I'm guessing that most of you listening today have some kind of client prep guide that you have made for your clients, right? We lovingly and painstakingly create these prep guides in the hope that they answer a lot of our clients questions without us having to spend, you know, an hour on the phone with each and every client talking through the same concerns and particulars that
everybody stresses about. But a good prep guide is more than just a time saving repository for frequently asked questions. It's a tool that will over time help build trust with your clients. it'll inspire confidence head off potential issues, and you know, hopefully, avoid some major fashion don'ts all of which make our jobs as photographers easier. If you haven't yet made a prep guide to send to your clients. Today's episode should be a really good resource and a place to start.
And I am going to be giving you a quick rundown of all the things that I think every prep guide should include. If you do already have a prep guide, stick with me anyway, because after I talk about what to include, we're going to dive in on five easy ways to repurpose the great content that you've created. So that you're getting as much mileage as humanly possible out of that pretty PDF You're so proud of Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken.
And I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard, you can do it. And I can show you how. So first of all, let's start with what goes into a good prep
guide. First, I like to start with a welcome note that thanks my client for booking and introduces the guide that they're about to read with a short kind of bulleted Table of Contents about what they're going to find inside. But after I tell them what to expect, I also like to take the opportunity to affirm the leap of faith that they just made
when they hired me. In my case, I talked about how they have made a decision that they will always thank themselves for and that is essentially a gift to their future generations to their children and their children's children. And that the money that they've just spent is really an investment that is going to increase in value over time.
Generally speaking, I think that when someone has just signed up to work with you, chances are they're probably going to be a little bit nervous about how everything is going to go right. So I look at this opening page as an opportunity to reassure them that they have made the right choice that they are in the right place. And that you have got this or with my clients, I've got this, I'm going to take care of them.
The rest of the guide is divided into three parts, I sort of organize it along chronological lines, so we have a section devoted to before the session, then there's the day of the session. And then there's a section for after the session. The before section covers things they can do to prepare ahead of
time. So you know, this is where I have everything from their clothing choices to location information, depending on whether we're photographing in their home or somewhere else I talked about, you know how you can get your house ready, how you don't have to deep clean the whole thing. If we're on location, I give some guidance about that. But that's also a conversation that we'll have on the phone. And I say that in the prep guide. But I also cover
other things. I have a section I call ages and stages that addresses those sort of specific issues that come up with maternity sessions, newborn sessions and sessions involving teenagers. I also have information about including pets, the pros and cons of bribery, how to get an unenthusiastic spouse on board, and recommendations for feeling relaxed in front of the camera. In other words, this is a long section with a lot of information. And I really try and infuse it with personality.
I'm putting images from other sessions that sort of illustrate those concepts all throughout. So it really is a pretty rich resource for people and hopefully somewhat entertaining to read. The before section also tells them when they can expect to hear from me and it encourages them to reach out if they have questions. Obviously they have my contact
information. But and I've told them before to Reach out if they have any questions, but they're in the area where they're reading the all this information, I want them to know that they can reach out if they have questions. The section entitled, The Day of the session is probably the shortest part of the guide. And it basically walks them through what to expect for that 90 or so minutes that we will be together. Yes, this section is a great place to reiterate things
like my no discipline. During the second session rule, I talk a little bit about relaxing and having fun, and I remind them, not to judge me for my bad jokes. But most of all, I include this section to convey the fact that I have a plan, I've got this, they don't need to worry about it. They don't need to art direct when I'm there. And honestly, what I hope it does is set the stage so that they're not questioning me when
I am there. I feel like the more you demonstrate ahead of the session, to your client that you know what you're doing, the less likely they are going to be to question what you're doing when you're there, which makes it always easier, as I'm sure you know, I like to be in charge of my sessions. And by giving them this clear sense of what's coming, it usually isn't an issue. Every once in a while you get that super type a person and you show up and they have a whole plan.
The after section has two jobs, the first job is to remind them about when they're going to see their images and what the procedure is when they do. And then the second job is to get them excited about the prints and products that they are going to have access to in my online
store. So all of this, you know, people get antsy, right, right after they have their session, they're like When am I going to see my images, I of course want to head that question off at the past, but when they are in that like thinking about their session, and what's to come state of mind, I want to take advantage of that energy that sort of like nervous, excited energy and give them something
to look through. So in that section is where I feature a selection of like my favorite products, and I talk about why my clients love them and who they're for. Your Guide should be long enough to cover the important information and convey value to your clients. But also, you want to make sure that it's short enough that most people will actually take the time to go through it. And if you've never made a prep guide before, I should warn you, it's not an
easy balance to achieve. And I know that making your first prep guide can be a pretty intimidating process, especially if graphic design or copywriting aren't really your thing. The good news is, it's absolutely possible to outsource this process or purchase like a template on, you know, Etsy or any number of other places. But even if you don't create your guide from scratch, remember that you are going to have to do some work to personalize it and to make it true to your
business. And for those of you who do already have a prep guide, I imagine right about now you are nodding your head, right because making a good prep guide is a ton of work. And after you do all that work, nothing is more frustrating than a client who doesn't bother to read it. Or the fact that all those email subscribers or all those Instagram followers, out of all of those, only a small handful, the people who actually hire you ever get to see this beautiful beast that you've put together.
