Marketing to Your Target: A Renewed Sense of Family

by Skip Cohen

​There’s not much to write about following everything I’ve written over the last few weeks about seasonality. However, this is one last time I want to make a specific point.

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 if you’re still dragging your feet, it’s time to pick up the pace. Mother’s Day, graduations, proms, and Father’s Day are all in the next ninety days.

Back to the renewed sense of family: Think about what parents and grandparents missed the most through the pandemic. The answer is family! That makes this the perfect time to remind your clients it’s time for a new family portrait!  

Let’s plant a few seeds:
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• 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 on 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 brought it up to date. If I was 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 the graduations of friends. That makes your message about the importance and magic of capturing memories even more potent.

Last but not least – CALL YOUR LAB! Ask one easy question, “So, what’s new?” Then kick back and listen. Technology never slows down and there’s so much you can offer your clients today that’s different and exciting. But you have to plant the seed.

​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!