Whether it’s a family trip, a sightseeing adventure, or a destination wedding, vacations can generate plenty of Tru Frameable Moments™. Vacations create unique experiences that should be treasured, which is why in this post Kirstie offers a few tips and strategies to inspire customers to frame and  preserve their vacation memories.

 

 

Summer is fleeting, but it is a time of year that is filled with so many wonderful memories, from once-in-a-lifetime vacations hiking the rain forests of Brazil to family time on the lake. One thing these various summer experiences have in common is that they make for fantastic framing projects that capture the memory for years to come.

 

 

Direct spending by resident and international travelers in the U.S. averaged $2.6 billion a day according to the U.S. Travel Association. It is safe to assume that if consumers are willing to spend more while traveling they would definitely spend more to preserve the memories of their travels.

 

 

The end of summer is the perfect opportunity to market your custom framing expertise and help customers bring these memories out of the box and onto the walls. This article will cover some of the ways you can entice new and current customers to commemorate their summer experiences with custom framing.

 

 

Below are five ways to get started. Hopefully, they spur your creativity to think of even more ways to showcase your skills in helping people share their summer stories.

 

 

1. Show off your work & give them ideas

 

One of the best things to do this time of year is to have multiple souvenirs on display in your shop. Updating your store’s merchandising always gives employees something new to talk about with customers. It also is an excellent way to give customers new ideas for framing projects, and to show off your craftsmanship and creativity.

 

 

2. Get the word out on the street

 

Don’t just showcase your work to customers in the store. If you have the space, the vacation theme is perfect for window displays. Even if you do not have the window space, you can still catch the attention of people passing by with a well-crafted sandwich board. Make sure the copy is focused on vacation framing along with a CTA (call to action) to view ideas on your Facebook page and website.

 

 

3. Digital sharing

 

In general, a good marketing strategy is to share anything that you do in the store online. Inspiring ideas both in the shop and on the web is an easy tactic and a best practice, especially for attracting new customers. You can think of digital sharing as a virtual sandwich board, but with a larger reach and much better visuals because you can display a fuller scope of your work. At the very least you should be taking and collecting photos of all the projects you do in your shop. We all have created souvenir framing projects. If you do not have time to create a wall display for your store, go through your portfolio and pull an image you can use and display on your Facebook wall. You should always have a section of your website that highlights your framing projects. Our website features a ‘Picture Framing Stories’ section, an ‘Examples of Our Work’ Page, and under ‘Gift Ideas’ we have a section for travel photos and memorabilia for our visitors to view.

 

 

4. Blast it

 

At The Framer’s Workshop, we take our communications a step further by highlighting different framing projects not only on several sections of our website but also in our monthly e-newsletter. We like this targeted approach to getting out our most meaningful content to our client list, as it often gets more views than a Facebook post. You might also try paying Facebook a small amount to boost your posts. The resulting views and likes can be quite impressive!

 

5. Host an event

 

Hosting any event is a great way to raise your store’s profile in the local community and to bring in new customers.  Partnering with another local retailer helps by splitting the costs and with extending your communications reach. An end-of-summer souvenir framing event can be as fun and interactive as you want it to be – just use your imagination. An interactive event we’ve had success with is a workshop that adds a personal touch to the framing project, such as creating a collage of some of the souvenirs (shells or wine corks perhaps) or adding a handwritten memento. If possible, you could partner with an art instructor from a local school who can help inspire ideas with the attendees. Having this kind of interaction makes it more engaging for the participants and helps you get to know them better as customers.

 

 

At the Framer’s Workshop we have a do-it-yourself section for customers that allows attendees the choice of finishing the project themselves or having it custom framed. Even if you don’t offer DIY framing, workshops are a great way to generate projects, get new people in the store and have a bustle of activity in the shop. With any event remember to take photos for Facebook and other digital communications, and collect any new contact information. These ideas are not just limited for this time of year but useful for whatever seasons or themes you may be thinking of highlighting. I hope they have inspired you to think of new ways to showcase your skills and communicate the endless applications of custom framing.

 

 

For more information on the Tru Frameable Moments Framing Competition, check out our competition page by clicking here.