Ever scramble to throw together a mini session at the last minute and then hate your life while trying to market it? Yeah, we've all been there. And honestly? It's exhausting, stressful, and completely avoidable.

Marketing your photography business doesn't have to feel like a constant fire drill. In this episode, Melissa and Alison are pulling back the curtain on the ONE thing that will transform your entire approach to marketing your photography business: an actual annual marketing calendar.

We know, we know - you've heard you need to be "marketing all the time." But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about sitting down with a calendar (yes, like pen and paper), reverse-engineering your year, and creating a marketing runway that has you booking clients WEEKS before your sessions instead of panicking days before.

Here's what you'll learn in this episode:

• Why planning your marketing calendar 8-12 weeks in advance will save your sanity (and get you fully booked faster)
• The exact timeline you need for marketing Santa sessions, fall minis, and other seasonal events
• How to reverse-engineer your marketing runway so you're never scrambling again
• Why blocking off editing time is just as important as blocking off shooting dates
• The VIP waitlist strategy that lets you test offers before you fully commit
• How to batch your marketing content so you're not reinventing the wheel every week
• Why your clients NEED that long lead time (hint: they hate figuring out what to wear too)
• How to plan around PCS dates, deployments, school schedules, and family life

Plus, Melissa and Alison share their own "oops" moments of last-minute planning and what they learned from being reactive instead of proactive.

Resources Mentioned:

• Kat Schmoyer giant quarterly calendar
• Target $5 annual wall calendars (July to July)
• Plum Paper planners
• Flodesk for VIP list forms
• Google Calendar for marketing planning
• The Motherhood Anthology
• The Blogging Club

Ready to stop the marketing madness? Block off 2 hours this week to audit what worked last year, dump out all your event ideas, and start putting actual dates on the calendar. Then tag us on Instagram @keepitmovingpod with #keepitmovingpod - we want to see your planning process!