Lesson 3: Email Marketing I began this lesson with a deep dive and realized I do not need to reinvent the wheel, and that it was going to take me a lot of time and energy for no reason. If you really want to have a great blue print for email marketing with script examples and detailed instructions, check out Ryan Deiss’ Invisible Selling Machine. He will send one to you for just the cost of shipping and handling here: http://invisiblesellingmachine.com/scratch-and-dent/ If you google search for it, there are also more ways to obtain this book via digital download for free. I didn’t investigate them for very long, they looked a wee bit dubious, but this is reddit. The book deals with Infusionsoft (which is expensive and not recommended unless you have the budget to spend at least 4 grand on an email provider every year) and as far as I am aware, other automated emails do not have the same functionality as far as automatically segmenting and changing preferences for a subscriber based on clicks, but you can still create some amazing campaigns and get awesome nuggets. He also has a ton of scripting examples. But, for now, I’m going to focus on the biggest value-added tactics that I think that a wedding photographer can do with email campaigns. A lot of this is from Deiss’ book. It is the most specific and tactic-full book I have ever read. Highly recommend it. First off, when a person requests your rate sheet and signs up to receive communication from you (which you should make clear is happening), your initial email is extremely important. Here are the main things you definitely want to have in your intro email. Remember, this is the time that the prospect is MOST excited about you and you get to tell them all the amazing things about your company culture and how you approach photography. Ryan calls this the Indoctrination phase. This is where you’ll win brides over. Elements of an introductory email: 1) Introduce yourself Tell them who you are and what you are all about. 2) Set Expectations and State Benefits Tell them how often they can expect to hear from you and what you’ll be writing them about. 3) Get them to travel with you People who travel with you really like you. If you meet someone at the bar and you want to ask them for their number without being a total d bag, first ask them to go to the bar for a drink with you. If they go, you can ask them to go outside with you or go sit in a booth with you. If they go, they are interested and you can ask them for their number and not feel sleazy. At the same time, because they are saying ‘Yes’ to you in these small ways, they feel more connected and are more likely to actually give you their number. #Psychology Tell your prospective bride to ‘like’ your FB page, follow you on Instagram, give them your Twitter handle, check out the top three blog posts you think she’ll love, etc. All of these things will give them more social proof that you are the bomb diggity and the fact that they do this at your request will make them more connected to you subconsciously. Little yesses lead to a big yes. Following links in your email will also signal to their mail servers that you are not spam.

4) Ask them to white list you. Again, this is a small yes, but it also ensures that your communications will not be picked up by spam email filters. 5) Cliffhanger Give them something to look forward to in the next email. Doing this will help ensure they open it. “In the next email, I am going to tell you my five steps to having a completely stress free wedding day, but first, let me ask you. . . “ 6) Engagement Ask a question at the end so they’ll reply. Doing this not only starts a conversation and creates another small yes, but it is a signal to their mail server that you are not spam so even if they don’t white label you, it is more likely that your emails will always get through.

Example Script: Hi [Bride Name], My name is Kaila Williams and I am the owner/main photographer of Acme Wedding Photography. I just wanted to take a moment and welcome you to the family. Thank you for signing up for our email list. Our rate sheet is available here (insert link here), but before you leave me, please take a moment so I can tell you what to expect from this relationship. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sending you information on how to have the best wedding day possible. This is information I’ve learned having shot X number of weddings over the past X many seasons. You’ll definitely want to check out my next email on how to have a stress free wedding day. You won’t want to miss it so be sure you whitelist our email address. I have instructions for how to do this here. (Link) In the meantime, I want to hear from you! Reply to this email and tell me what unique features you are planning that you are most excited about for your big day. Looking forward to connecting further. XOXO, K P.S. Don’t forget to be social! We’re building an amazing community on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. Spend a little time on these pages and get inspired.

So that’s a little rough and you’ll definitely want to adapt it to your personality and point of view, but you get the idea. If you’re getting brides that are clicking out once they see the link to the rate sheet, you can move it to the bottom as a P.S.

Indoctrination Email Chain Tips 1) Email 3x/week Don’t freak out and worry about unsubscribers. The Indoctrination phase is when your new potential client is most excited to hear from you. So let them hear from you! This is the time to tell them stories that will make them LOVE you and your company. If they unsubscribe, they were never going to buy anyway. Plus, if you don’t email, you won’t find your raving fans either. And, avoiding email because you are afraid of unsubscribers renders it useless. 2) Don’t just sell Set yourself up as the expert and impart knowledge and helpful tips. Make your emails interesting and something the bride will look forward to reading. About every third email you can sell, and you should follow up with a phone call at the beginning of the second week. 3) Manually remove brides who book If someone books with you or makes an appointment, manually remove them from this email stream. You can move them onto a new email stream targeted to brides that have booked, which will be all value added, but they will get annoyed with you if they are still on this one. 4) Drip email When someone enters this phase, you should slow down the email stream. If they haven’t contacted you or made an appointment so you manually move them, your email sequence should slip into this automatically. Drip emails should come 1x/week or 1x every two weeks. 5) Find a wedding photographer yet? Is a perfectly good headline Seriously. It can work in the drip stream and you can send it a few times. The more times you send it, the more it will gnaw at the person if they haven’t. 6) Final push Passive aggressiveness is your friend in this email. Literally say, I’ve been reaching out to you. It seems like maybe we aren’t the right fit or you just aren’t interested so I’m going to stop emailing you now. You’ll be surprised how many people will respond to this, explain their situation, and possibly help you find brides whose dates are so in the future that you can follow up with in a year. Other email chains 1) Referral Emails This is a huge opportunity that I think most wedding photographers miss. After the images are delivered, start an email chain that asks for reviews and referrals. It can be a 3-5 email chain spaced out over a two month period. Give them value for their referral. Give them a gift card or extra prints or a credit toward an album or whatever. 2) Upsale Emails The easiest way to give an example of this is to think about when someone purchases prints online from you. This defines them as a print buyer. You may think, but they bought their prints, why would they need more? I guarantee you that if you give them a deal, they will buy more. So, after the initial purchase, send them an email chain with a percentage off sales code and then feature other easy but unique upsales like a standout print or canvas. This is great for a mother of the bride who was just thinking about a few prints for her scrap book, and didn’t realize that you could order more products besides just prints. Curate what you offer and automate it as much as possible. This could work to sell books and albums on the back end as

well if you don’t do in person ordering, but you’d have to do some research on how to make that process smooth. 3) Upsell an album Let’s say your bride and groom purchased a basic album for their wedding package. You could send emails featuring the latest and greatest album that has all the bells and whistles and let them know that they can upgrade for a special price. Send this after the wedding and before they get their images because (ideally) all their bills will be paid and they won’t be going album upgrade or dessert? If they got a package with no album, send them an email showing off the album that they can have for a special price. Tell them that printed images will last generations whereas technology changes and fails and make a meme with a CD on the wall or something. You can do this with prints as well. 4) Moving on Email Chain Let’s say you do weddings but you also do babies. In about a year after the wedding, you could send drip emails about baby and family photography. Just hit them once a month, once every few months. It doesn’t have to be a ton. In fact, it probably shouldn’t be. If they show interest, you can move them onto a more aggressive chain.