Business Day Thursday: Are You Ready To Send Out Your Valentine Day Cards?

Good Afternoon Everybody,

First off, my thanks to Scott Kelby for providing me the guest blogging spot at Photoshop Insider yesterday. Also thanks to all the readers for the abundance of your very thoughtful and complimentary remarks. Here is the link again if you missed the post yesterday.

I know, I know - everyone wants to know when Part 2 of the post will be up. It’s looking like it will be posted next week same time, same station. I'll try to keep it a little shorter this time ;~)

On Kind Of A Funny Note

You won't believe this but yesterday I signed up to workout at a gym - Ziser at a gym!? Heck, I figure I get enough exercise at a wedding, what do I need a gym for?

Anyway, my lovely wife, LaDawn has finally “shamed” me into to  doing it. She's been watching what she eats and working out since the first of the year – those darn New Years resolutions - and loves it.  I jumped on the bandwagon too.

Here's the problem - that's one more hour out of my day! That means it could be cutting into blogging time!!! What was I to do - the blog must go on! I knew I couldn’t exercise and blog at the same time.

Here is the rest of the story. I WAS blogging at the gym yesterday - for real! I brought my iPad with me, fired it up to my Early Edition app, steadied myself on the treadmill, and hit the START button - I was off. Hey, this wasn't too bad.

I was enjoying my walk, even cranked it up to 3 mph, and was still able to read the stories easily. If one caught my eye, I simply tweeted it to my new “You May Be Interested…” feature in the right sidebar of DPT [link]. Hey, it made the time pass quickly on the treadmill, and who doesn't want that, and it's a lot safer than texting while driving.  This is just to give you an idea what we bloggers do for our reading public ;~)

Business Day Thursday: Are You Ready To Send Out Your Valentine Day Cards?

I had a different post scheduled for today, that was till I received an  email from Simply Postcards [link] in Akron, Ohio. They are a sister company to Simply Canvas and Simply Color Labs [link]. I met these guys at the Imaging USA Convention a few weeks ago in San Antonio, TX and liked what I saw.

Great Way To Enhance Client Relationships

Now I have blogged a few times about post card apps previously at DPT [link] as a way to boost your business presence among your clients and vendor buddies.  During my Simply Postcard visit, Dan showed me a feature that I loved – it was the ability to add your own studio logo to the postcard before it was sent – way cool!

So here is the deal.  Yes, you can download from your iPhone, iPod, or iPad and get started right away [link] – it’s FREE!  The purpose of using your iPhone or iPad is the fact that you could shoot some images at your next wedding or portrait session, upload them to your device and let your client select one of their favorites to immediately send to Gram or Great Aunt Matilda – what a nice surprise for the special relative or friend.

In fact you can mail to up to 8 receipients from your iMobile device – kind of cool.  By the way, the Android app is on the way too.

You can also do the same thing from your studio desktop.  Just hit the “Mail A Card” button on Simply Postcards, log in and you are in business.  Just upload an image from your computer, complete the address info and you are good to go.

Make It Personal – Add Your Logo

OK, you may be thinking, “No big deal – lots of apps do that.”  Well, you’re only half right.  The BIG difference with Simply Postcards is the fact that you can create and add your own custom boarders – and one of those boarders could be your studio logo the way Dallas based Lynn Michelle [link] has done.

Now when Lynn shoots a wedding, she can easily let the client select a favorite, add her custom border, and press the “SEND POSTCARD” button.  In 2-3 days a real, “hard copy” postcard will be received to the happy recipient.  I gave Lynn a call and she tells me her client was really excited with receiving the card.   Like I said, a great way to impress your client. Remember: to read the postscript of today’s post for a nice surprise coming up next week.

What About Valentine’s Day?

Well, this is where the post started, wasn’t it – talking about Valentine’s Day.  Here is my suggestion.  Organize your address book into groups.  You can do this with most email programs.  One group should be Vendors you do business with and even those you want to do business with.  The other group should be upcoming clients, another current clients, and recent past clients. 

Now after designing your Valentine’s Day card with a nice Valentine’s wish, and adding your custom border, mail the card to these groups of receipients.  Again, what a nice surprise to your vendor buddies and clients that simply let’s them know your thinking about them.  Building client relationships is so important, truly a key to success in building your business.

Valentine’s Day is only the beginning.  Hey, it’s the first part of the year – we still have lots of holidays ahead where we could simply do the mailing all over again with a different seasonal wish.

Want to give Simply Postcards a test drive?  Use Secret code DPT3 and you’ll get to send out three post cards for FREE – what a deal just for being a DPT readers ;~)

Sending Out The Love

You know, this is something that you can do right away without much time or hassle. Is it going to bring you tons of business, maybe not immediately, but it will bring you lots of love for your thoughtfulness on this or any other special day of the year. That love will come from your clients and your vendor buddies in the way of referrals and client contacts. This might just lead to all the love you want because of one simple gesture – sending a holiday card to someone special. 

Oh, and don't forget to send one to your spouse, partner, boy friend, girl friend, or all that apply. Spread the LOVE on February 14.

You can find even more ways to send the love right here.

P.S. Lynn Michelle is a very popular and well sought after photographer in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.  Be sure to check out her website and blog right here. In fact, during our conversation, she told me she was shooting the Super Bowl this Sunday.  Well, not the game, but one of the big VIP parties happening through-out the weekend!

She has graciously consented to do a webcast for our DPT readers.  She plans to discuss her Super Bowl photography experience and maybe even talk about weddings too. We scheduled the Webcast for next Thursday February 10, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EST – 1:00 p.m. Central.

You can register for the webcast right here.  It should be a kick – no pun intended ;~) Don’t miss it!

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Tomorrow, even though it’s supposed to be “No Blog Friday”, I will be back for a short treat for you. 

Hope to see you then,  David