Family Marketing - Time to Get Your Plans in Place

by Skip Cohen

Years ago, back in my Polaroid days and before the Internet, the marketing gurus used to say it takes 2-4 times to hit a consumer before they'd remember your name or product. Well that was over twenty years ago. Today, I can't begin to guess how many times you have to get your name in front of a potential client for them to remember you.

Think about how much noise there is in our lives. How much email do we delete without ever opening it? How much direct mail do we toss out, before we find something we're really interested in? Direct mail is back with a vengeance, but it has to be done right to get through everything else in your target client's mailbox.

Here's a program that offers a solution and I love the approach Marathon has taken. It's called Family Marketing and it's ideal for portrait photographers to plant multiple seeds with potential clients. I was able to get Max Alewel, president of Marathon, to spend time with me on a short podcast this week and talk about the program.

The program involves three separate mailings and a bonus mailing if you want one last push. Best of all, Marathon, obviously with your direction, does all the work.  Marathon lets you lock in your zip code and exclusivity in that area, so there aren't other photographers sending out the same mailing.

Planting the Seed

The three part process/mailing kicks off with what's called a double-gatefold accordion piece. Great images in a well-designed mailer to get your audience thinking about their need for a new family portrait.

Second Mailing

Your second mailing is the offer itself with another well-designed piece that includes a gift card. Again, the piece features your images and the text/offer you've developed with Marathon's help.

Third Mailing

It's the final push with an oversized 11x6 card to remind your potential client to "book it now!"

The total cost for all three mailings comes out to $3.85 per name, bringing your cost down to just under $1.30 each. That price is all inclusive and includes photo insertion, back copy changes, postage, the list source, ZIP CODE protection and physically mailing the pieces. 

And, if you want to make it even more effective, bring in a partner! Sharing the cost with another vendor, including another photographer, would bring you down to sixty-five cents per mailing! Think about the potential for a family photographer to partner with a children/baby photographer...a photographer with a florist planting the idea for an updated family portrait and a new centerpiece for the table at Thanksgiving...a photographer and an upscale restaurant with an offer for a portrait session and dinner around the holidays.  The list goes on and on, but unless you start to work on this now, you'll never get the process going in time for the Fall!

Ideally you want your first mailing to go out in the August time frame. You've got to get people thinking about a new family portrait early. There's even one last mailing you can do for just $.60 each that reminds your target client not to miss out, but nothing happens if you don't make the first move, picking up the phone and calling Marathon or clicking on the link below to request samples. Most important of all, you want to call early and lock in the ZIP CODES you want.