Template Remix // A Creative Use For Your New Template

We design all of our templates to be easy to use for customers who don't have a lot of Photoshop knowledge, but our templates are completely layered for those customers who want to jump in and pick the template apart. Providing a layered PSD gives our customers the flexibility to rework, change up, and customize the templates for their needs. Today we are featuring a creative use for the I'm New Here Birth Announcement Template. Although the template itself isn't changed a whole lot, the card is being used for a unique purpose.

Our client came to us looking for a birthday invite for a joint party for her son and daughter. We needed something that was gender neutral and a design that coordinated with party's farm theme. Our client requested to have a lot of images on the invite as well. 

With these requests in mind we went to work and decided the I'm New Here Birth Announcment was the perfect fit for the client's needs. The modern wood texture blended well with the farm theme and the design was neutral enough to showcase the photos of her children. We changed up the text and added a little "see y'all there" farm talk. With that we had an invite design that our client loved! With a simple change, we had a whole new use for a cute and versatile birth announcement template! 

CARD DESIGN  //  CUSTOMIZED (farm birthday party invite)

CARD DESIGN  //  BEFORE (as sold in the shop):

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Click the link below for more info about the I'm New Here Birth Announcement design

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How to Create A PDF Investment Guide // Tip Tuesday

We are back with another Tip Tuesday! Today we are taking you step by step in creating a PDF version of your studio's investment guide. This is a great format to have on hand so you can easily email your investment information to clients or link to your investment guide on your website! Watch the video below to learn how! 

The investment guide used in today's video demo is part of the Senior Model How-To Marketing Set. You can see more information about the marketing set, HERE.

See you next week with another Tip!

Quoteables // The How-To Video

We've heard a lot of great feedback about our newest product, Quoteables, over the last week but we want to inspire you with a few projects that we've created using this new brush set! Watch the video below to see four projects from start to finish. We hope it inspires you to create great things with your Quoteables set to use in your business!

Ready to purchase? Click the "buy now" button below!

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Special thanks to Michelle Kane Photography + Actions for her jump start training on creating these tutorials! If you haven't seen Michelle's work or used her actions, please go check her out! She has a ton of photoshop tutorials available on her site as well! We are so lucky to call her our friend! Thanks Michelle!

Quoteables // A New Product from The Modern Collective

We are so excited to introduce you to our newest product at The Modern Collective! Say hello to Quoteables. Quoetables is a set of 28 kick-butt photoshop brushes made up of fun, witty, and playful saying as well as coordinating banners, badges, and graphics for you to create one of a kind design elements to use in your studio's marketing pieces and portrait products! Take a look below to see what is included in this set and look for more sets of Quoteables to be added to the shop in the coming months!

CREATIVE USES FOR THE QUOTEABLES PRODUCT //

Ready to purchase? Click the "buy now" button below!

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How To Sell Holiday Cards // Quick Tips for Photographers

"I want holiday cards, but they are just so expensive! I don't want to spend the money when people just throw them away!"  Sound familiar?? Yeah, we thought so!

We've all heard these words come from our clients over the last few weeks as we present them with our holiday card designs. How do you turn this doubtful client into an ecstatic customer that can't wait to send hundreds of your holiday cards to their friends and family? (ok... maybe not hundreds, but you get the point!) We have a few quick tips below that will help you sell more holiday cards and spread the name of your studio to your client's family and friends! Let's begin!

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#1: It's all in the presentation.
You have to show it to sell it! Let's face it, all of us are more prone to purchase a product that we can hold in our hand or a product that is custom designed to meet our needs. Why should holiday cards be any different? Don't just put out a blank statement telling your clients that cards are available. Take the extra time to customize a card design for each and every client you photograph. Place it in their online gallery, present it to them during their in person viewing, add it as an extra page in their proof book, or send them a custom email. It only takes a few minutes to add their images and type their name to make a custom design. The Modern Collective 2011 Holiday Card Collection can make the pre-design process even faster!

Here is an example of how we've presented holiday cards to our clients in the past at Adam Hommerding Photography. This image was displayed in their online gallery. We now present the card designs to them in Pro Select at their in-person ordering appointment where we finalize the card design while they place their portrait order. Either way, the custom design with their images get's their attention and provides an emotional connection that will increase your chance of a sale!

Featured Card – theMC 5×7 Holiday Card #13  //  all available here

#2: Don't overwhelm your clients with options.

