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Senior Week and Blogging

All right, let's, get into senior week. Okay? So senior week, like I said, we are making a lot of noise we're getting a lot of tension attention we're having a lot of fun and we are engaging our client base. Okay, there are four components to senior week we have our giveaways are blogged posts, social media and incentives and I just want to get right into giveaways. We talked a little bit about when you're going out to these companies to cross promote at every company you contact, you want to get some gift cards or or some of their products? So if you contact a movie theater grabbed two movie tickets from them. Okay, it's going to cost you twenty bucks tops, they don't have to go to a night, max. They can go to a normal uh and then s o get so collect some small prise from every one of the companies that your cross promoting with but then have won grand prize. Now for me, I'm going to tell you what the grand prize is in a minute but, uh, this might not be a cross promoting company that ...

you get this grand price from I'll tell you why there's always two steps to entering for people to be able to win the prize, okay there's tagging a friend in social media and there's filling out a form and the filling out the form is actually the only thing that they have to dio the tagging the friend is ah um, is a bonus for them? Ah, have you guys heard of wu fu? Okay, so wu fu is a free online form builder. You can create any type of contest or use wufu for your contact forms on your website, I use it for giving for people to enter for the giveaways that I d'oh it's this is the key to all of it, because this is how I'm I'm keeping all of the leads that I'm going to start bringing in this week. This is how I'm keeping them organized. Um, our grand prize this year this last year was one hundred and fifty dollars, in american eagle gift certificates. Ok, so obviously, I mean, unless you are a really big, sweet talker, which I am not, unless you could contact someone at american eagle and be like, hey, you guys want to cross from oh, I'm sure I can do a lot for your social media presence, like they're probably not going to care, but you could try and you should try, um, but what I did is I knew that all of my all of the senior or all of the high school students that I'm marketing teo shop in american eagle in our in our area so I knew that if I gave them one hundred fifty dollars to spend they would be like, oh my gosh what's happening and they would enter to win this for sure uh I did not split these up I got two gift certificates and I kept them as the grand prize and so what I said was I'm going to give away a hundred dollar gift card to you and a fifty dollar gift card to a friend so tagged the friend friend you want to win and then enter to win enter to win using this wufu link or this link to the form the reason why I did this is because like that lady said on ana online the people who are following you those are the people that are going to see your posts but you want more people to start following you and more people to start seeing your post so if they are tagging a friend most likely that friend is not already following you. So then you are increasing your social media presence. So this, um I got two hundred like over two hundred likes in the first day of senior week just from people entering to win prizes and I know for a lot of people two hundred likes isn't like a a huge number but for me in a small town in a small studio it's a really good number and it's because this number isn't all across the world this number is in redmond, oregon this is two hundred people these air two hundred people that are exact clea my target market so that is more valuable to me than a thousand followers from guatemala so um okay here's the here's the trick that I love is that we're not just marketing to upcoming high school seniors were marketing all high school students because we're going to start to build our client list for the next three years in advance okay, so why why do a big marketing effort and on lee do it for one year in your studio like set yourself up for a few for future business okay, so all high school students can enter and no free sessions do not give away any free sessions and I'm telling you this because I've done it okay like I've done it and it it doesn't work so just don't don't bother. Um what I will say though is that I'm not saying don't give away free sessions in your studio ever because I do incorporate charitable giving into my studio and I think all photographers should I'm just saying that when you're marketing to people when you're building your client base that's not what your client base should be built on so get a good client base that's going to make you a lot of money so that you have more time to be able to put towards charitable giving and doing free photo shoots for those in need. All right? Um, any questions really quick about about that? If not, we'll get right into block post. Um, we've got some some kind of more general about sort of social media strategy. Do you think that's best left for a little bit later? Fifty one. Okay, let's, do one let's, go ahead and ask, uh, a general one crew from christina five in one of their how often do you post on instagram? And what content? Oh, we're going to get to that done let's. Save it for later. I thought we might we are gonna keep you on your toes. Okay. Um okay. So block post that's the second component of photo of a photo a week, huh? I've seen your week in our block post our block post are very simple. They have a story and their share a ble um the way we incorporate a story is that remember how I said how I was asking