Hey photographer friends! Welcome back to our Photography Blog, Mastering the Wedding Photography Biz with Hunter and Sarah! Today, we’re talking about one simple change that has helped us and our students stop getting ghosted by wedding photography leads. So if you want to up your wedding photography sales game and learn how to actually convert those leads, keep reading!

 

 

How MOST New  Photographers Respond to Inquiries

When our photography students come to us and say that they’re getting ghosted and are frustrated with their wedding leads, they usually think that it’s either their website or their prices that are the issue. But we figured out a long time ago that it could actually be as simple as the email that our students are sending in response to these inquiries. So when they commiserate with us about getting ghosted during their coaching meetings, that’s the first thing we ask about.

 

And what we’ve found is that MOST photographers — especially newer photographers, respond to email inquiries with something like this:

 

“Hey Emily, thanks so much for reaching out to me!

I’m excited to share that I’m available for your date! I’ve attached my pricing guide to this email. If that looks good, I’d love to hope on the phone so I can ask you a few questions about your wedding day. Let us know if you’d like to move forward!

Cheers,

Hunter & Sarah.”

 

And honestly, if your inquiry response email looks anything like that, then just fixing that one email could make the difference between getting ghosted, and getting wedding clients into the best sales tool in the world: a client consultation video chat.

 

 

How WE Respond to Inquiries to Stop Getting Ghosted

Just like many of you have probably done, we purchased some email templates when we were first getting started in our business. But what we found was that the one-size-fits all email didn’t really sound like us. So we tweaked and tweaked, saw what got better responses, adding things we thought might be helping, reevaluated, and kept trying new things.

 

And in the end, we landed on EIGHT small pieces that we believe are the essential components of a response to a new wedding lead. And if that sounds like a lot — don’t worry, we aren’t sending our clients super long emails. It’s barely 250 words, which is what the average adult can read in a single minute.

 

Now, if you read our blog from a couple weeks ago, we shared about our student Bri. Her emails used to look just like the kind we mentioned a moment ago, and she hadn’t converted a lead into a booked wedding client in months. But after she began sending an inquiry response using the template we taught her, she got 2/3 of her new leads into a consultation video calls, and booked half of those couples she met with!

 

The best part is that when she watched that video a couple of weeks ago, she commented on it in our private Facebook Community, and said that in the 6 months since we taught her those methods, her conversion rate was closer to ninety percent. 😱 Sounds like she’s ready to raise her prices!

 

(If you want to know what those 8 pieces of an effective inquiry response are, then keep reading to the end of this post!)

 

 

The Most Important Part of Every Email to Stop Getting Ghosted: Call-to-Action (CTA)

Now, we’re actually going to start with the 6th piece of every good email response, because we think it’s the most important: the Call-to-Action (CTA). The goal of any interaction with a prospective client should be to give them what they need in order to take the next step. If they’re first inquiring on your website, the goal should be to qualify them, then get them into a video call.

 

Then, the goal of the video call is to get them to book with you. But the only way that your clients could know what the next step is… is if you tell them.

 

 

Why You NEED a Call-to-Action

There is nothing more detrimental to your business than giving a lead ALL the information they wanted, and not guiding them or calling them toward the next step. Because the thing is, if you’re signing off with, “Let me know if you have any questions.” but the second photographer they email is signing off by, “what time tomorrow works for a video call?” That other photog is more likely to get on a call with that second photographer.

 

And often, the first person to meet with a client typically gets the job. Even if you have the best sales presentation in the world, if you’re dragging your feet on meeting with clients, then you may just lose that wedding. And it could be to someone who charges more than you for work that isn’t as good!

 

Don’t ever forget — no matter how many weddings you’ve photographed — you’ve almost certainly been a part of more weddings than your clients. So what might feel pushy to you could be incredibly helpful guidance for them! They’re probably feeling a bit lost, overwhelmed, and confused with the entire wedding planning process. So when you look at it from that perspective, that Call-to-Action could not only help you book more weddings, but also be a service to your clients.

 

 

Our 8-Point Email Formula to Stop Getting Ghosted (And SO Much More!)

Now, if you’re dying to hear about the other 7 points of our inquiry response formula, we’ve got some great news for you. This coming Tuesday, September 26th, we’re hosting a workshop for photographers that’s ALL about the sales process! In fact, our exact formula for getting interested clients into a video call sales presentation is only the first 20 minutes of a 2+ hour workshop!

 

And to be honest, the cost of the entire workshop would be worth it for just our email formula. But even more importantly than that, we’re going to teach you exactly what to do once you’ve got those interested clients in front of you. We’re going to be sharing our exact client consultation call template that we’ve run over 200 times, and have used to book more than $700,000 worth of weddings. We’re going to cover everything from warming up your clients to leading a powerful and engaging presentation, and even how to talk about pricing.

 

And we’re not going to teach you some slick meeting filled with sketchy, high-pressure sales tactics that leaves those couples feeling like they just got got. We’re talking about a positive and emotional experience that leaves potential clients feeling empowered, informed, and excited to hire you.

 

So if this sales call sounds like it could help you — like it’s helped many of our past students — then click here to learn more, or get your ticket today!