Your current or past clients are your BEST marketing team. Did you know?

The same way that you tell your friends about your fave new hairdresser or an awesome babysitter that you use. Chatter, chatter, chatter, share, share, share.

So how can you love up your current clients in the digital world?

Create a stronger and more loyal connection?

Motivate them to share your content far and wide?

Well, what happens in the digital world is exactly the same as what you would do in real life, except with a lot more typing.

Nobody has ever really explained it better than this guy.

It’s called loooove honey. And you can give it to your clients in a totally professional and not-at-all-inappropriate kind of way. Everyone just wants to be appreciated. Made to feel special. Like they are a part of the club. That you really, really like them.

TRUTH BOMB

With some clients, that stuff comes naturally. For others {ahem}, you might need to fake it or exaggerate it a little. It’s ok. You’re not going to be BFFs with everyone who steps in front of your camera but you can always find some common ground or area to focus on.

Here’s some tips to get you started:

~ Actually listen to them when they tell you stories during their session, like really tune in.

~ Remember a couple of little specific details about your clients that you can talk about later.

~ Work with what you have in common or some kind of connection and focus on that.

~ Pay attention to who they are and try and work out what motivates them.

~ Write it all down as soon as the session is over. Trust me, you’ll forget within a few hours if you don’t. Particularly if you are shooting lots of sessions a week.

There is heeeeaps you can do with that information in a digital sense, but today we’re starting with …

STEP 1 – WRITING GREAT SNEAK PEEK CAPTIONS

Oh boy, caption writing. Hands up if you’re in the “I hate writing” club or the “I sit staring at my screen and don’t know what to say” team?

Well, the good news is that there’s 2 ways to do it and you get to choose!

Both are successful so take your pick!

OPTION 1 – THE SHORT WAY

The very best way for me to explain this option is to just show you. There’s an obstetrician here in Brisbane where I live called Dr Brad Robinson who does it like a pro! I have no idea if he knows he is an excellent marketer or not (he seems just like a genuinely nice person) but the way that he connects with his clients on social media is GOLD!

And he usually does it in about 4 sentences or less.

Here’s how:

He shares a selfie or iPhone snap of his clients – baby, mum, dad, partner, whoever. His ‘product’ is the baby that he just delivered, but he doesn’t only photograph them! Because who pays the bills right?
He speaks specifically about his clients by name – parents included. Not just the baby! (do you do that?)
He almost always mentions some kind of in-joke or something that they have in common.
He keeps it light. But that’s just his vibe. You don’t have to be funny if that’s not your brand voice. Sincere or with sensitivity is also great.

That is literally it. No re-inventing the wheel. He does the same thing each time … and it never gets less interesting!

I’ve never met Brad. I only follow him online. But I already feel some sense of FOMO. Like, aww, he looks like fun! If my partner Pete ever convinces me to have another baby (????) then this is who I want to spend my time with.

Is he a good obstetrician? Honestly, I have no idea.

I know nothing about his actual skills as a doctor.

But clearly he IS … because look at all of those happy customers!

I bet they’re telling ALL their friends about how amazing he is.

A friend didn’t even have to tell me … I already feel it and I’m just some random who follows him on Insta.

(Hi Brad if you ever see this! Not a Parramatta fan but I do love to drop the odd f bomb now and then. We can be friends, right?)

OPTION 2 – THE LONG WAY

The long way is basically exactly like the short way, except with more words.

If you have the time or skills or want to try something new with your digital marketing, storytelling is the way to do it. Brad does it with a few words, I do it with LOTS. Because I love to write.

But what I also love about writing long sneak peek captions is that I can then very cleverly COPY + PASTE those exact words into a blog post. That Google will read. Huzzah! Look at me killing two birds with one stone there (ew – that’s actually a really awful saying isn’t it!).

Here’s a couple of good examples from ye olden day times when I was still a newborn photographer. You can click on them to view the actual version in Facebook.

THE TAKE AWAYS

Sound easy enough? It really is.

Honestly, the hardest part for me was always trying to remember what we talked about during the session. Or what we had in common. Because I was so busy that as soon as they walked out of the door, I was onto the next thing. Kids, washing, editing, cleaning the studio etc.

My tips for you are:

Throw a few words into your phone (just use the notes app or voice recorder) so you can check in on it later.
You could create a little 1 minute checklist that you fill out at the end of the session and refer back to it when you’re ready.
Want to go next level? Sit down after your session and record a 30 second video or post to your Instagram story talking about the session. A bit of a “Oh I had the best family here today. Blah blah blah.” Say it all in there and turn it into a caption or blog post later.
Feeling techy? Add that video to your blog post along with your words, and a slideshow of a few photos. Make those blogs so epic that your clients will definitely want to share them too. But hey, one step at a time. Roll back to option 1 if you’ve made it to here and want to cry and go to sleep.

Have you seen me talking about my Socially Set course members on social media?

I do all of this too right! It works. Trust me … I work in marketing. 😉

NEED MORE HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING YOUR PHOTO BIZ THIS YEAR?

It’s just so much easier when you have someone tell you what to post, when to post it and what to say! My Socially Set course has been created specifically for portrait photographers. Cool huh! Join the waitlist for our January 2022 launch here: