Hey photographers! Welcome back to our Photography Blog, Mastering the Wedding Photography Biz with Hunter and Sarah! Today, we’re going to share with you what the #1 most common workflow mistake is that we see from almost every single one of our photography students. And this one mistake isn’t only making their life more difficult, but it’s also probably costing them a lot of money in missed leads and other missed opportunities.

 

 

#1 Most Common Workflow Mistake: Failing to Follow Up

In our two-on-one coaching, we’ll often help our wedding and portrait photography students build out their own workflow: the repeatable steps that they take each and every one of their clients through. A good workflow begins when you get that very first message on Instagram or in your email inbox, and follows all the way through well after the final image gallery has been delivered.

 

And when we’re building out these workflows with our students, we actually start by having them write down whatever it is they’re already doing for each of their clients. Whether they had realized it yet or not, they already had SOME sort of workflow. The only questions were whether or not they were following it consistently, and whether or not their current workflow was achieving the results they wanted from it.

 

And here’s the most common workflow mistake that we see from almost every single one of our students. Whether they’re a portrait photographer or a wedding photography, they almost always forget to follow up. And more specifically, they fail to build follow up emails into their workflows at the most crucial places.

 

 

Why Are Follow-Up Emails Important?

Why is this common workflow mistake such a critical error for photographers? Well, you don’t need us to tell you that life is busy. And this is especially true for photography clients, since people are most likely to seek out photography to coincide with an important (and often busy) season of life. After all, think about who the most common clients are for photographers? Couples planning their wedding? They’ve got a lot on their plate. A parent getting ready for their senior to graduate? Also an insanely busy season of life. What about a parent just wanting to get some family photos taken before this year’s Christmas card? They’ve probably got young kids at home, so life is also hectic for them!

 

And when life is busy, things fall through the cracks. That’s why a well-timed follow-up can make the difference between booking a job, and getting lost in the shuffle. Maybe that wedding couple sat down and did a bunch of research over the weekend, and reached out to 10 photographers. But they got 7 responses, and were a bit overwhelmed. Now it’s the middle of the work week, and responding to all 7 photographers just feels overwhelming.

 

So if just one of those photographers gently reaches out a few days later to follow up, in a way that’s friendly and helpful, that client might just continue the conversation with that one photographer. But it isn’t just following up with leads that’s important. This common workflow mistake extends to so many parts of a strong photography workflow. When it comes to sending contracts, payments, and even reviews, persistent but polite follow-up can make all the difference. These follow-up emails are one of the reasons that our workflow consistently produces 5-star reviews, like the 100+ that we have.

 

 

A Good Follow-Up Email

Now, what makes a good follow-up email depends a lot on what it is that you’re following up on. The same goes for how often you follow up, as you toe the line between being helpful and spammy. If you’re following up on a lead, you don’t want to seem too desperate for a response, or like they’re somehow in trouble for not replying to you. The last thing you want is for a follow up email to turn someone off! On the other hand, when following up on a missed payment or a questionnaire, it’s okay to have some urgency in your tone. After all, you can’t do your job properly if you aren’t properly compensated, or don’t have all the information you need.

 

How often you follow up also depends on the context. If someone filled out our contact form on our website and we didn’t hear back from them after sending over our inquiry-reply email, we’ll follow up once for sure, and usually a second time. But any more than that is more likely to annoy someone who has already decided not to hire you than it is bring someone back into the fold whose forgotten about you.

 

On the other hand, if we’ve given a client an incredible experience and a wonderful collection of wedding images, and we know that they’re big fans of us, we might not be afraid to follow up a few extra times after the wedding. Whether we’re politely requesting reviews or following up on the next steps for their wedding album, we know that the huge bank of good will we’ve stored up with them will allow them to be understanding when we send the second or third follow-up email, rather than annoyed.

 

 

This is Just the Beginning…

Now, how would you like to know the exact wording of our follow-up emails? Or how would you like to know exactly how often and when we send our follow-ups? And more than that, how would you like the exact wording of ALL of our emails we send?! And how would you like to see every single step in our workflow, explained piece-by-piece?!

 

If either of those sound like something you might be interested in, then you should absolutely consider our most recent for-photographers workshop. It’s called:Our Wedding Photography Workflow: How to Build a Pleasant and Efficient Client Experience, from Inquiry to 5-Star Review. You can learn more here!

 

 

The Details

We’re hosting this workshop live later this month on January 30th, 2024. But after that date, you’ll be able to purchase the replay of the entire 2-hour workshop and instantly have access to all the content to watch and re-watch at your own pace! And while you’re checking out that workshop, consider bundling it with some of our other workflow products, like our full suite of 70+ Email Templates, our Pre-Wedding Questionnaire, or our Client Workflow Tracker.

 

We built all of these tools in order to help portrait and wedding photographers just like our students to run their businesses in a way that’s both more efficient for them… but also allows them to give a better experience to their clients!

 

We firmly believe that giving your clients a pleasant and personalized experience doesn’t have to mean that you have to spend hours and hours crafting emails and replying to each and every message with a handwritten response. In fact, we think that you give your clients a better experience by making your workflow better. It’s a true win-win for you and your clients.
So use the link in the description, or head over to HunterAndSarah.com/workshops to learn more!