I think we can all relate to this, right? You look up one day and think, “Whoa it’s been a while since I’ve gotten an inquiry,” and your mind starts to go to doomsday scenarios of never getting another inquiry and having to shut down your business entirely.
Just me? Haha. Don’t panic friend. I’m going to show you exactly what I used to do when inquiries slowed down or stopped entirely.
1. Check your website’s contact form
Make sure that everything is working as it should be!
I’ll never forget, one day I thought, “It’s been a while since I’ve gotten an inquiry.” I went to look at my contact form and I had between 12 and 14 contacts just sitting there stuck in my contact form. Something had happened where I wasn’t getting e-mail of people who had inquired.
So first and foremost, just check your contact form and make sure that it’s functioning properly. Just do a little test run.
2. Think about how does your ideal client usually find you?
Is it through vendor referral, client referral, through social media, or Google? Identify that and then ramp up marketing to that one thing.
If you’re not sure how your ideal client finds you, make sure you’re asking, “How did you hear about me?” on your contact form using something like Honeybook.
3. Check time of year
Really think about, in the history of your business, “Are inquiries slower this time of year?”
For me personally, I know without a doubt July and August are always slower for inquiries and then by September they pick back up. The only reason that I could think that that’s true is that people are travelling, they’re on vacation mode, they’re just not thinking about normal things. And once kids go back to school, people start thinking about things like booking clients or booking photographers again.
And so think about the time of year and what ebbs and flows are normal in your business. Look at how many inquiries did you get this time last year and it might just be a matter of patience if it’s a normal time for you to be a little slower in inquiries. Being aware of that can help you prepare for that in the future.
4. Post availability or a call to action for inquiring/booking
Sometimes people just need to be told what to do, so use social media as an opportunity to give people that little push to go ahead and inquire with you.
I gave you a list of to-dos, but I also want you to…
5. Consider who are you BEING as a business owner instead of only focusing on what you’re DOING.
How would the $10k/month version of you show up in her business right now? Don’t resort to desperation because you want to get inquiries!
How would the $10k/month version of you WHO KNEW 10 inquiries were about to pour in marketing/show up right now?
If you need revenue, now’s the time to start thinking about and booking fall and Christmas sessions!
Tell me in the comments, do you have any tricks or ideas for boosting your inquiries? What’s worked for you?
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If you have a goal to make a full time income with photography, Marketing School for Photographers is opening for the last time in 2021 on September 20th so make sure to join the waitlist for all the info at www.thebeautyinbirth.net/waitlist
