You’ve got a fresh inquiry—yay! That’s the starting line of your race to secure a booking for your photobooth business.
But how do you go from “I’m interested” to “I’m booked”? The answer lies within your follow up! That’s where the magic happens.
To help you strengthen your follow up process and land more bookings for your photobooth business, in this blog post, we’re breaking down 5 no-fail follow-up strategies that don’t leave you feeling like you’re chasing down leads.
5 Follow Up Strategies for Photobooth Business Owners
Start with an Automated, Friendly, Response
First things first: reply immediately—even if it’s automated. You don’t need to personally respond within minutes (especially if it’s a Saturday night), but you do want them to feel acknowledged.
To do this effectively, simply set up your CRM to send a quick “We’ve got your inquiry!” email, setting the expectation on when they’ll hear from you next.
Here’s an example of what we send at Smirk Photobooth Co:
From all of us here at Smirk Photobooth Co, we want to say thank you for inquiring to have us at your event!
This is an email letting you know we’ve received your form submission and will be in touch within 24-48 hours with next steps.
If you submitted over the weekend, we’ll get back to you on Monday. Weekends are our busiest time, as I’m sure you can guess!
We look forward to talking with you soon,
This kind of automated email doesn’t need to be overly personal, but it does set clear expectations so they’re not left wondering if you even saw their inquiry.
Personalize Your Follow-Up Response
Once you’re ready to send your official response, it’s time to get personal. If they mention they found you through Sarah’s wedding, let them know how much fun you had working that event.
If they’re getting married at a venue you love, mention that you were just there last week and can’t wait to work their wedding, too. Even if you’re using a canned response, leave space for customization!
For us, our template is solid enough to go as is, but I always have key spots where I can sprinkle in personal touches. Clients love to feel like they’re being spoken to directly, not just another name in your inbox.
Make Your Proposal Work for You
When it comes to booking more photobooth clients, it’s important to realize that quick action is key when it comes to locking in your clients. This is why creating a proposal that gets them excited and ready to move forward is so important!
And while a PDF attached to your pricing email might look polished, it doesn’t give them a clear next step. Sometimes, service providers forget to tell clients exactly what happens next, which leaves them confused—and possibly ghosting you.
So instead, make your proposal foolproof by:
- Including your packages: Outline exactly what they’ll get at each price point.
- Including FAQs about your service: Preemptively answer any lingering questions to avoid back-and-forth emails.
- Providing your add-ons list: Give them options for upgrades they can choose from.
- Clearly spell out the process and next steps: Walk them through how to book, what happens after they sign, and what they can expect from you leading up to the event.
At Smirk, we send the proposal in our first semi-custom email (the one right after the “we got your inquiry” response). From that point on, all of our follow-ups include a direct link back to that proposal. That way, the client always knows where to find the info they need to book.
Timing Is Everything
There’s a fine line between giving your clients space and accidentally ghosting them back (OK, that’s a bit dramatic). You don’t want to overwhelm them, but you also don’t want to drop off the face of the earth after one follow-up.
Here’s what’s worked for me: I send three follow-up emails after the initial inquiry and proposal. If I don’t hear back after those, I archive the lead. That said, if we’ve hopped on a call or had more serious conversations, I’ll adjust my follow-up strategy accordingly.
Overall, each follow-up email is warm and to the point and yes, every single one includes a direct link back to the proposal. The goal here isn’t to bug them, but to make it easy for them to take action whenever they’re ready.
Add a Dash of Urgency (Without the Pressure)
And lastly, one of the best follow up strategies to land more photobooth clients is to create a little bit of urgency without adding pressure.
Creating urgency of some kind can help nudge clients toward booking without coming off as pushy. There are two ways to do this, depending on your style:
- Offer an upgrade for booking now: Early on in our business, we offered a prop set or even played with a small discount for clients who booked within a certain timeframe. It’s a fun way to add value while encouraging action.
- Set a proposal expiration date: These days, we prefer to increase urgency by letting clients know their proposal will expire in a few days. This creates a clear deadline without making them feel pressured. If they need more time, they can always re-inquire, but it encourages a decision sooner rather than later.
Also, it’s always smart to sprinkle in some social proof.
Share what past clients have said about working with you, and include links to galleries from previous events. When potential clients see that others have loved your service, they’ll be more eager to experience it for themselves.
Additional Photobooth Business Resources
Overall, when you streamline your follow up strategy for your photobooth business, inquiries turn into bookings with less effort and more ease.
By implementing these follow up strategies, you’re not just increasing your chances of booking more clients, you’re making the entire process smoother for everyone. And isn’t that what we’re all here for?
If you’re in search of additional photobooth business resources, that’s why we created Booth Stock – a stock photo membership built specifically for photo booth business owners, offering photo booth stock images you can use across your marketing.
As a member, you get:
✔️ Access To Our Library + Monthly New High-Resolution Stock Images
High-res stock images that are ready to download and use across your website, social media, and marketing materials means no more staring at a blank screen wondering what to post during your busiest weeks – the content is already waiting for you!
✔️ Themed Content To Suit the Season & The Latest Trends
We loveeee a theme here at TPE and since photobooth businesses are naturally seasonally aligned, we make sure our stock photos reflect that. You’ll find holiday packs in the fall, fun and floral in the spring, and whatever’s trending in the wedding and event world throughout the whole year.
When your content is already aligned with the season, batching your marketing becomes so much faster and a whole lot more fun!
✔️ Bonus Content + Templates
Beyond the photos themselves, we want to make sure you feel totally confident actually using them, so inside the membership you’ll get bonus content like mini training videos that show you how to execute certain installs IRL, Instagram Story templates, and other ready-to-use assets that make showing up for your business feel less like a chore and more like a vibe.
Less time creating from scratch = less burnout.
✔️ Member-Only Group
Let’s be honest, navigating busy season as a photobooth owner is a lot more fun (and a lot less lonely) when you’ve got a group of party people in your corner cheering you on. And that’s exactly what you get with the Booth Stock Member-Only Group!
Inside you’ll find additional content from outside guests, Q&A support, and a community of fellow photobooth owners who get it.
