A month ago, I shared this on my own blog – just to make a point. I was pleasantly surprised at the comments from people who jumped on the idea of doing comparison shots of their own. It’s a great way to draw people into reminding them what you do best – capture memories!
There’s not much new to write about following everything I’ve written over the last few years about seasonality. However, there’s a new ingredient out there, and it was made for the family and portrait photographer – a renewed sense of family!
Think about the renewed sense of family that came out of the pandemic. It’s the one good thing to come out of the insanity of hunkering down for almost two years. Well, it’s 2023, and we’re about to roll into the first stretch of seasonality for the new year.
There are two stretches of seasonality – the Spring starting with Mother’s Day and November, beginning with Thanksgiving, and running through the December holidays. Mother’s Day is only a few weeks away, but it’s time to pick up the pace if you’re still dragging your feet. Mother’s Day, graduations, proms, and Father’s Day are all in the next ninety days.
Here are just a few ideas to help you focus on seasonality and business in the weeks ahead:
- Use your blog to share short stories about portraiture. Share an old portrait of your own family and then talk about the need for an update.
- Share presentation ideas on your blog and social media about canvas, metal prints, and things that are exciting in ways to show photographs.
- Stay active in social media beyond your blog – you’ve got better reach than many of the magazines and newspapers had fifteen years ago – use it!
- Use Throwback Thursday as a reminder of how much things have changed. A few weeks ago, I had fun with my baby picture and updated it. If I were a professional photographer, I’d be doing something like this with images to get my target audience thinking about an update of their portraits too.
Here’s one more to think about. While the Class of ’23 had had an easier time than the classes before them, they still lived through the pandemic. They know the value of creating memories and the importance of family and friends. As sophomores and juniors, they lived in a masked world and probably missed proms and even friends’ graduations. That makes your message about the importance and magic of capturing memories even more potent.
You’ve got a rare opportunity to be creative and help your clients create an incredible memory of Spring 2023. But keep procrastinating and putting things off, and as Father’s Day rolls around, you’ll have created your own you-snooze-you-lose scenario!
