Seasonality - Are You Ready?

You've got to listen to the voice in your gut. It is individual. It is unique. It is yours.
It's called being authentic.
Meredith Vieira

by Skip Cohen

Every year around this time, many of my posts have the same theme - procrastination is not a marketing strategy!  Some of you spend so much time pondering what to do next that you miss the opportunities to grow your business. In your heart, you know you have to take action, but you don't trust your gut instinct. You're caught in analysis paralysis, and instead of aggressively working on your dreams, you wind up at a snail's speed when success in business demands action...not complacency.

April is right around the corner, with seasonality about to swing into full bloom. But there isn't a button on your keyboard for "seasonality."  However, there is a seasonality button in your head and heart. We're down to the wire, and there's still a chance for unique, eye-catching creativity in the days ahead.

With Easter, Mother's Day, graduation, prom season, and Father's Day on the horizon, there are opportunities for you to fill a gaping hole in capturing memory-making moments.

• Planting Seeds: Whether through your blog, social media, or direct mail, now is the time to remind Mom that it's time for a new family portrait. You have to be the one to plant the idea, and it's perfect for social media content. You don't have to wait for Throwback Thursday to share some old family portraits and get your audience thinking about the need for something new.
• Partnerships: Whether direct mail or cross-promotional, look for a couple of partners in your community to get the word out. For example, working together with a florist and a restaurant known for its Mother's Day brunch is a perfect partnership for an email blast or direct mail campaign. Plus, by working together, you're expanding your reach and saving costs with direct mail. Best of all, each partner becomes an ambassador for the other two.
• Cross-promoting with a Venue: Pick the best restaurant in the area that's popular for Mother's Day. Sit down with the restaurant and develop a way to offer a unique gift certificate for each other's products. You don't need to discount, but create add-on value with each of your services.
• Legacy Programs: Whether it's a multi-generational family portrait or offering video support to help older family members share their stories, it's once again the renewed sense of family at play. I'm a huge fan and believer that every portrait photographer should be offering recording time to senior family members. I look at my own short-sights - for example, I'd give just about anything to have recorded my Dad's stories from his childhood to how he met my mother, etc. - before he passed away.
• Mother's Day Special: To get started, call your lab and ask, "What's new?" Choose a new style album, canvas, or unique material for printing and offer it on your website. Bundle it so the package is valuable without cutting into your pricing. Share this bundle with your clients—a canvas print might be new and exciting for them, even if it's familiar to you. Promote this special clearly so clients know how to take advantage of your offer.

Let's wrap up the ideas for today with outdoor prints, which really deserve their own post...

I'm a huge fan of BayPhoto's Performance EXT metal prints, and I have three of them hanging outside by our pool. (Remember, I live in Florida, and there are thousands of homes with pools, and all of them are in the sun and rain all year long.) My prints have been outside in the sun for years and have shown no change in quality. Performance EXT Metal won't hold up forever, but offering people something new with a fine art type print or family portrait on their porch or patio is definitely a show-stopper.

Plus, the concept brings in two strong groups to expand your target audience:

• Restaurants: While the pandemic brought outdoor seating into play, most were never built with it in mind. As a result, the decorating is often very limited, if at all. A few stunning images on easels or permanently mounted on the walls would add a new level of art to the immediate environment. But with or without outdoor seating, the demand for food photography has never been higher. It may have started with the pandemic, but it has continued to grow with the Internet and online marketing. Carry-out ordering remains a popular option. Check out any of your favorite restaurants, and most often, you'll find a massive need for better photography.
• ​Consumer Marketing: Take the idea of outdoor prints one step further, and instead of thinking outside the box, let's think like there's no box. Almost every client you've photographed has a porch, patio, or outdoor area at home. Let's encourage people to appreciate artwork in these spaces.

Here's the bottom line for today—there's still time for you to launch a few great promotions, but this is a you-snooze-you-lose scenario. Act now: reach out to your target audience and share your latest offers, because unlike the illustration above, there is no seasonality button to push!