Your September Playbook: Turn Busy Season Into Future Bookings

(upbeat music) - Hello, Sunshine. Welcome back to that Photography Girl podcast. I am your host, Rachel Traxler, and I am here to help you get visible, get leads, get bookings, and become that photography girl. And today, we are diving into your September playbook because September is just one of those months where photographers are usually in survival mode. We're just trying to get through your editing weddings, your shooting engagement sessions, a lot of sessions. You're trying to keep up with sneak peeks in your answering emails in between timeline creation and gallery delivery and creating photo, family, photo lists, and all those things. And if we're being honest, it kind of can feel like a time where the only goal for September is to simply just survive and just get through the month. But the problem with that is if you spend September, only serving your current clients and completely neglecting your future clients and really just trying to stay afloat and stay alive, you may wake up in October or November or December and wonder why your inbox is super quiet. Because September isn't just a busy month. It is a busy month and it's kind of the beginning of that second half of busy season, but it's also a visibility month. It's a trust building month. It's a momentum month. And it's one of the best months, in my opinion, to use the work that you are already creating to generate that future demand. I don't know about you guys, but I track my KPIs and I really look at my quarterly breakdown and Q3 is always my biggest quarter secondary to Q4. But September is always a month that drives that home. 'Cause September is the last month of Q3 and that is always just what does really, really well for me. So in this episode, I'm going to walk you through the September plays that I want you to be focusing on if you want more 2027 inquiries, stronger leads and better bookings, all of that heading into engagement season. Because we're not just gonna post some pretty fall or summer weddings and photos and kind of whole people notice, we want a game plan and we wanna turn your fall visibility into a booking strategy, come slow season, come proposal season, and come booking season. But before we get into the actual plays, I wanna give you the belief shift for September. So your fall content should not just prove that you're busy. Don't just show that you're busy all the time. It should prove that you are bookable. There's a difference. There's a difference in proving that you're busy and proving that you're bookable. And so many photographers use September to show that they're working, to show that they're busy. They post the sneak peeks, they share behind the scenes clips, they say things like, you know, busy seasons and full swing or I've got seven weddings this month or whatever. Or maybe they share a carousel of, you know, last weekend's wedding, whatever. None of that is wrong, per se. But if your content only communicates like, hey, look, I photographed another wedding. I did another session. I'm busy, all of that. You're really missing the bigger opportunity here. So your content should be showing people, why couples trust you, how you guide them, what kind of experience you're creating, what problems you solve, what kind of weddings you want more of, communicate that, and why someone planning a 2027 wedding should want to inquire now, create that belief shift and that activation in for them right now. Because busy does not, being busy does not automatically build that demand, that we kind of think is going to happen and it doesn't. And then we kind of second guess ourselves of like, oh, we suck at marketing, we're not doing this right, that's not necessarily the case. Strategic visibility helps build that demand. And so that's the shift that I want you to think of. Okay, let's get into it. Play number one. The first September play for you that I want you to do is to turn your current weddings into future inquiries. And this is the easiest place to start in my opinion because you're already creating that content, we're already busy, we have the work, it's happening for us. You're already showing up to the wedding, you're already photographing the details and getting ready in the ceremony and reception and a couple photos, candidates, all of that, the whole thing. But the mistake that people and most photographers make is that they only post like the final pretty photos. They don't post about the process or any of the behind the scenes. The pretty photos, those create like the final product, like your final edited gallery and sneak peeks. Those create interest, but they don't always create that trust. You know, especially in a time where living with all this AI, like people want to know you, they want to see you working, they want to see you behind the scenes, they want to see your brain be like your thought process behind how you got a certain shot. And all of that trust is what makes someone inquire. No mistake, that is absolutely what we got to build that trust. So instead of only posting like, oh, so and so's day was so beautiful, I loved it, they had the best sunset, whatever, you know, with just like a carousel of the posts and the vendors, all of that. I want you to think about how every wedding can become a trust building piece of content. So for example, after a wedding maybe you could create a post about like, you can share those photos still, but maybe create the post around how you helped the couple build a timeline that allowed them to get these types of photos. Or maybe how you, maybe there was certain weather that was unexpected, how you handled it, not just, oh yeah, we had crazy weather, it was unexpected rain. Like I want to see you talk about how you approached and handled that on the spot, how you dealt with that situation. Maybe how you kept family photos organized. Maybe grandma went missing. How did you handle that and how did you pivot to make sure a timeline didn't get out of place or whatever. Maybe even just, maybe there's some photos that you really love that were very candid or very documentary style. I want to see you talk about how you created space for that candid moment to happen. Maybe there's a, maybe you can pull a screenshot, I guess. Maybe if them, when they inquired with you, saying how that they weren't comfortable in front of the camera, they didn't know what to do. And then like flash forward to photos of their wedding day, how you helped them feel comfortable during portraits. Like what was your process? Like what did you do to make them feel that way? Maybe how you photographed a venue for the, was your first time photographing at the venue, how you approached it, what your thought process was, you get the point. You can do so many things. I'm just like going off here because there's so many things you can do you guys with this. It's not just, and I'm guilty of this too, where it's like you just take a wedding, you loved it, you post a carousel of the day of it and you feel like you can't post anything more again. That is below me. We are shutting that down right now because you can literally take one single wedding. If you shot one wedding this year, beautiful. You could make 50 pieces of content from that wedding. I know that's obsessive and it's a little redundant, but truly you could make so many pieces of content. So that's kind of the angle that I want you to take with that with your posting in September. So your action step with that is that after every single wedding this month or even look at the weddings that you have photographed this summer or even this year yet, whatever you have, I want you to go back. I want you to write down three things that happened. Like kind of behind the scenes that day that made the day go smoother. So those like think or like, I don't know, not even smoother things that made the day go smoother, made them unique, made a special moment happen, whatever that is, write those three things down and those three things can become your caption. They can become a blog section. They can become a real, maybe do a voiceover of a real talking about how that happened. Maybe you can talk about it in your stories. Maybe you can use this as future sales conversation and use these stories to talk about on your sales calls or even marketing or messaging on your website. There's so many things that I don't know. I'm saying this 'cause I'm guilty of it. Maybe everyone else is better at it. But I feel like I could do a better job of just sitting down, slowing down for a second and really, really reevaluating the wedding day and what happened and how I can add that into my marketing and my sales and my messaging and all that too. So take those things, turn it into marketing. Okay, play two is I want you. The second September play that I want you to do is to audit your fall first impression. So anyone that's going to come across you this fall, this September, what's their first impression of you right now because right now, new people may be finding you, maybe they're not, but say they are, they might be seeing your name, maybe tagged in venues, it's busy season, so maybe we're getting mentioned more. They might be watching you on a wedding day, at a wedding day behind the scenes, like they might be a guest or maybe they're clicking on you from like a vendor post or a vendor list or a vendor recommendation or maybe they're finding you from like on your website from like a Google search or something like that. Whatever that is, and then like say they land on your Instagram or website or your inquiry. contact page, they are immediately asking themselves. Is this photographer for me? Do I like this style? Do they photograph the kind of wedding that I want? Do they feel trustworthy? Do they look experienced? Do I know what to do next? Like, where do I go? What do I click? What do I do? This is where a lot of photographers lose people. Think of those questions that I just named off. Those are immediate first impressions that people are asking themselves or subconsciously asking themselves when they come across you, when they hear their name, when you land, when they land on your website, whatever that is, if your Instagram or first impression, whatever that is, is not answering those questions, this is where a lot of photographers lose people. Not because your work is bad, not because your photos suck. I don't want to hear that. Not because your prices are too high. But because your first impression is just unclear or it's not strong enough. So again, maybe your Instagram, let's say your bio, maybe it doesn't say where you're located. That could turn some people off. Maybe your pin posts are super outdated. Maybe your highlights are outdated. Maybe your website homepage still has old portfolio or maybe it has old copy. Maybe they can't even find your contact form, your contact button. Maybe your pricing has some inconsistency. Yes. See, that's a lot when I audit photographers, websites, even in my coaching program, where on one page of their website, it'll say prices start at $6,000. And then on their contact pages, there's like average couple invest $7,000. You know, prices range 6,000 to 10,000. It's like, whoa, you just named off three different prices all within your website and your pricing guide and extra landing pages and stuff. Doesn't make sense. And it's not consistent. So you need to think about that. So do a little audit for yourself. September in general for my play, my place for you for this episode, it's not the time to rebuild everything. I don't want you to get overwhelmed. We don't really have that time. It's busy season, not the time to rebuild. But it is the perfect time for a quick first impression audit. So I do want you to go back through those questions that I asked, those first impression questions and do an audit for yourself. Look at your bio, your pin posts, your website homepage, your wedding portfolio, your contact page, your redirects, your landing pages, the photos that you're using all that and ask yourself, if someone found me today, would they immediately understand who I am, where I serve, where I'm located, what I photograph, how I photograph, how I serve people, like why I'm the best fit. And if the answer is no, then you need to tighten up that signal. So some quick fixes I want you to do with this one is update your Instagram bio so it clearly says what you do and where you do it to also pin a post that maybe introduces you in your experience and your offers and all that stuff. Then maybe pin another post that shows a full wedding story with all the vendors and creates that authority and builds that trust. Something I really love to do with this one too is if you have it screenshot a testimonial from screenshot their reaction to the gallery and add that into the carousel like why not? It doesn't always have to be perfectly pretty. Throw that in there too. Maybe refresh your home page headers, your H1s, your H2s, your headlines, your taglines, all of that stuff. Make sure your inquiry buttons easy to find and it's working. I know that sounds silly but I literally just got off doing an audit right before this and on one of her, I think it was her wedding page. It said like book here and you couldn't even click it. So I know websites get wonky. Sometimes we think things are working. I say this from experience because I've had so many people reach out to me over the years. It just happens. That people are like, hey, your links not working. This isn't working. I feel like queen of that. I feel like that happens because I'm always updating and changing things on my website. So just do another audit. Do another refresh. It's a great time to just make sure things are clicking and they're working just to just make sure. You know what I mean? Like I said, I don't want you to feel like you need to rebuild during this time because September visibility I guess is really only valuable if you're first impression. If they know what to do from your first impression or if it makes sense and it lands with them. Okay. Play number three, your third September play is to create your engagement season bridge. What I mean by this is, I feel like this is one of the most important things that I want you to be thinking about because September, it's not engagement season yet. Yes, people want their engagement photos but they've already kind of booked with you and all that stuff. It's kind of like the bridge into it if you know what I mean because proposal season like we get a lot of couples that get engaged between things giving Christmas New Year's Valentine's Day. That's kind of our stint but many of them are already paying attention before that. Like I don't know about you, girlies listening but I definitely like I booked my venue before I knew I was engaged. I had it on my mind. I knew it was coming and I long story short story for another time. I ended up we ended up getting married in a different venue but the girlies that we're looking, we're looking before it's actually happening and if we have a hunch that it's happening around the holidays September and fall is when we're looking so just know they're following photographers, they're saving posts, they're looking at venues, they're maybe talking casually about wedding plans, they're watching their friends get married, they're seeing what connections and they're mentally collecting ideas. So your job in September is to start building that trust before they officially are officially ready to inquire with you. This is where I think photographers wait too long. They start really marketing hard when engagement season arrives like around the holidays and then I've even seen people is like oh I should throw some ads and run some ads first off not the time to start running ads around that time of year but especially by then another photographer may already feel familiar. I feel like the touch points has probably increased. What was it seven touch points before people take action? I think that's like up now. We need multiple touch points. They need to feel familiar. So in September start creating content that warms up future couples so that they're kind of ready for you. So some content ideas let's think for this bridge season create posts like kind of things of maybe what to look for in a wedding photographer before you inquire or why your photographer's process matters just as much as the portfolio or the photos or maybe even like questions to ask before booking your wedding photographer. I know those are kind of silly and annoying but those are good things. You can make a post like that so that you're framing it with questions that make you look good too that position you that are like highlighting your services you know or maybe even how to know I don't know I don't know what couples don't realize until their wedding day or what couples what 2027 couples should do now I don't know because even if they think they're going to get engaged or think they'll get married in 2027 they'll pay attention to that. These are kind of these are topics that I think are good because they don't just screen book me they're not salesy what they're doing is they're educating the buyer and an educated buyer makes a more confident purchase decision. So if they're educated in your process if they are confident in you and they build that trust they're going to confidently make a decision you're going to be able to convert them a lot a lot easier. So that's the type of content that I want you to think about also start creating in September. Okay play 4 here. I the 4th play for September is to follow up with old inquiries. I know that this isn't like the most appealing or sexiest marketing task but it is one of the simplest ways to just create some movement and some momentum. I don't know about you guys with something I've also noticed in the last like year so is that even if a couple like I don't hear back from them or or whatnot I've had a lot of couples come back like three months later or something and say okay we're ready to book so you just never know. So this is just