ESSENTIAL MARKETING TOOLS FOR NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Scheduling posts, sending questionnaires, email newsletters… getting your marketing in place can feel quite overwhelming.

However, as for all crafts, using the right tools can turn an apparently daunting job into a smooth and fast process.

So here it is: our list of essential marketing tools every newborn photographer needs.

Our list includes a few notes and a few free alternatives that are great when you are just starting out (and not only)!

A note about essential marketing tools for newborn photographers

The list is available as a free download here – no email address (or other data) required!

Feeling on the brink of burnout? Read our guide “Photographers on the brink of burnout“

Thinking about our Marketing Mentoring programme? Read this first

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“I KNOW I SHOULDN’T BE LOOKING AT MY COMPETITORS, BUT…”

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You know that feeling when you “end up” on your competitors’ page and all of a sudden a thousand anxious thoughts fill your head?

“I really need to step up my game.“

“I should be posting more.“

“She’s got double my followers, she’s probably got an inbox full of enquiries – god, I really need more bookings, things have been slow the last few weeks.“

“That post is good, and why is she getting so many comments?? She is good.”

And so on.

It’s all good to say you should not compare yourself to others, but in the age of social media sometimes it’s really inevitable. We are on each other’s faces – or feed – almost all the time.

If it’s not a post on a group it’s an ad, or a recommendation, or whatever else.

But if comparison is (almost) inevitable, you have a choice over what happens next.

If you are still at a stage where those anxious thoughts follow you to bed – breathe, please. You have time.

Step away, close your laptop, throw your phone away (figuratively!) and forget about it all for a while. 

Focus on what you have achieved so far. Chances are, it’s pretty fucking amazing.

Go back to where you started, how many things you have figured out. Go back to when your page had 15 followers and you had no solid plan to get more. Go back to shooting for free for family and friends.

Everything that’s happened between there and now, including taking your business through months of lockdowns and no shooting, it’s yours. You have built it.

And you will keep doing the same. It’s going to be ok.

If, instead, you have already mastered the art of “staying sane when your demons come visit”, I have a challenge for you.

Learn to keep your eyes open. Don’t run.

Learn to stare those demons in their eyes – and see what they have to teach you.

Learn from your fear.

Learn to sit in the eye of the storm, stand in that space between “she’s better than me, I am going to fail” and “fuck it, who cares” and see if there is a lesson in there for you. 

That fear might be showing you something that you know, deep inside, you have not mastered yet.

Something you are missing, or have been neglecting for a while. 

An “I keep meaning to…” or “I really should be…”

Whatever that is, deep inside you know you’ll have to face it, at some point.

And that point is now.

So go master it.

Feeling on the brink of burnout? Read our guide “Photographers on the brink of burnout“

Thinking about our Marketing Mentoring programme? Read this first

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THE PROBLEM WITH BOUNDARIES – HOW (AND WHEN) TO SAY “NO”

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Monday night, one of my early days in business.

There I am, slightly (errrr) overworked, slightly frustrated and anxious because… well, how is everybody else getting so many clients and charging SO MUCH MORE than I am?

Notification: new email.

It’s 9pm.

A client asking me to do something that is not really part of my job – and of course, taking for granted I’ll do it anyway.

The above, of course, is followed by a 45 minutes internal rant, performed while pacing up and down the living room whispering to myself “this is ridiculous” and angrily typing the whole story on my phone for my best friend to read.

Eventually, I decide that NO, it’s not gonna happen. I need to stand up for myself, set boundaries and stop letting people take advantage of me.

It’s a big NO, no no no.

It’s my business, my rules.

Or maybe…

… maybe I could make a little exception and DO IT, but make it clear that I would NOT be doing it again.

After all, I am not that busy and I want clients to love working with me. Right? Also, deep inside I know I am charging a lot of money… maybe too much.. What if she gets upset and starts complaining and wants her money back?

Come on, it’s gonna take 30 minutes max – surely it’s worth it if it helps me keep the client?

LET’S TALK BOUNDARIES

To quote Brené Brown:

“When we asked people why they hesitate to set boundaries, the number one answer that emerged from the research was, “I don’t want to make people mad, disappoint others, or make them stop liking me”.  

[…] What’s really interesting is that when we asked the same participants to describe or explain the consequence of not setting boundaries, the overwhelming response was resentment. Followed by anger. Followed by frustration.”

Failing to set boundaries can not only affect our mental and physical health but also eat away our ability to see our own business as an enriching and enjoyable part of our life.

But we all know that, right? 

And still, for most of us “setting boundaries” feels like a constant struggle.

“… when we asked the same participants to describe or explain the consequence of not setting boundaries, the overwhelming response was resentment. Followed by anger. Followed by frustration.“

Brené Brown

A MATTER OF POSTURE

Ever caught yourself all hunched over your desk, and reacted by – inadvertently – tensing all of your muscles in an attempt to sit up straight… just to end up slumping forward again within 10 minutes?

This very much reflects how I used to deal with boundaries in my early days in business – alternating between collapsing and posturing.

Collapsing is giving in to all requests and it often comes from our desire of being liked, of feeling needed, and from our lack of confidence. Collapsing is compromising our needs and integrity out of fear (of losing a client, of facing uncomfortable conversation, of disappointing others…): we keep giving more, so that the person in front of us will appreciate us more, like us more.

We keep giving in, and giving more, even when that means sacrificing something that is important to us.

We keep saying yes, stretching ourselves and neglecting our needs until we eventually “snap”… and lean into the opposite, the “I won’t be a victim anymore”.

Frustrated and exhausted, we go from collapsing to posturing.

Posturing is all about force is our “as previously discussed”, “as per the contract you have signed” – it is overselling, acting superior and wanting to feel important. 

RIGHT… BUT I STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO SET BOUNDARIES

So what is the alternative to all of this?

If you have ever had to work on your posture or practiced yoga, you already know the answer: force and tension won’t take you far, but finding your core will.

As a business owner, you find your core when what you do and how you do it are perfectly aligned with who you are, and deeply rooted into why you are doing it.

As a business owner, finding your core comes from choosing to walk a path you can truly own as yours.

“Stress is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are” (Chinese Proverb)

When our actions and decisions come from such place we become beautifully strong and equally flexible.

And so do our boundaries.

“Did you just say… flexible?”

Yes, I did. Make your boundaries and give yourself permission to make exceptions.

People have this idea that being “good” and valuing yourself meaning making rules and rigidly keep them – no matter what.

Truth is, the secret to creating proper boundaries is to ensure they are strong and rooted in your beliefs, in your core, but not so rigid that they easily break under pressure.

But how do you decide when to bend a boundary, when is it ok to make an exception?

The answer is simple: when it feels right to you.

Trust your intuition, trust that voice inside you.

If all that voice is saying is “don’t even think about it, you don’t even WANT to work with this person anyway” – STOP. Breathe.

“No” is the right answer. And one that doesn’t need to be justified or explained. 

And by the way, my favourite “no” answer comes from Shonda Rhimes: “I am unable to do that”.

It just feels right and complete to me. It feels good.

“…my favourite “no” answer comes from Shonda Rhimes: “I am unable to do that”.

AND WHAT ABOUT SAYING… YES?

“Yes” is also an answer that does not need to be explained or justified.

So when it feels right to you to bend your boundaries, just do it. Know that you don’t have to be ashamed or justify it – to your photography friends, to your favourite Facebook group or to your mentor.

After all… your business, your rules.

Feeling on the brink of burnout? Read our guide “Photographers on the brink of burnout“

Thinking about our Marketing Mentoring programme? Read this first

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HANDLING ENQUIRIES: LET’S TALK PHONE CALLS

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For some of us, the idea of having phone calls with leads can be anxiety-inducing, and even if you have been doing it for a while you could still wonder whether you are “doing it right”.

There are two common traps we have the tendency to fall into:

1- We feel that the goal of the call is to convince our potential client of something: book the session, buy wall art, etc;

And

2 -As a result of the above, we often overwhelm with words the person on the other end of the phone.

If any of this sounds a bit like you, there are 3 steps you can take to immediately improve your approach, and these take us back to the idea that growing a business means building relationships (more on this HERE).

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PERSON ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PHONE

Before asking about the colour of their nursery, how they want to display their images, spaces for wall art, try to answer this question: “What is more important to your prospect when buying what you sell?”.

