The 7 Client Relationship Phases: How to Book & Nurture Your Ideal Client

Your client experience is of the utmost importance because the couple themselves truly matter. These two individuals are entering into a new season that will set the foundation for the remainder of their lives. The fact that they have invited you as their wedding photographer to come alongside them is much more than an honor–it’s a gift. Relishing that gift in how we treat our couples throughout the days leading up to their wedding is a privilege not to be wasted. That’s why honing in on these seven steps of your client relationship journey is key for both one-time and lifetime clients!

Start with the Client Relationship Golden Rule

Since we all appreciate a carefully curated experience completely specified to us, we should do the same for our couples. Even if you haven’t been a bride or groom yourself, you have been on the receiving end of a service. What always sticks out are those providers who go above and beyond in their care and those who do not.

Having been a bride myself, it’s left me knowing more so what not to do after many sub-par experiences with my own vendors. The client relationship was not their priority and I experienced the consequences of not receiving many resources and overall feeling no intentionality from the vendors. I was left just wishing that I had received more care.

Putting my couples first is one of the highest values of my business and I do so by elevating their client experience.

The 7 Stages of a Wedding Photography Client Relationship

The client experience that you provide in building a client relationship should be what gets you booked! It speaks for itself and it all begins with that first touch point: the initial email response.

Inquiry & Response

I need not say more than what’s already been captured by the Complete Email Template Playbook for Photographers but I will highlight a few points as emails relate to the client relationship. It cannot be emphasized enough how important those first few points of contact are in booking a client. That’s why using email templates and automations are so crucial in that initial connection!

These email templates were created to specifically resonate with ideal clients looking for documentary wedding photography. This makes it easy to tweak each email per inquiry and respond within the first 24-48 hours of their inquiry so that you don’t miss an opportunity.

I’ve placed all of my emails into the best client relationship management software: Honeybook. You can get off 50% off your first year using this link!

Email templates are where the client relationship truly begins after their first impression gained by viewing your website and social media. This is your chance to show your client how you deeply care about providing them with an experience rather than simply a service. Utilizing email templates curated to your brand and voice that are easy to adapt per client gives you an easy start to a solid client experience.

We wow and attract clients through our work, and we book and retain clients through our client experience. So much of that relies upon our email communication.

Booking & Onboarding

I usually break down the process of converting inquiries to clients into four easy steps:

1. Craft Your Offer: Your offer should be incomparable and priced according to the value that you offer. Spend time discovering the motivations, desires, and goals of your ideal client. Be able to confidently express how you will meet these. The more that your offer meets the desires and goals of your potential clients, the more they are willing to pay.
2. Curate Your Inquiry Process: As we’ve discussed already, a well-structured inquiry process can make or break a potential client’s decision. Make it easy and seamless to find how to contact you via social media (bio link, highlights, contact button).
3. Conduct Your Sales Call: This is your time to further communicate your value, listen, and specifically address the couple’s concerns and desires. Sales calls should build trust and close the deal! You can start by using the Consultation Call Script to guide you through this initial conversation!
4. Convey Your Proposal: A proposal = the invoice + the contract inside of the email that delivers it all. Build the excitement, reinforce their top desires and address their concerns. Also input the main connection points you made from the call.

ONLY use contracts that fully protect your business and your clients. I highly recommend The Legal Paige’s air-tight contracts for adventure elopement photography, destination wedding photography, and film destination wedding photography (that I helped write!). Use my link for 10% off your first purchase!

Knowing how to convert an ideal inquiry into a client is the single most powerful tool to grow your income, get booked out, and build a sustainable business.

Once a proposal is signed and paid, you should immediately send a booking confirmation and next steps. This generally includes sending a wedding guide that can easily be created in a free design platform like Canva. These guides generally include examples and tips covering the following topics:

• Welcome & Outline of Next Steps
• Timelines
• Capturing Details
• Getting Ready
• Portraits
• Ceremony
• Reception
• General Planning Inspiration
• Vendor Recommendations

At this juncture you should also share your business hours, best contact information, overview and timeline of working together, and a recap of what the package they booked includes (engagement session, film, or other add-ons). My favorite thing is to provide a link up front for them to book a call at any point during the wedding planning. I want to make myself available if they have questions or just want to chat about a few things!

I also enjoy going that extra mile to give thoughtful, sentimental and meaningful gifts to my clients as a means to upscale their experience. Gift-giving is something I’ve valued with friends and family over the years as I’ve witnessed the impact it has on the recipient. Providing the best client gifts now plays a crucial role in my onboarding process.

Client Relationship-Building Gift Ideas:

• Packlane: custom packaging (tape, tissue and boxes) with your photography logo designs & Noissue: creative custom packaging that’s sustainable and eco-friendly including tissue paper.
• USB Custom Boxes: boxes for prints with a custom USB or just a decorative USB. 
• Branded thank you cards from Etsy or elsewhere.
• Gift Card to one of their favorite spots (pull this info from their initial questionnaire) so they can take a break together from wedding planning or send it on their one-year anniversary!
• Luxury Wedding Planner Book
• Wedding Countdown Calendar
• Custom “Notes for Our Wedding” Journal to record all of their memories.
• Personalized Bookmark
• Luxury Keepsake Boxes
• Gift the services of a wedding vendor such as a live wedding painter. 
• Gold Glass Photo Box
• Marc Jacobs Leather Purse
• Gucci Book of Fashion
• In-Home Portable Projector
• Caraway Nonstick Ceramic Cookware Set

It’s always the little things that you remember after hiring a contractor to perform a service. How well you were treated through small touches like client gifts are what build a client relationship. You’ll even find that clients start asking to refer you because of how well you treated them!

Engagement

Not every client will opt for an engagement session. When they do, it’s your role to provide just as high of an experience as you will for the wedding day. These are the steps I use to provide an amazing engagement session experience at this point in the client relationship:

• Brainstorm inspiration for the style and feel of their session creating a Pinterest board together.
• Location scout if needed showing them past galleries as examples.
• Help decide the best time to shoot according to sunrise and sunset or find studio options if needed.
• Show up early, play music, and spend time at the start of the session getting to know the client. 
• Send sneaks if applicable and the full gallery keeping in mind their timeline for save- the-date cards.

Nurturing & Education

You can start nurturing and educating your client from the outset! A great follow-up that I enjoy using after sending the wedding guide is an email I title: “[FOR THE BRIDE’S EYES ONLY]: finding your dress & veil!” In this templated email I list both dress and veil designer recommendations with links to other top sources providing more recommendations.

Communicating outside of the emails sent at booking and right before the wedding day helps eliminate this gray area especially when the wedding is far out. You can create other client resource emails such as how to plan a wedding timeline, how to choose whether or not to have a first look, checklists for detail items, etc. These emails can be staggered, scheduling them out at various touch points leading up to the final stage of wedding planning.

The Closing Client Relationship Stages: Wedding Prep and Delivery & Upsells

This is when you get down to the nitty gritty final stages of the wedding planning process beginning at three months out from the wedding date. Again, you will be using customizable email templates within your CRM workflow that are prepped and ready to go at this stage!

You can start with a three-month check-in email followed by another at two months. You can add in at your own discretion a guest destination session offer before diving into the final timeline call. I usually round this stage out with a 30-day wedding check-in and a final Wedding Week Information email.

Following sneaks and final gallery delivery, you can offer album options and an offer for a one-year anniversary session. Make sure you deliver galleries on time or early and you can also include a client gift at this step to optimize that client relationship!

Offboarding to a Lifelong Client

Offboarding your client into becoming a lifelong client means providing them with the tools and the incentive to become a returning client. So much of this stems from the client relationship you have already created through the care and work you put into their experience of working with you. A discount on a one-year anniversary session is an easy way to create a returning client.

Another way to continue the relationship is to build a referral program partnership. You can include a double-sided or single program that’s either tiered or standard. Double-sided means both the person referring and the client being referred both receive a discount, reward, or incentive. Standard means that there’s only one gift they receive vs tiered which means that if they book a certain level (8-hour vs 12-hour package) the incentive changes.

Incentives can be physical gifts, monetary, or complimentary services. Consider your ideal client and what they value and where they shop. I suggest making your client gifts and referrals between 1-5% of what the client books. For example, if a client books a $6,000 package the gift should be between $60 to $300. But, it can always cost more as well!

Don’t forget when offboarding to ask for a testimonial! Suggest that they take a moment to scroll through their gallery again and share about:

• Selecting your wedding venue or location and how the gallery showcased the location
• Description of your vision for your wedding and how the photography helped achieve the aesthetic and feel you were hoping for
• Our communication
• Any resources provided to you in the planning process
• How you felt when you received your photos and your thoughts on them
• How you would describe the look of your documentary photos
• Overall thoughts on working together!

Share a link to your Google Reviews page so it’s easy for them to quickly submit it! You can even share a Google folder link where they can upload a video of their review.

More Client Relationship Resources

1. Top 5 Best Ways to Level Up Your Photography Client Experience 
2. Client Relationships: Best Tips & Touch Points
3. FREE Consultation Call Script
4. All-in-One Notion Business Template for Organized Success
5. The Top 12 Photography Tools Every Photographer Needs