The Event Marketing Help Thread

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  • dudsduds Registered Users Posts: 176 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2010
    bstrong wrote:
    The "guest" link only allows photos to be viewed and purchased (if they are for sale). Only the participant links allow favorites to be collected.

    Ok, I get it. This helps a lot, thanks. Now I understand how it works, so it will be easier to put into action (or not). So thanks for the clarification. thumb.gif

    Unfortunately, no matter how I spell it out, I don't trust that my bride will know the difference between the link that's intended for her, and the second link that's intended for other people. And, frankly, I don't want to manage the different links for different participants of different events -- it's just too much work. (Am I being lazy? ne_nau.gif Probably.)

    Instead, I want to generate an "event page", and share the link with my client. That's it. The client and I can share the link - via email, or Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc., and then I know it will spread virally amongst friends and family who would be interested. One link, one marketing push at the beginning, and the rest takes care of itself.

    I think a good model for this might be something like Google Docs. When I create a Google Doc, I can share it with whomever I want. I can decide if those people can share it with whomever they want... Bingo - viral marketing. What's more, with one click, I can see everyone who has accessed the document. I can quickly send an email to people who are associated with the Doc - which would be great for marketing coupons, packages, etc.

    A model like that creates a forum in which users can interact with one another about a particular event - which helps facilitate "marketing fever". They can share the event as much as they want, which is great. People are great self-promoters, especially when they are the subject of the photos. :D Of course, the Google Doc model falls short when talking about a client marking favorites, but there are plenty of good models for that, many of which are mentioned in this thread.

    Anyway, that's just my two cents. I think it's a healthy conversation about how to improve a feature with good intentions of giving the Pro and the client an interface for interaction. Thanks for listening. I look forward to hearing the thoughts of others.
    Matt Dudley
    Matt Dudley Photography
    Nashville child photographer
    Twitter: @mattdudleyphoto
    Facebook: facebook.com/mattdudleyphotography
  • dbvetodbveto Registered Users Posts: 660 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2010
    AnneMcBean wrote:
    Thanks, Ryan. That helps a lot.

    As you can probably tell, this feature was primarily designed to be event-specific and to comprise a self-contained group of galleries. The only workaround that comes to mind is to have a customer simply populate their cart as they go and then narrow down the photos before they check out (that's how I do it myself). However, now that the groundwork for favorites is built... enabling site-wide favorites for all visitors may be something we will look into. Thanks, again!

    -Anne
    SmugMug Support Hero

    Maybe you can see how EM does it.
    Dennis
    http://www.realphotoman.com/
    Work in progress
    http://www.realphotoman.net/ Zenfolio 10% off Referral Code: 1KH-5HX-5HU
  • gonzo2kgonzo2k Registered Users Posts: 34 Big grins
    edited March 9, 2010
    I'll repost my question... it's important for my purposes:

    How can I change the text in the email messages that get sent to the participant (with the links)?

    Is it possible?

    TIA,
    Rick
  • Lou GonzalezLou Gonzalez Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited March 9, 2010
    Bump
    I've been waiting a long time for this feature. I'm very excited to see this finally come. And the timing couldn't be better for me as my wedding season will be starting soon. Perfect.

    Some comments/feedback...

    From what I've seen so far, it seems fairly well thought out. The only thing I would LOVE to see is a way to create galleries for the event right inside of the Manage Events screen. Right now the process seems a little disconnected. I know my work flow may not be representative of all your customers, but check this out.

    Currently I have to create a Sub-Category, then create multiple galleries for my clients (Getting Ready, The Ceremony, Formals and Portraits, The Reception, etc). Then I have to go to Manage events and then go and pick those galleries. It would be wonderful if you could incorporate the two functions. mwink.gif I think people would love it. Think about it won't you?

    --

    I did send myself a test email (I created a bogus event and set my self as the participant) just to see what the email looked like and it was missing the URL! Very strange. I sent it to my gmail account and all is said was

    "Dear Lou,

    I've created a special event page just for you. Drop in to browse galleries from Sara"

    The event name was Sara & Josh

    Did the ampersand mess things up? It looks like everything after it got truncated.

