Photographers are using ClickFunnels to get more leads, higher quality leads, book more gigs, and get more exposure.
They are doing this through creating easy and simple sales funnel, with practically ZERO knowledge of building websites.
If you’re a photographer looking for a way to grow your business, look no further than ClickFunnels. Let’s start building your photography business with ClickFunnels by explaining sales funnels…
What is a Sales Funnel? A How Can It Help Grow Your Photography Business?
A sales funnel is the process that businesses use to lead their customers to a buying decision. We discussed the consumer decision buying process in one of the first posts in this series called “You Are Using Facebook Ads Wrong”.
It is important for us to make sure we have a sales funnel in place when a potential client visits our website.
Most photographer websites are very rarely updated and consist of stagnant content. Using a sales funnel allows us to help guide the potential client to key information on our site, that we know will increase our chances of landing them. In addition, using a sales funnel allows us to track our customers progress through our site, using the Facebook pixel. We will get into this more in a minute.
Essentially, a sales funnel is made up of a Squeeze page, a Sales page, and a Thank You page. The Squeeze page is meant to build value and encourage the potential client to fill out your simple webform in order to receive something that they would value. (i.e. A Free Wedding Planning Guide). The Sales page is meant to build even more value and further communicate why the potential client needs your product or service. The Thank You page then delivers what you promised on the Squeeze page and on your Facebook ad. Capturing the potential client’s email address is super important. It will allow you to follow up with them regardless of if they made it to the Thank you page.
A Successful Photographer Business Using ClickFunnels
So many amazing photographers struggle to get leads to the high volume of photographers in their area competing for clients. They waste hundreds of dollars by running Facebook ads that do not produce a single lead.
It seems like everyone and their brother has a camera and is a self proclaimed “photographer”. The sad part is, that even if you offer high professional photography services it can still be difficult to stand out from the crowd and get consistent leads.
In a small town. You know exactly who your competition is. You see each other at the local Chamber Commerce and the regional bridal shows. You may even shoot big events together sometimes.
Even if all that is true (and having grown up in a town of 600 people I know it absolutely can be), your competition research needs to extend past who the other local photographers are.
To aggressively scout your competition you need to research:
• Who are the other photographers within a 50 mile radius of your town?
• Are they a professional or amateur photographer?
• What style of photography do the sell?
• What style of photography are they good at?
• What style of photography are they bad at?
• Do they have an established brand?
• Do they have their own studio?
• Do they have a preferred venue?
• What is their pricing structure?
• How far do they travel?
• Have you worked with them before?
• Do they have an active Business Facebook page?
• What sort of reviews do they have?
• Are they active in community?
• Preferred method of contact?
• Do they use paid traffic?
I strongly encourage you to gather all of this data into spreadsheets so that you have it all organized in one place. I would create a master list of photographers and then separate tabs within the spreadsheets that contain all of the individual information you gathered.
Once you have researched your photography competition, it is also important to research businesses within a 50 mile radius that are related to your profession and the services they offer, so that you can become an authority in your area.
Some of the most successful photographers partner up with other service providers and offer discounts for booking within your network.
Once you have thoroughly done your research, you need to take a hard look at your own business, to see where you fit in.
The number one problem that keeps most photographers from scaling their business and getting consistent lead flow is that their target audience is way too, broad.
You absolutely can not serve everyone with a pulse. Millions of photographers try and fail miserably to offer their services to an undefined audience.
So this means, pick one aspect of your photography that are passionate about, and fairly good at and put everything you have into becoming the absolute best at that one thing!
And having a professional, active business page is essential for collecting leads on Faceboook. The one thing I cannot stress enough is: DON’T use your personal page to advertise your business or run Facebook ads!
Your business page needs to introduce the viewer to your brand as well as offer valuable content on consistent basis. There are some 4 key elements that you should incorporate into your page to maximize its lead generation capabilities.
1. Use keywords in the “About” section of your page. Be as descriptive as possible in your about section. By using specific words you increase your visibility in search engines such as Google.
2. Select a vanity URL. When your setup your business page you can choose custom URL. This will reinforce your branding and give a more professional representation of your service.
3. Choose images carefully. The profile image and cover photo are the first thing that a potential client will see, so it is super important that the images be clear, professional and updated.
4. Encourage customer reviews. These reviews can show up in Google search results so encourage loyal customers to leave positive feedback on your page!
The Photo Session
The session is an integral part of the sales process because it’s when you build excitement for the products your client wants. We do this by showing images on the back of the camera when we know we have nailed one of the photos they want, and saying things like, ” This is perfect for that canvas we talked about over your coach”
This strategy for building anticipation is more powerful than you think. Yes, your client will be more excited about their images. But even more importantly, during the time between the session and sales meeting your client will be able to visualize the image every time she walks past her couch.
It looks a giant process when it’s all written out, but it is really not. You are simply asking your client what they want and creating it for them. By doing this, you’re providing your clients with a service they couldn’t get from most of your competitors, and they will pay you a premium for it.
In the end, you will have higher sales averages, and your clients will be much happier with their experience than if you had simply delivered the images on a disc and sent them on their way to figure out what to do with those images on their own. So get out there and start making more money while making your clients happier!
To setup a landing page, you can use any funnel building software, but I always recommend using ClickFunnels to build a great lead generation funnel. It is really easy to use, has great customer service and has great templates in place to help you set your pages up quickly.
If for some reason you aren’t able to use funnel software right away, then you can always add a page to your current website that looks like an opt-in page. The trick to this however, is to remove the menu options from the top and bottom of the page, so that the visitor cannot navigate anywhere within your site.
The trick to getting the fast opt-ins to make sure that the page they land on, is exactly what the audience is expecting to land on. You can do this by restating your headline and offer from your ad and using similar images. Also, the less information they need to enter, the better your result will be.
Some Lead Magnet and Landing Page Ideas For Your Photography Business
Some examples of great photography lead magnets are:
Children & family photography
- Guide to taking better pictures of your kids
- Meal planning printable
- Seasonal printable
- Guide to a stress free session
- Secret poses to flatter mom
Senior photography
- Coupon for free sheet of wallets
- Guide to packing for college
- Make-up tips for session
Wedding photography
- Wedding day checklist
- Honeymoon packing printable
- Tips for great wedding day photos
- VIP Vendor list
- 10 Questions you must ask your wedding photographer
A Free ClickFunnels Photography Sales Funnel
Click the image below or here to download a sales funnel you can start using in your business right away:
What Do Successful Photographers Who Use ClickFunnels Know That You Don’t?
Click HERE to Try ClickFunnels For 14-Days Absolutely FREE
great article. i have been looking for a more professional way to promote my wife’s photography business. ClickFunnels is not a new system to me, just didnt know what to do to harness it’s capabilities to grow a local photography business. Your article hasn’t completely answered all the questions for me yet. But it is pointing me in the right direction to know what to do next and where to go from here. so thanks
My challenge: how can i structure my funnel in such a way that she can offer client a something of value in exchange for their email? an what could that be? plus how can i up-sell them to bigger packages of her work? her work is quite high end.
thanks