PODCAST TRANSCRIPT - EPISODE 128

FIVE CLIENT GIFT IDEAS (THAT WON'T BREAK THE BANK!)

Please note: This transcript was created with the assistance of AI technology. While we strive for accuracy, the text may contain errors and should be verified against the original source for critical uses.

Hey guys, I know it's only October, but it is almost the holiday season. So today I want to talk about gifts. Client gifts are always a good idea. You know, they're the kind of thoughtful touches that as small business owners, we are able to provide to our clients that a big business can't really do in the same kind of personal way. And it's one of our secret superpowers, and we should all be taking advantage of them. Client gifts can also be really great from a marketing perspective, you know, maybe your client hasn't even thought about you since your session back in March or April. But now that you've shown up, maybe you swung by their house, maybe a pretty package arrived in the mail, and you're top of mind again, they're thinking like, oh, gosh, we had such a great time with her, she's so thoughtful, etc, etc. And those feelings are surfacing just in time to buy their own holiday gifts. those gifts can be altruistic, but also have benefits for you. However, if my own experience is any indication, client gift giving can really sneak up on you. And I have certainly over the years found myself sort of scrambling in early December to try and figure out what I'm going to get that's meaningful, that's not going to take up too much time, etc, etc. So I figured Here we are, we're a couple of months out, now is a good time to think about what we are going to be gifting to our clients from this year. And ideally do so in with enough time that if we want to be smart about it, we can. Today I have five client gift ideas that I want to share with you and none of them cost very much they range from, you know, nearly free to maybe up to around 25 or $30. And that small investment can potentially gain you quite a lot. Certainly it will bring you goodwill, and you know those referrals will keep coming and all that sort of stuff. But in particular, the last idea that I'm going to share with you today is sort of a sneaky hybrid of a client gift that is also a marketing tool that might actually help you bring in some additional money this season. So this is a this is going to be a valuable episode for you.

But speaking of earning more money this holiday season, before we start, I want to remind you that now is the time to register for the free live training that I am offering later this month, I'm going to be covering how you can give yourself a big fat bonus at the end of 2021 by implementing some simple but thoughtful holiday sales strategies. And I promise you I know it's the busy season. The whole purpose of this is to help show you how you can do that without spending tons of time. And again, that's totally free, but you do have to register and although I hope you'll show up live because I've got a fun bonus for everyone who does. If the dates when you go to register the dates and times don't work for you, you can register anyway as long as you're registered, you will get access to the replay. So you can go to https://www.thiscantbethathard.com/register to grab your spot or you can just click the link in the show notes. And that'll take you right there too.

Intro:

Welcome to this can't be that hard. My name is Annemie Tonken and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it and I can show you how.

Okay, let's start with the basics. We're gonna go the DIY Do It Yourself route for your holiday gifts. Now, the thing about Do It Yourself gifts is that they are for sure the least expensive and in some ways they can be the most personal right? But they can also be more time consuming than ordering something from a store. So do it yourself stuff is great if you have a particular skill if you're known among your clients for a particular thing, maybe your chocolate chip cookies are known all over town. But I have found that do it yourself gifts are kind of best when you're newer in business and you have the time to dedicate to making that a really special experience. So do it yourself really is like the sky's the limit right? You could make hot cocoa mix. You could make bath bombs, mulling spices, none of these need to cost very much and you know with just a little bit of effort and planning they can be a very thoughtful way to let your clients know that you appreciate them.

But I do have a couple of suggestions when it comes to do it yourself gifts that can make those stand out, because people do tend to get a lot of baked goods and things like that around the holidays, that you don't want your cookies to just end up in a pile with Aunt Martha's and get lost forever, right. So the first recommendation that I have is that you try to come up with something memorable. I had a photographer friend a while ago who made homemade little pots of lip balm, and she wrote up this cute note to go with it and talked about like keeping your smile pretty. It's not over the top, it doesn't have to be like rhyming or themed or anything like that. But it is sort of a little bit outside the norm. Because you know, not everybody makes homemade lip balm. And it has to do with somebody smile, which is sort of tangentially photography related. So if you can come up with some sort of memorable connection that ties it to you. Bonus points.

The second recommendation I have is that you be thoughtful, in particular around edible goods. So if you are going to make something, do consider the fact that a lot of people have allergies and sensitivities or may try and avoid certain foods, and try to steer clear of those high-allergy, high-sensitivity items as much as possible. But at the very least, be sure that you are including a list of ingredients so that you don't inadvertently hurt one of your clients. Even if you feel like you know your clients well enough to know that, you know, little Joey has a nut allergy, you may not know that, like the uncle who's visiting from out of town has a nut allergy. So just be sure that you're being thoughtful about that.

