Time to Think About Your Holiday Card for 2025!

At least once a year, I do my best to remind you about one of the easiest and most effective marketing tools you have: holiday cards. Many of you offer holiday cards to your clients, but I’m writing about your personal card for this year.

There are many of you who just don’t get it. So, you’ll procrastinate and miss the window, and as the window closes for another year, you’ll promise yourself not to miss the opportunity in 2026! NOW IS THE TIME TO BE WORKING ON YOUR HOLIDAY CARD FOR 2025!   

Here’s the point: There are very few promotional elements for your business that are easier to do than a holiday card.  

• Front: One of your images, and you have lots of room to be creative. It can be one of your scenic shots or images of you and your family. For example, here are a few cards Bleu and Allison Cotton have used over the years.

• Inside: A short holiday message with either your pre-printed name or leave it blank and hand-sign. I like being able to sign the card and, with special friends, write a short message.
• Back: Centered at the bottom, just like a Hallmark card, is your name or your studio name, with your URL and all your contact information.

Next, let’s put together your database for the mailing:

• All of your past clients, and there’s no such thing as going too far back.
• All the vendors you might have worked with over the last year or two.  As a wedding photographer, especially, that might mean wedding planners, venues, limo companies, and florists, etc.  As a children’s photographer, it could mean local groups you’ve worked with, the president of the PTA, the local children’s store in town, etc.
• Business associates and other vendors in town.  Here’s where the card is a reminder you’re in business and a “neighbor”.   Don’t forget the presidents of groups like Kiwanis, Exchange Club, and Rotary, to name a few.  Then there’s the mayor’s office, the Chamber of Commerce, and so on.
• Buy a list!  This might be the year to test 250 or more names pulled within a zip code range for your area.  Remember, when purchasing a list, you can pull by lifestyle categories.  A children’s photographer would want to draw from a database of new parents, summer camp prospects, and parents of elementary school children, for example.  A wedding photographer would want new engagements.  A commercial shooter would want to mail every business within a geographical area.
• Last but not least, don’t forget your friends, neighbors, and associates. There’s nothing wrong with mailing your competitors.  There are only so many days a year to shoot.  Sooner or later, you’re going to be booked and need to refer business to another photographer, but you need to build those relationships.

Now, here’s the tricky part… you’ve got to mail them!  Seriously, this little project won’t do any good if, like so many photographers out there, including me, you procrastinate through the key time benchmarks and miss the opportunity!  So, your goal is to have your cards stamped and in the mail in early November.

Best of all…Marathon can help you design ALL of your holiday cards. Whether it’s your own card or cards you’re making for clients, they’ll make it easy for you. However, if you procrastinate through the holidays, you’re missing an outstanding opportunity to build brand awareness, and snoozing means losing.

And for those of you who buy a box of Hallmark cards at CVS a week before Christmas, I will hunt you down, and you won’t get a decent night’s sleep until Spring!