The booking season is upon us. How are your enquiries coming along? If your enquiry to booking rate is high, that’s great! But if you feel like you are constantly getting ghosted after the initial response, keep on reading.
There are a variety of reasons why a couple may not get back to you after you respond to their enquiry. It is possible that they are simply busy, your email got lost, or they realised that you are not a good fit and forgot or avoided getting back in touch with you.
You may not know the exact reason, but for the future there are few things you can do to encourage further contact with you that hopefully leads to a booking.
Here are a few suggestions to help you avoid getting ghosted:
1. Speed
Responding to an enquiry quickly really plays in your favor. Couples feel cared for and perceive you as being more professional when you get back to them in a timely manner. Keep in mind that it is very likely that they contacted a number of other photographers as well. The chances are high that they are going to go with the one that got back to them right away.
2. Tailored Response
People can detect an automatic response right away! The same way that we photographers can tell if a couple sent us a copy/paste enquiry, they can tell if our email is also from a standard template. This does not make them feel valued or that you took the time to write them a personalised response.
Nonetheless, it does not mean that you cannot use a template at all. There may be important points that you want to cover each time in your response email. Just be sure to including some personal words pertaining to them in the beginning and end of your email.
Note: To find out more about your couple, consider including a couple of questions in your contact form so that they can share more about themselves. For example, you can ask them to tell you how they met and what they do for fun.
3. Transparency
One of the main questions that most couples have is regarding how much your services cost. Pricing is at times a sensitive topic amongst photographers. There are some photographers who are very comfortable putting the breakdown of their pricing visible on their website. Some only put their starting price. And others don’t mention it at all and prefer to make an individual quote after communicating the value of their work and according to the needs of the client.
There is no right or wrong in these scenarios. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that one model over the other could play a role in the amount of people ghosting you.
Let us have a closer look:
- Show the complete breakdown of pricing
In this instance, the couple is given the opportunity to study the available packages/pricing models and can decide if the photographer is within their budget ahead of time. By the time they enquire, they are more in the mindset of being ready to book and just want to clear up some open questions. - Show the starting price only
Presenting a starting price gives the couple an idea of how much the photography services may cost. If the starting price is way too high, then they won’t bother getting in touch. If it sounds reasonable, they will get in touch to find out more.In most cases, what is stated on a photographers website is the starting price without any additional information. A suggestion would be to add at least how many hours of coverage is included in relation to that starting price. - Don’t show any prices
The couples who get in touch not knowing anything about the pricing are most likely to be in love with the images and curious to find out if they can afford to hire the photographer. What sometimes happens is that the photographer charges way more than they anticipated. Even though they love the work, they may just not be in a position to afford paying that amount.Taking these three points into consideration, you can think about what makes more sense for your business.
4. Follow-up
If you haven’t heard back from a couple, it is wise to send out a follow-up email. For example, you can make a note in your calendar as a reminder to get in touch with them after a week. Many couples are rather busy, and it could be that they just forgot to get back to you or your email landed in the spam folder.
And some couples don’t realise that there is an urgency to respond. Therefore, it is important to point out to them that in order to secure you as their wedding photographer, they need to make a commitment sooner than later by making the booking official.
5. Next Step
It is advisable to invite the couple to take the next step in the booking process e.g. arranging a personal meeting. Whenever possible, it is great to meet in person to create a closer connection. If not, try to set up a meeting to chat over the phone or do a video call.
As a closing thought, look through your online presence (website and social media). How much are you communicating with potential clients before the initial enquiry to demonstrate whether or not you are a good fit? Aim to use your online communication as a filter to only attract your ideal clients. The more your ideal clients fill out your contact form, the less likely you will get ghosted.
That all being said, we wish you all the best for the upcoming wedding season. Be sure to check out previous and upcoming educational blog posts to help you in your business.
