Yesterday I shared on my Instagram stories several things that have grown my business in the last year. There was so much feedback, I wanted to share then on here for you!

1. Style Guides: basically what a style guide is, is a PDF with tips and suggestions to send to your clients that describes your process and shares details on how to prepare for their sessions. For example, what to wear, location options, colors that photograph best and the best time to schedule your DC family photo session. I use Indesign with Adobe to design all my style guides. I have a maternity, family and newborn guide. This allows me to capture the photos I want, allows my clients to feel comfortable, and ultimately give my clients a better experience. I actually give my guides to every person who inquires even before they book. This is one way to under promise but over deliver.
2. Welcome Video: To anyone who thinks it comes easy for me to share photos of myself on Social Media; it’s not! But it does help me to connect with potential clients before they actually meet me. So I created a very simple video to send to my session inquiries and my leads have transferred to bookings much better this year! And guys, don’t overthink this. It doesn’t have to a lot of time or even cost you a penny. I set my tripod up in our bedroom-because it has the best light-and took a simple 1 minutes video of me welcoming them into my JBP family. People connect when they see your eyes and hear your voice. 🙂
3. Tailwind: This is an APP that allows you to batch schedule your photos to Pinterest. You can add your tags and what board you want to add it to. I heard about this form Tiffany Farley’s podcast Finding Your Focus. I highly recommend giving it a listen! My Pinterest growth has significantly grown since using Tailwind. And let’s be honest, Pinterest is one of the current largest search engines on the web today with over 250 million users every month.
4. Just Blog: The suggested amount of words for each post is 300. This sounded so intimidating to me at first but I think is showed that I didn’t get to know my clients well enough before their session if I couldn’t come up with just 300 words to say about them. Once I started blogging consistently and with a bigger word count my SEO got so much better! Using key words like “Washington DC Family Photographer” or “DC Newborn Photographer” allowed potential clients to find me by searching those key words.
5. Ask for Reviews: I know, this makes me feel clammy just talking about it; but it is SO important for small business owners! A few days after I email my client their gallery, I email them a short questionnaire asking them about their experience with me, ways to improve and ….places to leave reviews. My top two suggestions are Facebook and Google. You can utilize them even more by sharing them to your blog and Instagram. This shares with other potential clients that they had a great experience and gives you credibility.
6. *Stat Counter: This website helps you see all your analytics and how your clients view your blog and which pages they spend the most time on. It’s super helpful to see any areas of growth and what people are reacting too. Many times it’s not what you think and that shows you what you need to share more of in your business.

Hope you found these tips helpful and feel free leave any suggestions or future blog post ideas in the comments below!