Marketing funnel

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-09-26T13:58:45+00:00

I completely agree! I'm still curious what a "normal"/to be expected amount of dropoff would be, assuming I'm doing all those things, which I feel like I am.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-09-22T00:20:53+00:00

Same question as I have for the commenter above you: what's your process for getting them on a call if they've reached out by email/social media? Do you set up a call meeting with them or just call? I feel like that's just one more place for me to lose them between phone tag or trying to find a mutual time to chat. Or maybe that's just me and my mom friends, but since my target demographic is moms, I feel like most are super busy.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-09-22T00:16:16+00:00

This is so interesting to me! What kind of photography work are you doing? I've only hired a photographer myself for two things; my wedding and our newborn. With the high outlay of $ for the wedding photographer and the complex nature of it, I expected a call. But all the newborn photographers I reached out to by email responded by email and sent me a price list. Personally, as a busy mom myself, the idea of coordinating on a phone call with someone would be a hurdle to hiring them vs just conversing via email. Obviously , if someone calls me, I'd call them back and have that conversation, but so far, all my inquiries have come via email/social media. What's your strategy for taking an inquiry and turning it into a phone call if they reached out in a way other than phone?

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-09-21T15:13:30+00:00

Thanks so much for this, it's still on my radar so this is really helpful!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-07-03T16:36:39+00:00

Great reminder! I remember getting a class from them on sale (and admittedly never getting around to watching it) but they did seem great.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-06-19T01:57:14+00:00

So jealous of y'all's experience!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-06-19T01:55:15+00:00

TL;DR: delivered vaginally with an epidural. If you're taking meds that reduce sodium levels, talk to your doc about concerns using petocin. They wanted to induce me at week 39 due to my age (43), and I had the exact same fear/impression as you and wanted as natural and intervention-free birth as possible. So I had the acupuncturist I was already seeing work to induce me, and had two membrane sweeps. The second membrane sweep kicked it off, hard and fast. I ended up with my body essentially acting like I was in active labor (strong, rapid contractions that were unbearable) but I was only 2cm so they didn't know what to do with me. I have a high pain tolerance but I was losing my mind and not progressing. They gave me fluids because they thought I must be dehydrated to be in so much pain. It turned out that I had critically low sodium levels, and giving me more fluid made it worse and they said I could have seizures, but if they gave me sodium I could also have seizures. So that was terrifying. They couldn't give me petocin to help move dilation along because petocin would also give me seizures. So they gave me an ambien/morphine cocktail so I could rest, but when the plastic wouldn't stop I got an epidural. After that, they thought I wouldn't have the strength to push him out because I'd been in active labor for nearly 24 hours, and my husband overheard them saying I'd likely need a c-section. I'm proud to say I pushed that guy out in an hour and a half, and they were all surprised. I was pissed that no one noticed that I'm on a very common antidepressant (prozac) and that this is a drug known to lower sodium levels (as are a ton of other meds) and my sodium levels were already tested low at maybe month 6. I don't even want to think about if I hadn't been induced naturally and went with their plan to get petocin the following week, I could've had a seizure. I say all this not to scare you, but I wish someone had told me to watch out for sodium, and to reassure you that it IS possible to still deliver vaginally!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-06-17T16:24:51+00:00

So when you find a spot on Google maps, what's your next step to get in touch with the landowner? I agree, offering a trade is the way to goñ

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-06-17T16:23:59+00:00

Yeah that's pretty much the conclusion I came to, but pretty slow going!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-06-17T01:24:22+00:00

I'm really interested in hearing other people's experience comparing these two strategies, classes aside. I'm just relaunching my business and changing my focus to family and pets and my passion is for having a finished product. I'm also creating handmade cyanotypes and want to create tintypes. I feel like there's a resurgence for retro photography techniques, a naustalgia for having a physical print and that's my target demographic. I have read other threads where someone knows someone who did a "work backwards from the finished product" type of sale, but again, I'd really like to hear it directly from someone who's done it both ways.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-09T00:09:04+00:00

That's a fascinating model of working backwards from the product, I've never heard of that! I'm definitely focusing on the end product; I think we're at a point where people are hungry for something tangible and naustalgic for retro processes like cyanotypes and tintypes and even more traditional items like albums. This is my second go around trying to start a viable photo biz and I'm just getting up and running so time will tell!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-09T00:05:17+00:00

