Mother’s Day and Spring Seasonality

Intro by Skip Cohen

I found this post in Tamara Lackey’s archives, but since Mother’s Day is only a month or so away, it’s so appropriate to share with you now. While it was written several years ago, it’s the perfect reminder of an upcoming opportunity you have as a portrait artist.

So many photographers forget about spring seasonality. It starts with Mother’s Day, then graduation, then comes Father’s Day and the launch into summer. But seasonality in business doesn’t happen by itself – you have to create a little excitement in your market and it all starts with your blog.

Now is the time to use your blog and get your target audience thinking about their portrait needs over the spring holidays. Remember, 98% of the purchase decisions to hire a professional photographer in the portrait/social categories are made by women.

Start sharing content about capturing memories. Develop some great spring promotions to get “Mom” excited about updating the family portraits. And, don’t forget to get some partners involved in your promotional efforts.

You don’t have to do everything alone. Look for partners like florists, spas and restaurants for example, and share the cost of creating great promotions and support material. And, don’t forget, Marathon is here to give you a hand!

Mother’s Day is this week, in case you hadn’t noticed the deluge of marketing, print ads, radio spots, emails, postcards, commercials and sales! No doubt it’s a marketing heyday, but Mother’s Day is about a lot more than the commercialism of it (although, um, we are offering gift certificates in any amount you choose, last minute happiness. 😉

It’s about loving the job – and, yes, omg it’s often work – but also needing to feel like it’s somewhat appreciated, even if you’d choose it over again and again and again. So it’s a weird mix of feeling such gratitude for the role, combined with a nationally-accepted opportunity to receive a day’s worth of appreciation for all the effort involved.

An odd sort of paradox, when you really break it down. That’s Mother’s Day. But … Mothering? It’s mostly about what I saw when I photographed this portrait – falling in love and staying in love, for a lifetime. The more you go through the life, the more you realize: How often does that really get to happen??