Times are tough.
You’re faced with challenges that have likely strained your business in ways you couldn’t have imagined. Amidst the uncertainty, there lies an opportunity – to adapt, evolve, and come out stronger on the other side.
Maybe you’re thinking, “I used to have a steady stream of clients, but lately, my bookings have dried up,” or perhaps you worry “about the stability of my business and whether I’ll be able to sustain myself in the long run.”
It’s ok; you’re not alone.
We believe in you and your craft. You deserve to make a living doing what you love. We’re invested in helping you weather this storm. Here are 3 immediate cash flow strategies designed to help you generate quick cash and strengthen the core of your business for the long run.
Open up a print sale for existing clients with existing galleries
You’re already sitting on a bunch of money – existing galleries! Think of all of your clients who have had sessions with you already. Maybe they never ordered anything. Or maybe they didn’t order what they wanted. Or maybe they have more they’d like. Or maybe they have someone (a parent, grandparent, sibling, etc.) that they’d like to buy prints for.
No matter the reason, re-opening old galleries with a print sale is a great opportunity to generate sales without spending more time behind your camera.
Here’s an email you can send:
Hey [[client_first_name]]!
Do you realize how impactful it is to have prints of you and your loved ones in your home?
Honestly, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
So I found a study that surveyed 15,591 families about the value of printed photos vs. digital images. Here’s what they found:
- Prints help families connect more than digital images.
- Prints create more confident kids, improving their imagination, self-esteem and sense of identity.
- Prints remind parents that they’re doing a good job, leading to more engaged and capable parents.
- Prints help partners feel more connected.
That’s right. I was blown away!
Read that again …Proudly displaying prints around your home of you and your loved ones leads to more connection, increased confidence, higher levels of engagement and greater happiness.
Seems like a magic formula for a connected, happy family – right?
What makes me most hopeful is that I am a gateway to this kind of happy home. I can unlock that kind of positivity for you and your family, and I hold that privilege in high regard. That’s why I take my role seriously and consider it my responsibility to get you beautiful prints. I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t do everything I could to get you more prints in your home.
So I was inspired to run a 48-hour VIP re-opening on your gallery. That’s right. For 48 hours only, I’ve extended your gallery so you can purchase prints.
To make this even easier, I am also offering the following:
- A generous 20% discount on all prints and wall art
- A complimentary archival digital file with every print you order
- Free at-home install of wall art, so you don’t have to lift a finger
Interested? Let’s make it happen! Here’s how:
- Visit your gallery – it’s available for only 2 days – [[gallery_link]]
- Click “Order Prints” under any image you’d like to order a print of.
- Choose your preferred size and print type.
- When you’re done, click the “Cart” icon in the top-right corner.
- Confirm and checkout.
- Your 25% off is automatically applied!
I cannot wait to help you have a positive impact in your home with your new prints!
[[primary_first_name]]
[[brand_business_name]]
P.S. If you’re interested in a more numbers-based approach to the impact of prints in your home, here are some stats that are hard to argue with!
- 76% of families surveyed agree printed photos help my family to connect in ways they wouldn’t normally with digital photos
- 88% agree they feel closer to their family when they look at photos of their family
- 86% appreciate their family more when looking at family photos
- 77% feel a stronger connection to their child(ren) when looking at family photos
- 73% feel a stronger connection to their spouse/partner when they look at family photos
- 79% agree that looking at printed photos is a shared family experience
Launch a gift certificate promotion to existing clients
A study conducted by Marketing Metrics found that the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. That means it’s almost 15 times easier to generate revenue from an existing client than find a new one.
Take your existing client database and offer them a gift certificate promotion. But remember – you have to give them an answer to the question “why now?” so here are 4 quick ideas:
- Double Dollar Promotion – You double the gift certificate your client purchases, so if they pay $250, they get a $500 gift certificate.
- Bonus Upgrade – You offer a bonus product (a set of prints, an upgrade in size, wall art) when a client purchases a gift certificate for a session.
- Referral Rewards – When your client refers a friend to purchase a gift certificate, both they and their friend get a monetary credit towards prints from their session.
- Loyalty Luxuries Promotion – When your client purchases a gift certificate for a session, they get a complimentary luxury add-on, such as a professional hair stylist and make-up artist for the session.
Reach out to your best 20 clients with a family portrait plan offer
Offer your best clients the opportunity to pre-purchase 10 sessions in bulk with a discount and a print credit for each session. This is a great way to build a consistent client base over the span of several years and a way to guarantee repeat business, which then spawns more referrals, word-of-mouth and activity.
Here’s an email you can send:
Hey [[client_first_name]]!I loved photographing you and your family.
I’ve been thinking about how to keep working with some of my favourite families (that’s you!) while making it more affordable for them.
Most families come for portraits every 3-5 years. But there are so many meaningful moments in your life between those formal portraits – your kids growing up, communions, birthday parties, pets, multi-generational family moments, and so on.
Sure, your kids will get pictures done at school and for their sports teams, but how much do they say about them? I’d love for you to have something more meaningful regularly to document these moments.
That’s why I’ve come up with a Family Portrait Plan and am offering it to a few of my favorite families – yourself included.
With the Family Portrait Plan, you get 10 sessions that you can use over the next 10 years. From each session, you also get an included 8×10 print and 20% off any prints or products you choose to order after each session.
If you paid my regular session fee each time, this would cost you almost $4,000, but I’m offering the Family Portrait Plan for only $1,275. So not only do you save almost $3,000, but you’ll also save 20% on your prints and products from every session.
I’d love to chat more about this or talk on the phone to see if this would be a good fit for your family; I’d be honoured to continue to be part of your family and help document your memories.
What do you think?
Not only will these strategies help you out of the immediate turmoil, but they can be integrated into your annual marketing calendar to generate predictable streams of cash flow. Stay motivated, keep pushing forward, and remember you have the creativity and skills to overcome any obstacle. Look at the business side of photography as a creative opportunity, and let’s turn these seeds of opportunity into a garden of success together.
By the way – if you’re a Sprout Studio user, these email templates are already pre-loaded into Sprout Template Library for you to use verbatim or edit as you see fit.
