• Business and Management

Photographer’s guide: How to sell more holiday cards to clients.

The holidays will soon be upon us, friends, and you know what that means? That’s right… tis’ the season for never-ending family sessions and holiday cards. Whether that thought actually makes you excited or (let’s be real) gives you a little headache, you’ll want to plan ahead and execute said plan well in order to make the most of your holiday card sales.

And (a very important) added bonus for your foresight? The better you plan for the holiday card season, the happier your clients will be with their overall photography experience. Let’s take a look at a few things you can do to set yourself up for success with holiday card sales in the crazy holiday rush. 

Make your photography marketing plan before the holidays, and communicate. 

It may seem excessive to some, but if you’re going to be successful in maximizing your holiday card sales, you need to start planning in September, aka, the month that is the calm before the holiday-rush storm. Not only do you need to start gathering your game plan early, you need to start communicating with your clients then too.

Why? I can assure you that most of your clients are only as on the ball as you are with holiday cards. A gentle nudge is helpful for clients everywhere drowning in holiday shopping, daily to-do lists, and carpool lines but still wanting that perfect holiday card. 

So, shoot them a thoughtfully prepared email letting them know that you are getting in the holiday spirit a bit earlier this year, and that you’d love to encourage them to do the same. This will prompt them to 1) go ahead and schedule that session with you, and 2) be thinking ahead to seasonal greeting cards. 

Use email marketing to communicate with clients. 

Speaking of email… this is an important piece of the holiday card marketing puzzle: go ahead and lay out an email marketing plan for your holiday cards. Decide at which points you feel it is best to nudge your clients about the process. You don’t want to be a nuisance who blasts them with emails every week–you want your emails to fall into their inboxes strategically during the Fall season, with thoughtful content and information that will get them closer and closer to taking action and purchasing their holiday cards through your online shop. Here’s what this may look like…

• Mid-September: Hi! Holiday card season is upon us… gentle nudge to begin scheduling a session and thinking about holiday cards. Highlight your services/product offerings (mini-session dates, anyone?) and how you can be of assistance in this sometimes overwhelming process. 
• Mid-October: Friendly reminder to schedule a session and browse your website for holiday cards. Give a brief look ahead to future holiday card sales you may offer. 
• Early November: It’s not too late to schedule your session! Provide a cut-off for a last session date. Notify of specific sales to come (ie- when and what discount). 
• Finally, be sure to send reminder emails 1 week and 1 day prior to actual sale days, and 1 week and 1 days before “last call” dates for sessions and card orders.

Showcase cards on your website–and in person.

Having a visual example to showcase is crucial to ensuring your clients take action and order their holiday cards using your products, and not another vendor’s. You are a one-stop shop (which is very appealing to busy clients who want it done but don’t have a lot of time), so you need to make that super clear. 

Here are some effective ways to make your card products top-of-mind for your clients: 

• Add examples of your holiday cards to your website. If you offer new ones each year, this can be a great way to add new blog content to your site and provide content for your email newsletter. 
• Create a video walking through how to order cards as a client through your shop and share on your social profiles. This is a great way to quickly highlight the way cards will be shipped, the weight of the paper, and mention some of the customization options. 
• Bring some physical greeting card examples to your sessions so your clients can get their hands on them. This is a great way to drive the sale home by selling the quality of the cards alongside the quality of your work. Getting their hands on your cards will also get your clients very excited to act quickly upon getting their images back. 

Friendly nudge: if you don’t already have hardcopy examples, order them now, so you have them on hand for your next family session! 

Keep in mind that clients who review your cards on your website in advance may be able to tell you specifically which one they liked, which could actually benefit you tremendously as you photograph their session. Not only that, but you can even help them tailor their style choices to work with their favorite card–everyone wins!

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I always pick my family’s Christmas card before the session, because it allows me to tell my photographer whether I have a vertical or a horizontal image in mind and whether any negative space is needed at the top or bottom. There’s nothing worse than finding the perfect Christmas card but not having an image to fit it well. Showcasing cards on your website eliminates this problem and encourages clients to take advantage of this stellar service. 

Go the extra mile: Start thinking of next year’s holiday season this year.  Send your own jaw-dropping high-end holiday cards to just about everyone you know. This simple gesture is a surefire way to bring in new clients who in turn will send out cards that bring in even more clients… and so on. 

Sell holiday cards to clients on your website.

Buying holiday cards on your website should be a process that’s clear and easy. If it’s not, you’ll lose people. So, go ahead and create a holiday-card-specific price list in advance, and link it directly to the family session galleries that you send out. At the end of the process, your clients should be thumbing through family session images that they love, and be able to add their holiday cards for any specific image directly to their shopping cart for a completely seamless e-commerce experience.

With Product Builder, you can customize the provided preset templates from Zenfolio’s design team with your own colors, fonts, and more…or you can create your own greeting card template! Once you’re done, add the new greeting card product to your price list. Clients can browse their gallery and add their favorite images, family name, and messages to the greeting card template you created.  

Using Product Builder for customizable greeting card templates your clients will love is simple:

• Assign the price list to galleries (if it is not already.) 
• In your Dashboard, go to Selling
• Click to view the Product Builder section and create your own new template or edit one of our modern preset template designs. 
• Add the template(s) to your price list and set your price.

Pro-tip: Did you know that you can re-activate older galleries (looking at you, Spring mini-session families!), and update them to reflect a price list that includes holiday cards for sale? This is a fantastic way to increase your profits at very little additional time-cost for you! 

Take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Finally, don’t be afraid to take full advantage of those well-known holiday sales! Honestly? People expect and appreciate it. So, utilize automated email marketing campaigns to effortlessly send timely emails promoting your sales (and reminding them that the clock is ticking).

Pro-tip: If you do plan to utilize holiday sales, remember to account for the fact that most sales will occur on a sale day and price cards accordingly. 

And that’s all you need to do! If you plan to be successful, it’s important to plan ahead: 

• communicate
• utilize email marketing
• showcase cards on your website and in person
• put cards on price lists
• take advantage of holiday sales and automated campaigns

You’ll see your profits soar!

Related Posts

How to make money selling stock photos. How to make and sell your own Lightroom presets.