Anna Mi Tonkin (0:00)

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that our first Consistency Club marketing summit of 2025 is happening Thursday, February 20th from 4 to 6pm this time around we're going to be focusing on anticipating the slower seasons of your business and putting a plan in place now to ensure that you're not left scrambling. Our guest speakers are Dawn Richardson of Flodesk and Sarah Gillis of what Sarah Said. And of course Dana and I will be presenting as well. If you're a club member, you should have gotten an email with instructions on how to claim your free ticket. If you're not a member, you can either purchase a ticket to attend or join the club and get a free access pass plus all the other member benefits. Go to thiscantbethard.comsummit for all the details and we would love to see you there.

Dana (0:48)

Maybe you have heard somebody out there comparing marketing to dating. It's not an uncommon comparison or metaphor where as you are marketing your business, it's like going on little dates with people and then eventually the goal is to ask them to marry you or ask them to work with you. Right? That's the sell. And I have heard that description many times and in many different sort of variations, but it's always felt a little bit off to me because it implies, if we are sort of using the normal definition of marriage, that you're really just trying to connect with one person. And I don't know about you, but one client would not do the trick for my business. Not even one client every year. I need between 60 and 80 photography clients each year to fill my books and, you know, meet all of my goals as a photographer. So way back when I was thinking about the various ways that we connect with people and it occurred to me that social media is kind of like a nightclub, right? Like we go to the club to pick people up and to dance and have fun. And it can be a lot of fun, but it is loud, it is chaotic, it's hard to have a one on one conversation, it's hard to get noticed. And if it's a really full club, which you know, social media generally tends to be, you're kind of getting shuffled around, you make a connection, but then you know, that person moves off and you don't see them for the rest of the evening. Which is why I am so focused always on bringing people away from wherever it is that I'm meeting them, certainly on social media, but then inviting them to connect with me via email. So I think about email and asking for someone's email address. Kind of like asking for their number if we are at the club, right? It's like you're shouting into somebody's ear and you're like, hey, I'd love to continue this conversation. Can I have your number? Or, you know, I suppose there are perhaps more updated ways of doing that, but when someone gives you their email address, what it's doing is confirming that yes. In fact, they also want to take things to the next level, right? Email is personal in a way that trying to connect on social media isn't, and it allows you to build trust and authenticity, just like dating over time. So today I want to kind of explore this metaphor a little bit further and talk about some of the do's and don'ts of email marketing to help you woo your ideal clients without any cheesy pickup lines, and by making email marketing feel personal, authentic and engaging. Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. My name is Anna Mi Tonkin and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it and I can show you how. So let's think a little bit more about how social media is kind of like, you know, meeting somebody at a crowded dance club. So you're trying to stand out, right? You spend a bunch of time getting ready, getting all dressed, but man, if it is not dark and loud, crowded, filled with distractions and, you know, superficial interactions, right? There is so much happening at any given time and you only have so much control over that narrative. It's just, it is what it is. So first of all, it's not that that effort is wasted. Your first impressions for someone really do matter. And even being willing to, you know, get dressed up and go with your friends to the club means that you're putting yourself in a position to interact with people who may very well be a good fit for you. So you want to make that good first impression. You want to be open to the idea of meeting people on social media, but you don't want to put all of your energy into that. Because if that's the only thing that you're doing, chances are you're not going to create a lot of deep, lasting relationships. It's a fun place, but it is not necessarily the place for those long term client relationships to be built exclusively. So when you are connecting with somebody on social Media, you want to have a ready made way to ask them for permission to continue the conversation via email. And you know that can be done in any number of ways. You can offer some sort of free guide or incentive, right? And if you have more than one freebie that you can offer, then you can tailor that offer to the nature of the conversation that you're having on social media. So if somebody reaches out to you with a question about, you know what, I don't know, places you recommend, locations you recommend for a session, you can say, oh yeah, I actually have a guide for that, here's the link. And you can, you know, go get the guide and then when they go to sign up for that guide, they enter their email, right? So what you are asking for there is permission. It is permission based marketing, email marketing is to continue to have that conversation via email. And once you get over there, then even though you are writing emails that are ultimately going to go out to your whole email list, multiple people, it feels like one on one communication. And whenever someone takes the time to actually respond to your emails, which they do, especially when you are a small business owner writing good emails, that invites a further conversation that is one on one, right? They write back to you and you sit down and write back to them. So that becomes a space where you can have real conversations without the distractions and the noise of social media. Now, much like dating, there are people who will like go home with you straight from the club and that's fine, that is good. But there are a lot of other people out there who need more than that. And every person is different, right? So again, like dating, you can't necessarily rush things. You just have to show up and be willing to build that trust over time. And the way that we do that is with consistent effort. So email is your chance to make an impression that goes beyond the superficial. So how do we do that again? Let's, you know, let's think about this like going out on a date. So your first impression on a date is the way that you show up at the front door, right? Do you have flowers? Are you dressed to impress? When that person that you're about to go out on a date with peaks out the window, are they going to want to open the door? And this is the equivalent of the subject line that you put at the front of your email. So this is really a place that I feel like a lot of people don't put a ton of thought or effort. And I don't mean to say that you need to overthink it. But subject lines really do make a difference in whether or not that door gets opened. So you want to think about how your subject line can spark curiosity or sort of engage someone's interest in some way that is authentic to what's in the email. Obviously, you don't want to just lead somebody on, but isn't just kind of run of the mill boring, Whatever. And if you're new to subject lines, if that is something that you struggle with, I very much recommend that you play around with ChatGPT for subject lines. You know, say, here's the body of my email, give me 10 different options. Make them funny, make them, you know, help me spark curiosity. And again, with ChatGPT, it's very hit and miss in terms of whether you actually get something that you want to use, but it might help generate some ideas for you. I also recommend, you know, play around with adding emojis, asking questions, all those kinds of things. Changing up how a subject line comes across initially is going to pretty quickly start to give you feedback on what works and what doesn't. Additionally, most email service providers allow you to split test subject lines. So, you know, check with your audience. Do they prefer a subject line that has an emoji or without the emoji? If you send four different emails and each one is the same and the subject lines are the same except one has an emoji and one doesn't, you're going to pretty quickly see whether you should or should not be including emojis on a regular basis. So again, first impressions matter. And in email, that first impression is the subject line. Once you get someone to open the door and actually head out on the date with you, you really want to treat it like a date, right? This isn't just a sales pitch. You're not just trying to, you know, get somebody back to bed. So on a date, you are showing interest, you're asking questions, you're sharing personal stories, and you don't have to, you know, get super personal. This is like having a conversation with someone new, right? And in email, you do the same by sharing your personality, being you, telling stories that resonate with your clients, hopefully. Obviously, like on a date, you want to read the room and sort of imagine who it is that you're having this conversation with so that you're tailoring your stories and your tone and all that sort of stuff to them, but at the same time being an honest representation of who you are. If you're not someone who, you know, tends to be really funny and silly, you wouldn't want to be funny and silly or represent yourself as funny and silly in your email content. By being yourself but also being engaging, you are helping the person on the other side feel like they are part of your world. They are connected with you, right? And that's what people want. They want to feel connected, they want to feel understood. So we're not just sort of selling at somebody. We really are providing information, sharing valuable content and building that relationship. Okay, so you get somebody to open the door, you go out on a date, you have this lovely banter and conversation, whatever. Then the date comes to a close and it's time to say goodbye. There are a couple of things that we want to do here. Number one is we want to ask for the sale. So there should be some sort of call to action in any email that you send. And it doesn't always have to be a sale in terms of the exchange of money for services. That should always be available and sort of implied. But you don't every single email have to be like, click here to book now. Instead, it could be the sale of your latest blog post. You know, hey, I wrote a new blog post about xyz. Click here to read about it. Or it could be an invitation to hit reply and answer a question that you've asked. What you are asking for with a call to action is some action you want people to get used to when they go out on a date with you. That there is a back and forth. It's not just them consuming your content, it is them interacting with you in some further ways periodically. That is going to be you asking for the full sale. But it shouldn't be, it doesn't have to be. And it really shouldn't be that every single time. But then my favorite sort of unsung hero strategy and the thing that I think often gets overlooked is what you do with the space below your signature. So you know, most of the time it's like dear so and so, here's the content of my email. Here's. Here's my call to action. Cheers onomy or see you later Mary or whatever. But below that there is prime real estate in the P.S. so the postscript where you know, underneath your signature you say PS whatever it is that you want to say. People read that almost more than any other part of an email. So you want to use that space like the real estate gold that it is. And I think about this like the way that you say goodbye at the end of a date, right? You show up on the doorstep you want to create something sweet and memorable at the end so it can be some kind of little gesture, right? P.S. you'll love this. This tip. It'll make your next photo session even better, which gives them something extra to look forward to. And speaking of looking forward to, you can say, P.S. next week or, you know, my next email I'm going to be sending you xyz, so you can get people excited about that next date that they're going to go out on with you. You can summarize something about the content of the email that you just wrote in case somebody's just skimming. You can also use that to link something that you are enjoying or that you think they will enjoy. Because even if it's completely off topic, even if it's something like, P.S. i just finished this book and it was amazing. That's another kind of call to action that's very soft. But what you're doing is continuing to build that connection and that relationship. So to recap, when we think about social media, it's not that social media is bad. It's not that social media can't give us the opportunity to get hot and heavy really fast with a new potential client. But when that doesn't happen, don't look at it as like, well, this is my only opportunity. I just have to keep showing up at the club and hoping for that kind of fast connection. Invite people into a slower burn, invite them out on an email date, and then once they give you permission to continue to market to them, do it. You need to stay consistent. You need to keep showing up with the valuable content that they have now told you that they want to keep that conversation going. Just like with dating, you need to build momentum and trust over time. And if you struggle with that consistent approach, right. What are you, what are you going to say? How are you going to say it? What subject lines are you going to use? How can you continue to show up and, you know, crush your email marketing goals? Then I would love to invite you to join us in the Consistency Club. My marketing director, Dana and I are there every single month with brand new marketing tips, email content strategies and social media templates. And you get those month in and month out so that you can show up, provide value, and turn those club connections that you make into lasting, meaningful client relationships. If that's interesting to you, go to thiscan'tbethard.comclub to sign up. That's it for this week's episode of this Can't Be that Hard. I'll be back same time, same place next week. If you like the show, be sure to check out thiscan'tbethard.com to explore all the resources we have for photographers. And of course, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review of the show on itunes or Spotify. As always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.