So that's what I want to talk about now, because I can't see a reason why we aren't all taking all that hard work and squeezing every single drop of use possible out of it. So let's start with that welcome letter and the affirmation text about the decision that they just
made. I find it super easy to write something like Congratulations, you've just made an investment in your family that's going to bring joy for generations when someone has already spent money with me when they've already made the decision to work with me. But somehow I find it much harder to write that same language to a prospective client. Like, you know, Family Photos with megapixel photography are an investment that will bring joy for generations. I know that's
not just me, right? I think a lot of us hesitate to pluck at heartstrings when we're selling for fear of coming across as manipulative. But if you are willing to write it to someone who has already paid you, the truth is that's legit. Like you can authentically include that in your web copy because you're not being manipulative. That is that is just how you feel those are your beliefs. The truth is that we need to remind people of the value of what we're
offering. And what we're offering is inherently a pretty hard string z kind of a thing. So taking that copy from your prep guide makes it easy to then turn around And put into your website copy or your social media copy. And the fact is, if you're putting that in those other places, and then they hire you, and they see it again, you've also served to create some brand consistency. So they are recognizing like before, when they read that they were like, Oh, yeah, I should do
this. And then after they've hired you, and they read that, they feel that extra layer of, Oh, yes, I checked that box. I've gotten that done. So repurposing tip number two, there is so much good content to mine from that before section of your prep guide. If you have local location suggestions, I absolutely suggest that you make a separate PDF and use that as a lead magnet that you deliver when someone signs up for your
email list. And the reason that I mentioned this, specifically is that I think a lot of people when they are creating lead magnets, don't consider the fact that they should be making those lead magnets local. Because the fact of the matter is, and less most of your business is travel related business, you want to make that lead magnet specific for people who actually may go
on to hire you. So if you're located in St. Louis, and you put together an amazing prep guide on like, what to wear for a family session in general, that might get tons of web traffic for you, it may, you know, blow up on Pinterest, whatever. But the vast majority of the people who find that resource and sign up for your email list and, you know, repin your stuff on Pinterest are going to be outside of St. Louis. So they're never going to
actually pay you any money. It's not necessarily a bad thing to get lots of web traffic, because Google does like seeing that. But it doesn't necessarily do you tons of favors when it comes to a more immediate return on your investment of time. So by taking local location suggestions, and putting that into a PDF, then you're much more likely to get people in the St. Louis area who are finding that resource, downloading it and then seeing your work and being like, oh, maybe I should
hire that person. So another thing that people love in the before section of the prep guide is your what to wear guide. But those what, where things are all over the place in all kinds of formats. So I was trying to think of sort of a fun, different new way to repurpose that content. And I was thinking that that could make for a really fun reels on Instagram. So obviously you could create a
reel on what to wear. But I think the funnier or more attention getting thing might be to put together a what not to wear reel that gets people laughing, right. So obviously, I would not feature your clients in that. But maybe you dress your own kids up in, you know, neon sports outfits, and then you know, mismatched plaid or something like that. And you do you create kind of a funny reel to get attention.
And then in the caption, you know, you talk about how you know, getting dressed for a session is stressful, you know, getting your family all coordinated, can be really hard. But you have this amazing prep guide that you send once they book that will walk them step by step through how to look their best. The last thing in the before section that I would suggest that you repurpose is if you blog, you can take basically any part of that section and repurpose it into a blog post.
So you've already done the heavy lifting, you have already written all this copy. And the before section really does address a lot of common concerns and hang ups that people have when they are considering hiring a photographer. So these are the topics that they're googling when they're actually in that hiring mode. So when you have professional sound advice to share, that's going to help establish you as an authority,
then they hire you. And then they see the same thing in your prep Guide, which just sort of validates that like, yep, everything is consistent, she is recommending the same stuff, and they can move forward with confidence.
The third repurposing tip that I have is that you take your day of Section along with any of the before tips that make sense and put them into a bullet point style email template that you can use to remind your client of the session that they're about to have a day or two beforehand.
Now most of my clients really do read at least the before section of the prep guide that I've put together for them, but I find that they often either skip the rest of it Or have kind of forgotten it by the time that the session itself rolls around. So sending the most pertinent information a day or two before the session in an email ensures that they get the message. Obviously, they are checking their email, they want to confirm that, like, we're on the same page for time and
location. And then I just put, you know, a few tips like, Hey, remember to turn all the lights off. If we have a newborn session, remember, we you may have want to have like extra blankets on hand or whatever the case may be. The fact of the matter is, most clients will read through your prep guide right away when they get it. So they've just hired you. They're all excited, you send them this PDF, and they sit down and read
through it. But I often find that by the time the day of the session rolls around, they have kind of forgotten some of the finer points, especially those things that are detailed in the day of the session section. So by sending that most pertinent information, right, before we actually get together in an email, I am just kind of underlining the point. And I find, you know, everybody's checking that email, because they want to confirm that I'm going to be in the right place
at the right time. And everybody's on the same page. And they want to know about the weather and all that sort of thing. So if there's anything that I want to make sure that they remember, I can sneak it in here, one of my favorites is reminding them that I want them to have the blinds or curtains
open and the lights off. If we're shooting at their house, I find that adding that reminder to the email the day before more or less guarantees that I don't have to go through the house fiddling with their window treatments, which saves me time and just makes the whole process a little bit smoother. My fourth tip is to take the product features from your after section, and create short videos about each one. Now, you guys have heard me talk about video before, this does not need to be
fancy or perfect. You can, you know, sit by a window at a table and hold a product sample on the table in front of you and just sort of talk about why you love that product where you think it goes who you think it's perfect for those videos can then be used on your social media, your website, and perhaps most importantly, sent to your clients after their session while they wait to see their
gallery. So in the prep guide, they are seeing the PDF version where they just see a picture of it and maybe a short description with some pricing. And then when it's actually getting ready to see their gallery, they have a link to a video and they get a more 3d version of that
experience. And for all you simple sales people out there, you know, this is what I am talking about when I talk about communicating with your client and sort of meeting them at the right place at the right time in the right place at the right time. So you know, here they've just had a session, they're kind of on that high, they're excited, they want more, this is the perfect time to be giving them that in depth walkthrough because you don't have their
images ready for them. And even if you do have their images ready, you want to sort of increase that excitement intention, because that is going to help you maximize your sale on the other end. If you don't know about the strategy, or the simple sale system in general, I'm going to just take a quick timeout and plug that I teach a free masterclass about the simple sale system, you can find it at this can't be that
hard.com slash simple. And that walks you through an entire system that sort of leverages all kinds of strategies like the ones that I'm talking about here that make the best use of your time and help you serve serve your clients in the best possible way. So now back to repurposing your content. My fifth and final tip for you is a little meta if you have physical prep guides printed, great take a nice lay flat style photo of
your guide. But I think most of us these days are delivering prep guides in a digital format. So if the digital is what you've got, I have an easy workaround for you. What we are going to do is upload the cover page of your prep guide into Canva, which is probably where you made it in the first place. Right? So that's canva.com ca n v A. And then you're going to use the smart mockups tool that they have listed under effects to
showcase your hard work. So you basically take the cover image, you pop it into a blank design, and then you use that smart markups tool to make it look like it's an actual physic physical like printed product. If you don't know how to do that. I made a video I know that I am going to include in the show notes walking you step by step, it's super easy. But the idea there is that you then export that image as an Instagram post or a story or you put it on your
website or all of the above. And you take that opportunity to talk in the captions about how you hold your clients hands through the whole process, the fact that you have made a prep guide, the fact that you have enough expertise to show your clients you know, each and every step and walk them through that process is going to give people confidence about your professionalism. So don't hide the fact that you have a prep
guide. Don't even keep it reserved just for the people you talk to who are going to hire you to promise them that you have that show them what it is that you're talking about. And that smart mockups tool is going to make that really easy and visual for them. So that felt like a lot. I know that creating a prep guide can feel like a big barrier, but it is absolutely
worth your time. And I hope that the repurposing strategies that I gave you today, make it feel even more worth your time, you can take all that work and leverage it to become a marketing tool for you to bring in new clients. So set aside some time this week to either get going on creating a guide or take one of those strategies that I gave you and repurpose some piece of your existing guide to work for you. Have a great week. Well, that's it for this week's episode of this can't be that
hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard comm slash learn. If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.