“Show Notes”
Sam explains that a marketing funnel is not complicated. It’s simply a way to move someone from being unknown to us to a lead and then a customer.
Instead of talking about this in theory, Sam will create a sales funnel. On that basis, Sam and Marcus will create a marketing funnel for a brand shoot.
What happens first? Let’s say our target market is solicitors. I need to “get them into my funnel”. Sam says his go to place to find solicitors would be LinkedIn. A good start would be connecting with solicitors on LinkedIn. Sam says that you then need to know what you will talk to the solicitors about. So he suggests a free Webinar “How to make the most of your personal brand online.” So you now have a free event that you can talk to the solicitors about.
So then search for solicitors in a fixed area using a connection message. Make it clear in the connection message why you are connecting. This is a positive way to connect. Anyone who then connects to you is “in your funnel”. Some people will reply to the connection and you can start a conversation about the event. For those that connect but don’t respond you can start a conversation with them. During the conversation, the chat uses open questions and guides them to booking the event. This is “moving them down the funnel”. The further down the funnel you go the fewer people there are, but the more likely they are to become customers. You then run the webinar. Once you have planned and done one it’s really easy to repeat it. Marcus said he did something very similar and ran a day teaching solicitors how to take their own brand photographs. He says it works well. It’s vital that you allow time in the webinar to talk about “what next”. What are you going to offer them to move them to becoming a customer? Sam suggests something small, like a slot at a headshot day. Something small, but, they have to pay. The other option is to offer another free event.
Those who take you up on the headshot are customers, but this isn’t really the end of the funnel as this isn’t really what you want to sell them. Then at the headshot or when the photos are delivered have a chat about the headshots they have, ask if that is going to be enough or if they could really do with a bigger bank of images. That’s when the main sale can happen.
Remember that all the people who didn’t drop down to the next stage of the funnel are still in the funnel. Some are still getting emails, many are connected on LinkedIn.
Make sure that you have put the effort into getting people on the mailing list that you are using the mailing list and sending out email newsletters.
Sam and Marcus discuss niching, and this funnel is niched. There is a show on niching.
To get the Shoot to the Top Podcast in your inbox every week to ensure you don’t miss an episode, click here
Join the Shoot to the Top Facebook group to meet fellow photographers, guests and Sam and Marcus
“Show Transcription”
Marcus: Hey, how you doing Sam?
Sam: Very good Marcus, how about you?
Marcus: Yeah, I’m terrific, thank you. Yeah, and so you’re in charge for today’s show and you’re going to be talking on the marketing side on, is it funnels, is that right?
Sam: That’s it, the marketing funnel. We’ve all heard of marketing funnels and lots of us go, what the hell is this about? And so I’m not going to go through and go, oh right, in theory this is what it is. What I thought is we’d build one together. So nice and simple. So the idea of a marketing funnel is simply getting people from your marketing and getting them to buy something and the processes you go through on the way, okay, so it’s just like a route from one place to another and people draw pretty pictures of funnels and like to make it complicated and la-di-da, but it’s just a way of getting people from not being customers to kind of engaging with us and doing well with us and eventually being customers.
Marcus: Ah, that’s what we want.
Sam: So I thought, right, there we go. So I thought, right, how are we going to do this? Instead of me talking about it in theory, let’s together invent a marketing funnel for a brand shoot. So let’s say what you want to do at the end of the day is sell brand shoots. Okay. So what are we going to do to get people to the brand shoot? So we’re going to start right at the top where we don’t know people. How do we attract them in? What do we say to them? Who do we attract? And then kind of work our way down to the sale and that is the marketing funnel. Effectively, we kind of help them on the way down.
Marcus: Brilliant. This is going to be good. This is going to be very good.
Sam: Okay. So the first thing is then how are we going to attract the, you know, what are we going to offer first and how are we going to attract people? We usually have phases in the funnel. So the first thing is getting people into your funnel. Okay. So if we’re thinking about the brand shoot, let’s think that we’re targeting a particular group of people. So let’s say, wait, our target market is solicitors. So it’s good to think, who am I targeting? Otherwise, it’s a bit hard. So let’s go a bit hard. So let’s just go everybody is hard. So I want to talk to solicitors. I want to sell them a brand shoot. Okay. So how am I going to get them in? There’s a few different places, but if we’re talking solicitors, my go-to place would be LinkedIn. All solicitors are going to be on LinkedIn. You’re going to be able to search and find them without having LinkedIn premium. You might need, yeah, they don’t like connect that many people, but yeah, you pretty much without paying for LinkedIn, you should be able to do this. Okay. So that’s my first thing is probably think about connecting with solicitors on LinkedIn and that’s a start to get them on your funnel because then you’re connected with them and then you can start to have a conversation. Okay, but we want to know what the next step is in the funnel because we want to think about what are we going to say to them. So my thought is have an event, have a free event. So you could fix a date, some free webinar type of thing. Again, you know, all you need is Zoom or something, something like how to make the most of your personal brand online. And you could be able to talk about that, about using the photos, about using them in social media, about getting the photos. And of course you can be subtly during this telling people, you know, that brand photos and professional photos are your kind of essential part of this process. But you’ve got a free event that is going to hopefully be interesting to these solicitors. So first thing is let’s connect to a load of solicitors.
Marcus: Just on that, funny enough, I do have personal experience of working with solicitors and I get their work through a marketing company that is particularly geared towards working with solicitors. And I do photos for them and they pass them to their clients. So yeah, that’s another way, obviously, is looking at people that specialise in marketing towards these kind of people.
Sam: Yeah, definitely. Cool. But yeah, this is just an example. There’s loads of ways. This is by no means the right way. I’m just building a funnel. There’s all sorts of different ones just as an example. Okay. So let’s say we want to, so we can do a search in LinkedIn for solicitors. I’d probably even start with get it in a particular geographical area. Let’s do solicitors in Manchester, for example. You’ll find there’s loads. Okay. You then need to connect to them. And I would recommend connecting with a message. Okay. Not just connecting. Although LinkedIn are really limiting that if you don’t pay for premium. And then what does your message want to say? And to be honest, it wants to be clear. It wants to be simple, but it also wants to make it clear why you’re connecting. You know, don’t just go, I am expanding my network. Whoopee something like, you know, I, Dave, I’m hoping the sister’s called Dave at this point. Hi, Dave. I see you’re a solicitor in Manchester. I’m running an event for solicitors in Manchester that I thought you might be interested in. You know, something really simple, while you’re explaining why you’re connecting. So they’re just not going, oh, another person, just like a blur. You’re saying it’s a free event. I said free event. Hopefully they did. They see it’s a free event. So you’re not flogging them anything, just something they might be interested in. Yeah. And you should get a reasonable connection rate off that. Yes. Probably maybe 40% or something around that should then connect with you.
Marcus: Well, I would just looked up on LinkedIn solicitors in the Manchester area. I can’t be right. I’ve got 400,000 people come up. I can’t be right.
Sam: I’m not sure that’s quite right.
Marcsu: But there’s certainly a good few on site research there, but that’s not working at all. Okay. Forget that.
Sam: Okay. Okay. So there’s a good few. So then already those people who connected with you are what we call in the top of your funnel. They’ve made it into the funnel. You are now connected with them. Okay. Now some of those people will reply to that connection message you’ve got. And that’s great. You can then start a conversation with them where you introduce the event and say, would you like to go and give them a booking link? And for those that don’t, you can start the conversation with them. Lots of people connect with you and don’t actually notice the connection message. So you then just go something. I sometimes go something really simple. Like, did you spot my connection message? Would you like to, let me tell you something more about the event. Yeah. And then have a short conversation with them, keep it short and keep the questions open. So don’t ask them, would you like to find out about the event? Cause they can just say no. Yeah. Just try and ask, what would you find useful in the event? Open questions that say, it’s not just a no and then you’ve lost them. And basically guiding them to, well, you know, would you like to book on? It’s free. Here’s the link. Okay. And so you’re kind of what we call moving them down the funnel. So you’re getting them to take the next step and book onto this free event. And obviously not all of them will. The whole point of this funnel is as you go down, there’s less and less people that you’re more and more kind of connected with them. So that, so if they book on the event, a couple of things happens. One, they kind of move down a level in your funnel. Okay. And two, you’ve then got them as part of that booking, you need to make sure they end up in your mailing list as well. You’ve then got them in your mailing list. So even if they do nothing else later, they will be getting your regular newsletter and stuff like that, because you’re all sending those out, if not sort it out. Anyway, back to funnels. So they’re on your newsletter list, they’re booked for the event. So you should hopefully be maybe sending them a couple of emails before the event, reminding them what it’s about, reminding them what they can get out of the event. Okay. Warming them up a little bit ready for the event. And then obviously you’ve got the event itself. We all know, Zoom meeting, whatever it is, a few people there, you’re telling them you’ve pre-planned, you’ve got an idea how this works. You’re explaining to them how they can use great photos on LinkedIn, on Facebook, whatever it is to kind of improve their brand presence. And you’re giving them lots of ideas, maybe about using your photos in Canva and doing some designs, whatever it is. You’ve given that some thought and you’ve got it planned. And obviously the great thing is once you’ve planned it once, you can just do that webinar again and again and again for different people.
Marcus: I think it’s just worth just delving into this idea of abundance a little bit deeper, Sam, because it is quite recent, isn’t it? In the olden days, you would, you know, I’ve got to keep all this, everything to myself and all, but then give out any information otherwise people won’t want me. Whereas these days, it’s completely the opposite, isn’t it? The idea of giving lots of stuff away for free to get business. And yeah, yeah. And I did this very thing that you’re talking about. I did a branding event in London for solicitors. And it was a day teaching them how to take branding photographs on their phones, you know, and you think, well, surely you’re teaching something I could not get work out. But it was the opposite. They were so enamored by what the results they got, they booked me for doing their own suits.
Sam: Exactly. Yeah, you can tell people lots and lots of stuff, but eventually they want the professional to do it. So yes, you’re right. Obviously, the bit you don’t give away is the going and doing the photo shoot. That’s the bit that’s paid for. So yeah, so you’ve got people at your event, they come, the key is then the last bit of the event. We all know this from webinars, there’s a little bit of a sales pitch for the next thing, isn’t there? So you’ve got to have a plan, what’s the next stage in my funnel? Okay, so you’ve already connected with them on LinkedIn, you’ve maybe chatted a bit on LinkedIn, they’ve got a few emails from you that at the event, there’s going to be a few follow up emails after the event. So what are you going to sell next? So I think the best thing to sell next would be maybe a slot at a headshot day. So something where they’re paying, but it’s not expensive. So maybe you’ve got say, I’m going to be, that’s why I said maybe Manchester. So I’m going to be at this place in Manchester on this day, you know, and headshot a 50 quid up slot, you know, something you’re not losing money, but you’re not making a great deal. It’s kind of getting you’re kind of filtering using almost to filter out those people see who’s willing to pay a little bit of money. And then because they will be the ones who are most likely also to pay more money. So that could be the next cell, you could do one other thing free, maybe, you know, another one more free event. But I think you know, one’s probably enough, but you could do two. But then yeah, something I think next, not a big buy, but a little buy. So a slot at a headshot day, if you’re then leading to a brand shoot is perfect. And so perfect, and you can have the day in a place, whoever turns up 50 quid a headshot, whatever you want it to be, you know, an amount of money that means they have to think about it, but it’s not, you know, it’s a pretty good buy as well. So that’s what you sell at the end of that, you know, you got right, you need to be doing all of this personal branding. Have you got any good photos now? Oh, well, you know, next Saturday, I’m in Manchester, I’m going to be here all day, pop along, get a headshot 20 quid, you know, 50 quid a pop, whatever it is probably getting to pay in advance, and then they’ll turn up rather than just say, just say, I’m going to be there because you want them to kind of commit. Yeah, and then that’s great. So then they’ve moved to the next level, and they’ve become a customer at that stage, but not really of what you wanted, you know, just a tempter, and then moved next down the funnel. Again, they’re still on your maining list. So you should be after the webinar, be following them up with emails. If they’ve booked the photo shoot, you should be following up with emails relevant to the photo shoot, reminding them that it’s there, reminding them what they might want to bring with them, remind them to comb the hair, whatever it is. So then you’ve got the photo shoot day, and on the photo shoot day, they’ll turn up, they’ll have what, a 15 minute slot, whatever it is, quite quick, you get the shoots. And then it’s at that point, or when you deliver the headshots, the inn goes, you’ve got these, you know, and they go, what, did you like them? And they’ll go, yeah, they’re lovely. And then probably, I suspect that’s probably a good point to do it. I suspect you do the headshot, you have a nice chat, they meet you, and then you, you know, however long later, email them the photos, and then I’d probably at that point give them a call and go, what do you think of the photos? How are you going to use them? How useful would it be actually? You know, you’ve got three headshots, great. You could really do with a big bank, couldn’t you, of photos, really for your social media. You know, what about the brand shoot? And it’s bang, that’s when the sale comes in. And so the whole point of the four is, you’re leading down to that sale, you’re filtering out people along the way. But although you’re filtering out, there’s still lots of them at the top. So, you know, people who didn’t book into the webinar are still connected with you on LinkedIn. People who went to the webinar, but didn’t decide to book the headshot thing are on your email list, they will keep getting your email. So you’re still, people don’t tend to, some people will then unsubscribe, but most people will tend to stay in the funnel, even if they don’t drop down to the next level. And then they, you know, they can at any stage move down.
