Teen Team Meetings & Signups...Katrina Jackson
Hey friends! We are friends now right? Last weekend I had 4 back to back meetings. I have been doing meetings for 7 years now. WOW! That’s really crazy. They definitely get easier, but man I still get nervous jitters. My very first meeting I didn’t have my own studio so I rented the meeting room at the public library! It was nice to have that space available to use. The only issues I had going that route was not knowing how to use their equipment and my laptop/equipment might not be compatible with their equipment. I would suggest arriving early enough to get your equipment setup for more trial runs. After having multiple employees helping me we finally got everything all setup and all was good in the hood. The next year my studio was open so I no longer needed to rent the meeting room at the library. It was way easier to not have to take all my samples and equipment. I only can speak on experience but for me I keep my meetings real simple. I always start introducing myself. Yes, most of them do know me, but maybe mom is hearing about me really for the first time. I talk about my family. For me that is very important and I want them to know that part of my life. I always throw in some jokes! I love making people laugh so I do that from the start so that I can set the mood of the room. After my very short introduction we move on to a slideshow of my portfolio! I want mom’s to see my work. Some moms are familiar with my work, but most of the time it’s the girls that have told the moms about me and they might not have seen much of my work prior so this is the time to show your best images ever. This is also a great opportunity for the girls to see their friends! I always hear at least one girl telling her mom that is so and so! If it’s a repeat girl that has already been on my team for her to see herself in the new slideshow! She gets bragging points! After the slideshow, I go over the teen team magazine! I have a digital magazine already created with all the info we will be going over during the meeting. You could make a power point presentation and free style but I prefer to go over the information cover to cover that way they have all the information they need and I know 100% they have heard it all! They can’t say oh I didn’t know that. I ask along the way if anyone has questions. Some people have no problem asking questions in a group setting while others would want to ask privately so as I’m wrapping up I let them know that if anyone has any further questions feel free to come up to me and I would be more than happy to answer any questions they have. I let them know that they will be getting a digital copy of the magazine emailed to them after the meeting with what we just went over so they can refer back to everything while they are at home. In that email, it gives very detailed instructions on what happens next. It has their deadline that they need to let me know if they will be on the team. I typically give them 2 days. The last 2 years I have broken up my model fee into 2 payments. I do feel that that has been a big reason most families have agreed to being on the team. We live in a payment plan society so I started to play into that some. 2019 I had 22 girls on the team and everyone made 2 payments except 3 people.
I’m going to back up just a bit! I think this part is very important so we are going to discuss it. A good month leading to up my meeting I start priming my teens for the team team. Priming your audiences is a marketing strategy. You want to start talking about your team team weeks leading up to signups. It’s very important, this is where most business’s drop the ball. They literally post one day out of nowhere that today is teen team signups. Then they wonder why it’s crickets. This year I did VIP signups. I didn’t even open my teen application to the public. The girls that received the application were those that signed up for VIP only. This did not work for my senior team. I’m not there yet for my seniors. I had 32 girls signup for my VIP list. In hindsight, I could have still opened it up, but didn’t know how many would book. I did VIP signups on Instagram and Facebook. I know a lot of people think Facebook is dead but moms are still on facebook and have young teens that are not on instagram yet. I want the 6-8 graders the most for my teen team and guess what? Their moms are on Facebook and want this just as much as their teens do. Out of the 32 VIP only 27 actually filled out their actual applications. Now guess what? 20 agreed to come to the meeting. Out of the 20 that agreed to come to meeting, only 13 actually came. After the meeting, I needed up with 10 signups for team. It is very much about numbers. It’s crazy to think I started with 32 girls and had 10 decide to be on the team. There are a lot of factors that go into this. Last year, I had more girls signup but his year I raised my teen team pricing and I think that was a big pull back for some. This year, I have made a point to really follow up with people. Sometimes it’s a communication problem or they simple are not receiving your emails. After all the meetings I usually have a list of girls that were not able to make the meeting options. A few years ago, I would have set up multiple one on one meetings but decided that it wasn’t worth my time. So last year I decided to try sending the meeting digitally! It’s such a time savor. I sit down and record a screen share on my computer. I go over the magazine cover to cover. It’s typically 30 mins to an hour! I upload it to google drive and send them the link! They get a email with all the directions and what I expect next just like with everyone else after a meeting. Would I prefer to meet them in person? Absolutely! But it’s the next best option if I don’t want to have 10 more meetings individually. All in all, I’m happy with my teen team signups this year. My goal for the teen team was 10 and I just made that. Next year I will do signups and I will also open it up to the public no matter how many I have sign up for VIP since we can see less than half actually committed. Next month, we will be talking about how my teen team meet and greet and model team photoshoots go as they will be happening later this month!
xoxo,
Katrina
(Katrina Jackson is a photographer based out of Rochester, Indiana specializing in high school seniors and teens.)
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