Business Day Thursday: Are You Behind the Eight Ball? 3 Ways to Boost Holiday Profits.

Good Morning Everybody,

This is a very busy day for us so I want to get today's post out the door pretty quickly.  Let's jump right into it.

After getting yesterday's post up, I was wondering what I would post for today's Business Day Thursday post. Yes, that happens a lot around here ;~) Anyway, my mind was on a lot of other things and I wasn't even thinking of what today's topic would be.

A minute or two later, I glanced at my watch for the time and realized that it was already November 2, 2011. With all of our travels, time really is flying by and I had lost track of just how close we were getting to the holidays.  My gosh, with Thanksgiving only 3 weeks away and Christmas right around the corner after that, it struck me that I was behind the eight ball.  It was time to get some plans in gear for the holiday season.

Business Day Thursday: Are You Behind The Eight Ball?

How many of the rest of you are in that same boat?  As a studio owner we need to plan well in advance of the Christmas holidays.  And that planning needs to be done on two fronts.  First, what type of Christmas promotions are you planning on running.  And secondly, is your production schedule in place to get all the orders out in time for the holidays?

I thought I would break this post into two parts.  Let's first discuss several kinds of promotions you need to be doing this time of year.  Why is this important? Because this is the time of year most folks will spend a substantial amount of their discretionary income.  That's a fact, economic downturn or not - it's the holiday season and people will spend more money now that any other part of the year.

Successful businesses are always part of the holiday action. And, if you see yourself as a successful studio operation, or at least heading in that direction, you need to be part of the action too.

So what kinds of holiday promotions can you run?  Here is a quick sampling that you might find helpful.

1. The Fall portrait promotion window is long since past but you have another opportunity waiting in the wings - the Thanksgiving Day portrait promotion.  What happens at Thanksgiving - families come together, many families from around the country come together to celebrate the holiday.  

This is a perfect opportunity to offer your Thanksgiving Day Portrait special.  Sessions will be photographed on Friday after Thanksgiving and throughout the weekend if the client desires.  You need to let your clients know now that need to get scheduled now for that very limited photographic window of opportunity.

2. How about a Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa promo?  Ok, what am I talking about?.  Young families always want to share the latest photographs of their small children with the grandparents.  But, how often do photographers target that market?  Most of us are wanting to promote the family portrait.  I'm suggesting that you divide and conquer and photograph at least part of the family.  And your best candidates are the kids.

My best suggestion is to reach out to some of your best clients with small kids, photograph them, and make them the poster kids for your Grandma/Grandpa promotion. There are all kinds of ways to bundle the images from the photography session.  You may include the portrait session, 2 - 8x10's and some wallets all showcased with a really nice holiday Matt treatment like you see above.

Don't miss the opportunity to offer mom and dad some beautiful wall decor of the kids too - I'm thinking multiple images hanging as a nice wall collage.  These smaller images with multiple photographs thus a wall wall collage are also a nice way to answer the objection to large wall portraits.  Wall collages require smaller images but when you combine five, six, seven images, the combo makes for a very compelling presentation for the most important people in mom and dad's life.

3.  This is also the perfect time of year to be contacting your past clients - all clients, portrait and wedding alike - about holiday cards.  You may already have some great images from a previous portrait session or a wedding that would be perfect for holiday cards.  Holiday cards are not a great profit center taken individually but when added up and taken as a whole can become a nice boast to the studio profits his time of the year.

Folks, these are just a quick suggestions and I've got a lot more.  But I bet you do too.  It's time you put on your studio promotion thinking cap and come up with several of your own.  The important thing to note is that NOW is the time to get started on these ideas.  You are kissing a wonderful opportunity good-bye if you procrastinate.

How successful do you want to be?  NOW is the time to be planning and doing your holiday promotions.  Are you still behind the eight ball or are you ready to kick things into high gear!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  We are out of the door early today so enjoy the post and I'll plan to see you tomorrow with an easy post to take you into the weekend.

Have a great one everybody!  -David