a way to kind of create some extra movement. Go back through your inquiries from the past few months look at anyone maybe who asked for pricing but never booked or inquired but never booked a phone call. Never moved forward anything like that. Maybe they said they needed to talk it over. Maybe they mentioned they were in early planning. Maybe they asked about a date that might still be open and I want you to send a thoughtful follow up. Not a desperate one just and definitely not just like a hey check and in email I want you to send a very helpful one with resources that are connecting to them all of that stuff. So you can say something like I don't know like hey Sarah I was just looking back through maybe some wedding some conversations some emails that we had earlier this year and I thought about you guys I know wedding planning you know is a it's busy it kind of comes in waves so I wanted to circle back and see if photography is still something you're needing or deciding on and how I can help you and what questions you have. Happy to answer my questions. help you to figure out which coverage makes sense for you and we can go from there, something like that. I personally love sending videos so you can do a video follow up if you want. That way it really feels human. It doesn't feel salesy, doesn't feel like an automation. They know that you took time and attention to send it, stuff like that. It really just, it gives people to a reason to re-enter the conversation. Sometimes people don't book simply because they're not interested. Some people sometimes don't book because they got overwhelmed and took us distracted and are busy or unsure and they took a step back. Follow up creates just another doorway. You never know what could happen from that and from my experience. It sometimes has been able to really help me book some weddings. What I want you to do, my action step for you here, is to build out 30 minutes and just follow up with a few video, like warm leads to warm leads, a few videos to warm leads. You don't have to do 50 of them, just do five. Start with five so it's not overwhelming. Start with the ones who seemed most aligned and just see because I don't know that one simple action really, it could bring in a booking faster than you think and also potentially faster than creating five new reels too. Anything I want you to try in September, if you haven't, give it a fair shot. Play number five, the fifth September play I want you to do is to build your fall proof bank. What I mean by this is your proof bank is a collection of stories, screenshots, testimonials behind the scenes, maybe fun videos, any client experience examples, anything that really proves your value and if you want to do this, you can just create a separate folder in your photo albums like on your phone and just even put September or fall or whatever you want to do because I think photographers, again, I'm saying from experience here, so maybe you guys are just better than I am, but I feel like we often forget to collect that proof, especially when we're really, really busy and we're in the thick of it. We can't just rely on sitting around waiting for clients to just send it to us and just give it to us. We kind of have to ask it and prompt for it sometimes. So make sure you're doing that too. So anything that like maybe your clients are texting you really nice things or they're reacting to the gallery as they said, you are maybe vendors are complimenting you or timelines, you know, worked really well or maybe you worked with a vendor and you give them a review, a Google review, try to like give Google reviews for any one I work with now, I feel like that's such a good way to just connect and make people feel special that way. Maybe the way couples are trusting your guidance, again, like we talked about before, any unexpected problems that came up on a wedding day and like how you handled them, how your guidance or how you solved them, anything like that, maybe galleries that you're delivering or parents even reacting over photos that you center, venues taking you, anything like that, don't let those moments disappear. I feel like it's so easy for me to be like, oh, I just like content overload. I just like to have so much I don't know what to do. At least don't let them disappear, keep them, capture them, screenshot them, save them, try to organize them and use them later. I have so much content that I could use that's like not from any time recent, but I could totally use it again because when you go into I guess engagement season, you don't want to be scrambling for content that proves your value. You want to always be doing that and if you're overwhelmed or busy, you want to already have that library of proof build up ready to use. So I think that this is a really good way to do that. So again, some things to save in your proof bank are client texts, client emails, email replies, reactions to galleries, vendor compliments, maybe behind the scenes videos, timeline examples, honestly, maybe before and after editing examples, any testimonials you'll have, any like single phrases, maybe somewhat like a bridesmaid says something to you on a wedding day. You can like use that one line, maybe full galleries that you really love, those are your favorite or like specific venues that you really love and you have a couple photos for, again, like I said stories of problems that that came up that you solved or even questions. FAQs are so great, you guys, oh my goodness. People do not use like utilize FAQs and questions enough questions that maybe client ask, clients have asked during the process before the process after anything that could become content. And this all like, this is obviously is amazing content, but it's not just content. This is sales material. This is like doing the heavy lifting of your sales. So you don't feel like you have to do B sales and do all of that stuff too. So a golden really good example of this is say like, say if a bride text you like, hey, we felt, we felt so good. We felt