181: Angela Pointon – How to Create a Photography Business Clients Glide Toward

Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Angela Pointon of Hand Select Your Clients was a photographer with a love of business and marketing. She combined the two before deciding to focus full time on the business side of creativity. She will teach you how to create a photography business clients glide toward like magnets and generating enough leads to stay busy.

Angela now solely works with, teaches, mentors and writes for photographers and other creatives on how to attract your perfect client and create a terrific business. She believes, businesses that are bold enough to test something crazy deserve to win. The world needs more of this!

Here’s some of what we cover in this interview:

• Why Angela left her photography business to concentrate on business and marketing
• Who are Angela’s clients today and what does she do for them?
• What Angela looks for when choosing who she wants to work with
• How Angela’s marketing business works
• Are there any photographers who really can offer something new?
• Why you don’t want to be where the puck is, and why you want to be where the puck is going
• How to generate sales from leads
• Should you adapt and change what you’re doing to suit what your clients wants?
• What to consider before implementing strategies to potentially help your business
• Retail and commercial photographers want to become a little bit of everything to everybody
• Focus on your photography niche only when there’s enough diversity in your clientele
• What you should do when you are in a saturated market
• Why you need to stick to photographing where your passion lies
• How to transition from photographing everything to focussing on one niche
• Separating your photography niches to have more chances of getting found by clients
• Why you should have separate websites for different niches
• How difficult is it to separate niches and set them up on their own websites?
• Should rural businesses continue to do a bit of everything?
• How to connect and attract the right client to your photography business
• Getting customers to talk about your business will save you from any marketing expenses
• Customer experience cannot be replicated by your competition
• How to understand what your clients want

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more content and we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed for and include:

• Taking back-of-camera shots on your phone to add to a wonderful customer experience
• The little things you can do to offer great customer experience for your clients
• Sending hand-written notes as a strategy to increase your client experience
• Will changing the way you speak in your web copy separate you from the competition?
• Use the first person point-of-view when writing your About Page
• What to write in your About Page to attract clients to you
• How to find the resistance points of your clients and how to overcome them
• Stalking Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages to learn about your potential client’s behaviours
• Is it alright for photographers to call clients and ask why they were not booked?
• Why you need to get back to your clients right away
• What you should do to control the follow-up process during client enquiries

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interview with Angela, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

Marketing is about having your finger on the pulse of what your customers want and being one step ahead of them and having a solution to offer them – Angela Pointon

Plus, access to a members only Secret Facebook group where you'll connect with other members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take what you hear in each episode and put it into action. You will not find more friendly, more motivated and caring photographers online.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're up for the challenge and willing to invest a little time and effort into yourself, your writing and your business. If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below and feel free to share links to your blog posts – I'd love to check them out.

If you can get customers to talk about your business, you will never have to spend a dollar in marketing again – Angela Pointon

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Angela about the challenge or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

Kristen Kalp is selling off ALL her ‘stuff' in one bundle and SUPER CHEAP!

If you've been listening for any amount of time, you know how much of a fan I am of Kristen Kalp – she's been on the show twice before and I have her lined up for a third interview soon.

My absolute favourite course / program of hers (because it's made me so much extra money) is her Sales Without Shame Course and it's included with this giant sell off she's having.

Once this sale ends, that's it… The courses and everything included in this bundle is being deleted for good.

Kristen isn't going anywhere, she's simply looking for a fresh start and that means out with these programs. The great news for us is we still get Kristen AND all her courses at a spectacularly low price of $247!

Here's the link to learn more, see what's included and grab a bargain – The BIG Kristen Kalp Sell Off

At the very least, if you don't purchase the programs from KK, go download “Go Your Own Way” before she takes it down from her site. The book is a life changer for your business and it's free.

The Book on booking weddings, I wish I'd written

Mark from Shotkit.com and Gold Hat Photography, who you may have heard interviewed in episode 124 of the podcast, has released a new downloadable book called More Brides. It really is the book I wish I'd written and is chock full of good advice and tips – 191 pages to be exact.

Topics / chapters include:

1. Keyword Research 
2. On Page SEO
3. Link Building
4. Hub Pages
5. Lead Magnets
6. Social Media
7. Printed Media
8. Referrals
9. Personal Appearance
10. Existing Clients
11. The Same Day Slideshow
12. The Next Day Sneak Peek
13. The Ghost Associate
14. The Ten Day Turnaround
15. Engagement Sessions

At $48 the book is an absolute steal! I have a copy and the layout is easy to follow, full of diagrams, step by step instructions and more detail than you'd ever expect from such a wide range of topics.  It's obvious how much work has gone into this and it truly is a credit to Mark.

You can find more information here: More Brides – Modern Techniques for the Smarter Wedding Photographer.

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.

If you have left a review in the past, thank you!

If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

PLUS: if you let me know the key word or keyword phrase you'd like me to use to link to your page, post or site, let me know via email after leaving a review and I'll do what I can to make that work.

For example, If I were linking to my wedding photography page on my photography website ” Impact Images” and want to target the keyword phrase “Central Coast family portrait photographer” and left an iTunes review, I'd add something like this:

Thanks for the iTunes review by Day In The Life Photographer, Andrew Hellmich on August 5, 2016

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast  and email me your key words or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.

Here are the most recent reviews for the PhotoBizX Podcast:

A serious help for us wedding photographers

In iTunes by Christopher Paul of Cardiff Wedding Photography from UK on August 1, 2016

I literally love this podcast. It’s easily made its money back and more from the changes that I’ve implemented into my own business.

I like hearing other photographers stories and it’s nice to not feel alone. On many occasions through those long nights of editing, website building, mail list building this podcast has been my companion giving me that little pat on the back to keep enthusiasm up.

Thank you again.

A must listen for all photographers!

In iTunes by Brian Smith who specialises in Northern Beaches Pet photography on August 12, 2016

Although not a wedding nor portrait photographer, I have listened to every episode of this podcast since I discovered it at episode 6. Each week Andrews guests give tips and information which will be an asset to any photography business, or those planning to go into business.

Andrews questions are well thought out and receive honest and often very detailed answers.

A great podcast, thanks Andrew.

The NEW Photography Xperiment Podcast is live and available

Following the success and support shown by listeners after the experimental format of the recent interviews, the new Photo Xperiment Podcast has been launched and is available on this site and in iTunes now.

Interviews are underway and I'll be looking for new guests, not restricted to wedding and portrait photographers. If you have someone you think would be a good fit, let me know in the comment area below or email me, [email protected].

In this day and age, people expect instant results – Angela Pointon

The idea behind these interviews is to get into the headspace of the photographer and find what makes them tick, what drives them, their thought process, philosophy on shooting and how they achieve what they do with their photography. So yeah, a little technique type content too.

These interviews will not focus on the business of photography – that'll be preserved solely for the weekly and unchanging format of the PhotoBizX podcast.

To hear these interviews in your podcast app, you will need to subscribe to the podcast – these interviews will not be delivered automatically if you're subscribed to PhotoBizX. Open your favourite podcast app and search “Photography Xperiment Podcast” or enter the feed URL,  https://photobizx.com/feed/xperiment/ into the search field of your podcast app.

Last weeks episode featured the amazing Niki Boon who has built an incredibly raw and honest portfolio of her children growing up in rural New Zealand where they are home schooled. Since being ‘discovered,' Niki's images have been seen and shared all over the world and her popularity among photographers is soaring. The trouble is, Niki's focus is on her black and white photography, her family and a simple life with little to no electronic devices.

Listen in to the interview to hear more about this talented photographer and her interesting lifestyle – Niki Boon Interview on The Photography Xperiment Podcast.

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Hand Select Your Clients Website

Hand Select Your Clients on Facebook

What to do when potential clients go underground

Episode 179: Nate Grahek – A New Business Opportunity for Photographers

Wayne Gretzky

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening to the show and thanks to Angela for coming on and sharing some of the secrets on building a successful photography business by attracting the right clients and giving them the best experience.

In order for me to get excited and jump out of bed every morning, I really have to feel passionate about people I work with – Angela Pointon

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew