BY HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHY MENTORING COACH, Vanie Poyey

So, you’ve built up your email list and are eager to kick-start your email marketing, but you’re stumped on what to say in those messages?

Fear not, I’ve got you covered!

The key to successful email marketing is putting your audience first. Shift the focus from yourself to them. What would your audience benefit from? What can you teach them to help them be more successful as it relates to your services? How can you offer them value?

When you offer value to your audience, you’ll establish yourself as an expert who can be trusted to take their portraits. This helps build a solid base of fans who read your content and fall in love with you, in turn boosting booking rates… as long as you ask for them to book with you. I’ll circle back to this in a minute.

But first, the best way to come up with authentic content effortlessly, is to take real-life scenarios with clients and turn them into insightful, value packed emails.

I get most of my ideas from my interactions with clients. As soon as they come to me, I write them down in my notes app to revisit when I sit to create my emails.

One of my best emails came about from a horrible experience trying to photograph kids who didn’t want to be photographed. Mom and Dad were clueless and instead of helping, they made the situation worse by having Dad go out to grab food for the kids. There were three little ones and Mom could barely take care of one, let alone two, while I tried to photograph the third who thought my studio was a big playground. To make matters worse, as they reviewed the images, both parents expected miraculous results with their kids’ headshots.????????‍♀️

So, I set out to write all about how to prepare kids for a headshot session and when to know if they are not interested!

During your interactions with clients, make note of everything you can turn into teaching moments – from awesome experiences to the most terrible ones.

????For example, if a client comes in with only one outfit per look and my instructions to them are to bring two to three options per look, I write about why it’s important for them to bring two to three options per look.

????If a client shows up without having ironed their clothes or with their clothing stuffed into a suitcase, I write all about how to keep their clothes wrinkle free on the day of their session.

????If a client is referred to me by an agency who is asking for a re-do of their headshots because they had an epic makeup fail, I write about what not to do with makeup for headshots.

It’s not just about sending emails, it’s about building meaningful connections through content that resonates. And as you do this, make sure you include a call to action to book with you about 25% of the time. You’d be surprised how doing so gets people to take action.

If you email your list once a month, ask them to book with you every quarter. If you email your list once a week, ask them to take action once a month.

So, share your experiences as an expert, address common concerns, and turn them into valuable lessons. You’ll be amazed at how each effortlessly the ideas will come to you.

Did this approach work for you? Comment below!