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5 things a portrait studio photographer can do if their business is struggling

We’ve spoken to hundreds of photographers and many share similar stories. Before Covid, it was a different climate. People wanted portrait photography services and they were willing to pay for it, now that doesn’t seem to be the case. Whilst people in the UK will pay for your services, you have to do a lot more to find clients and educate them on the value of what you do.

So if you feel like your portrait studio might be struggling, here are some things that might help you pick up some more clients, bring past clients back, and improve the general performance of your studio.

1. Website Review

If you’re providing an exceptional experience then your website should reflect this. An old design with clunky features will only have negative connotations about your business.

A website is also the perfect opportunity for you to show off your work. Even if you aren’t keen on the idea of rebuilding your website, you should consider updating the images as the quality of your work will likely have changed over the decades.

Call-to-actions

Make sure your website is easy to navigate and you have call-to-actions throughout. Call-to-actions, or CTA’s, tell your website visitors to perform an action. A classic example is ‘Sign up to our newsletter.’

Website content

Make sure your website is easy to navigate and you have call-to-actions throughout. Call-to-actions, or CTA’s, tell your website visitors to perform an action. A classic example is ‘Sign up to our newsletter.’

As you’ll know, digital images can be large files so be careful not to overwhelm your website’s server with large files. Google likes files to be less than 100KB, that’s quite difficult for professional photographers to achieve. You’ll have to find a balance between quality and file size. 1MB is definitely too large but try to aim for no more than 200KB – after all it’s important your images are high quality due to the nature of your work.

Your website should be a tool that you’re utilising and if you aren’t, you should ask yourself why.

A website is a point of reference for both leads and customers. If someone is visiting your website it’s because they want information. The content you have on your website is important to build trust and position yourself as an expert in photography.

Website copy is just as important as images you’re using. You should create valuable copy that reads well and in a style that suits your business. Think about blog articles you can write and share to your leads that might help them convert, for example, a guide on what to wear or bring to their photoshoot.

Tip: Use words like “You” and “Your” far more than “We” and “I”

How can your website improve your business?

Keeping all the above in mind, your website should be a tool to build trust. With well-written content, you’ll develop rapport with your visitors without even conversing with them. 

Your website can have a huge impact on your business in many ways. It’s a way of capturing leads, and if your SEO is good then these leads will come in without you needing to spend anything. 

Content on a website can also be a tool to improve customer experience and conversion rates. Not everyone remembers information on their first phone call with you so it’s a good idea to have a number of resources you can send after your interaction that help answer questions and smooth your processes.

2. Review your customer experience

We’ve touched on customer experience from a website point of view but you should look at every interaction with your customers. Not just how you manage your sales pipeline but every step, up to the moment they collect their wall art – and beyond!

We break experiences down into 5 sections:

  • Pre-consultations  
  • The runup
  • The photoshoot
  • Post-experience
  • Collection

Pre-consultations

These are the interactions, usually phone calls, you make to educate leads about your offer and convert them to bookings. 

Think about how you conduct your pre-consultations. What questions do you ask them that will help you to build trust and rapport? Newborn photography, boudoir portrait experiences and dog photoshoots are great because of the stories that people have to tell. A dog owners will happily spend time talking to you about their fur baby. 

Also consider how clearly you explain their experience. Don’t leave any grey areas as this will increase the chances of them cancelling their booking. 

How long do you allow for your phone calls to go on? From a sales perspective long phone calls aren’t efficient, however, we’re talking about creating an experience. Give your clients all the time they want, this will allow them to feel more comfortable with you and could result in higher sales and better reviews.

The Run-up

It’s not a good idea to book in a lead and leave them alone until the day they’re due in your studio.

The lead up to their photoshoot can be an experience too. Send them resources during the run-up to their shoot. Resources like styling guides, a what to expect guide, Album & Wall Art Guide. These can be in the form of PDF documents or content within an email. You’ll likely receive bonus points if you can create videos to accompany these resources. Videos will develop more trust and familiarity whilst they eagerly await their experience with you.

The Photoshoot

This is the main event of your customer’s experience. You probably have this down to a tee so we aren’t going to linger here for long. Just remember that there’s more to think about than pointing and shooting.

How are you going to greet your clients at the door? Will you be offering them drinks and snacks? What pieces of artwork will you have hanging on your studio walls?

Post-experience

There is some debate as to what to do next after your photoshoots. Some photographers sell about 30-45 minutes after the shoot, with a quick edit whilst clients take a break. Others prefer to invite clients back 1 or 2 weeks later.

There are pros and cons to both. Some would argue that clients are in the best frame of mind for buying immediately after. This is when emotions are at their highest and selling a week later gives them too much time to talk themselves out of purchasing.

The other side to the argument is that clients are tired by the end of the shoot and don’t want to be sold to, particularly with dogs or young children. You can also fit more shoots into one day, however, they’ll be coming back for sales consultation, so you’ll be using time up anyway.

Collection

When your customers return for collections do you open the door and hand over their purchases or do you invite them in for a drink and a chat? Or are you posting all of your products?

The collection should be part of every studio photographer’s experience. Your clients have invested a lot of money into your service and if you want a positive review, the last time you see them should be exceptional.

How can your customer experience improve your business?

A powerful way to grow any studio business is through word-of-mouth. Having an exceptional customer experience will improve the likelihood of your customers recommending you.

Also, make sure you’re asking all your best clients for a review and testimonial.