so confident with you on our day. We never felt rushed. You did such a good job. Simple as that, right? That's not just a nice text message, that's a marketing asset. So we absolutely need to be using that because future couples want to feel comfortable and they want to feel unrushed too. So save it, share it and build around it. Okay, play number six, my sixth September play is to choose one booking leak to fix. Not five, not 10, one, because September is already full. We're already busy. We're already just trying to survive and thrive. You don't need to overhaul your entire business during wedding season and during September here. But you do need to stop ignoring those leaks that are costing you bookings. You know me. So a booking leak could be your inquiry response, maybe it's too generic. You can't find your contact for maybe your pricing guide does not explain value. Maybe your pricing guide doesn't make sense. Maybe it's not presented correctly. Maybe your follow-up system is inconsistent. Maybe you don't have a follow-up system. Maybe your consultation process feels unstructured. Maybe your sales calls. You're treating more as vibe calls than actual sales conversion calls. Maybe your contact page is too weak. It's not highly converting. Your packages maybe are confusing, your redirect page is not doing anything. Your testimonials are hidden. Okay. I'm going off now. I'm going off because there's so many things and you guys know I love this. It's my jam. So there's so many things I want you to take a look at and figure out where that leak is coming from. And actually, if you haven't already, I actually created a booking leak quiz. So I will link that in the show notes and I want you to take that quiz so that you can figure out and identify which exact leak is happening for you and exactly how to fix it. So that is my suggestion for September. I want you to look at those things, audit those things. And here is kind of just like my little golden nugget for September. I don't want you. I do not want this for you. I don't want you to let busy season convince you that future bookings can wait because I promise you what's going to happen. I see it every year. We get to booking season and people are like, no one's inquiring, especially the last like two years. People like booking season has been like quieter than normal. So let's try to get ahead of it. Your future clients are watching right now. They're seeing you photograph weddings, they're reading your captions, they're clicking your website. They're interested. Okay. Perming opinions before they even inquire with you. So the question's not, am I visible right now? Am I getting, am I getting seen? The better question, the more high quality question to ask yourself is, is my visibility building enough trust to turn into inquiries later? That is what September is really about. That's what I want you to focus on. Not just being seen but remembered and being trusted and being that photographer that they already feel connected to before they ever fill out the contact form. Okay. So let's recap your September playbook here. Play one is to turn your current weddings into future inquiries. Do not just post pretty photos all the time, show the expertise, the guidance, the experience behind the photos, all of that stuff. Play two is audit your fall, first impression. Make sure you're Instagram, your website, portfolio and contact page, all those things. Clearly communicate who you are, what you do, where you serve and why someone should keep looking or keeping invested. Play number three, create your engagement season bridge to bridge the gap from now to booking season. Start warming up those future couples before they are officially ready to inquire. Play number four is follow up with old inquiries, some leads that are maybe not dead or you just didn't really hear back from or are still on the edge. They just need a very thoughtful reason to re-enter the conversation. Play number five is build your fall proof bank. So save those testimonials, those stories, screenshots behind the scenes moments that really prove your value. Play number six is choose one booking leak to fix, not overhauling your whole business. tighten one part of your funnel that is costing you conversions. Again, if you don't know what that is, take my booking leak quiz in the show notes. I will link it. It is gold. You can figure out exactly where the leak is coming from, all of that stuff. So yeah, guys, September is busy. Yes, yes, yes, we know that it always is, but it is also it's so powerful because you're surrounded. It's so valuable. We're surrounded by fresh proof of our value. We're in the thick of it. Like people are really, we've got that momentum. We're actively creating work for like the work now that our future couples want to see. We're doing it right now. So if you have the opportunity to turn the season into momentum for the next one, that'd be great. So that you don't just survive September. You really use it. You leverage it. Let your current weddings sell your future weddings. Let your content really build that trust and let your process guide people super, super clearly. And then also just like let this month become that reset that carries you in your marketing and into engagement season season with more clarity, more confidence, more momentum, all that stuff. So I really hope you loved this episode. If you did, make sure to screenshot it, share to your stories, tag me at Rachel Traxler. DM me. I would love to hear what your thoughts were. See which episodes are your favorites. I absolutely love having you guys in here. And if you want more of this type of conversation and more free education, also make sure to join my free school education group. I'll also make sure that's linked in the show notes below. I do live monthly trainings. It's a great community. I have resources. It's amazing. If you're not already in it, make sure to sign up for it. But thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Keep shining and we'll see you next time.