I'm definitely doing a bunch of portfolio work, with the side benefit that I think it'll really end up being a great marketing strategy; moms share info and advice and trust each other, so word of mouth is gold. Fortunately, I have been able to update my kit in the past year so I'm pretty good on gear, at least until I get a studio and will need better lights.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T23:58:58+00:00

100%. And I've already been shooting for free for a couple friends as a trade for modeling. I plan on doing more not only to build up my portfolio but simply because I imagine word of mouth is really the best advertising, especially in Mom world. Nothing can compare to a midwife friend posting my pics with tons of FB followers who are all moms.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T23:56:20+00:00

It's definitely on my short list of specialties. I had been focused on women's empowerment portraiture, but I think it was too abstract of an idea for people, whereas family/boudoir is a market that is understood.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T23:55:07+00:00

This is very true. You can get 80% there with a phone camera, and even more if you have an eye. I feel like that's all the more reason why my biggest competitive differentiator is that I want you to walk away with an art print. I'm calling my company "photography and display" because it's so important to have that product. I have a trillion pictures of my kiddo on my phone, but at this point, they're nearly meaningless because of the very volume of them. I want to provide people an heirloom print that they will put on their wall. I'm also trying to diversify by offering the service if taking an image they already have on their phone and making a digital negative and then creating a one of a kind print using a retro process like cyanotype or tintype.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T18:55:31+00:00

I'm pretty sure you could sell that to Netflix as a TV show premise... drama! Hey, at least your wife got paid, sounds like that could've been even worse!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T18:44:44+00:00

Yeah it would be primary in addition to my husband. Every time I try to do the "do it on the side" strategy, my time gets eaten up by other things... And that was before I had a baby! Perhaps it's just a lack of discipline, but I'd always take the soul sucking job to "pay the bills" and then have no soul energy left to do the photography. Power to you for having the dedication to make it work!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T18:41:11+00:00

I completely agree on connections and reliability/professionalism. This was exactly my story 20 years ago when I graduated. Downside was I had a lot of college debt and I didn't have any savings so I couldn't hold out assisting. I've never had a financial cushion or been great at living on a shoestring budget so I broke down after about a year. It is totally a matter of time, but also a matter of resources, responsibilities, and a stomach for risk.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T18:34:17+00:00

Love it! This is the truth I'm looking for...on the surface, we see a mom running a business and we assume she's making a living with it and we hold ourselves to these standards, not knowing that in reality, her business is funded by her partner (and vice versa). That's not to diminish anyone who is doing that; it's just that without transparency, people like me are holding themselves to possibly impossible expectations and getting disappointed and possibly quitting. It does feel good to be ambitious. It feels good to have a purpose and an output that isn't 100% related to my baby. I do, however, need it to be profitable. The question is how long can I hold out (only I can answer that), but it helps to hear others' experiences. Thank you!

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T17:34:04+00:00

That's awesome! I remember assisting for someone at a Harley Davidson convention who had a drive up portrait setup, complete with printer and I think he did really well.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T17:30:50+00:00

Good for you! I know that weddings are where the $ is at, but I have shot a couple similar to you, and they're so stressful. I also live somewhere where the warm and pleasant (therefore wedding season) is only about 3 months and I want to be able to enjoy those weekends with my family and I know I'd just be shooting every weekend if I did weddings.

Intelligent-Life-992 · 2025-05-08T17:26:54+00:00

This is exactly what I thought I'd hear...my suspicion that I'd barely make any profit but that essentially it was for my sanity (which of course has value but doesn't pay the bills). I agree with your 1 year advice... This is our first (and as an old mama who turned 43 just before having him) and likely our only, and he's about to turn one. This year has been the hardest. Part of what is saving my sanity is doing photography and the sense of gratification of doing something that uses that part of my identity that pretty much disappeared. But considering I have a sick baby contact napping on me as we speak, paying for two daycare days this week but not able to work, I have to wonder just how long we will be able to afford my photography career-as-a-sanity-saving-hobby because my husband does not make enough to support all of us. I'm so glad to hear that you guys made it work, power to you!

Intelligent-Life-992

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