← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
How to Book Photography Clients When You Don’t Want to Post Every Day
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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. If you're exhausted from the pressure to post on social media every single day, you're not alone. And more importantly, you don't have to. Today we're going to talk about how you can book photography clients when you don't want to post every day, why social media alone isn't enough for your business, and what actually works so that you can book photography clients consistently. If you're ready, let's dive in. Okay, let's talk about the social media trap. You probably feel like it is necessary for you to post every single day because of maybe algorithm anxiety. So you think that, you know, oh my gosh, I have to keep up with the algorithm or oh my goodness, I've heard the more you post, you know, the better your posts do and I'll get more traction. Maybe you're comparing yourself to other photographers because you see that they're posting all of the time. And here's the reality. Social media is one piece of the marketing puzzle. And the good news is you don't have to post every single day for you to get visibility that will turn into leads that will convert into clients. It's truly quality over quantity. And I have many episodes where we talk social media in general and we kind of talk about different strategies there. But today I want to talk about the danger of relying on social media alone to book out your calendar. And I want to introduce you into other avenues of marketing that you could be doing that's going to help build that momentum in your business so you can see the consistent bookings all year round, not just in the fall or not just during a busy season. We want all four of your seasons to be quote, unquote busy. So the danger of putting all of your eggs in social media alone is that one, the algorithm is always changing. So I mean, one month you're getting good views, you're getting good interactions, you're getting a lot of dms. And the next month it feels like you are begging people to look at your stuff. I've been there. December, for me, it felt really low. And then we get back into January and I feel like I'm on the upswing of things again. And so it is just a constant roller coaster. Another reason is that, you know, you're relying on that platform to give you what you're looking for. You're relying on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok to push your stuff out. And we have to be careful not to do that because we never know when a platform is going to choose to shut down or die out or change their rules. Meaning that sometimes it may go from a free app to now you have to pay to play. We've heard that term for years. Again, if you're old enough, I'm sure some of you are. If you're millennials like I am, you'll remember that MySpace used to be the really big thing before Facebook came along. And now MySpace doesn't exist. I would pay big money to get my MySpace account and all of those really embarrassing pictures and posts back. But that's an example of things are always going to change. Platforms are going to come onto the scene and then they're going to leave. And so you don't want to put all your eggs in those baskets. The other is it's just a time suck. Like you tell me all the time you don't enjoy creating content. And so why would you want to put your. This, you know, this hamster wheel of constantly having to create more and more and more content for yourself, especially if you're trying to post two to three times a day. I mean, that is draining. So, yes, I want you to use social media. In fact, I believe that it is necessary for your business to show up on social media. However, I don't want that to be the end all, be all for you. There are so many other avenues of marketing that are going to get you traction faster, for longer, and it's going to get you the right type of clients and that's exactly what you're looking for. So don't get caught up in this social media trap that that is your one and only thing that you do for your business. It has its place, but it should not consume all of your marketing effort and energy. Here is what I want you to start focusing on. Maybe you've heard these things, maybe you've dipped your toe in, or maybe you're hearing this for the first time. And I just want to give you just a bird's eye view of other ways you can market your business so that you can think about, okay, which one do I really want to pick up in 2026 and run with it? The first one is email marketing. This is you building a list of contacts that you own, nurturing those relationships and helping to stay top of mind without having to worry about algorithms. Yes, there are email marketing rules and each email provider is a little bit different. So Gmail is going to be different than Outlook, Outlook's going to be different than Yahoo, so on and so forth. But for the majority of them, they all follow pretty much the same guidelines. And that's helpful for when you are trying to utilize email marketing in your photography business. So if you've never done this, I just want to encourage you to look into it and try it out. This is really going to help you stay top of mind. The second way is to utilize SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. That is just a fancy phrase to say, hey, when people are searching on the Internet for you, they are typing in words and phrases and you need to figure out what those are and use those in your marketing. So using it in your blogs, using it in your captions, using it in your, in the titles and the names of your social media pages, that is going to help you get found by people who are already in a buying site stage. That is the beauty of SEO is that typically if you're going to open up your Google search bar or you're going to open up your Instagram app and you're going to start typing