Knowing what is important to them will help you understand what to focus your conversation on, and also establish whether they are a good fit (see below).

Let me clarify with an example.

Baby’s mum and dad are both originally from France. Their families and friends, including baby’s grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc are all there.

This might even be the biggest motivation for booking a session: to have photographs they can share with their family and friends abroad to feel closer to them.

Now imagine you spending most of your phone call talking about wall art for their home, while your competitor (having discovered what’s important to the client) chose to focus on extras like additional personalised USBs they could send home, digital slideshows or even albums and other products delivered to the grandparents. 

Who do you think they would instantly love?

Who would make them more excited?

And who do you think would be more likely to get not only the booking, but a bigger sale in the end?

Now, the easiest way to understand what is important to your leads is to simply ask them.

“Over the years I have learned that parents have different ways of thinking about their session, some envision beautiful wall art they can show to family and friends, some are doing it to create memories for the baby and so on… can you tell me more about what is important to you?”

Of course, you don’t need to use these exact words. Make it yours, and you will see how easy it is to connect with your people once you have the answer, as opposed to trying to sell your clients something without knowing exactly what they are looking for.

ESTABLISH WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE A GOOD FIT

Going back to our previous example, you might be thinking “Well I don’t want to sell digitals, so they would not be my ideal client anyway”.

Great, it would be even more important for you to discover that information and let the client know that you might not be the right person for them.
If you have ever worked with someone that really was not your client, you’ll understand how important this is.

SET BOUNDARIES AND CLARIFY WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

We all hate chasing clients, and clients hate being chased. 

Before ending the call, define exactly what is going to happen. Here are a couple of scenarios you might find useful:

  1. “I’ll speak to my partner and let you know”

    “That’s perfect, I will email you now and then try to call you next Tuesday. 

    Can I please ask you to email me back, should you decide not to go ahead? I want to ensure I don’t keep trying to contact you again if you are not interested”
  1. If the baby has already arrived and you have a very limited time to get the family in the studio.

    “Ok, if Wednesday 10:30am works for you I will hold the date for 48 hours to give us time to get you booked in.

    I am about to email you a recap of what we have discussed, so you have all the info in writing. I will also send you a second email with the contract, and invoice for your deposit/session fee.

    Should I not hear from you within 48 hours I will only contact you once again to let you know I am closing your enquiry and cancelling your reservation.”

When I first started in business I had a 6-page script to follow for my calls. A perfectly designed tool for sales.

And I hated it.

Fast forward to today, I can unequivocally say that the non-scripted approach I have taken after using my perfect script less than 5 times has been an irreplaceable tool to learn who my clients are, what motivates them, what language they use and – ultimately – to make selling a genuine and easy process.

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MARKETING, SALES &… SAFE SPACES

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Nearly every form of marketing and sales technique we see today is invasive and breeds distrust – despite most of us being instantly repelled by the slightest hint of pressure.

So if you have ever thought to yourself “I hate selling, I am not good at it!”… I am glad you did, it means you are still connected with that part of you that knows your relationship with your clients is the most important thing you have and that you can’t force a relationship to happen or people to enter it.

Thinking that most of what you do when promoting myself, answering enquiries and talking to leads is laying the foundation for genuine relationships – and not trying to deceive, force and push people – should immediately make you feel better about this whole “marketing thing”.

There are 3 essential elements to a relationship-oriented marketing:

TRANSPARENCY & CLARITY

This goes far beyond having prices available on your website, it is about making it completely safe for people to approach you.

We do this by:

  • Thinking of our business as our space, and making sure people feel welcome and respected when they enter it
  • When we are the ones entering our clients’ space (with an email, for example) doing so in a careful and respectful way, as opposed to making it feel like an invasion
  • Allowing our true intentions to be clearly seen. Be genuine when giving, be confident when asking (whether that is a fee, commitment, contact details, etc.

TRUST

Practising the above should put us on the right track for building trust, but trust also comes from respecting our clients’ need for time.

EXCITEMENT

I invite you to read our definition of brand HERE.

Being authentic with your marketing will have two effects:

  • Our people, those we define “ideal clients”, will be excited to work with us because who we are resonates with who they are. They will WANT to work with us.
  • It will make it clearer for those who aren’t our ideal clients to see that we are not who they are looking for.

