If you want to build your photo booth business, this may be the most important article you read. There are three key ways to build a photo booth business:

• Get more clients
• Get your clients to use you more
• Increase your average dollar sale

But, what if we told you that in order to achieve these three steps, it's not as hard as you might think?

Well, good news for you - it's not! All it takes is treating your clients and extended network well.

Don't worry, we're going to explain what we mean. Let's jump in!

People Want to Be Seen

It's true, people want to be seen. After all, why do people buy first-class seats on airplanes? It's because they want to be seen!

They don't want to just be seen by the other passengers, but by the flight crew as well. They want a personalized experience.

The same rule applies to your photo booth business. 

Photo Booth Attendant Showing Guest How to Use the iPad-based Salsa Photobooth

 

When you show your clients that you care about them, they're more likely to book with you in the future or recommend you to friends and family. It's important that when a client does book with you, that you ask about them and their life.

What's their favorite color? What are their favorite pastimes? When's their birthday?

These are questions that your client probably isn't expecting from you. It'll throw them off a bit, sure, but it'll also make them feel seen and appreciated by you.

Remember how I mentioned asking your client for their birthday? After they've booked with you, and the event has come and gone, that doesn't mean you should stop making them feel seen. Send them birthday cards or, if you worked at their wedding, anniversary cards with special offers.

These are little personal details that you should be entering into your CRM for every client. They'll make you and your photo booth business stand out from the rest. These little details will also make your clients use you more and keep your business fresh in their minds.

If you're not using a CRM to track these details, you should definitely check out our article about automating your workflow. It'll make all of these even easier!

People Want to Be Heard

There's no denying that most Americans feel especially attached to their job. Whether it's for the best, or for the worst, our job and what we do plays a huge role in the connections that we share and the network of people we have around us. 

We just, generally, like talking about work!

Just like how people want to be seen, they also want to be heard. There's a lot of overlapping questions that you can ask your clients to make them feel both. For example, "What do you do for a living?"

Asking about someone's professional life will usually make them open up and share more about themselves. 

It'll make them feel heard.

It doesn't cost us anything to treat people like they're valuable.

Steve Saporito

But, there's also a huge benefit for you and your business. 

What if your client was a marketing director at a huge company? Would you have known that if you didn't ask what they did for a living? Probably not.

By building a good relationship with this client and going the extra mile, you're opening yourself up to some potentially huge corporate deals in the future. 

How? Because if you give your client a memorable experience and you keep you and your business fresh in their mind, you never know when they may be looking for a photo booth for their corporate event.

Again, put this information into your CRM! Please!

Don't Give Things for Free

As we mentioned, you should be offering your clients promotions and deals on special occasions (Their birthday, anniversary, etc). This will keep you fresh in your client's minds and give them a reason to come back to you.

Photo Booth Attendant Showing Guest How to Use the iPad-based Salsa Photobooth

 

But, do not offer anything for free.

Why?

People don't appreciate free and when you're sending out a special offer, it's important that there's value and that people notice that.

For example, if one of your favorite stores sends you an offer for a free pair of shoes, valued at $100, what are you going to the store for? 

The free pair of shoes, obviously.

But, if your favorite store gives you a gift card for $100, what are you going to the store for?

You're going for whatever you want and whatever is going to bring you the most joy. And heck, you'll probably leave spending more than $100.

So, why is this the case? Often times when we hear the word "free" we assume a couple of things. 

1. That it's some sort of scam or has strings attached
2. That the quality of the item isn't very good
3. There's a limited number of the free item, so it's not even worth trying
4. Or that there's no effort needed to offer the free product. It has a low value.

None of these are very positive, right? That's why it's important to offer a discount on your services and let your clients choose what brings them the most joy and value. For one client, it may be a free backdrop, but for another, it may be you spending more time at their event.

Let your client choose.

Be Creative About What You Offer

It's time to be creative and improve what you offer. After all, this is going to increase your average dollar sale.

So, what do we mean by that? 

We're not saying that you have to offer more than what you already do, but rather that you have to be creative about how you offer your services.

Let's say you want to provide clients with a scrapbook with images from the photo booth at their event. That's not a bad idea, but the word "scrapbook" sounds cheap. It sounds homemade, and it doesn't sound like something you can charge $200 for.

But, what if you called it something else? At the end of the day, it's going to be the same product, however, by calling it a "Guest Book" or a "Memory Book," it sounds more premium and will allow you to charge a premium price. 

This is how you can increase your average dollar sale. Think about all it is that you offer and find a way to make it premium. Think about how you name your services, think about how you describe your services, and think about the perceived value that you want to offer to your clients.

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And that's it! We hope that these tips help you understand your client in a way that'll earn you more repeat bookings!

Want to learn more tips and tricks on how to have a successful photo booth business?

Check out our other blog posts and our 26-Episode Video Series where you can hear from real PBSCO Photobooth owners on how they've led their businesses to success!