Marcus: And, you know, sometimes you’re not going to get immediate results in this, but by having them in the system means, you know, they might be booking, coming to you again in a year’s time or two years or whatever. So… It’s certainly something that I’ve done and would definitely recommend.
Sam: I mean, yeah. So basically that’s an example of a funnel. So a funnel is a way you’re thinking about, you really think carefully, you think, where are people coming from? Where do I want to get them to? What are the steps I’m going to get them through on the end? And you can see there’s an awful lot of emails in there that it’s definitely worth planning and getting in there. You know, if you’re going to do an event, remind people about the event, get the emails in before. If you did an event, talk about it afterwards, chat to them on LinkedIn, send them emails. Those stuff in between is important. Don’t just like ignore them and go, oh, I’ll just do the events. That chat in between and that connection is really important. And then if you’ve got them on the mailing list, then make sure you’re using your mailing list. If you put all this effort, you put lots of people on the mailing list and you go, oh, I was a bit busy this month. I couldn’t be bothered with my newsletter. Well, what was the point of putting all that bloody effort in to start with? Lots of people do this. They kind of do some of it and then they go, oh, it’s a bit busy. You know, you have to… We’ve got a whole show on consistency, don’t we?
Marcus: Yeah, we do.
Sam: You have to be consistent, consistently get the newsletter out, consistently be putting LinkedIn posts out, whatever it is.
Marcus: And also, Sam, I’m just taking it right back to the beginning as well. Yet another good reason why it’s good to niche down and focus on a specific market.
Sam: Yes and no. So, yeah, it is. I mean, you could also… This funnel could be a niche funnel, but you have other niche funnels. So, you could do this for solicitors and it could work and go, right, actually, let’s take this niche funnel and I’m going to now do something similar, but for accountants or for… So, you don’t have to just keep that one funnel. So, people will often have quite a few different funnels in their business. But yes, within that funnel, certainly having a niche is good. But also, if you’re known as a photographer for solicitors, then yes, that helps you sell within that niche.
Marcus: It does. And I still look at so many websites where people aren’t niching down. You know, I just think really it’s quite odd in some ways. It seems to be… I get it. I get it.
Sam: It’s a scary thing to do, Marcus. Lots of shows. It’s a scary thing to do because you always think you’ll lose business. But yeah, there’s a whole show on niching. So, go and have a listen. We’ll put a link in the show notes. Link on the one in consistency as well. But the key is this. Yes, think about a funnel. It is not complicated. It is not hard. You just need to think, where do I get the people from? Where am I going to take them next? Where am I going to take them next? And if you’re trying to get customers, which you all are, it’s really important to think about this. What steps are you taking? It’s great you’ve got them on your newsletter list. Have you got a plan for how you get them to the next step? And if you’ve not, then they will just stay on your newsletter list.
Marcus: Love it. Very straightforward, really. It’s just a matter of, as you say, getting out there and doing it.
Sam: It’s not rocket science. That’s it. That’s all right.
Marcus: Thank you, Sam. That was very informative. And luckily, I can actually say it’s something that I actually have done and do as well. So I’m going to give myself a little tick here, a little tick by my name, Marcus Tick.
Sam: Excellent. Well done, Marcus. Marcus, done marketing today. Very good. And speaking of which, what we would really love, listeners, is reviews. So if you’re listening to us on Spotify, if you’re listening to us on Apple, wherever you are listening to us, please give us reviews. They really help us. They make Marcus and I feel warm and fuzzy inside, and they help other photographers find us. Because the more reviews there are, the more Spotify and Apple will promote the podcast, and the more photographers can find us, and we make a bigger community for all of you. So yes, reviews are very helpful for the show and for photographers.
Marcus: Nice one, Sam. But that is a very interesting show. Thank you very much.
