Almost every photographer every where is getting a bit squirrely at this point of what portrait photographers call the “slow season”. While there are some photographers who are crushing it and booking clients all year long, that not the reality for many. This season is often one of concern, stress, and insecurity. While we all know if we’ve been in the game a while that this is fairly normal, we still tend to stress when it comes around. We sit around fiddling our thumbs and holding our breath hoping those inquiries come in. Which isn’t very production. So here are 10 things you can do in your slow season to make your busy season easier and/or more profitable, that are much more productive than hoping and wishing for more inquiries.

*Just a note, this blog post contains affiliate links and I do get paid if you purchase things through them. However, I wouldn’t recommend them or be an affiliate if I didn’t believe they would absolutely help your business!

1 – Run model calls in your slow season(these don’t need to be free) to build up content that appeals to your ideal client.

Make your own inquiries by running model calls to get people in the door. Create stunning content that appeals to your ideal client so you can pull them in with the images they dream of. This not only allows you to keep up with your craft and have lots to share on your website and social media, when done strategically, they can also bring in some much needed income during the slow season.

2 – Update your website in the slow season

Use that new content, or seasonally relevant content to update your website with images that will draw in your ideal clients. Update your copy to ensure it’s relevant to who you want to reach and shows your client how you serve them. If you aren’t consistently on top of your SEO, use this time to ensure your alt text and keywords are correct and working for you.

3 – Set up automated workflows in your CRM

Serve your clients better and keep yourself organized with any part of your system that you can automate, whether than be responses to inquiries, sending pre-session information, thank you emails, client follow up or anything else. Do this now while it’s quiet so you can focus more on your client and the work that you love when things pick up. Dubsado is great for this and is a powerhouse for automations! If you’re thinking of using this time to switch CRMs, or set one up for the first time, you can find out more about Dubsado here.

4 – Build and launch a loss leader campaign to bring in inquiries throughout the slow season

These campaign lower the barrier to entry and offer something more exclusivity and urgency to get people booking even outside the times they normally would. Create a unique offer that appeals to your ideal client and post this everywhere!

5 – Educate yourself.

Find a coach or course that teaches what you want to level up and use your down time to learn. This couple be anything from the creative side of shooting, to running your business or marketing. Invest in yourself and your development while you have the time.

Interested in learning about Virtual IPS? I offer a Group Coaching Program as well as a Free Facebook Group!

6 – Test out Facebook or Google Ads

There’s no downside to getting in front of more people. Whether this leads to bookings now, or to people knowing about you and following you so that you come to mind when they’re looking for a photographer later! Ensure these ads go to dedicated landing pages so you can track traffic and results. I highly recommend Showit for this. Not only does Showit’s templates make your website look beautiful, the drag and drop function is super easy to use for design and it’s very simple to update your SEO. You can also create plus sites and copy your pages from your website directly into a new site and remove the navigation and add canvases as necessary to make a landing page quickly.

7 – Plan and schedule social media and blog content for the busy season

Get ahead of the game my using this downtime to plan and schedule blog posts and social media for the months where you know you won’t have the time.

8 – Shoot for fun. Flex your creative muscles.

This is one of my favourite things to do in my slow season – get back to shooting for you. Most of the year I’m too burnt out to pull out my camera for personal photos, but use this chance to test your limits, play and get creative.

9 – Run a *strategic* giveaway.

Keyword here is strategic! Giveaway something you want in your portfolio, a dream shoot for you, so you’re not mad about giving it away for free. Use it to build your email list or social media following with ideal clients who will purchase from you in the future. If you don’t already have an email marketing platform, I highly recommend Flodesk. Flodesk has beautiful designs and makes it very easy for people to opt-in to your emails with gorgeous in-line or pop-up forms.

10 – Find pain points in your business and figure out how to outsource them or adjust your process to remove them.

This is a great time to find someone who can edit in your style, or someone who can set up your CRM, or blog for you, so it’s off your plate when the busy season comes!

The slow season feels like a blessing at the beginning of it, and near the end we all end up in panic mode. Between these 10 ideas, you should be able to keep your calendar healthy as well as take some work of your plate for when business is busy once again!