Happy last Monday of the year, friends! 2020 is about to come to an end – phew! I know this year didn’t go as planned for anyone, but there’s still a lot to be learned from 2020 and we can use this year’s lessons to have more success in 2021. Business-wise, it’s a great opportunity to see how your marketing efforts worked this year. Of course, we wedding photographers don’t usually like to work with numbers too often, but this is one of those times where you simply have to force yourself to do it. If you don’t know how you did this year compared to last year, and don’t have a baseline to compare next year to, then how can you possibly figure out if your business is growing or not?

That’s where an end-of-year marketing audit comes in. This type of audit is simply essential for the growth of any business so today I’d like to encourage you to do an end-of-year photography marketing audit. Slow down, gather the necessary data, take a look at what worked or didn’t work, and use that data – real numbers – to guide you in your marketing efforts for 2021.

To help get you started, here are five steps for a basic end-of-year photography marketing audit that any wedding photographer can do – whether you’re an experienced marketer or not!

Step 1: Review and record your numbers.

Begin by gathering all your data. Since this marketing audit is specifically for wedding photographers, and a big focus of your business goals likely revolves around the number and quality of your bookings, I suggest focusing on lead generation. Start by finding out how many leads your business generated this year thanks to:

1. Your website (organic search)
2. Your website (paid traffic)
3. Instagram
4. Pinterest
5. Facebook
6. Ads (FB/IG, or other)
7. Bridal Shows
8. Word-of-mouth client referrals
9. Photographer referral groups
10. Vendor networking
11. Directories (WeddingWire, The Knot, Style Me Pretty, etc.)
12. Other

How many of those leads actually booked? If possible, figure out your conversion rate. If you have a CRM like Tàve (double your free trial by clicking here), you can easily see these numbers at the click of a button by generating lead source reports.

Step 2: Review your marketing plan and compare the numbers to your goals.

Did you come into 2020 with a marketing plan? Dig it up and see how your business performed against the goals you set for yourself at the start of 2020. Get the real numbers from your CRM, Google Analytics, etc., and see how your business did. If you didn’t have a marketing plan, or if the goals you set weren’t measurable, then use this year’s numbers to set a baseline to track your growth for next year.

Step 3: Assess your marketing strategies.

Now it’s time to analyze all the numbers you compiled in Step 2. This is where you want to fully understand what worked and what didn’t work, what was worth the time and/or investment and what was not, what you need to more of and what you need to do less of. Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:

1. Which marketing strategies did you use consistently in 2020?
2. Which marketing strategies worked well?
3. Which marketing strategies didn’t work well? Make sure you are specific and honest here, because you’ll need to know what worked and didn’t work in order to make key decisions in 2021.
4. Were the weddings booked from those lead sources for ideal clients?
5. What was the average booking price for weddings booked from each lead source?
6. Which of those bookings included wedding albums?
7. Which of those bookings included parent albums?
8. How much money did you spend on each marketing strategy?
9. Which marketing strategies had a good ROI?
10. Which marketing strategies did not have a good ROI?

Step 4: Explore customer insights.

Customer feedback is essential for one of the biggest lead sources: word-of-mouth referrals. Gather all the customer feedback you’ve gotten this year so you can analyze your client experience and processes. Sources might include:

1. Reviews
2. Emails
3. Surveys
4. Client correspondence

How can you use this feedback to change and improve processes for next year? What do you have to spend more or less time doing?

Step 5: Develop action items

Take the information you’ve learned in your marketing audit and create a list of action items that will help you decide which marketing strategies were worth your investment this year and which will likely be worth your investment of time and money next year, too. Go through each one of your marketing strategies and create an action item for each relevant strategy. For example, if you spent a lot of time crafting captions for Instagram posts, yet saw very few leads coming from there, now is a good time to ask yourself what needs to change. Do you need to try different ways to reach and engage your audience on that platform or do you need to spend your time elsewhere? Conversely, if you didn’t spend any time on Instagram marketing and are ready to use it to generate more leads in your business, then make sure your marketing plan includes developing an Instagram strategy. Go through each one of your marketing strategies and create a corresponding action item / goal. Remember that the best goals are S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely).

Conclusion

A marketing audit is essential for growth, and it doesn’t have to be scary! A basic audit like the one I’ve outlined here will give you quite a bit of insight into your business and will help clarify your goals for next year. Keep it simple for now, and add on other metrics in years to come to continue to build a sustainable business.

Learn More

Are you looking for a mentor to help you grow your photography business? I’m currently accepting new clients for one-on-one coaching sessions and I’d love to sit down with you to identify potential areas of growth and help you create your action items. Click here to learn about my one-on-one custom coaching sessions and let’s use my experience from the past ten years to help you in your business growth.