In very simple terms, getting clients means building relationships. How we choose to do it determines now only how our business feels to us, but also how likely we are to be successful in the long term.

When we choose to create solid relationships with our people, based on transparency, trust and excitement, our clients will love working with us and tell the world about it. 

Or we can decide we don’t have time for that, and we would rather bet on our ability to take complete strangers and consistently, repeatedly, get them to give us their money.

The choice is yours, what will you choose?

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PHOTOGRAPHERS ON THE BRINK OF BURNOUT

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Why Conscious Marketing is still possible and how it can help you thrive

If you are reading this, chances are that at least once in your career as a photographer you thought to yourself “I hate marketing, I suck at it, and I just wish I could get someone to do it all for me”.

You desperately want to attract more clients, and make more money doing so, but you don’t know how to do it without living a lifestyle you hate (late nights and early mornings with too little time for the people you love) and in a non-pressuring, non hype-filled way.

And somehow, whenever you try to do what the “experts” say you should do… it just doesn’t feel like you.

My goal with this letter is to help you understand how to approach marketing in a way that feels good to you and gets you the clients you want, without requiring you to “sell your soul”.

Let’s break this process into four essential steps.

STEP ONE: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE KNOWN FOR?

For most of us, marketing feels like chasing clients, despite it being sold to us as a tool to “attract” them.

So at the core of our approach, we will keep one simple idea: marketing is not about “chasing” or “attracting” our ideal client, marketing is about making it easy for them to find us.

Want to know why?

Because our ideal clients are already looking for us. 

Now here is the thing: in order to be found, you must be known for something.

But as long as your “something” is merely what you sell, you will always be a commodity, condemned to keep paddling just to stay above the noise of a million other businesses doing – and selling – exactly the same thing.

Which is unsustainable.

Finding your “something”, that we will call your brand from now on, is as simple as asking yourself “what is the one thing I want the world to see when they look at my work?”

There are four elements to your brand, and – in our new view – marketing is about making these so clear and visible that it becomes easy for our ideal clients to find us.

These four elements are:

  1. You, who you are
  2. What you do
  3. Your point of view, which determines how you do what you do
  4. The reason and cause your work is an expression of. This is, to say it with Simon Sinek, your why.

STEP TWO: BE WHO YOU ARE – RELENTLESSLY 

As you move away from a “client chasing” business and get clarity about your brand, you begin building solid foundations for marketing that feels good because it’s authentic.

Questions like “what should I post about?” or “should I do minis?” should now become easier to answer.

If you want to make it easier for your ideal clients to find you, you need to make sure your who/what/how/why are OUT THERE.

Hence, this is what you should post about.

The clearer, the bolder you are, the better as it will make it easier for YOUR people to choose YOU.

The same principle applies to almost every other decision: be “you”, relentlessly, because your success depends on it.

As tempting as it is to try and appeal to as many people as possible, you don’t need to do – or be – everything for everybody.

You will be surprised by how easy marketing becomes, how liberating it feels when all you have to do is be your authentic self.

I dare to say, it is even fun.

Now when it comes to “doing”, you might be presented with many choices.

Should I do minis? Weddings? Outdoor sessions? Should I work weekends? 

So here are 3 more questions to help you make choices that are aligned with your purpose and with the ultimate goal of creating a business that works for the lifestyle you want to live (not the other way around):

  • Is it true to your brand?
  • Does it add to your business?
  • How does it impact your lifestyle?

STEP THREE: MEET YOUR BEST ALLY

Time to reveal the biggest marketing secret I have learned about marketing.

The one I go back to every time I start worrying about my competitors or comparing myself to them.

Growth requires time. And patience.

Magic things happen when you allow time to be on your side, but living in a world that celebrates speed has affected our expectations in all fields of life.

The same way we think a “5 days fitness challenge” should get us fit, we also think marketing should give instant results. We want to be able to switch a few buttons and immediately get more bookings and bigger sales. But it’s hardly our fault, as this is what we are promised constantly: instant results, a flood of clients, six… seven figures quickly.

Sure, I know and teach some “tricks” and techniques to get results fast, but I don’t believe marketing is only a matter of conquering as many clients, “territories” and competitors as we can. Growing wider is only part of the equation, we also need to learn to go deeper and handle our own fear of being still.

