The silence of a newborn photography studio without the cries of newborns resonates louder than any camera flash.
This is true for one of my customers, Eugene, who runs Tahra Newborn Studio in Texas, USA. She knows the feeling quite well when the 2-year COVID-19 pandemic hit the business. According to her “the scary quiet space covered the whole studio.”
Imagine if this is your newborn photography studio. It can be quite alarming, isn’t it?
But COVID-19 is not the only factor that could lead your business to not having any customers. It might also be because you do not know how to create leads for your business.
So how do you break this silence?
In this article, I’m sharing with you how I showed Eugene the steps on how to prospect and develop effective lead generation leads for her newborn photography business.
TIP 1: Identify your potential customers
Identifying your potential customers should be the first and considered as the most important step when creating your leads. If you cannot identify them accurately, you’ll eventually waste a lot of time and resources aiming for the wrong demographics.
Keep in mind these two (2) ways how you can properly qualify your leads:
Identify Your Target Demographics.
For a newborn photography business, that could be parents-to-be, new parents and their family members, or people who are interested in capturing the first moments of parenthood.
Segment Your Market.
Determine important details such as age, economic bracket, region, lifestyle choices, interests, etc. This process will help you tailor effective marketing strategies.
Here’s a list of questions that will help you find information and a better understanding of the needs of your potential customers.
– Are they male or female?
– What is their age group?
– Do they live in a booming city or a small town?
– At what age do parents usually take photos of their newborns?
– What concept do they like?
– What are your favorite tool colors and concepts?
– How much is their expectation for the cost of a photo session? Etc.
Utilize Market Research Tools
Eugene employed a range of tools and made use of surveys, focus groups, and data analysis to gain insights regarding potential customers. Here are the tools that she used:
1. Qualaroo: For her, this is a good instrument for market research as well as one of the great online survey platforms available.
2. Google Trends: This tool provided her with an indication of how popular search words relating to her business have been over time. As a free market research tool, this enabled her to get a good insight into her business across the internet.
3. SurveyMonkey & Statista: These were the other websites that Eugene has used to conduct market research and get data visualizations.
4. Google Keyword Tool: Eugene used this tool to offer insightful information about Google searches made by the target demographic.
Going back to Eugene’s case, she mentioned that she did not usually specifically try to identify her target customers. Here’s what she did after receiving these tips on how to find potential customers from me.
1. Checking her Geographic Location
Eugene started to analyze the demographics and the characteristics of people in different regions within the Texas State. She observed the variations among the cities and towns in terms of population density, social level, and cultural preferences. She gave it some thought to choose to concentrate her efforts on the cities of Houston, Austin, and Dallas because these places had larger populations of young families and thus, a potential for a huge demand for newborn photography services.
Having a clearer understanding that new parents were the primary target audience, Eugene segmented the market based on their age and life stages. She identified which couples were in their late 20s to early 40s and who among them were expecting or had recently welcomed a newborn into their families.
2. Segmenting Based on Income Level
Recognizing that newborn photography is often considered a luxury service, Eugene also considered segmenting her market based on their income level. She targeted middle to upper-middle-class household who has the financial capacity to invest in such professional photography services for their newborns. This way, Eugene was able to position her business, as offering premium-quality photoshoots and personalized experiences that are worth the investment.
3. Lifestyle Preferences
Eugene discovered that many young parents in Texas were also active on social media platforms, particularly on Instagram and Facebook. These are the platforms where they usually share photos and seek recommendations for family-related services.
The Outcome?
Eugene was able to develop targeted marketing strategies that resonated withherideal customers. Her meticulous segmentation of the market based on geographic location, age, income level, and lifestyle preferences helped her understand her audience and preferred customers better.
TIP 2: Know where to find them
So far, you’ve learned how to know who your potential customers are. So the next question is:
“Where are they?”
Knowing where your potential customers frequent or are present to make your advertising will ensure that you are reaching them at the right places.
Let’s break down the strategies and the information that you need to collect from your potential customers at this stage:
1. Social Media: At this age, there’s a huge possibility that you’ll find your customers present and active on social networking platforms. Make use of this to gather insights into your target customers’ behavior. You can monitor discussions and queries related to newborn photography to understand common questions and concerns. Additionally, you’ll be able to analyze search trends to identify what your potential customers are searching for regarding your photography services.
2. Networking Events: You should try to attend baby expos, parenting workshops, and community gatherings. This is a surefire way to meet and interact with your potential customers
3. Via Email Marketing: Through an email marketing campaign, you can offer incentives such as freebies, discounts, or informational resources in exchange for email sign-ups to your customers. This will help you create a database of your leads so you can reach out to them anytime they’d allow you to.
4. Through Collaborations: Partner with maternity clinics, baby stores, and parenting influencers to increase your brand visibility and exposure. This will also help you gain insights into the preferences of your potential customers.
TIP 3: Use appropriate marketing strategies
Generating leads for your newborn photography business is surely a long process. But you can optimize this by defining strategies with distinct stages with each strategy designed to serve a specific purpose in guiding your prospects through your sales process.
ATTRACT: Set up your brand
As a photographer and entrepreneur, you need to create some uniqueness to your brand to set you apart from your competition. You need a brand that can stand out and attract the attention of your customers. Find out what makes your services more outstanding compared to your competitors.
