Don't Miss Out This Holiday Season

by Skip Cohen

It's Marketing Monday, and parts of today's post are from SCU's archives. However, that doesn't change their relevance. Think about it for just a second - Walmart, Amazon, most of the camera manufacturers, along with just about every retailer, all have programs in place to launch in the next 8-10 weeks. 

Well, the good news is - with the rush to start shopping earlier and earlier every year, that means more time for you to impact your target audience. Don't wait to start taking action!

Here's a short list of things to think about to help make your presence more recognized and be a leader through the seasonality of the fourth-quarter crunch. YOU NEED TO BE PROACTIVE NOW! It's always more fun playing offense than defense. ​

The obvious foundation to prepare for this year's holiday season is to define your marketing plans, including partnerships, etc. But here are a few less obvious things to help you fine-tune your planning.

• When a potential client contacts you, respond quickly! That means you need to check whatever system you use for customer contact regularly. Don't let text messages, voicemails, or email sit without a fast response. 
• Be consistent! If you have a blog and only post whenever a full moon falls on a Tuesday - get your act together. Your website is about what you sell - your blog is about what's in your heart—post at least twice a week, same days, same times. Be consistent.
• Plant seeds of ideas! Give your audience on both your website and blog creative gift ideas for this holiday season. Show framed prints, metal prints, and even canvas are still exciting for most of your clients! How about video holiday cards? All of you have the skills to offer your audience exciting products.
• Stop wasting time on social media if it's not communicating with your target audience. So many of you waste time with other photographers in forums having nothing to do with building your business. I'm not suggesting you abandon your friends and associates. But keep your time focused on your client audience! Arguing over an image you like or don't like with other artists isn't going to pay the bills! I've quoted my old buddy Dean Collins many times over the years, "Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder."
• Be involved in your community! We're coming up to a giving time of year, and you need the community to know you're not just another retailer out to make a sale. You've got to give back. After all, you're looking for the community to be good to you, so you've got to be good to the community. It's not hard to do - get involved with a local fund-raiser. You want to be visible and show you care.
• Clean up your website galleries! Your images need to be about quality, NOT quantity. Only show your very best work. If a picture in your galleries could have been captured by anybody's "Uncle Harry," then take it down!
• Plan the rest of the year! Take a few hours and think through how you'd like the year to finish. You've got more control than most people think, but success in terms of sales is a combination of creativity, communication, and establishing value. It'll never happen if you sit back and wait for the phone to ring. And when your ship finally comes in, you'll be at the airport! 
• Get your own holiday cards ready! I'm talking about your personal card. No photographer should ever use a store-bought card. USE ONE OF YOUR IMAGES! On the front is your image, and on the back is your logo, email address, and phone number...studio address if you've got bricks and mortar location you want to share. You can pre-print a message inside and then add a hand-written line or two for special clients and associates.

There's a saying I heard years ago that's been modified numerous times by writers over the years. I still like this one:

If you do what you've always done, you'll never get more than you ever got!