Hello! :) Happy Monday everyone! In case you missed the BIG news... I released the Holiday Christmas Cards last night! I promised that an interview/guest post with Jodie would be up today. So here it is. My very first Q + A's post with one of my very own DT photographers, Jodie, from Fresh Art Photography. I asked her to answer these questions and hopefully they will help you in offering holiday cards to your clients...
Q) How many designs should I offer?
We offer a TON! At the end of the day we figure that we've bought the
templates so why not offer all of them? We use PicPic for our shopping
cart and we just have a section for Christmas cards so it is just as
easy to offer 10 as it is 100 you know? This
year we're going to have our '09 templates in there too so we'll have a
TON! There will be some that clients have ordered before but it doesn't
really matter b/c you never know what someone will like! I will say,
each year we buy about 4-5 new templates. And
if you think that most designers offer multiple designs within their
templates I bet we have at least 25-40 new designs we offer each year.
Q) Should I offer 25 cards in each mini-session package? If so, how does the client choose?
Last year we did offer Christmas cards with some sessions and we're doing it again this year only b/c we feel it's a great way to advertise! Our logo+website is on the back of every card we sell so our clients are mailing our work out to all of their friends and family! That being said, we've never had someone say, "we hired you b/c we got this Christmas card in the mail..." but maybe they'd heard of us through word of mouth and the card pushed them to call us? HA! Who knows! I'll just say we do think it's a great way to get your name out there!
Q) Thoughts on logistics/ timing/ pricing, etc.?
We have priced our cards (Christmas/birth announcements/etc) at $75 for 25 flat cards. The price goes up a little if they want fold-over and we don't offer the tri-fold b/c it's just a hassle to have so many styles. We could charge more since we're not making much at that price point but at the end of the day we see our cards as advertising and don't expect a huge profit. As for timing, we tell our clients that their sessions have to take place before November 1st to get to them by Christmas. We put a tight time line b/c we know we'll ALWAYS make a few exceptions and be scrambling in November to get everything done! Our card time line is the same as our prints. Our clients get their galleries 3 weeks after the session, they have 5 days to order and then their order is ready for pick-up 4-6 weeks later. A pretty long time line because it gives us room if we're slammed or kids get sick or whatever life throws at us and we always try to deliver more quickly!
Q) Do you have any tips for effectively marketing Christmas templates?
For us, Christmas cards are a good add-on but we still will make the most profit on prints or disk purchases so if no one buys them we're not too worried. Last year we had almost every single client order at least 25 though so I would say we had hundreds going out to the world with our name on them! This year we might have a fun gift if they buy 100 or more but honestly we haven't worked out the details! We certainly aren't Christmas card experts but if you have questions please leave them in the comments and I'll try to pop back in and answer them!
Thanks for having me as your first guest blogger Jess!
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Thank YOU Jodie for being kind enough to take the time to share that info. :) Well guys, I hope that maybe helped address any concerns you may have. If you do have any questions Jodie offered to peek in and try to answer any of them, so ask away! ;) If you are looking for inspiration, be sure and bookmark Fresh Art Photography, Kim and Jodie keep they're blog updated VERY regularly... so there is always something new and FRESH up! :)