that all of those girls would send me a little blurb about their about there, what they're most looking forward to on their senior year that's because every day I'm going to do a post call and I'm going to have a featured upcoming senior, I'm going to take one to two of the models that we had, and I'm going to post their images on my blogged and I'm going to put their little blurbs on there about what their most excited for. This keeps people's people's attention because there's they're connecting it's not just a pretty girl, it's, not just a pretty face with a cute outfit and a good picture it something personal about them? Friends and family are going to go to the block to see because their daughter is featured in something and that's important and it's special. This is going to keep people on your website for longer, which will increase the potential of you staying relevant in their minds came which will increase bookings where the potential the potential for bookings, it makes a lasting impression. Another way that we incorporate a story is that we do themed days, so not only does every block post, I don't know if I said this, but we do a blood post every single day of the week, so I want to make sure that that's normally in my studio I do a block post once a week, but this is every single day of the week. Uh, we incorporate themed days, so not only are we featuring one of the senior girls or upcoming senior girls, but we have days like style tuesday and friendship friday, and the reason why we do this is not only to make it fun and interesting for our readers, but it's also so that we can subtly plug strengths in our studio so style tuesday why do we do style tuesday? Because we want to ascend the girls from our blogger from our social media avenues to our pinterest stage where we have aboard that said that's called senior girl style and it's going to get them, um, starting to think about who I can, I can wear this and I can wear that, and alicia has great ideas on what I can wear, which benefits me in two ways. They'll most likely follow me on pinterest actually, let's just say three ways they'll follow me on print, pinterest they'll be spending more time on one of my social media platform's instead of another photographers, and they'll probably show up to their senior session with a cute outfit on so that's mutually beneficial, and then our friendship friday. This could also be family friday, which I've done, maybe I'll do that this year, but friendship. Friday is a way for me to tell potential clients something special about my studio is that unlike other photographers in my area, if you are if you book a senior session with me, then I would like you to bring a friend to be with you on the whole sea senior session and I'm going to do a complimentary friend portrait of you and that friend I won't do one by herself of the friend because she didn't book me but I want you I want her to come have a lot of fun you're gonna have more fun because you're comfortable and then I'm going to do a portrait of you guys because this is an important moment of your life this is your best friend right now and I want her to be there she does not have to be a junior girl or senior girl that can be anyone they want to bring also something that I offer in my studio is a free family portrait at their senior session. If it's in the very beginning and they have the whole family there on time I will do one portrait and then I and then I will go have fun with the senior so that's why I say maybe maybe like a family friday would be a great idea for you guys if you guys do that or if you want to do that made you start doing that all right, so this is how we're incorporating our story, talking about a jade rollins is a two thousand sixteen graduating senior, a ridgeview high school, she was so natural in front of the camera we loved photographing her, and then right above this would have been her blurb about what she's most excited for about her senior year. Now we're incorporating or giveaways. The reason why I'm putting my giveaways in my block post is because some people are going to see it on instagram. Some people are going to see it on facebook, some on twitter, some on the block but they are they're not all going to see them on all four of those the moms might see it on facebook in the blogged, and the kids might see it on instagram and twitter. So you need teo every piece of information keep it simple and short, but get the information out there of the things that you're doing that could benefit them and that's what I'm doing with my giveaways making it share a ble remember I said our block post have to be shareable this is the link right here this is the wu fu link so they go on here they enter and then at the top of the wu fu link I'll just show you right now at the top of the info link right here I'm saying, wanna win some of our awesome senior week prizes at super easy? Just fill out this quick floor form, plus you get a bonus entry if you share this link, tag me on facebook instead or twitter. Okay, so notice that down here in the middle to bottom, I have what graduating class or you that's, how I'm keeping this organized, because if a freshman and turns to win this prize, I want to know that in two thousand eighty or two thousand seventeen, two thousand eighteen, whatever that year would be not very good at math, but there that I'm going that year, I'm going to pull from this list and market directly to them, but the next year they're going to be sophomores and their friends are going to be a sophomore, so I'm going tto add that list into the two thousand seventeen list, okay, so every year that list is growing and growing and growing rather than just staying the same size. Oh