How many new clients did you book over the past few months? Did you shoot some new families’ holiday cards or a brand new couple’s winter wedding? How awesome would it be to have all of those folks as clients for life?
When it comes to creating products for your clients, it’s easy for the personal connection you had with them to get lost in the mountain of edits and product orders. However, it’s easy to make a personal, lasting impression when the time comes to deliver their beautiful Album, Custom USB Drives, Professional Prints, or Canvas Gallery Wraps – especially around the holidays!
To deliver our Album, we created specially-designed thank you notes on Artsy Couture Press Cards & decorated our own delicious holiday cookies. Here’s how to ace your next product delivery with delicious treats (and ensure those clients come back for more next year):
Ingredients for Icing:
1. 2 cups powdered sugar
2. 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3. 2 tsp. milk or water
4. Food coloring
Materials:
1. Small mixing bowls
2. Measuring cups & spoons
3. Plastic squeeze bottles – one per icing color (can be purchased at your local craft store)
4. Small funnel
5. Wax/parchment paper
6. One batch of flat sugar cookies (use a cookie cutter to make these fun shapes)!
7. Clear gift bags
8. Thin ribbon
Step 1:
Find some uncluttered table or counter space, and lay out enough wax or parchment paper one which each of your sugar cookies can lay flat. Fresh-baked cookies should be totally cool before icing. Place each of your sugar cookies on the wax paper.
Step 2:
Mix your icing! In one bowl, make your outline icing. The icing you use to outline each cookie will keep the colored icing from running outside the lines of your design. So, your outline icing should be a little bit thicker than your fill icing – it shouldn’t pour like a liquid, but it should still be able to squeeze through the bottle onto the cookie. Add your outline icing to a squeeze bottle using a funnel.
In another bowl, mix up some fill icing. Fill icing should be more fluid than the border icing (it will stay in the lines once poured). Add the white fill icing to different squeeze bottles (using a funnel), and add food coloring as desired.
Step 3:
Draw outlines and/or create designs on each cookie using your outline icing. More designs mean more colors per cookie!
Step 4:
Squeeze the fill icing onto your cookies to add colorful flair.
Step 5:
Allow to dry overnight (or for at least 24 hours). Once the cookies are dry, add a couple to clear gift bag and attach your thank you note with a stylish ribbon. To create your own thank you note (these cards will definitely make the fridge), simply add your design to one of Artsy Couture’s Press Card templates, choose a premium paper type, and order. So much more substantial than regular stationery!
Once your cookies are packaged and ready to go, it’s time to deliver your priceless photo products to your clients. Not only will they be enamored with the quality of your work, they’ll be totally blown away by the extra effort you put into their package. They’ll definitely remember your name the next time they need a photographer!
Happy decorating, Artsy world!