Just because there are over fifty card shape, sizes, and fold options doesn't mean you need to offer them all! Giving too many choices to your client can kill your sale. They don't know what to choose, so they don't buy any! Start with three predesigned options for them to choose from. Maybe give them a variety of size and card styles. One could be a 5x7 flat, another a 5x5 trifold, and the last one a boutique die cut design! Giving three options allows you to show them what is available but still gives your client the ability to make a decision of what they like best! Have them choose their favorite and complete the card design! Below we've included three card predesigns that shows the variety that we would present to one of our clients.

Featured Cards – theMC Holiday Card #9 (5x7 flat), #14 (5x5 boutique), and #1 (5x5 trifold)  // all available: here

#3: Make the cost of the cards more appealing.
The number one client objection that our readers shared on our Facebook page, when asked what is your greatest struggle when selling press printed holiday cards, was PRICE! Press printed cards are expensive, and leave very little room for profitable markup while still being affordable to your clients. First and foremost, look at holiday cards as marketing potential for your studio. Your clients are sending these cards to people that more than likely match your target market, and they are paying you for it! Make sure every card that leaves your studio includes your website and phone number. If you aren't, you are missing an easy way to market your business. Because of the card's marketing potential, consider pricing them with a lower markup to make custom holiday cards more appealing and affordable to your clients. Rather than setting a price for each card size and shape, set a single price for flat and a single price for folded cards to make the pricing simple and easy to understand.

#4: Make the design logical so it sells itself.
Making one simple design change to one of our three client card predesigns has more than doubled our holiday card sales. Why? It is logical and resolves the two issues that we mentioned in the very first line of this blog post - price + people throwing the cards away! Here is what we do.... (Seriously, this is SO EASY and sells almost every time we present this option to our clients)

THE NUMBER ONE HOLIDAY CARD SELLING DESIGN TIP: (are you ready for this?)
We start with a 5x7 flat or 5x7 folded card template. We then eliminate the front or back of the card design and replace it with one single image. Because 5x7 is a standard photo size, designing the card with a solid, single image on the front makes it possible for card recipients to frame the card after the holidays or leave the card displayed on their refrigerator after the christmas trees and tinsel have been taken down for the season! It acts as a gift portrait rather than a holiday card! (genius, right?) This fixes the price dilemma. Instead of the clients fretting over the price of the card, they look more affordable at $2-$4 per card when compared to a photographic gift portrait that is priced anywhere between $35 and $150 per print. What better selling feature than presenting the idea of sending a custom 5x7 portrait of your client's family or children to everyone on their holiday mailing list! Below are two 5x7 flat card designs that we designed using this method! Both are cards that our clients have purchased this fall to send out for the holidays this year!

Featured Cards – theMC 5×7 Holiday Cards #9 + #20  //  available for purchase: here

#5: Design with simple, clean, and modern card templates. (read as: "buy theMC holiday cards!" lol)
Seriously, with all joking aside, starting with simple, clean, and modern templates that are super easy to use will only make your holiday card sales easier! Your clients will be happy, and you will be happy that you didn't have to spend hours coming up with original designs in the wee hours of the night when you would rather be sleeping and dreaming of your christmas presents! ;) All cards in this blog post are for sale over at theModern Collective Shop! If you like what you see, go check out all 20 card designs by clicking the banner below!

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We hope these few tips will help you tackle the holiday card sales process with a smile! We know that if you implement them, you too will see big changes in your holiday card sales! Have input, or questions? Post them in the comments below!

From us at theModern Collective, have a happy (and profitable) holiday season!!

A Color Switcheroo Made Easy! | Layered Photoshop Templates for Photographers

We've had a few questions come through asking if the colors in The Modern Collective templates can be changed! Our answer is simple.... YEP! ;)

Look below for an example of a simple and easy color swap on our Modern Age Accordion template!

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The Modern Collective templates are designed to give you creative freedom. We've made everything fully layered for those of you that want to mix things up a bit! You can move things around, change the colors, and even create completely different products using elements from our templates. Check out the photos below. Using the template instructions included with each of our product downloads, the Modern Age Accordion Album got a few minor changes, color swaps, and it quickly got a whole new look. It's seriously simple guys + you can do it too!

ORIGINAL DESIGN (as sold in the shop) //

CUSTOMIZED //

Easy Peasy! Now go look at our products with a new eye as you are browsing the shop! Think, create, and make something wonderful! Oh, and then share it with us too! We would love to see what you are coming up with!

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Interested in purchasing the Modern Age Accordion Template?

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