'Tis the Season...NOT to be STUPID!

© Aaron Amat

by Skip Cohen

It's not only Marketing Monday, but as Walmart, Amazon, and even Canon launched their holiday specials last week, gift-shopping and holiday urgency has started earlier than usual. Why? Because retailers figured out there are six less actual shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. *Poof* The world has gone mad with a rush to get great deals!

Well, the good news is - with the rush to start shopping early, that means more time for you to have an impact on your target audience. And, being Marketing Monday, here's a list of things to think about to help make your presence more recognized and be a leader in service through the seasonality of the fourth quarter crunch.

• 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, voicemail or email sit without a fast response. 
• Are you using cutting edge technology to communicate? This isn't the place for an infomercial about PhotoTexting.com, but take the time to check them out, especially if you're a senior photographer. They've got the ability to help you respond almost instantly to any requests from potential clients.
• 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.
• Give your audience on both your website and blog, creative gift ideas for this holiday season. Show framed prints, metal prints, even canvas is still exciting for most of your clients! How about video holiday cards? All of you have the skills to offer your audience exciting products.
• Stay out of battles with trolls, especially on Facebook. First, it takes more energy than they're worth. Second, you have no idea who's reading whatever you share. Don't publish anything you wouldn't want the world to read. There are no erasers on the Internet!
• Stop wasting time in 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 so many times over the years, "Beauty is in the eyes of the checkbook holder."
• Be involved in your community! This is 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, etc. You simply 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 an image in your galleries could have been captured by anybody's "Uncle Harry," then take it down!
• Plan the rest of the year! Take a couple of 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. If you sit back and wait for the phone to ring, it'll never happen. And, when your ship does finally comes in, you'll be at the airport! Start planting seeds of ideas NOW!
• Get your 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 a 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!

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Skip's Holiday Resource Center

I didn't want to turn the post above into an infomercial, but SCU has some outstanding partners and friends.
All of them focused on helping you through the holiday season!
​Their links are below:

Improving Communication: PhotoTexting.com
Bella Prints, Albums and Holiday Cards: Marathon Press
Gift ideas for the Photographers in your life: Lumix - Platypod - Tamron
​Performance EXT Metal Prints: Bay Photo