Episode 236 – The ONE Thing Every Photographer Needs to Do in November

If I were to look back on how I built my photography business over the last 26 years, there is one thing that stands out. There was one thing that kept me sending a steady flow of clients and referrals into my photography business. I love printed things like portraits, art, and great typography with images. So naturally I love Christmas cards. I am the person who goes through those cards that are sent to me multiple times and I can’t bear to throw them away. When Joe and I got married, I decided we would mail a holiday card every year. I wanted to create something extra special. We got married in 1987 and digital printing wasn’t a thing yet. I had to have my card printed on an offset printer. It’s a lot more expensive, you have to do much larger runs, and it’s very tricky. Back then I wanted to have a cool Christmas card so I would work with big printers to do these offset printed jobs. I felt like this was that thing in our marriage that would be a thread through all of the years holding everything together. We were both starting our careers and we didn’t have a lot of money at all, but it was a priority. Anytime something’s important to any of us, we make it a priority, and that’s where we put the money. I always did hand work on the card, so my cards really stood out. I would tie a ribbon or I’d cut a little box out of the middle with an X-ACTO knife. As my list got bigger each year, my husband had a receptionist for his architectural firm, and we would ask her for help putting them together. The first year on the back of the card, we put “first in a series”, and when you do this, there’s no turning back, and I loved that. People told me that they collected them because they were in a series, they knew there was another one coming, so it gave them a reason to collect it. I was basically getting my really cool dream Christmas card tax-free because it was a business expense and it was promoting my business. It’s one of my favorite reasons to have a business. Each year I was making these holiday cards and my list would grow. One day I was at the park taking photos of some clients and across the park I saw another client of mine. It was in July summer. She runs over to me and she pulls out my Christmas card from her purse. It wasn’t a little Christmas card. It was huge. And she’d been dragging it around now for six months and showing it to all of these people at the hospital she worked at. Who gushes on another business like that? I realized the power of show not tell. I can go around telling people, “Oh, I’m a great photographer,” but when I’ve got someone pulling my Christmas card out of her purse gushing on me, that is so much more powerful. By creating a very cool holiday card, we empower people to gush on us so that we don’t have to gush on ourselves. Another reason to send out a holiday card is to stay top of mind with everyone who knows you. You are thinking about your business all the time, but others aren’t. It’s such a great way to reach out to people to capture their hearts and their attention. Make your card emotional, warm and fuzzy. Don’t just do what everybody else does. My goal is to get mine out early right after Thanksgiving so people can gush to their friends about me at their holiday parties As far as design and printing, if you don’t have the money, you need to put in the time. You can make it better by using time or money. Over the years when funds have been tight, I would go to the store and I would grab things that I could use to individually embellish the cards. Also, please write a personal note on every single card. That doesn’t just mean signing your name. It’s so important to me that they get a personal note in them otherwise I feel like it’s wasted.  Just start, get it done and make it better. Embellish it, make it fancy and write a personal note in it. Let all the people that you mail it to help you grow your business. Download the Episode Transcript Here