yeah, and then at the bottom, I just ask if they're male or female, and this is why, because I specifically market two females right now, because that's, what my specialty is, I started noticing that a lot of other photographers in my area, we're doing the same thing, which means that not very many people our marketing towards senior guys and there's, a lot of money and senior guys that's not being marketed, teo. And so I'm starting to build my list because I have plans to start pushing my senior guy sex that, uh, sessions a little bit more all right? And then last my block post is going to contain an incentive. Ah, the reason why we are offering this incentive is teo is to get people to respond. This is when because remember I said, I book fifty percent of my sessions in senior week. This is exactly how I tell them that if they book their session in senior week, they're going to get one hundred dollars off of their section that's that's a huge number for someone who was already going to get a senior session anyway, whether it was from me or someone else ah, hundred dollars off is huge. So, so remember, I said, don't give away free session there's a big difference between free and discounted and there's a big difference between the client who is looking for free, and the client who is looking for discounted so not everyone is looking for a free session, however, if you were going to buy it anyway, one hundred dollars off is a really good deal, okay, and this might get me in trouble, I don't know, but I'm going to say it anyway. Uh, three years ago, I increased all of my senior sessions by a hundred dollars so that I could offer this promotion. So I'm not losing any money on this. I'm actually making money, and you'll see that in the future. Well, I hope you've already seen that would be a shame if you hadn't seen it. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, um, so a little trick to block post, because I'll tell you I'll tell you something about myself. I am a horrible blogger and I'm a photographer. So that seems a little backwards because most photographers are awesome bloggers and I am not. So what ideo with are you connecting with me on this? Are you thank you. I was good. Good. So this might seem like a lot right now. Like I'm not a good blogger. I don't even have a block post like a blogged link on my website because I hate blogging. Yeah, well, this is all I did with this every time I edited a senior girl session. I ended the images, I exported them in light room for the web, and I put the block post together right then and then I scheduled it for monday of senior week, tuesday of senior week, wednesday of senior week, I did all of this on the same day, I just blocked out a day to edit the images and put the block post it's together, okay? And it wasn't even a full day, so not only is this something that's going to save you a ton of time during senior week, so you can have more fun. But it's also something that you could incorporate into your weekly workflow, which I have now, and it is it like blogging while it it can be boring if you're not, it is boring if you're not good at it, it's really good for asio and for people to come and find you online so you might hate it. But is it it's important? And if you if you like money and you like booking things, then start liking blogging at least just a little bit came. So at this point, you're probably thinking like I just said, but we're going to repeat it holy cow, this is a lot of information and it is a lot of information but if you start implementing these things one by one if you start it's a lot of prep work but once you get thes systems into place you can repeat it over and over and over and it will only continue to grow so yes you're gonna have to do a little bit of work up front but then then comes the reward so what else can you do this with because I'm guessing that not all of you are just high school senior photographers okay, so it does anybody shoot does anybody photograph children? Okay all right so imagine let's say we're coming up on winter now so you plenty of time let's say you want to run a promotion you want to do some spring many sessions so you reach out going back to cross promotion you reach out to some of the children's boutiques in your town and you say, hey I want to buy a fish dollar gift certificate for a meal and I'm going to cross promote you I'm going to give you some social media love and I would love for you guys to do the same thing for me and then you start marketing towards thes moms and say who wants to win a gift card tio little tikes boutique and and they don't have to book a session with you to win it they don't at all but then you can say like something like and think of all the money you're saving and not having to buy your kids clothes so while you're at it come book a session with us you know, just little ways to get people more engaged so this this doesn't have to be just high school seniors this can be any genre of photography except maybe landscape photography that might not work I have to think about that for a little bit, okay all right, so I know full well that this is the third time I've shown this slide and it's not because I'm lazy it's because I want teo I want to reiterate over and over that social media is where our kids are right now they are always on their phones it's if we want to if we want to get them we have to get them you know and it's free it's free we don't have to spend anything on it just a little bit of time I saw a quote online that said the secret to success sometimes lies in the obvious and I didn't know who the quote was from so it's not an elation original but she wishes it wascause it's a really good quote with our social