Helping Grow Your Business With Holiday Cards

Intro by Skip Cohen

For years holiday cards, both yours and as a product for your clients, have been a component of just about every marketing program/workshop I’ve ever given. Why? Because it’s one of the greatest tools you have for building brand awareness for your business.

In this post, thanks to Sarah Petty, she hits all three of the key points, but she’s missing one of my favorites – holiday cards are fun because they show your work and create a certain unique sense of pride regarding your skill set.

The holiday season is fast approaching and now is the time to be thinking about what you want to do for your own card this year, as well as taking Sarah’s lead on cards for your clients.

By Sarah Petty

One year I was in tears, literally, because I was spending the day before Christmas Eve driving around town delivering holiday cards to my clients instead of enjoying my own kids. I was ready to walk away from offering them to ANYONE.

I even vowed never to sell holiday cards again.  But then, after I stepped away, I got clarity on why holiday cards are important in building a photography business.

Here are 3 reasons why I think every professional photographer should be selling holiday cards to every single client.

Reason 1: Create buzz

When you create buzz around your business, you’re benefiting from one of the most powerful forms of marketing around — “word-of-mouth.”

How powerful is word-of-mouth marketing? Well, according to a Nielsen study, 84% of consumers reported taking action based on a personal recommendation. That makes sense since we generally buy new products and services from businesses our friends and family trust because we value their opinions, right?

And when you get a client gushing over you and your products, it’s like hiring the best salesperson in the world — FOR FREE!

Your holiday cards are the perfect product to create a healthy buzz for your business.

By their very nature, holiday cards get passed around and shared with the people who mean the most to your clients. When friends and family of your clients see those beautiful holiday cards, they’re naturally going to want them too!

I love to go to a client’s home during the holiday season and see a mantle full of holiday cards that we’ve created. I especially love this energy being in my market going into the slower months.

So, go create a buzz in your market by selling holiday cards so your best clients can talk about and gush on you.

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most powerful ways to create new clients. Get the buzz going by selling press printed holiday cards to your clients this Fall.

Reason 2: Generate extra revenue

We know that this is the time of year where our clients absolutely need holiday cards. It just becomes a question of where they’re going to get them.

Sure, they can go the cheap route and get pre-printed, ugly cards, but that isn’t the impression they want to leave with their friends and family, right?

This is the one time in the year where families make a conscious effort to reach out to friends and family (even the distant ones) to give them their best wishes as well as an update on how their year went in the form of a holiday card.

And if you get your clients in NOW – before the holiday expenses start racking up, they have more money to spend and finances aren’t as tight.

Believe me, your clients would RATHER have you do it for them. It’s one less thing for their to-do list.

And they don’t want to showcase their family using a cheap, ugly holiday card. To let them do so would be a disservice on our part when we have already taken gorgeous photos of their family. I really believe that we’re doing our clients a favor by helping them send awesome holiday cards that they can be proud to send to their loved ones. I see it as our professional obligation to our clients.

Selling holiday cards also gives you an excellent way of generating extra revenue for your business.

By simply reminding your clients this Fall that you offer beautiful holiday cards guaranteed to “WOW” their friends and family — they’re naturally going to want them.

And when you make the ordering process extremely easy for your clients to buy holiday cards from you-you’ll have extra cash flow and more profits coming in this 4th quarter.

Your clients want awesome holiday cards. It’s your job as a photographer to make it easy for them to buy.

Reason 3: Get free marketing

This is my favorite reason. When your clients send holiday cards with your images, they are paying for your marketing for you. They’re covering your costs to:

• Print hundreds, if not thousands, of cards with your images on them
• Post each card in the mail
• Handwrite, seal and address each holiday card
• Use their ‘personal mailing list’ to send your marketing pieces to
• AND most importantly, deliver a marketing message that’s actually welcomed, loved and cherished by EVERY recipient!

I love reaching out to clients who are business owners and brainstorming with them about how we could create a card of their family to their clients.

Insurance agents, chiropractors, dentists, realtors….they ALL send holiday cards to their clients. This time of year they aren’t even thinking about their card so there is time to create something really cool for them. Don’t let them order the generic, vanilla business holiday greetings they are void of personality and customization. Instead, create something incredible for them.