In this episode of The Portrait System Podcast, host Nikki Closser speaks with Chapel Hill, North Carolina, photographer and educator Annemie Tonken about how setting up a membership system for her best portrait clients to create a steady portrait income has revolutionized her business. Not only has it simplified her bookkeeping and her marketing, it has also provided so many benefits for her clients. 

Tonken has been a professional photographer since 2010 and currently focuses on family photography. When a complicated foot surgery put her out of commission for three months, she realized that she needed to come up with a way to have steady income to weather tough times. Tonken had been hearing from several clients that they had wanted to book with her but kept putting it off—sometimes for years! Tonken realized that if she put these clients on a membership plan, they could pay on a monthly basis for her to photograph them yearly. And, by offering her members first dibs on her schedule twice a year, it also made it easier to book in her non-members by offering the limited sessions that were left.

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Tonken says, “what I did was I created three tiers, and I made it so that they were all really good, and all of them were actually priced a little bit better than my standard sessions because I knew that this was going to benefit my clients, but it was also going to benefit me, so I was willing to bring the overall costs down. Ultimately, most people weren’t independently hiring me each and every year anyway, so over time, it ended up being more money.”

Tonken’s basic package gives her clients all the digital files and a print credit in her online store. At the higher level, they also get an album and a studio session. She also will schedule sessions for them on a weekend without a special fee and makes herself available to shoot a special event for them, such as a birthday party. Tonken’s membership plan makes the whole process so easy for her clients, and it gives her steady, reliable income. By keeping her memberships limited to 70% repeat clients, she keeps the other 30% open to new clients who have the potential of getting on her membership plan if she feels they are a good fit.

You can learn more about Annemie Tonken and get more business tips from her on creating a steady portrait income by checking out her podcast This Can’t Be That Hard.

The Portrait System Podcast helps portrait photographers navigate the world of photography, business, money, and much more. Hosted by Nikki Closser, the podcast is powered by The Portrait System, a comprehensive, online educational platform that teaches all aspects of running a successful portrait photography studio.