media we want to be frequent, efficient and personal okay, so a general rule of thumb when you are when you're on social media is that you don't want to flood your social media accounts with posts and images all throughout the day because people get annoyed and they will stop following you, okay, but for senior week I make an exception and I said, I make a lot of noise and ideo senior week I just figure you know what? I'm giving these people a heck of a lot of prizes and that's going to excuse the fact that I'm going to annoy them a little bit, but what I've noticed is people aren't really annoyed I wasn't losing followers I haven't app if you guys maybe I shouldn't tell you about this at because it's kind of not good for the ego, so if you have a if you have ah, if you have a strong oh self confidence, then get this app, but it's called inst rack. Okay, so this will help you track who is following you and unfollowed owing you on instagram. Okay, so when I first got it, I spent some time crying, and now I don't, because I just realized, like we said, how fickle instagram khun b the every time I'd lose a follower, I may like my images that was a really good when I put a lot of time and effort into that, you know, so but the great thing is it's going to show you when you're getting your followers who was following you exactly and then when you're losing followers so when I post certain image images if I lose a bunch of followers I know I'm not going to post it image like that again you know? So it gives me a good way to keep a handle on that social media okay, so this guy's no matthew the body came it miller if you don't you gotta look him up he's one of my best friends he's been on creative life before and he says something that I love and this is kind of his motto hustle till everyone knows your name and I'm guessing this probably comes from one of the rap songs he listens to so I don't want to say that it's an original quote from him because I might get in trouble but this is how it is on social media you hustle until everybody knows your name you want them to know who you are so don't flood it but for senior week you hustle okay be efficient save future time okay um when I on any social media platform that I use if I have the possibility to schedule something in advance, I d'oh because that will increase the amount of post that I make because honestly if it's wednesday and I'm like I just I don't want to really post anything right now because I'm tired and I don't even want to go to work and so I'm not going, so nothing gets done that day on social media and my name isn't out there and I'm missing an opportunity for people to know me so every time I can schedule something I dio and if you have a facebook business page you khun, schedule all your posts so all of these posts that I'm scheduling our a week in advance everything's already ready to go. I'm not doing any of this in actual senior week. What I'm doing in senior week is is keeping track of everyone on instagram and commenting on their pictures, and when they post my images telling them how pretty they are, and I was so excited to shoot with you and thank you so much and you're awesome, I want to spend time connecting with my clients and senior week, not doing boring stuff like blogging, okay, so I have this is also something that you can put into your work flow on a weekly basis. All right, schedule all of your facebook post so that you have at least one or two going out every day, all right, be personal uh, post selfies of the winners when they come to your studio, I always have people come to my studio to pick up the gift cards that they've won, okay? Because I want them to see my studio, I want them to see see my images and I want them to meet me, okay? So when they come and give him a big hug, I'm so excited that you're the winner. I take a selfie with them and now I have a week's worth of follow up posts to make on social media after senior week. All right? Um now my incentives we already talked about my discount, right? So so I've tried giving away free part products as an incentive. You may see other photographers like book now and you'll get a free eight by ten and everyone's like what? So big deal book now and you'll get a hundred dollars off. Well, who? Big deal? Right? Okay, so I have found the discounts work betterthan free product and deadlines. Incentives always have to have a deadline because if you say book now and you get a hundred dollars off your senior, you're senior session and they're like, okay, great, I'll wait till three weeks from now and then if I still decide I want to book you then I'll get a hundred dollars off no, friday is the last day if you don't do it by friday, it's gone okay it's going to cost you one hundred dollars if you wait if you wait past friday it is applying some pressure to my clients, and I don't I don't do high pressure sales in my studio, not when I'm selling products, but when it comes to booking sessions, I put on a little bit of pressure because I believe in the in the sessions that I offer, I believe in my work, and so I'm going to push a little bit harder for my sessions, okay? Um like I said, they need to be able to count the cost and know that if they wait it's going cap cost them one hundred dollars, so you can't be a softie about everything in your business. But just because I don't do high pressure sales and I'm a little bit of a softie when it comes to the selling process in my studio, but I feel like I've still streamline that pretty well, and I'm doing well with my sales, however so but you not you can't be a softie about everything in your business, and I mostly just put the slide in here because I thought they were cute, so I made it work.