This is not only a philosophical matter.

Allowing yourself to slow down means making you businesses less vulnerable, as it makes you less prone to obsess over unidimensional messages that disengage your audience (“book now”, “limited availability”, etc.) and to develop our business on the easiest, quickest platform.

But what are the essential platforms, or channels, you should use to create holistic, successful marketing?

STEP FOUR: RISE ABOVE THE NOISE

This leads us to our fourth step, how to amplify our message so that enough people can find us.

Yes, I am talking about your “platforms”.

Funny name, because it tricks you into believing that you can build something on them when really they are nothing more than a container or a speaker.

They can help you amplify your message, they cannot create it, replace it or fix it.

There are only 3 platforms essentials for our business:

  1. A WEBSITE

There is more to this than just Google and SEO (oh no, did I just say that?).

Yes, your website is absolutely necessary if we intend marketing as making it easier for our ideal clients to find us, but it must also be built to attract and get real paying clients.

This absolutely does not mean attacking your reader with popups and newsletter sign-ups, nor it means halving your savings to create a flashy “brochure”.

In fact, our website should be thought of as a way for people to approach us and our brand in a way that feels safe [more on this can be found HERE].

In other words, we should not be guided by a secret agenda (“get the sale”) but let the element of our brands be seen in a clear, transparent way, so that our people will immediately recognise themselves in our “who, what, how and why”.

Your website should absolutely include landing pages for all your main sessions.

  1. A WELL ORGANISED DATABASE OF CLIENTS

This should be digital, to make it easier for you to access and recall data. Also, your client database should make it easy for you to mass-email specific segments (for example, all your newborn clients from the last 6 months, or every baby turning one in the next 2 months).

  1. WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

These are essentially 3: social media, your blog and your newsletter.

Notice how I did not say “ways to sell”, a good reminder that we are not chasing clients.

Social media is possibly the biggest pain point for every modern business owner, so a word on this.

You don’t need to be on every existing platform, from Pinterest to TikTok, YouTube and Clubhouse. Making choices is good and necessary when we want to keep our focus on lifestyle and sustainability.

WELCOME TO YOUR NEW MARKETING AND… HAVE A SAFE JOURNEY THROUGH IT

If you are still reading, thank you for choosing to spend your time in my company.

Hi, I am Giulia (weird, uh? It sounds like Julia – but it’s written with a “Gi”) and I am the founder of Grow Your Photography Studio.

I am known for my no-BS, hands-on approach to helping newborn photographers get more clients and grow a business they actually enjoy running. I believe marketing should not be a “necessary evil” and that taking action is the first and most fundamental step toward success.

Thinking about our Marketing Mentoring programme? Read this first

We don’t do sales calls, but if you feel we might be a good fit you can book a free discovery call to work with me for an hour and see how that feels.

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THE HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, AWFUL CLIENTS YOU GET THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Not a day goes by without someone telling me how “the best” clients come from Google, as if the universe could be divided into categories:

  • On the one side, the misfits. Awful troublemakers, price-shoppers people who only exist on social media and message us with the only purpose of making our life impossible
  • On the other side, the elected ones. These affluent lovers of all arts habit the internet exclusively via search engines (Google, in other words) and keep their collection of credit cards at hand every time they visit a website

To say the least, this is an oversimplification that continues to be fed for one simple reason: growing a business on social media sucks.

It’s HARD work and these days it requires an ever-growing amount of patience. 

What makes it even harder is how hard it is to track results accurately since likes, reach and engagement are not really an indication of how much business (and revenue) you are generating at any given time.

WHAT MAKES MY “WEBSITE PEOPLE” THE BEST PEOPLE?

Now, of course there is some truth in this statement.

We use social media and search engines for different purposes and with a different intent. 

There is no question that if you are ready to buy something, or actively looking for a service supplier, you are going to use Google more than any other platform.

Additionally, you will most likely get in touch with that supplier or company when you have already made up your mind… or almost.

Which is why converting leads coming through your website generally takes less effort.

Well, so the best clients ARE coming via my website!

Wrong.

What makes them easier to deal with is that they are hotter.

Whatever, why should I bother with social media and all the time wasters on there if I can get easy-to-convert people via my website?

WELCOME TO HEL… EHM, 2021.

The market around you is not the same, the competition is not the same, and the number of companies using social media to figuratively steal your potential clients by reaching them on social media before they get to you is increasing by the day.

Sure, if you are well established, have a studio in an affluent area and have a big enough pool of past clients that keep referring you… you can afford to sit there and wait for people to find you.

… and hope your competitors won’t ever learn how to market aggressively enough to eat a slice of your pie.

But if your circumstances are different, then believing that oversimplification means betting your business on someone else’s (biased) belief.

marketing for newborn photographers

Marketing and advertising on social media can be incredibly profitable if done properly. 

And while I would never advocate for you to only rely on it to promote and grow your business (as I would NEVER advocate to rely on any ONE platform for that purpose), I do urge you to consider this:

  • Social Media is pretty much one of the best ways for your studio to actively reach new people.

    They sit there scrolling, haven’t even started thinking about a newborn session, and you can pay Facebook £0.2 to show them one of your ads and get them thinking about it.

    Thinking about your studio.
  • Yes, these leads WILL be colder and some of them will realise half-way through the process they can’t really afford you or your services. 

    But are you sure you know how to deal with these colder, newer leads, or is it maybe possible that they seem awful and uninterested because…. You are trying to deal with them the same way you would deal with someone ready to book?

    And how would your business change, if you could learn how to profitably reach 10x the people you are reaching through Google… and convert them?

NEED MORE PROOF?

I’ll tell you a secret.

The horrible, terrible, awful clients you get through social media… are us.

Don’t believe me?

I work exclusively with newborn photographers and if you are reading this, you might be one of my clients (hi!).

If you are, there is a high chance I found you on social media. Whether that’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. Possibly, with one of my ads.

Then you had a call with me and decided we were a good fit and chose to sign up.

And with you, many other newborn photographers.

Does that make you a time-wasting, price-shopping, trouble-making client?

If you are, there is a high chance I found you on social media.
Does that make you a time-wasting, price-shopping, trouble-making client?

MARKETING FOR NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHERS: GROW YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO

Grow Your Photography Studio’s vision is to empower newborn photographers everywhere to create successful businesses aligned with their art, values and vision.

To talk with us visit www.growyourphotographystudio.com

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Want to avoid a ban? Take care of your Facebook Photography Business Page

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Imagine this: it’s Monday morning and you are sipping coffee or tea sitting in your studio… and waiting for your Facebook Photography business page to load.

So you wait, and wait, until you realise you can’t actually login.

And this time is not because you’ve been logged out and can’t remember the password, it’s because you have been banned.

Your Photography business page, ad account, everything is gone. In a panic, you login to your email to find a message from Facebook that explains you have violated the Community Standards and are not allowed on the platform.

For me, this is the stuff nightmares are made of – regardless of how many leads I can get from other platforms, I don’t want to lose the ability for my business to be represented on a platform with almost 3 billion users.

Like it or hate it, for most of us our social media pages have become some of the most important assets in our business.

But do you really know everything there is to know about keeping your Facebook Photography business page safe?

This post gives you a few basic steps that you should implement to ensure you comply with Facebook policies and add layers of redundancy to your pages.

STEP 1 – HAVE AT LEAST TWO ADMINS ON YOUR FACEBOOK PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS PAGE

Yes, your personal profile and business pages are connected by default, but adding a second administrator means you will still have a way of managing your Photography business page if you can’t access your personal profile.

This could happen for several reasons: you might be hacked, your profile might be suspended, etc. etc.

You can add administrators from the Page Roles section in Settings, this video shows you how.

Note: needless to say, choose someone you truly trust and that would be happy to let you use their profile to access your page!

CAN I HAVE A SECOND FACEBOOK PROFILE AND ADD IT AS AN ADMIN?

No. Having two Facebook profiles goes against the platform’s policies and might result in your accounts being banned.

To learn more: https://www.facebook.com/help/975828035803295

STEP 2 – SIGN UP TO FACEBOOK BUSINESS MANAGER

Facebook Business Manager contains all of Facebook’s business tools live and where you manage all of your Facebook marketing and advertising activities. 