3. Get involved with the locals

Most portrait studios are local businesses and therefore your audience is much smaller than a business serving the UK. Working on your brand awareness within your local community is key if you want keen and reliable referrals from your previous clients.

Facebook brand awareness

We’d always recommend running a cheap brand awareness campaign at all times, even if your budget for this is £2 per day. We’ve heard on multiple occasions that people have come up to our photographers and said something like “Oh I saw your advert about your services”.

Build a local presence

Building a local presence isn’t solely done using a Facebook brand awareness campaign. We’ve seen many studios get out there into the local community to support events for schools, charities, churches etc. Whether through sponsorship or hiring a stall, your goal should be to build recognition as their local photographer.

Multiple touch points online and in-person will build rapport, reputation and ultimately lead to strong local enquiries.

How can getting involved with your local community improve your business?​

The strongest leads will always be recommendations and those who come to you organically. They’re often easier to convert to a booking and due to the levels of trust, they’re more likely to spend higher with you. 

That’s not to say you should quit paid advertising as soon as you have a regular flow of leads. A smart business owner will have multiple streams generating leads because if one fails, you still have the others.

Having a big presence in your local community can only have a positive effect on your portrait studio. People talk and people share, and people will refer you to local friends and family. If these referrals have seen you online or in person before, then this continues to build levels of awareness, pushing them closer to contacting you.

4. Review your offers

When was the last time you reviewed your prices and offers? The profit margins within the industry allow you to experiment with new offers at little risk. If you’ve been running the same offer for the last few years and feel like the number of enquiries has decreased, it might be time to review your offer.

Fundamentals of a good Ad

There are two fundamental aspects to advertising, we’ve discussed this before here. They are your Ad Creatives, including images, videos and copy, and your Ad Offer. If you don’t get the creatives right nobody will see your offer. If your Ads grab attention but your offer asks them for £1000 upfront, you won’t get any interest.

If you think your offer is running dry then it’s time to switch things up. You could first start by taking the same offer but putting a seasonal spin on it or addressing a niche audience. For example, you could ask for summer babies rather than a standard Cake Smash competition. Instead of offering a boudoir session to anyone, address brides. If you’ve recently moved into a new studio you could say your offer is to celebrate your move.

What if you want to change your offer completely though? 

The key is to create something so good that it would be foolish for someone to pass up. It’s important to exacerbate the value of your offer such as their dream outcome, and reduce the time it takes to reach it. You must be creative with this and be willing to sacrifice some margins. If you make a killer offer, you’ll make more money than ever, not lose it. After creating the offer, include some credit on top so that it seems even better. 

Having a reliable finance provider will also improve the odds of making your sales. Here’s our recommendation if you don’t currently offer finance – PayItMonthly

Try the same offer with a new angle

If you think your offer is running dry then it’s time to switch things up. You could first start by taking the same offer but putting a seasonal spin on it or addressing a niche audience. For example, you could ask for summer babies rather than a standard Cake Smash competition. Instead of offering a boudoir session to anyone, address brides. If you’ve recently moved into a new studio you could say your offer is to celebrate your move. Sometimes this is all that’s needed to get your campaigns going again.

Create a new offer

What if you want to change your offer completely though? 

The key is to create something so good that it would be foolish for someone to pass up. It’s important to exacerbate the value of your offer such as their dream outcome, and reduce the time it takes to reach it. You must be creative with this and be willing to sacrifice some margins. If you make a killer offer, you’ll make more money than ever, not lose it.

Extra enhancements

After creating the offer, include some credit on top. Not only will you have an incredible offer, you’ll be making it even more accessible to your customers.

Having a reliable finance provider will also improve the odds of making your sales. Here’s our recommendation if you don’t currently offer finance – PayItMonthly

How can reviewing your offers improve your business?​​

Offers are key to making sales. A huge no-brainer offer will almost guarantee to improve your sales averages and by providing a finance option you make your offers much more accessible.

If you’ve been running the same offers for a long time and you feel as though people are losing interest then changing your offers could create a new lease of life for your studio and bring back the motivated photographer inside you.

We encourage you to be creative and produce something that no other photographer would dare to do. Also, experiment to find something that works for your advertising and your sales room. Remember that urgency is important to increase sales but you’ll also need to address your prospects’ dream outcome and reduce the time it takes to achieve it. Doing this and reviewing your offers may change your studio for good.

5. Facebook Ads

Of course, we had to include Facebook Advertising in this list. In an ideal world every business would love warm prospects to sell to, they convert quicker and have the trust to spend more. Portrait photography is a tough industry and not many people are actively looking for it. Unfortunately, this means we have to advertise to cold audiences.

Facebook is one of the best online advertising platforms to reach audiences and this includes Instagram. The platform allows you to create different types of Ad campaigns from brand awareness to lead generation.

We love lead generation! A popular question we get asked is “How long does it take to get leads?” Honestly, if we had the Ad creatives ready you could have new leads TODAY!

Facebook Ads Manager tracks valuable data, it’s algorithms are becoming much more powerful and you can easily control your spending. Every month you can compare your data, track your sales, work out your margins and scale your campaigns to bring you even more leads.

How can Facebook Ads improve your business?​​

Put simply…leads and trust. A clever advertiser will work on building your local brand awareness whilst also generating qualified leads who want what you’re offering.

Leads become bookings. Bookings become money. Bookings also become ambassadors to your studio so whilst you may be reaching a cold audience, every successful booking could become a referral or two later.