At Skip’s Summer School I announced a contest for the best holiday card or personalized stationery created with one of the attendee’s own images.  While you won’t qualify for the contest unless you were at Summer School, that doesn’t mean you can slack off and miss one of the greatest marketing tools out there to promote your work.

I wrote about it back in July in a post about Holiday Cards, but I’m wondering how many of you are still procrastinating and will wait too long, missing an incredible opportunity!   Last week I received a sample of last year’s card from Jen Alston, a Canadian photographer and owner of Imajen Portrait Art.

Imajen full_edited-1

She wrote:

I have always put a lot of effort into our family’s/business Christmas cards.  Early each summer, I first think of a theme that would fit our year’s goings-on, then conseptualize an image that would illustrate the theme using our family.  I always make sure it is in production in August or September each year, or it would not get done.  This particular theme of the card enclosed is “balance”.  I know this won’t be eligible for the contest, but I wanted to use this example to lend support for the importance that this is.

We send them to about 150 people each year and I get a lot of attention from them.  People who don’t send Christmas cards to anyone, send us a card just to make sure they are still on our mailing list.  People show them to their friends and keep them in their long-term files as well.  It is great marketing!

Think about it for just a second…what could be more fun and get your creative juices flowing than to conceptualize your own holiday card?  You’re the perfect guinea pig for the experiment – there’s no risk, nobody knows the client better than you and when you’re done the finished product is simply going to help you market yourself.  Your only real cost is your time and printing the finished card.

Even better is the feedback you’ll get from clients, associates, family and friends.  Come on gang – you’re professional photographers.  NOBODY should be sending a holiday card with the ”Hallmark” logo on the back this year!