Minisode 2: Why You’re Getting Ghosted in Your Business (And How to Fix It!)

In today's minisode, we’re diving into a spooky topic that haunts every calligrapher (and creative business owner) — getting ghosted by potential clients. If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Why aren’t people responding to me?” or feeling frustrated when a lead goes silent, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing: it might not actually be a “ghosting problem.” Ghosting is usually a sign of deeper issues with your marketing, messaging, or client workflow.

Tune in to hear our top tips on how to get leads to respond, how to stop getting ghosted, and how to strengthen your client communication in your calligraphy business. Spoiler: it’s all about staying top of mind with potential clients, clarifying your messaging to ensure you’re attracting the right people, and creating engagement strategies to help you stand out in the creative business world. We cover everything from pre-qualifying your leads to reframing how you think about ghosts, and we’ll explain why being super clear about your services and pricing is key to avoiding unqualified inquiries. Plus, we'll give you six free email templates to easily follow up with anyone you haven't heard back from without overthinking it!

Ghosting doesn’t have to be a frustrating mystery! With these simple steps, you can refine your client experience and attract leads who are the perfect fit for your calligraphy business!

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and share it with your calligraphy bestie, who might need a little ghost-busting, too!

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

• Get Shaochen's FREE ghosting follow up email templates
• Get Alane's Calligrapher Client Email Templates

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:25 Stay Top of Mind
• 4:48 Make Sure Your Messaging is Clear
• 7:09 Tips for Engaging Your Leads
• 11:06 Know When to Walk Away
• 12:37 The Silver Lining of Ghosting

Transcript

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 0:32

Welcome back to Calligraphy Biz Corner. We have a mini sode today. And for Halloween week, we wanted to talk about something that occasionally haunts all of us, ghosting. we talked a little bit about this in episode five, our worst pet peeves as calligraphers and how to combat them. But we thought this one deserved a mini sode of its own.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 0:54

Yeah. I feel like ghosting is a thing that you hear people complain about the most in even just in the wedding industry in general. And my kind of, I guess, hot take on this is that you don't actually have a ghosting problem. You actually have a marketing or a messaging or maybe even a client workflow problem. So in today's mini we are going to go over a few of the ways that you can. Get rid of your ghosting problem, hopefully once and for all. So the first thing that we wanted to go over is to just pause before you jump to any conclusions and make sure that you are always staying top of mind with your clients. I try so hard not to make assumptions anymore because you just never know what's going on in somebody else's life. So before you assume that somebody is being rude and is ghosting you, maybe start to consider what might delay their response. Remember, especially if you are in the wedding industry, your clients are busy planning their weddings. And so you are probably not their top priority. But I'm sure they're your top priority. So they probably aren't feeling that same pressure that you're feeling to like, get that response back from them. So it's essential to keep yourself top of mind with them. So when looking at your client journey, make sure that you have multiple follow up steps in place. And if you don't have any, then it is time to add them. And my little pro tip here is to make sure that they are at least automated reminders. So that way you don't even have to worry about, you know, Dropping the ball on sending that follow up email. And like I said, I recommend having multiple follow ups in place, both for the inquiry response as well as once you've sent a proposal, because I've even had people delay getting back to me and proposals and I've had to send follow ups before and then they end up booking or they end up giving you an answer, which that's at the end of the day, that's all we want. Right. We just want to hear back from somebody if it's a yes or a no.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 2:51

I'm really glad you brought up the followups because I think that's so important too, but I also know it can feel really awkward trying to figure out what to say to somebody who hasn't responded to you. So I actually created a little ghost busting guide that includes. six email follow up templates that you can just like copy and paste. And I love the idea of automating these. So again, you don't have to think about it. Just copy and paste these into your CRM system and have those automated email reminders follow up your, with your client for you. And I recommend keeping your followups short and sweet. And to the point, you'll see this in the email templates that I provide in the guide, but I'll tell you that my best performing follow up as far as the one that tends to get people to respond is the one that says. Since I haven't heard from you, I'm closing out your inquiry. And I don't recommend setting that as your first follow up, but when you're ready to close them out, whether it's like two follow ups or your third follow ups, that's the one that typically gets people to finally reply. And I usually get people between like two to three days. follow ups, because just like Elaine was saying, you never know what else is going on in their lives. That's taking priority right now. So unless we have a really tight timeline, I'll try to, you know, give them a couple of days to review whatever I've sent over.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 4:08

Yeah, that's a really good reminder because that's also just making me think that like I know I've dropped the ball before unintentionally of like getting back to somebody that I owed a response to. Right. And it's like life just happens sometimes. Giving your clients or potential leads the same grace that you would want if you were going through something, or if you just had a ton on your plate, I think is a really good place to start. Cause I feel like there's just all of this negativity around ghosting. And it's like, people probably aren't doing it intentionally.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 4:37

It's really good to give people the benefit of the doubt. And I will say that nothing annoys me more than when I get a follow up for something the same day. So let's try not to do that.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 4:48

So then the second thing that you should do, if you are experiencing a lot of ghosting in your business would be to make sure that your messaging is super clear. Take a hard look at the language that you're using on your website, in your social media posts and in client communication. You want to make sure that you are being extremely clear about what you do and who you serve, because if it is confusing at all from an outsider's perspective, They might not understand whether or not your services are actually for them. And so you want to make sure that you are talking to your ideal client. You are showcasing your unique value and you're being extremely clear about what it is that you do. Because like I said, confusion will lead to chaos and that. That can be one of the root causes of ghosting. And then my other tip here would be to make sure that your pricing in addition to your services are also well defined on your website or on your Instagram.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 5:44

and to add on to this, you want to make sure that your contact form, your inquiry form is also helping you to pre qualify leads effectively. So that means things like having a budget dropdown in your contact form for them to kind of select a budget range and also listing what your minimum is. So even if you have it somewhere on your website, I still recommend having it directly on the inquiry form, like When they are about to select their budget because then they can be really clear to know that, Oh, if I inquire here, I'm going to expect to spend at least as much money. I also like to set expectations on the timeline. So I have a little blurb that says, if you're booking for a wedding, those inquiries need to make at least six weeks in advance to avoid a rush fee. That way they know that if their timeline is shorter than that, that That the rush fee won't be a surprise. And then I also have a place on my contact form where they can indicate what services that they're looking for. So when the inquiry comes in, sometimes you can know right away if it's something that you do or not do. And then if it's not something you do, you can refer them to someone else and you don't waste time going back and forth trying to figure out what they're really looking for. And if any of these things around your services and your kind of your minimum, your budget. is unclear, then that's where you risk attracting some of those unqualified leads. So they're not a good fit for you. And rather than telling you that they're more likely to ghost you instead.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 7:09

The third thing that you can do is try to be more intentional when it comes to actually engaging your leads. We have a few tips that we can share just to improve your overall engagement and hopefully get a few more responses back. So our first tip is to ask a question in your inquiry response email, because this gives that lead something to actually respond to. It kind of breaks down that barrier of them, like not knowing what to say back when you put a question out there, it creates like a very clear intention of in their mind of like, oh, I'm going to respond to this very clear question that she had because I know the answer to it. And then they can respond back with that. And then again, kind of tying into that messaging, even though you might have. You know, your services outlined all over your website and your Instagram, and you're talking to your ideal client in both of those places. And you're clearly articulating your value. You just can't assume that every single lead is reading every single page on your website or every single social media posts, especially when it does come to wedding planning. Like people are reaching out to so many different vendors. They're not spending hours on your website, familiarizing themselves. You know, front to back with your services. So I also recommend in that initial inquiry response email back to the lead to clearly outline what you do and what you don't do. So again, you just. Mitigate any confusion. This helps confirm whether or not you're actually a good fit for them. And I just recommend this being something really simple on high level. So for example, you can just say something like, I specialize in handcrafted, fully custom details that are designed to elevate your celebration and become keepsakes that lasts long after you say, I do like this immediately is going to attract couples who are looking for custom handmade details. And it is going to repel couples. who either maybe they want something printed, they don't like calligraphy, or they don't care at all about creating keepsakes out of their wedding signage. So just make sure that you are being clear about that in that email. And then my third kind of piece here is to just be yourself. Like, make sure that you're infusing your personality into your communication because this helps you stand out among other vendors. It helps create points of connection with your potential clients. Like if you just sound super robotic, somebody might be like, this person doesn't even sound that fun to work with. Like, I'm not going to respond.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 9:29

Yeah, and I really appreciate you giving that example of saying what you do and don't do in the email response because that's something that I'm going to start doing in my inquiry replies, because you wouldn't believe how many people will come to me being like wanting a modern font. That I'm like, well, that would probably be look better if it was printed, you know, even though all over my website, it's like calligraphy, calligraphy, hand lettered stuff. And then my last tip in terms of engaging with your clients when they come to you is to make sure your email has a clear next step. That's easy for them to reply to. So it kind of ties into that first tip around asking a question, but just make it really clear. What is the next step that you want them to take? Are you trying to get them to book a call with you? Then make sure that that call to action or CTA is in place. is clearly highlighted in your email. I mean, literally, sometimes I will bold it and highlight it, you know, to be like, okay, if you read nothing else, read this last line that says, please book a call with me, or please answer this one follow up question that I have for you before we can, like, proceed. So just make sure that that doesn't get lost.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 10:41

Yep. That's a really good tip. I feel like sometimes it feels to us, like it's kind of silly to like bold things or like very clearly spell it out. I think in my email, I say something like. If you like what you see, the next step is to book a call. Like I literally say, this is what you should do next. But people need that guidance because they just don't know. So bolding it, highlighting it, whatever the case may be is a really smart idea. So then next, honestly, this next tip is to just accept the non responses. Like if you've done all of your follow ups, you're being clear in your messaging, et cetera, and people still aren't responding, then like. That's fine. Sure. Maybe they're ghosting you, but in my opinion, it's also just a sign that they're not the right fit. And in that case, I also know that I wouldn't have even wanted to work with them because I would expect that same level of respect that I give to my clients, which is like responding to emails, et cetera. So if that person can't do that for me, then it's like, okay, I'd rather just not then.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 11:42

Yeah, Similarly, I like to say that your ideal clients are not going to be the people who are ghosting you. And so going back to what we were saying earlier, it's like, even if you're doing everything right, you can't force somebody to reply and there just might be other things going on in their lives. Right. Sometimes circumstances change and they no longer need your services for whatever reason. And they might just not take the extra time to respond in terms of adjusting and evaluating your like marketing or messaging, you could try to get some feedback from people who do reply to you, but they declined to book with you. And so, For those people who say, like, thanks so much for your time. We went a different direction. See if you can find out why it wasn't a good fit for them. And that could potentially give you some feedback or input for what you might be able to adjust on your end, as far as like messaging and clarity.

alane_1_10-21-2024_132259: 12:37

So kind of in conclusion to put a bow on this mini soad while ghosting can be frustrating, it can also open up space for better opportunities. So. I just encourage you to, instead of viewing ghosting as a negative, just look at it as a chance to refine your approach, reevaluate your marketing, your messaging, your client workflow. And just by focusing on clarity and connection, you can really start to attract the clients who truly value what you offer and will hopefully be responding to you.

shaochen_1_10-21-2024_112259: 13:07

So hopefully that little mini sode was helpful and hopefully you get ghost. Less if you implement these tips, don't forget to head over to the show notes and you can grab that ghost busting guide that has my email followup templates that you can really easily and quickly implement into your client workflow. I'll talk to you soon.