Holiday Cards are good for any client and any photographer! Even you male photographers out there that might think they’re a tad too girly for you. Your lady clients will love them. And they mean free advertisement for you!
*Wedding, portrait, and even some commercial clients (think realtors) are great clients to offer them to.
First start by either designing or purchasing Holiday card templates that you like. We offer them on our Art-Is website here: http://www.art-isdesign.com/
Second begin contacting your 2010 past clients and share that you’re offering Holiday cards this year. Even if a brides wedding was in February, this is a great way for her to share her awesome wedding photos with friends and family! And of course begin offering the cards to your current and future clients as well.
Third have your clients get in touch with you directly to place their card order. Something we’ve done in the past is post all of our Holiday card designs on our blog clearly labeled by number or card name. We then ask our client to visit our blog and choose the design they like best. From this point we have them either give us the image numbers they would like to use on the card, or we have them make a folder through their Pictage event titled “Holiday card” that includes their selected photos. We then FTP the titled folder directly to us. (I love Pictage for this!) And then we get to plugging in their photos and adding their names to the card. Lastly, we email a proof of the card to our client asking them to approve the design and check the spelling of names. Once they’ve given us the go-ahead we send it off to the printer!
Tips on how to make your life easier when offering Holiday cards:
Let me just tell you that the first year I offered Holiday cards to my clients I custom designed every single card and probably redesigned every single card for the “choosy” client :). I took last minute Holiday card orders and nearly forgot about Christmas because I was still fulfilling card orders up until the week before Christmas. Please avoid these scenarios at all costs if you want to delight in the Season, instead of dread the Season!
1. Allow MINIMAL changes. Because you probably won’t be charging a whole lot for these Holiday cards, I suggest that you keep with the design “as is” and only really allow them to change verbiage if they so desire. If colors are easy to change on the design and you think different colors would look best with the selected photos, well then by all means do so. But don’t allow clients to change the integrity of the pre-existing design. Allowing many changes means that set of 25 cards could end up taking up to 4+ hours of your work day, and possibly many back and forth emails.
2. Don’t continue taking card orders through December 15th. Just trust me on this. If our clients wait that long to place their order we then sell them on New Years cards! Suddenly at about December 10th I love New Years cards and “feel that they are less traditional, and more fun than Holiday cards.”
3. If your lab offers a few different card stocks, I suggest you deciding which card stock looks best with each design you’re offering. For example: If I’ve designed a card that has a lot of white, I opt for the pearl, or metallic card stock because it gives the plain white a little more interest. If you suggest the card stock, then this will eliminate clients wanting to meet up with you in order to select their desired card stock.
4. VERY IMPORTANT! Place your website on the back of every card design. It can be in a small unobtrusive manner. Be sure to include your website in the proof design so that the client is not surprised by this when they do receive their card order. Imagine all of the friends and families that will be viewing your gorgeous work via your clients! They’ll be able to book you next year because they know who’s gorgeous work they’re staring at.
If you don’t offer Holiday cards I hope you’ll be inspired to do so. We have clients come back every year claiming that they couldn’t imagine getting their card through anyone else.
Another way to complete your holiday card orders is through Pictage! All it takes is four easy steps to design, submit, and deliver beautiful cards.
1. Choose the perfect image
2. Select one of 20 designs
3. Customize the card with text, borders, and backgrounds
4. Choose the quantity and submit your order
Written by Heather Essian
Heather is passionate about helping others discover their unique gifting and giving them the encouragement to pursue what they love! Creativity is simply a part of Heather and always has been. From her days sketching while in grade school, to her first darkroom photography class in college she’s known all along that her longing was to create. Her love of people and relationships is what has drawn her to photography.
Heather and her husband, Jim, currently run their photography business out of a gorgeous boutique style studio in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The creative products she offers takes her boutique photography studio to a unique level in a highly competitive market.