The third recommendation I have is that you you know, keep this professional, especially if you are more toward the beginning of your career and you're using this Do It Yourself option because it's on the lower cost side of things, we can all kind of fall into the trap of like, Oh great, I can just sit down and make some cookies. But then you've got fresh cookies, they need to be delivered pretty soon. And what you haven't thought through is how you're going to present those so you end up like piling them on a paper plate and putting some plastic wrap over them and delivering them. This is an opportunity, even at a very low cost to, you know, show up with something that is a little more well thought out. It's a little more professional, right? Our businesses are intrinsically aesthetic. So do a little bit of extra when it comes to packaging your Do It Yourself gift to make that stand out and and be aligned with your brand.

Finally, with all of the gift ideas that I'm going to give you today, I highly recommend adding a handwritten note. But this particularly applies when it comes to a do it yourself gift. Obviously, you're going to be touching this, you're not ordering it from a lab and having it sent directly to your client. So you have the opportunity and hopefully the few extra minutes that it takes to sit down and write something in your handwriting. I think that that makes a huge difference, especially these days. So I highly encourage you to add that.

The next few ideas that I have for you have to do with partnering with other local small businesses. So the idea here is that you're showing your clients that you are not only appreciative that they support your small business, but you're also sort of paying it forward by supporting other small businesses and potentially introducing them to those small businesses which is just sort of good paying it forward type stuff. One option would just be to find a local gift store that you know sells local handmade stuff -think candles or soaps or anything like that. Or if you can find a local maker who is the direct person who makes those things two years ago, my clients all got handmade wooden ornaments that my sister in law turned for me. I actually approached her in the summer that was a little bit of a longer term project but depending on the maker and how much business they have and all that sort of thing. You can really find a way to sort of promote someone else and in doing so you know that it is good for them. It's good for you.

Several years ago, and this is local idea number two -several years ago I did a instead of doing like a holiday-holiday gift I did a Thanksgiving gift of a Thanksgiving pie and pie in the US is really traditional with thanksgiving. So I sent an email a couple of weeks ahead of thanksgiving to all of my clients from that year saying, "Thank you so much for working with me this year, I am so thankful for you. And I would love to send your family a holiday, a Thanksgiving pie". I created a Google form with the different flavor options, and the different pickup time options. And I want to point this out because it is I didn't want to get myself into a situation where on Thanksgiving, I was having to go like deliver a bunch of pies. So this bakery, which again was a local, small local business, they had pickup times the two days before Thanksgiving, and I put those times on there and said, "You will be responsible for picking up your own pie, choose which date". And then when I called the bakery and placed the order for all of the pies. I told them, these ones are going to be picked up on Tuesday, and these will be picked up on Wednesday. And I gave them the names. So you know it took me a little bit of planning time, but I never had to do anything in terms of the delivery piece. And that went over really big people really enjoyed that.

The last local business idea that I have for you is that you contact a local bookstore, and then choose a book or a couple of books that are appropriate for your clientele. So I have a couple of recommendations for you. If you are a family photographer, or work with people with young children, there is a new book that's new this year that is highly appropriate. Coming from us, it's called "The worm family has its picture taken", it's by a woman named Jennifer Frank. And this was recommended to me by my friend, Jaye.  Jaye McLaughlin. She's a photographer up in New York, shout out to Jaye.

This book is super cute. And I think this is actually going to be my gift this year for my clients. It's all about this little worm family that decides they're going to hire a photographer. And then they get nervous and like how are we going to make our pictures special. It's like super, super great, very aligned kind of a gift. I also wanted to recommend if you work with engaged couples, if you're a wedding photographer, and you want to send something to all of your couples who are engaged, I just finished reading the book, "The Art of Gathering" by Priya Parker, which would be ideal for people who are getting ready to get married. It's all about sort of how to have an event or to host a group of people in a way that is really meaningful. So I think that would be really good. But you get the idea. I mean, you could, it could certainly just be like a generic book that you like. But you could make it really targeted so that it feels personal, even though you may be buying 30 of them, or 50 of them.

Be sure if you use any of those local ideas -if you're working with a small business owner or a maker, a bakery, any of those things, -make sure that you do your research and get in touch directly with the owner of that business, to let them know that you're planning this. First of all, you're going to want to let them know that you're going to be putting in a bigger order. So it's good to give them the heads up, it's not going to be weird that you're reaching out to them. But they're going to appreciate it talk about the fact that you want to support local businesses, you like their business, that's going to connect you if you're not already connected in a way that you've never know where that's going to lead in the future. So I feel like that's good. Just from like a community building perspective. And, you know, they may hear what you're talking about and say, Oh, great, if you need x order minimum, I'll give you a 10 or a 20% discount. So you know, for all of those reasons, don't just call an order from whoever answers the phone, make sure you touch base with the owner of the business.

