Does a Giveaway Devalue Your Photography Business?

Has someone told you not to run a Giveaway because it'll 'devalue' your photography business?

Well I couldn’t disagree more and in this video I'm going to tell you why, not only does a giveaway not devalue your business, it can do the exact opposite!

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A well-run Giveaway can be an exceptional marketing campaign and can fill your diary with high-quality clients who're more than happy to pay your prices.

Even if those prices are premium.

Let me tell you about The Photographer's Voice member, Sam Coral, an incredible pet photographer based in Ottawa, Canada.

Sam started her business at the end of 2019. When she joined my membership, she'd already worked hard to set up highly profitable, premium pricing with a focus on wall art.

The problem was, she just wasn't getting the bookings.

Sound familiar?

So she decided to follow the Giveaway strategy from inside the membership and her results were nothing short of amazing.

A total of 330 people entered Sam's Giveaway.

235 of those people said they'd like to receive a runner-up prize if they didn't win the Giveaway and freely provided her with their home address.

So, Sam mailed out 235 vouchers which had to be redeemed within just a few weeks. The vouchers gave the recipients $300 to put towards a pet photography experience with Sam. (Sam has a high average spend and could afford to give $300 - make sure you choose a voucher amount that's aligned with your pricing!).

In order to maximise the number of people who would actually use their voucher, Sam added all 235 of them to an email nurture sequence aimed at answering questions, telling stories, crushing objections and addressing desires.

Throughout, she was completely transparent about her prices.

By the time the vouchers expired Sam had shoots booked with 50 of those giveaway entrants. She's fully booked right up to Summer!

She spoke to each and every one of them on the phone and they happily paid their deposit - fully aware of the product prices after the shoot.

Sam's done lots of those shoots already and has had incredible sales, including her highest sale ever!

It's not just Sam, loads of my Togs in Business members, all with completely different price points, have run highly successful giveaways.

When people say that a Giveaway devalues your business, they simply don’t understand how to do it well. 

A slick, professional and exciting Giveaway not only grows your audience and gives you an amazing launch-pad for your regular content marketing, it educates people about how much you cost because your prize will have a monetary value.

If you giveaway a package worth £$400 or £$1200 or £$2500 - you’re telling the world that’s what you cost.

When you mail out your vouchers (just a small amount of credit to spend with you will do), those runners-up know what you cost so only the right ones will use it.

That’s what you want! 

When you give something away for free strategically, it should be a highly profitable decision. Meaning, it’s only ever free for the recipient - never for you!

Would giving one person your time for free be worth it if you could book twenty more paying clients as a result of that freebie?

And if that happens - did you really give your time away for free? 

Not at all!

Let me put some caveats on this though. Make sure a giveaway is right for you (nothing is a good fit for every photographer) and, if you feel it is, do it well or don’t do it at all. 

A giveaway is not the right campaign for you if:

• you have all the enquiries and work that you need (why would you run a giveaway if you’re super-busy??)

• your business offers an uber-luxury service (I mean the highest of high end)

• you run giveaways all the time (you should use them once a year at the most or whenever you launch something new)

• you’re going to half-ass it (this needs some serious strategy and ground work)

• you don’t intend collecting the entrants' email addresses (all data-protection friendly, of course)

• you don’t plan to mail out vouchers to your entrants afterwards (this is how you fill your diary after the giveaway!)

• you don’t have an excellent email nurture sequence in place (how else will you ensure the right entrants use their voucher after the giveaway? People are busy)

• you don’t have profitable pricing and a great sales process in place (online galleries or in person sales - it doesn’t matter which)

• you don’t have a stand-out enquiry process to convert leads (you need to banish those generic email responses)

• you’re not going to capitalise on the buzz and momentum afterwards (your social media and email audiences will be fired up - letting that die down and go to waste would be such a shame)

So, are you going to try a giveaway this year? If leads and bookings are thin on the ground, it's a brilliant way to give your business a much-needed boost.

Remember, put some time and effort into the build-up and the post-giveaway nurturing and just watch what happens!

And, if you're looking to grow your photography business and get clarity around exactly how to do that - this article will help you to write your Ultimate Photography Business Plan. Definitely check it out.