Thoughtful Holiday Gifts for Your Photography Clients

Friends, we’ve MADE IT! We’re almost to the end of the year and to the holidays, which is SOO exciting but for a lot of us it’s been a tough year… Like a really, really hard one. ME included, I am currently recovering from surgery and it’s been a heck of a lot harder than I’d thought it would be… So, before we even jump into this episode at all, I want you to give yourself a real-life pat on the back or hand squeeze or celebratory dance party… because you deserve to give yourself a little love. No matter what this year might have held for you, you’re here — and that is worth celebrating.

And, if you’re listening to this at the end of the year, there’s probably one big thing taking up your thoughts… the holidays. And no matter what you celebrate I hope — there’s this feeling of reflection and joy in your heart, because I know this time of year can bring so much happiness. But on the flip side the holidays can be incredibly hard for people too (I’ve been there, and you might be there now), and they can often be equal parts exciting and heartbreaking, emotional, stressful, unexpected and everything in between.

So my one wish as we kick off this episode is that YOU spread a little holiday cheer and give some grace as you encounter people this holiday season. You never know what someone is going through, or what their year looked like, or who they might be heartbreakingly missing this holiday season. So be kind

And as you bring that holiday spirit to strangers you encounter I want you to try to bringing a little bit of joy and holiday spirit to YOUR life too, starting with your business… and, specifically, with the people who make your business what it is — AKA, your clients!

One of my favorite ways to spread a little holiday cheer is to surprise clients with gifts — and while this is definitely a thing to do all year round, I thought the holidays would be SUCH a fun place to talk about them with you! After all, what better time than the holidays to make the clients you appreciate so much feel so loved?

I think that as business owners with the stress of running a business, it can be really easy to forget how essential it is to appreciate your clients and show them some love. Because, here’s the truth: they are, in fact, THE REASON you have a business. They are the REASON you get to do the work you love. It’s so, so important to appreciate them and show them how much you care — and client gifts are such a beautiful, thoughtful way to do this all year-round!

In today’s podcast episode I am diving deep into why it’s so important to create a beautiful client experience (that includes sending client gifts) in a way that is genuine, authentic and makes your client feel seen and appreciated.

As photographers our client experience is SO crucial to how we do business and to maintaining future business too!

There are so many different parts to the client experience, all the way from your booking process and your workflows to your shoot experience and your client interaction and, literally, everything in between — and personally, this is exactly how I’ve been able to retain over 90% of my clients over the last 10 years. Over the last decade, almost every one of my clients have become repeat clients and have worked with me again for several years — and there is NOTHING better than finding clients like this as a photographer! And, honestly, for photographers, having repeat booking that you can rely on season after season can completely and totally equal the success of your business — which, when you really think about it, is kind of the most important thing… well, ever.

And I guess since we’re talking about photography businesses now might be the time to share some REALLY EXCITING NEWS: right now i’m working on a photography BUSINESS course! Which will most likely be released around the end of Summer in 2023. This is something so, so, so many of our “The Photographer’s Path” students have asked for and so many people in this incredible community have asked for, and so stay tuned — because you’re about to have tons of resources on all things business for photographers available to you… starting with this podcast!

And if you’re interested in what our business course might offer I’d love to hear from you!

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT A SHORT SURVEY

I’d love it if you’d fill out the survey and let me know what you’d like seeing in a photography business course. Creating a course is not something we take lightly and we love to create using community feedback, this way I can make sure to create exactly the course you want! This is what we did for the photographer’s path and which I believe is one of the biggest reasons our students love the course so much.

I hope hearing this information makes you as excited as me. I cannot WAIT to start providing you with tons more content around business, starting with this episode! So, today, let’s focus on one piece of your client experience: those client gifts. Today’s podcast episode is ALL about creating an amazing client experience and that includes those client gifts, and what better time to chat about it than the holidays?

You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Here are a few links to some of the gift ideas I mentioned in today’s episode!

Artifact Uprising – Your source for high-quality prints, albums, calendars, cards, photo books, display boxes you name it. These are an incredible keepsakes that your clients will have for years. Plus, we partnered with artifact uprising and have a 15% off discount code for the Horizon Found Community, just make sure to use the code HORIZONFOUND15. And feel free to send this code to your clients as well and gift them 15% off too!

Minted – Has the cutest photo ornaments and holiday themed gift ideas! As well as one of a kind gifts and artwork created from artists around the world. This one is great for portraits, wedding or family photographers. Embrace the holiday spirit with ornaments that have an image from the shoot you did! Families would LOVE this one, don’t forget to add the year to the ornament as well! I always love seeing old photos around the holidays on my parents tree. AND we’ve partnered with minted as well for a variety of discount codes for the Horizon Found Community. 15% off all gifts using code 2022GIFTS. Free Shipping with code SHIPFREE. AND 20% off ALL holiday cards with code SNOW2022. Discounts GALORE.

Curated Gift Boxes with some things inside you know your client would love! There are some really stunning places to find these too — like Shop Box Fox, Happy Box, and Teak & Twine . Remember what I said in the episode… think back to things your client might have mentioned and try to create something in tune with who they are.

A tiny gift box – If the curated box feels like a little too much tiny gift boxes work too. Greetabl does these tiny little gift cubes that turn into a card. You can customize with photos from the client shoot and then pack with a tiny gift, too! They’re SUPPPPER cute and thoughtful.