What To Do When You’re Not Booking Clients

This post is part of the series, The Ultimate Guide To Being A Wedding Photographer — advice for running a successful wedding photography biz. Click here to view a list of all the posts in this series.

I think the two key ingredients for a successful business are time + consistency.

It takes time to grow a business you’re proud of, it takes time to grow a portfolio you’re proud of.

There’s no get-rich-quick way to do it. There just isn’t.

So what do you do when you’re not booking as many clients as you’d like (or not booking at all)?

Reassess Your Marketing Strategy

Are you scratching your head, wondering what the heck I’m talking about?

That’s okay. This is where I see a lot of creative entrepreneurs falter… they don’t have a marketing strategy.

What often happens, instead, is a knee jerk reaction when they feel the crunch of not having any booked clients. They do things like:

• Offer drastic discounts on services or products
• Spend $$$ on one form of advertising (facebook or The Knot, for example)

I’m not going to go into why these knee jerk reactions are so damaging for your brand or business (that’s a whole other post, for another time). But the point is, you are acting out of desperation in these situations — which leads to booking non-Ideal Clients (the kind that nickel and dime everything, and don’t actually appreciate your work), or not even booking at all. (Click here to learn how to book clients you love — that love you back!)

Instead, ideally, you won’t get to that point. You won’t be making knee jerk reactions because you’ll be sticking to your marketing strategy/plan.

Creating Your Marketing Plan

Like I mentioned, being successful in your business takes time + consistency. If you woke up this morning in a panic, because you don’t have any clients booked for this coming wedding season, don’t succumb to one of those knee jerk reactions.

Sit down and work out your marketing plan.

Look at the next 12 months — then break it into quarters. I suggest one “big idea” for each quarter. One example might be “network with 5 other wedding vendors”

Need some help?

• Click here for more about marketing for your wedding photography biz).
• Or check out this post with 19 unique marketing ideas for your wedding photo business

So, for the whole year, you should come up with 4 big ideas.

Now, look back at each quarter, and break down to each month. Write out and schedule everything you need to do to make each big idea happen.

Like I said, schedule it — schedule every step it will take to accomplish that big idea. Put them all in your calendar, then set reminders. Hold yourself accountable.

No, this is not a quick fix or a get-rich-quick scheme. It is time + consistency.

You have to be dedicated to make this work. And I know it can be incredibly discouraging when you’re looking at your calendar and there are no clients booked. But just think, if you followed through with your marketing plan, what your calendar will look like in a year!

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You can do it, friend! I’m rooting for you.

Got questions or want clarification? Leave me a comment below — I’m happy to help!