The Playbook
STEP 1: THE EVENT
Family Photo Morning
1. Find a local park and book a pavilion (mine costs $150) for 9-11 a.m. on a Saturday.
2. Book a photographer (bonus if he/she is in your database) for an hour and ask him/her to take a quick photo of each family or a professional headshot for single clients. Our event runs from 9:30-11:30, and we offer photos from 10-11.
3. Order coffee, donuts, juice, and water for the morning and schedule them for pickup.
4. After the event, have your photographer send you the best photo of each family, order the photo in an 8x5, get a cheap frame, print the photo, then drop it off as a popby gift.
STEP 2: WHAT YOU NEED
Here was our basic setup:
Location: Local family-friendly venue such as a park, petting zoo with pavilion, etc.
Photographer: Book for 1 hour
Food & Drinks: Coffee (coffee fix-ins: sugard, creamer, cups, etc.), donuts, juice, water, napkins
Event Length: 2 hours
RSVP: Google Form
Invitations: Email + text
Marketing: Simple Canva flyer
Total cost: $800. I split this with my lender, so it’s only $400 out of my pocket.
STEP 3: CREATE YOUR RSVP FORM
We keep registration simple. Create a Google Form where clients can quickly tell you their name, email, whether they're coming, and number attending.
STEP 4: CREATE YOUR EVENT FLYER
We created a simple Canva graphic with the event information that could be used in emails, texts, and social media.
We've made the template available so you can customize it with your own:
Event name
Date
Time
Location
Branding
RSVP information
STEP 5: INVITE YOUR DATABASE
Inviting your database is as simple as sending email and text invitations. Here’s what we do:
Two Mondays before your event, send an email invite to your whole database with the details of the party and link to RSVP.
Follow up each Monday leading up to the event with additional emails
The next day, record a short video describing the party, and text this same video to each client separately.
The week before your event look at your RSVP list and remind those (via text message) who have not responded to please RSVP.
The day before the event, send a reminder email or text with the time, location, and any other important details. Be sure to emphasize that you’re so excited to see them!
TEXT SCRIPTS
Initial Text:
Hey [First Name]! We're hosting our annual Family Photo Morning on [DATE] at [LOCATION] and I'd love for you guys to come! We'll have complimentary professional family photos/headshots, coffee, donuts, and some fun for the kids. Here's the info + RSVP: [LINK]
Hope to see you there!
Reminder Text:
Hey [First Name]! Quick reminder that our Family Photo Morning is this Saturday! If you guys are free, we'd love to see you. Here's the info if you haven't RSVP'd yet: [LINK]
STEP 6: THE EVENT-DAY PLAN
Keep it simple!
✓ Pick up coffee, donuts, juice, cups, napkins, etc.
✓ Arrive early
✓ Set up a simple food/drink station
✓ Make sure your photographer knows where to set up
Make sure you float around and talk to people! This is the most important thing you can do during the event.
Catch up. Ask how they’re doing, what’s new in their life, and genuinely reconnect. If the conversation naturally turns toward real estate, take the opportunity to ask if they’re thinking about moving anytime soon—or if they know someone who is.
Don’t make every conversation about real estate. Focus on the relationship first, and let the real estate conversations happen naturally.
Don't judge the success of your client event only by how many people show up.
The real goal is to consistently create opportunities to serve your database, deepen relationships, and stay connected.
This event brought 170 people together and led to multiple conversations about upcoming moves, but none of that required a complicated marketing campaign.
It required a reason to get together and a simple plan to make it happen.