Business Manager is also essential for sharing your Facebook and Instagram assets among multiple people efficiently and securely, reducing the risk of losing access to any of those assets.

You can create a Facebook Business Manager account (which is different from Business Suite) from business.facebook.com/create 

Then:

  1. Go to Settings – People and assets – People.
    Follow this video to add an Admin https://www.loom.com/share/6f4d36896c5c44709fbf5f8e21605d8f
    It is recommended to add at least two people as administrators.
  2. Go to Business settings – Instagram accounts to connect any Instagram business accounts (you will be asked to log in to Instagram).
  3. Go to Ad accounts – Add New ad account.
    You will have the access to add an account you own by supplying the ad account ID, or request access to use another Business Manager-owned ad account. 

To find your Ad Account id:

  • Go to Ads Manager 
  • Your ad account ID number is shown above the search and filter bar, in the account dropdown menu.

To find your Ad Account id:

  • Go to Ads Manager
  • Your ad account ID number is shown above the search and filter bar, in the account dropdown menu.

You can learn more about Business Manager by visiting https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/how-business-manager-works/guide

A FINAL NOTE

Now I know you might be thinking “Ok this is boring and complicated, I don’t need any of this and Facebook sucks anyway!”. 

I hear you. Our lives are already busy enough and “too much time” is definitely not one of our problems.

But here’s the thing, remember when you had to deal with that annoying client who was demanding to see your RAW files and you thought to yourself “my business my rules, I am not giving my unedited files to anyone?”.

Google, Facebook, Instagram… They also are businesses and they also enforce a “my business, my rules” policy.

So sure, you can ignore all of this and any of these platform’s policies… but you do so at your own peril!

Facebook Community Standards can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/

Facebook Advertising Policies https://www.facebook.com/policies/ads/

NEED HELP?

Want to know more about using Facebook Business Manager for your Newborn Photography Studio?

Request a free Marketing Coaching Call now

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NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHERS: THERE IS (REAL) LIFE BEYOND MARKETING

A few days ago one of my clients had her 1 to 1 training with Maddy Rogers and I was lucky enough to get some behind the scenes snaps from the two-day event.

Also got some “behind the scenes” tales of poops happening but that’s another story.

It was probably the first picture that really stuck with me, it was Maddy bottle-feeding the baby in the shooting area.

Nothing unusual, right?

Wrong.

You look at that picture and you can immediately tell that you are looking at someone who has mastered her craft through years of experience. It’s The Master, in her natural element, doing her thing.

WANT TO MARKET YOUR STUDIO LIKE A PRO? BE A PRO FIRST.

Now I realise I am not saying anything new here. Maddy Rogers is one of the leading UK trainers for newborn photography, so you would expect her to know what she’s doing.

But for someone like me, who has been breathing and living marketing and business for the last (almost) 20 years, there is much more to it.

The deeper we go into this era of digital marketing, and marketing craziness, the more we seem to lose sight of one simple truth: businesses are not built on marketing.

Marketing CANNOT (and should not) build a business.

Writing SEO-smart blog posts, having 1,000 followers on a Facebook page (or 10,000 – for that matter) or getting 50 comments on an “engagement” post doesn’t equal having a business.

The same way that having a better organic reach doesn’t mean having a better, or more successful, business.

And people, photographers, who have been around for long enough KNOW this.

Because, for them, business came first.

The deeper we go into this era of digital marketing, and marketing craziness, the more we seem to lose sight of one simple truth: businesses are not built on marketing.

IS MARKETING JUST A BIG LIE?

Sure, this is a little inconvenient when half the world around you is trying to sell you expensive marketing or business tricks that will CERTAINLY make you successful, or show you how to find your ideal client and magically solve all your problems.

Imagine how crazy it would be if all of a sudden we started selling the truth instead of impossible dreams?

“Yes, I can definitely show you how to get better clients but they will STILL walk all over you if you don’t know how to set boundaries” 

But why am I going on about this?

Because Maddy’s photo was a breath of fresh air and the proof that great businesses are built on ideas, on a vision and… on your hard f*cking work. 

If we are not willing to work on ourselves, to improve and grow, to create OUR OWN path, marketing is not gonna come to rescue.

If we sit and wait for things to happen, or don’t want it so bad that we can keep pushing even when we feel like giving up, we are simply never going to have a business.

WHO WE ARE

Grow Your Photography Studio’s vision is to empower newborn photographers everywhere to create successful businesses aligned with their art, values and vision.

To talk with us visit www.growyourphotographystudio.com

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MARKETING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO AFTER LOCKDOWN: WHEN IS… “BACK TO NORMAL” GOING TO HAPPEN?

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Waiting for restrictions to ease, because then “hopefully business will pick up again”?

But what if it doesn’t? 

As I write this, on the one side I’m seeing headlines talking about recession and disruption caused by Brexit.

On the other side, all top marketing inner-circles worldwide have become an incessant flow of posts about a secret war over privacy between Apple and giants like Google and Facebook.

Yes, it’s true, these cycles have always existed.

Recession has happened before and, eventually, things have always improved.

But what if your business was the price you have to pay to survive all of this?

What if resting on your laurels, expecting business to ‘pick up naturally’ meant losing it?

After all, business doesn’t tolerate complacency. 

Remember Blockbusters…?

IS THAT REALLY THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL?

If you still don’t believe me, take a walk around and see how many businesses have already been forced to close their doors. 

And the reality is, they will be followed by many more before the end of April 2021.

Now, if you think I am just trying to scare you and don’t want to deal with any more stress… I hear you.

Believe me, I do.

Navigating through these last 12 months has been exhausting and has forced me to change many aspects of my business, way beyond what I planned.

I am so very ready for some normalcy and rest.

But as tempting as it is to comfort myself with the idea that we are “near the end of this”, I know I need to prepare for what’s next.

I know, and you also do, that the way we do things has already been altered.

The way we shop. 

The way we spend. 

The way we work. 

The way we go out to pubs or restaurants.

Many of these changes will last way long after restrictions have been lifted, so what makes you think your business will return to normal ‘just like that’? 

Marketing has always been a fast, ever-changing, vertigo-inducing practice.

Why should that be different this time?

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON RIGHT NOW

Want to know what is the good news?

It’s not too late, you still have time.

So instead of burying your head in the sand, get to work right away and make sure you have the following in place for your business:

  1. A crystal clear strategy to use your session portfolio to target the right audience. No, I am not talking about an abstract idea of “ideal client”. 

    I am talking about having the right offer and the right marketing to reach the segment of your audience that will be able to afford you 12 months from now.

    Because remember: some of those businesses that will be forced to close belong to your (potential) clients.

    Some of those employees who don’t have a desk to go back to anymore ARE your (potential) clients.

    Some of those families you have been calling “ideal clients” simply won’t have extra money to spend on luxury.

    So you better diversify and prepare.

    photography studio lockdown marketing

  2. Have a bulletproof strategy to reach new people fast and predictably, and to do it in more than one platform.

    The vastitude of the changes that will take place in SEO, Google and Facebook within the next 6-12 months go way beyond what you can imagine.

    You know why? 

    Because nobody is more aware of the tsunami that is going to hit small business than the giants (a.k.a. Google and Facebook) that made a fortune providing them with a platform to promote their services.

    So they too are forced to diversify, making it easier for big brands to eat a bigger piece of the online-customer-base cake.

  3. Stop worrying about what other photographers do.

    We all know that the market is over-saturated. It has been for a very long time.

    You’ve been undercut left right and centre.

    Look around, visit 5-10 websites of other newborn photographers and tell me if at least half of them are not using the same pricing, offering the same products and even using the same words on their pages.

    This is not the time to look like everybody else. 

    This time, the market is not going to be forgiving with those who are not bold enough to craft their own path and build their own business identity.

WHAT IF RESTING ON YOUR LAURELS, EXPECTING BUSINESS TO “PICK UP NATURALLY” MEANT LOSING IT?

AFTER ALL, BUSINESS DOESN’T TOLERATE COMPLACENCY.

… REMEMBER BLOCKBUSTERS?

MARKETING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS: WHAT NEXT?

There is a bumpy road ahead, but there is still time for you to prepare your business for what’s coming next.

Focus on the 3 points aboce and you will not just survive this, but come out on top because of it.

If you want to know more about how these strategies can help you create a competitive advantage and position yourself to dominate the market, book your free marketing coaching call now.

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