in a phrase, you are probably already in a buying mindset of. I'm looking for this specific thing or person or service because I am trying to buy it or purchase it or book it right now. So let me give you guys an example. We just booked a Florida vacation for my dad's side of the family. So there's a bunch of us going 13, 14 people, and we were all looking up, you know, Florida beach houses, Florida beach condos, best place to go to Florida for a beach vacation. And so that those are phrases. And of course, we use more specific ones once we, you know, we're looking at exactly where we wanted to go. But those words we were typing in were matching some of the websites or Airbnb listings that, that had what we were looking for. And that's how it works for you too. So you want to use keywords and put that in as one of your marketing strategies. Because that is going to help people who are ready to buy to find you. And that is amazing. This is the type of marketing that people tell you, you set it up once and you can book clients in your sleep. It's true. And it's happened. I've. I have definitely woken up to emails from my irisworks saying so and so has booked a session and then when I go look at my contact form, it says, how did you hear about me? And I get to see Google Search. It's. It's so cool. It is really, really cool. So definitely tap in to SEO if you are not already using it. The third idea and strategy that I use is local collaborations. Now before you go, gosh, how many times are we going to talk about this? It's really important and I think that a lot of times we get in our head that, oh, it has to be a styled shoot or it has to be some kind of a giveaway swap. And it doesn't. That's the beauty of this. It's literally you finding another business that has very similar ideal clients to you. And you guys are in essence trying to do something of value to where you can do an audience share. So whether it's sharing each other's email list, sharing each other's followers, sharing each other's foot traffic and clients, whatever that looks like, that is the goal. It is supposed to be beneficial to everybody that is collaborating in that particular, in that particular method or that situation. So this is partnering, you know, with the venues or the planners or the florist or, you know, you're trying to partner with boutiques or there's just so many things and we get really, really deep into this in my coaching and my program on giving out of the box ideas that actually make sense for that particular photographer's situation in business and, and also where they're located. But if you're not tapping into local collaborations at least two times a year, you are leaving money on the table. The next one is very similar, but I, but it's also not at the same time. So it's local marketing. What this means is this means you marketing in your specific town or city that you're trying to book clients from. So this could be community involvement, really getting involved, participating in events, attending networking events, doing local advertising. Anything that is remotely close to that category, it's local marketing. This is the one that most photographers aren't doing. And it's mind blowing because you're trying to book clients locally and you're skipping over the best option which is for you to get your name out there locally. So if you're not doing some kind of local advertising or you're not currently a member of your local chamber of commerce or something similar to that, I would really, really encourage you to look into that in 2026 past client referrals. This is one of my favorite ways to market my business because I am able to tap into the happy clients who are already obsessed with me and what I do, and I'm able to get them talking and recommending their friends, family, coworkers, etc. To give me a chance, give me a try and get bookings from that. So if you're not going back to the people who already love you and are excited about you, this is another method that I want you to try. So we kind of brushed the surface on some of these marketing ideas and other avenues. So just really quickly, we talked about email marketing, SEO, local collaborations, local marketing, and, and past client referrals. Now, are there seven other ways to market your business? Absolutely. But did I want to overwhelm you in this podcast episode? No, I did not. But this is all about the power of. Of diversification, which is making sure that you are not putting all of your eggs in one basket. So if you're hearing this and you're thinking, okay, Brooke, this all sounds great, but how do I actually do these other methods? It's overwhelming. I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. So just tell me, like, how do I even begin to do this the correct way? Well, I have created something specifically for photographers who are tired of spinning their wheels and putting all of their eggs into one basket. It's called the Fully Booked method, and I launched it back in April of 2025. So far, I've had 40 photographers go through the program, and honestly, seeing their results and reading their testimonials has been one of the most rewarding parts of my business. Because the whole point of this podcast is to help you get more leads and bookings in your business. That's it. That's the simple version. And so sometimes I can only give so much on the podc. So that's why I create programs where you can get all of it. I hold nothing back. I give you the templates, I give you the, the verbiage. I give you everything you could possibly need. And that's what the Fully Booked method is. So here's how it works. It's an eight week program, but here's what makes it different. There are no Live calls. There are no crazy schedules to keep up with. It is truly designed for you to run your photography business even if you're busy, even if you work full time, even if you're a stay at home mom. And the only time that you can get this done is during nap time or after they go to bed. So each week you'll go through video lessons at your own pace and then you'll submit your homework through a Google form. And then what I do is I go through all of your questions and everything you've submitted and, and I give you personalized email coaching on everything you've given me. It's like having a business coach in your back pocket without having to show up to these live zoom calls. So there's no live zoom calls. You do get some fun replays when I ran this program live. So you do get to hear more coaching of me in real time. But you're also getting your version of personalized coaching as well because I'll email you back after every single week. And so you're getting my ideas just like I did on those calls in your own business as well. So over these eight weeks we cover everything. Week one is all about becoming the go to photographer in your market. Week two, we dive into your pricing and, and your method and make sure that it makes sense. It's clear. I tell you if I think something's wonky or if we need to drop a package and do something different. So I'm totally diving into that. And then on top of that we actually get into some leads data, which this part is a game changer, I promise. Then week three is social media marketing. So I make sure you're doing it the right way and I'm giving you everything that you need for that. And I'm teaching it to you that in a way that is sustainable and strategic, not just slapping up a post for the heck of it. Then we're going to move into local marketing, building word of mouth, email marketing websites and SEO in the other weeks. And then the last week is where we basically dot our eyes, cross our T's and it's open coaching where you can ask me anything you want, you can get my eyes on whatever it is in your business or if you have a specific client situation. It's basically a week of really intense coaching that you can get from me from that email format. So let's talk about some of the results that I have seen. The photographers that have gone through this program. Let's talk about it. So I just got this email 3 days ago and I was like, this is so good. I'm screwed. Screenshotting this to save. So Lauren from Instant Impressions Photography told me, I already feel like I have made so much more progress on my business in this first module than I have in months on my own. And that is just a testament to making sure that what you're getting in this program is the real deal. You're not going to get fluffy. You should know me by now if you've been a long time listener. I'm not going to give you fluff. This is truly my method, my strategies, and I have poured it back into this program so that all you have to do is duplicate it, put your own brand on it, and hit the ground running. Leah went through this program back in the summer slash fall. Our months went from like August to October. And she shared that since she started the program, her inquiries are converting to bookings at a much higher rate and she raised her prices by 20 to 30%, something that she said felt very scary at first, but then she had clients still booking and saying yes. She also said that she actually got engaged during the program, which was so special. So she kind of, you know, it pulled her away for a little bit and she fell behind, but then she was able to catch up and, and she said that the tools from this program gave her the confidence to get back into a consistent rhythm with marketing. Chantelle is another student that I had in the first round of the Fully Booked Method and she said she had her best month yet as a photographer during the Fully Booked Method. She says, I made my return on investment and then some. My marketing got better and my Instagram is finding the right people that I want in my world. And then last but not least, there's so many more, but I obviously it's podcast. I'm trying to make it short and sweet, but Mike came in and he said that his biggest win was getting over the hump of not knowing what to do with his social media through the SEO strategies that we covered. He got his business listed on page one of Google for Couples Photographer Near Me and Wedding Photographer Near Me, which is so exciting that he got his. That he got his Google business profile and his website on page one of Google. That is insane. He said it is one of the best investments I have ever made for my business. So if you're ready to stop guessing, stop being overwhelmed and you want results like these photographers, then I want you to join us inside of the Fully Booked Method. You can find all of the details, everything that's included@brooke jefferson.com fully booked. So it's one. It's two words pushed together. So brooke jefferson.com/fullly booked. And one last thing. Because you're a podcast listener, I am going to throw you a discount code where you can save 10% off either pricing option. So whether you pay in full or you decide you need to do a monthly payment, this will be 10% off. And that code is all caps booked out. So B o o K E D o u T. So all caps at checkout. Now, when you get to the checkout page, if you're trying to put this promo code, whether you're on your phone or your computer, you'll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and then there will be a small little section that will say have a promo code with a little arrow. If you'll click that, it will open up the box where you type it in. I always get questions on that, so I wanted to explain that. But I am so excited to see you inside of this program so that we can get you out of social media 247 and utilizing all of these other methods. And by the time you're done, you will have six or seven avenues of marketing that your business is running on 24. 7. So there is no way that you will not see an increase in your leads or your clients after this program. I cannot wait to see you inside. Thank you so much for listening and I will catch you on the next episode. Sam.