Start with a remarkable name for your newborn photography brand to stand out, and imprint it on the minds of your customers.
CAPTURE: Provide value with high-quality content
Content marketing will help you showcase your knowledge and attract potential customers. Consider writing blog posts on topics surrounding your newborn photography business. Showcase your knowledge and capture them with your expertise in the field. You can also share tips, examples, and ideas of cute baby poses, and your preparations for a newborn photo session.
NURTURE: Keep your customers coming back for more
Keeping your customers is just as difficult as keeping them. Achieve customer trust and loyalty through the following:
Offer appropriate incentive programs and promotions
If you’re in a price-saturated market, your newborn photography business needs to offer some promotional policies and incentives to capture and retain your customers. This way, you can create a foundation and build a loyal customer file that will personally vouch for you and produce more customers organically.
As for Eugene, she offered the following incentives in her newborn photography business:
– Offered a free family photo session
– Free newborn photo sessions for 1-month-olds within the area on International Children’s Day.
– Offered free 2-month-olf newborn photo sessions
LEARN: Always improve and upgrade yourself
In a race, the leader is the one who receives the most attention. Likewise, in a newborn photography business, the market leader will attract more customers compared to a business that never upgrades and does not know how to keep up with the trends.
Keep learning and use your expertise as the main selling point of your business.
TIP 4: Convert high-quality leads
Keep interacting with your customers
You can maintain your interaction with your existing customers by periodically sending them promotional messages about your new products or services. You can also send congratulatory messages and give gratitude to customers on special occasions. Send exclusive incentives for loyal customers as well.
Get your customers to vouch for you
As mentioned earlier, your customers can also be an effective advertising channel for your business. As you maintain good relationships with your customers you’ll get them to trust your services even more and gain loyalty. At the same time, word-of-mouth referrals from them are a good addition to raising the percentage of your devoted clients. So even if they no longer need your services, they can still recommend your services to their friends or relatives who are also in need of them.
Improve the quality of your customer service
Customer service is sometimes the main factor that influences customers’ buying decisions. Being welcome and available for any inquiries that your customers might need to be resolved will increase their satisfaction and trust thereby, improving the customer’s possibility to convert.
Even if the customer has not yet decided to get your services–if he/she has a good impression of the business, they will surely consider and prioritize you in their choices later on.
TIP 5: Exploit emotional marketing
Anyone is often impressed by images and stories that bring out their intense emotions.
Scientific studies have proven that people’s shopping habits and purchasing decisions are greatly influenced by their emotions even if they are intentional and calculated.
1. Tap into the emotional journey of parenthood: Parenthood is a beautiful thing and a wonderful journey. Highlight the importance of capturing precious moments of children as moments quickly face as babies grow.
2. Showcase empathy and understanding: Let your customer know how important the preservation of such moments is. Communicate that getting a newborn photography shoot is more than just you offering a service, but will help them preserve memories that they can cherish for a lifetime.
Use storytelling: Share your customers’ testimonials, your success stories, and real-life experiences of families who have benefited and are satisfied with their newborn photoshoot sessions.
TIP 6: Make Use of Viral Marketing
So far, you’ve gained tips on how to effectively create leads for your newborn photography business. But what about the costs?
Marketing and lead generation can cost you money, so it is good to have a strategy that can help you save your budget and minimize your expenditures.
There is a way to solve this while still achieving a high-quality and efficient marketing strategy and it is through viral marketing.
Viral effects are the most reasonable solution to help you save from advertising costs while getting more brand visibility and awareness for your business at the same time.
For example:
Organize a photo contest event on social media networks with the theme: ‘Lovely moments of your baby.’ Invite parents to send photos of your children in their cutest and most memorable times. To participate, the customer must share their child’s photo on their feed using the contest’s special hashtag.
For each photo shared, the studio will post it on its page and give a discount coupon for newborn photography services to the photo sender. At the same time, the most shared photo will receive a special award from the studio.
In this case, the viral effect occurs when cute photos of babies are widely shared on social networks, attracting the attention and participation of thousands of people. Each photo shared can bring hundreds and even thousands of engagements. These photos will not only impact a positive image of the studio, but they can also stimulate viewers’ curiosity and desire for the studio’s newborn photography services.
To summarize, viral marketing can play a very important role in increasing the attention and interest of customers in the business’s services, helping save advertising costs, and increasing your ability to reach and create connections with potential and existing customers.
In conclusion
By offering professional newborn photography services, you provide families with the means to capture and immortalize fleeting moments of joy, love, and connection. Your solution offers not just photographs, but treasured memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.
Generating leads is just one challenge in the overall journey of growing the number of satisfied and ready-to-buy customers. The next step is to focus on the right leads, nurture them, and guide them to make a purchasing decision.
To recap, there are five important things to Creating Leads:
Tip 1: Identify your potential customers,
Tip 2: Find out where to find them,
Tip 3: Use appropriate marketing strategies,
Tip 4: Exploit emotional marketing,
Tip 5: Use Viral Marketing to save cost
Of course, nothing is absolute. Each strategy must depend on the scale and complexity of the business process, the lead generation strategy needs to be modified to meet the requirements of customers.
Still, I hope that as much as I helped Eugene, the above strategies will also help your newborn photography business grow.
