five weeks of the year is comical. But it's very true. It is very, very true. And then the last way you gotta share those testimonials, people are not running over to your Google business profile or your Facebook page to read your reviews. People are not looking at that. You are. But people are not looking at that unless they stumble upon your page and then they're trying to make a buying decision right there. You need to show your testimonials, show your reviews. Make sure you're showing this constantly. I would say one to two times a week. What are people saying when you deliver their gallery? What are people saying when they write you that official review? Share it. Absolutely share it. You don't even have to share the client's name if they don't want you to. You could just share what they said and then you could put a little emoji over their name or their photo. So always showing and positioning yourself as an expert is going to automatically create that, that trust with people that need that in order to book you. Okay, this was a major episode. I hope you found some little nuggets. I will be going all in on this topic even more during our five day boot camp which is happening March 4th through March 6th. If you are not signed up, go ahead and get signed up. Go to Brook jefferson.com Boot Camp Sign up for our three day Boot Camp. I promise you, you are going to walk away with so much knowledge into your photography business and we are going to help you get your spring and summer fully booked. So I will see you at the boot camp and I will catch you on the next episode.