Have you ever been in the audience when a photographer comes on stage with a big sign in the background that says something super sexy like “The secret to book 50 weddings in a year” and you’re on the edge of your seat. You KNOW this seminar you just paid $150 for is going to be a game changer. You have three G2 pens for color coding because you’re gonna note the hell out of this seminar and then the speaker opens their mouth to say “The secret is… THERE IS NO SECRET!!!” And then they laugh like ohhh how clever, did I fool you?

Has this ever happened to you? Whenever it happens to me, it takes all I have to not stand up and run for the door.

Well, I am happy to tell you, that will NOT be happening to you today. I did not just make a super appealing title and then wait for people to click on it so I could disappoint them. No Sir. You’re here and I’m going to deliver for you.

Let’s start here:

Have you ever had a new friend? And you’ve properly designated them “just a friend”, but then you saw them ordering a Diet Dr. Pepper and oh my goodness, that’s YOUR favorite drink! And then they quoted Little Women and what do you know, that’s YOUR favorite book!!! And then you saw them at the open mic night at that random coffee shop you thought only you knew about! And then before you knew it, you guys were just dating! Like, it just happened. It must have been meant to be. We’ve all had that happen… we’re dating someone, someone asks us how we met and you say “I don’t know, we were friends, and then it just… happened!” *BIGSMILE*.

Well I’m here to tell you, it didn’t just happen. It took a LOT of effort on their part to not only make it happen, but to make it happen in a way that made you think it was all serendipity. Friend, they KNEW Diet Doctor Pepper was your drink so they ordered it to have something in common with you. They read Little Women knowing it was your favorite book!! They saw you were interested in the open mic event on social media and made sure they were there too.

Ewww so you’re saying these people are stalker creeps?? No, I mean the coffee shop example is a little much, but my point is, they just cared enough to pay attention. They named their target audience (you) and they did some market research. Maybe they scrolled your Instagram, or listened to your podcast. Really though, if someone reads Alcott because they wants to gain insight into my heart, by all means, sweep me off my feet.

Years and years ago… a lifetime ago, I decided I REALLY wasn’t interested in someone. Nope Nope Nope. He tried to make me laugh and I would give a wry smile. He tried to ask for my number, I told him I didn’t have a cell phone. Then one day, I came into work and he was on the B&H website, paying no attention to me… and do you know what happened? I excitedly sat down next to him and said “ARE YOU GETTING A CAMERA?! I HAVE THE CANON XSI! I JUST GOT THE 50! WHAT LENSES DO YOU HAVE? I WANT THE 70-200 SO BAD!” It was night and day and all he did was find out I was an aspiring photographer.

That is the secret to marketing.

That is the mind set you need to have about your clients.

If someone asks your client “How did you find your photographer?” you want their answer to look like this:

“Well I was at the Royal Palms and we absolutely love that venue and we saw this wedding book on the table there and the images were just so romantic. And then later I went in for a dress fitting and I saw a photo on the wall from the SAME photographer. Well I was in such a rush that I left without grabbing the photographer’s name, but it didn’t matter because I saw her on Instagram later when I did a search for #desertweddings and I was like “Okay, we have to book her, this was clearly meant to be.”

Was it meant to be? Sure maybe. Was it serendipitous? No. The photographer put in money and effort to have a book sent to the Royal Palms, then later had to network with the dress vendor to have her image there as well, and then she had to keep up with her Instagram posts to make sure her images were close to the top of the feed for the hashtag her ideal client followed. We want our clients to find us in a way that makes it seem like it was meant to be, but really it’s the result of research and effort. Take what you know about your ideal client and use it to sweep them off their feet.

We are at day 35 tomorrow friends! So I will see you tomorrow for day 35: Things I learned from Taylor Swift!