And that brings us to the final idea, which I told you is a little bit more of like a hybrid gift / marketing piece. And I will say this may be on the higher end of that 30 ish dollar top limit. It depends on what you go for. But it's also a more strategic kind of a move. And the idea is that it will hopefully encourage additional sales. The thing about this though, is that you do need to get on this earlier. So this is not one to put off until you know mid late November. So step one, you want to find a holiday related product that your lab carries that you think your clients would really like. So that could be a custom ornament. It could be a calendar. Again, you're gonna want to keep an eye on your cost but something that your cost is at that $30 or less range or whatever your specific client gift budget is, then the idea is that you order one of those for each of your clients that you plan to give a gift to. But you make sure that you customize that. So if it's an ornament, you take a picture of their family or their newborn, or whatever your target market is, and you have that created. So it's going to take you a little bit of time where you're going to have to go and like, you know, grab their images and, and place the order. But you order them all, have them delivered to you, and then you wrap them up individually and deliver them with a handwritten note. So ideally, you're going to do that around the first week of November, it's a little bit early, but it's like getting into the holiday season, and people understand that you're a business, whatever.

So this sounds a lot like any of the other gifts, except that it has to do with their photos, right? Correct. And you could stop there. But the next step of this idea is that after about a week, so you deliver them you let a week go by, and then you send out a holiday sale offer via email, or via your gallery software, depending on who you use, and how that's set up. And, you know, you put a discount price on it. So it's like 25% off, or you create a bonus, where if you buy five, you get the sixth free or whatever the case may be, and you set it up so that that offer is good for the item that you gave them. And probably a couple of other items, too, it shouldn't be like, Hey, remember that ornament I gave you, here's a chance to buy that for 25% off, it would be that but it would be a little bit of a bigger sale, so that you know, maybe they didn't love that ornament, or maybe they were eyeing the calendar or whatever the case may be, you want to make it for a few items, and you send that to them. And you give them the opportunity to say oh, we love that ornament, it would be amazing to send those to the grandparents, right. As with any other offer, you guys have heard me talk about the importance of both giving people a time limit and pricing it so that it is profitable for you. So let's say that the ornament costs you $20, you want to be charging, you know $60 - $70 for that as the retail price. But when you send them the discount, then that comes down by $15 - $20. So they're still spending more than double what your cost is. So you're still profitable. The whole thing with sale pricing is that I see lots of people discounting to a point where they're actually spending money to accommodate their clients' print orders, so be careful that you don't fall into that. But to recap that last idea, basically you are delivering an early holiday gift that is a sort of great gift idea lower priced item that you can sell in your online store, you personalize it to them, you deliver it with a note and then a week later you launch a sale that is time limited and say you know, it's gifting it's gift giving time for the holidays. You can get these for the next week at 25% off. And they are sort of extra inspired because they just held that thing in their hand.

So to recap our five ideas today, start with the DIY version where you can make something for your clients but you're going to make sure that it's memorable and thoughtful and that you are keeping it good and professional.

The second idea is to work with a local small business or maker of some sort from whom you can purchase some small kind of gift wrap it up and sort of do the positive you know I'm sharing the Small Business love with your clients.

Partnering with a local bakery to set up some sort of situation where your clients can go pick up a treat that they semi get to pick out themselves.

Number four is to partner with a local bookstore and purchase a client appropriate books for your clients and deliver those as gifts.

And the fifth is this sort of photo related sale / combo marketing idea. And before I let you go I want to point out that my friend Rose McAvoy made a loom video about her client gifts that is awesome. I included it in an email a couple of months back and like hundreds of people clicked on it to see and she got tons of comments and responses about it because she gives gifts not just at the holidays but all year round to her clients and she has such great ideas and such a great little system. So I am linking Rose's loom video in the show notes with her permission and I encourage you if you're looking for more ideas, to go check that out. None of these has to be what you use. What I want you to take away from today's episode is that you are thinking about this now and not letting it sort of sneak up and either catch you unawares, where you do something really rushed, or don't get a chance to do anything at all. Hope you guys have a great week.

Outro:

Well, that's it for this week's episode of this can't be that hard. I'll be back Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads at this can't be that hard comm slash learn. If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review on iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic