It’s a fact of life: renting photo booths for special events is a seasonal business. To make up for the slow times, you have to really crush it and make it count when everyone is searching for photo booths!

Here are 5 simple ways you can maximize your photo booth business this holiday season.

Further Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Photo Booth Business

1. Create special holiday marketing materials

The holidays are a special time that only come once a year and prospective clients are going to want to know that your services are the right fit for their party. Unfortunately, your regular promotional materials for weddings or birthday parties are likely to fall flat with people looking to book a holiday party for their company or family.

Create something unique for the holidays that will remind people that you are offering a special service that will ultimately make their event unique and memorable. 

Here are a few ways to make your services stand out from the competition:

  • Hire a designer to make a digital flyer you can post on Facebook & Instagram
  • Make a special landing page on your website to promote your holiday offerings
  • Reach out to past clients with a special holiday offer. If they’ve booked you before and had a great experience, they’re the most likely to book you again!

Now, let’s talk about how to make those materials super effective in booking clients!

2. Start early & create urgency

The sooner you book your available holiday dates, the easier you can rest at night. Call-to-actions that encourage clients to book early tend to create a sense of scarcity and FOMO (fear of missing out), making you look like a popular and desirable service they should book quickly.

Here are a few call-to-actions that will create urgency:

  • Book soon! Dates are filling up fast
  • Limited dates. Check availability now
  • Reserve your date (before it’s too late!)

These will beat generic call-to-actions like “Contact us” any day! You should start promoting photo booths for the holidays as early as September to lock in those dates.

3. Incentivize booking by a certain date

One of the best parts of running a photo booth business is that there are so many add-ons you can offer, most of which don’t cost you much to include once you know you’re going to be at the event anyway. You should pick a few add-ons to use as incentives with clients to make sure you get their business!

Here are some examples of add-ons that photo booth companies typically offer:

  • Premium backdrops
  • Traditional props table
  • Digital props (you can even design custom ones for corporate clients)
  • Custom graphics or design
  • Green screen digital backdrops
  • Prints (this is a novelty now that it’s so easy to get your photo digitally)
  • Extra hour(s) with the booth
  • On-site attendant (yup, it’s possible to remove this from your base package with modern photo booth apps)
  • Live Feed

Incentives with an expiration date are a great way to encourage clients to book faster. It doesn’t cost you much, but might make the difference between a client booking you vs. losing interest or going elsewhere!

The value perception can be increased even more when you remind them of what it would cost to get the add-on regularly. This might mean saying something like “Book by November 15th and get one free add-on for a $250 value.” 

4. Reduce friction & build trust with clients

Don’t try to collect every detail upfront. Just get the essentials, like the event date and their contact information. If a client doesn’t have all the information yet, you don’t want that to become a roadblock from reaching out to you.

A simple lead funnel for a photo booth business could look something like this:

  1. Lead fills out simple website form
  2. Check if the date is available and respond back
  3. Call or schedule a phone call to discuss the event (and your packages)
  4. Collect final event details in an agreement with a deposit
  5. Accept final agreement

The phone call is important because when it comes to hiring a service provider, people tend to make their decision based on comfort level and trust. Even if you don’t have a fancy website or brand, you can make up for it with a phone call that lets you show your professionalism and understanding for the experience the client is looking to create at their event.

If someone wants to skip a phone call and go straight to booking, that’s awesome. But you should always give them the option to get on the phone and build a personal connection.

5. Collect a 50% deposit

If a client isn’t willing to put money down, it either means they aren’t ready to commit to you or they do not have the money to pay. In either case, it creates a high risk that they might flake at the last minute. The last thing you want is lose revenue on highly requested dates due to canceled bookings at the last minute. 

Make sure to collect the deposit and remainder before the event.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but having expectations for your clients like paying on time and in advance actually helps them respect you more and increases follow-through. In addition to the deposit and remainder payment schedules, you may consider having a few other rules that you expect clients to follow, such as being responsible for guest behavior. 

Now, you’re ready to go get tons of new business this fall and winter. Go make it snow photo booths this holiday season!