    --

    Once the event is created, you can view it and I'm not so crazy about how it's laid out. I'd like to have 2 thumbnails per row. Currently it's 4. Do I have to use custom CSS to style that so it has 2?

    --

    After I present a client's images, I ask them to pick their 30 favorites, which I then incorporate into their wedding album. This favorites feature will work wonderfully for that purpose. But one big issue for me is that the favorites are only shown in Smugmug gallery view. That's a big downer for me since I can only see one file name at a time. ne_nau.gif

    It would be great to be able to control the view. I would love to see a thumbnail view with all of the file names beneath it. Then all I'd have to do is print it out and viola! Done! A list view (of file names) would be even better! thumb.gif

    Thanks for listening and keep up the great work!

    Any word on my questions above?
  • bstrongbstrong Registered Users Posts: 53 Big grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    gonzo2k wrote:
    I'll repost my question... it's important for my purposes:

    How can I change the text in the email messages that get sent to the participant (with the links)?

    Is it possible?

    TIA,
    Rick

    Rick,

    When you click the mail icon in the Share column, you can edit the email subject and body before clicking the Send button.

    -Brian
  • bstrongbstrong Registered Users Posts: 53 Big grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Any word on my questions above?
    Lou,

    Answers to your questions:
    Did the ampersand mess things up? It looks like everything after it got truncated.
    This issue has been fixed.
    Currently I have to create a Sub-Category, then create multiple galleries for my clients (Getting Ready, The Ceremony, Formals and Portraits, The Reception, etc). Then I have to go to Manage events and then go and pick those galleries. It would be wonderful if you could incorporate the two functions.
    This is on our to-do list!
    But one big issue for me is that the favorites are only shown in Smugmug gallery view. That's a big downer for me since I can only see one file name at a time.
    The favorites list is just another gallery. You can change the settings and gallery viewing style to anything you'd like, just like any of your other galleries.

    I hope this helps and thanks for the great feedback!

    -Brian
  • sellissellis Registered Users Posts: 192 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Help me wrap my head around this. As a wedding photographer I already create categories (2009 weddings), sub categories (John and Cindy), then galleries (John and Cindy's ceremony, reception, etc.). So basically, this doesn't change that process. However, I can set up an event which would allow them to place their favorites into a folder for them to decide which prints they want and ultimately for their album. Nice for them to cull their favorites, but am I missing something else?

    I can see this being a bigger deal for a sporting event. People could request to have their own private galleries from a season and they could showcase just their kid's photos.

    Sorry if I seem underwhelmed :D The packages and coupons were definitely a bigger deal to me unless I'm just not getting something. I definitely think this will be useful for album selections.

    Sam
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    sellis wrote:
    Help me wrap my head around this. As a wedding photographer I already create categories (2009 weddings), sub categories (John and Cindy), then galleries (John and Cindy's ceremony, reception, etc.). So basically, this doesn't change that process. However, I can set up an event which would allow them to place their favorites into a folder for them to decide which prints they want and ultimately for their album. Nice for them to cull their favorites, but am I missing something else?

    I can see this being a bigger deal for a sporting event. People could request to have their own private galleries from a season and they could showcase just their kid's photos.

    Sorry if I seem underwhelmed :D The packages and coupons were definitely a bigger deal to me unless I'm just not getting something. I definitely think this will be useful for album selections.

    Sam
    Sam: it costs you $0 to try it :) Create a sample event for John and Mary's Wedding. and send yourself and email - and visit (WHILE logged out in another browser) and go view, tag photos and more.
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Sheaf wrote:
    We bounced around a few ideas about this, but it makes the interface very clunky to have those controls within the galleries themselves. Remember, a gallery can be part of thousands of different events. Sorry!

    I just don't see where a gallery could be part of lots of events. Seems odd to me. An event is an event, with some parts, but those parts wouldn't be part of other events on other days. They can only exist on the day of the event that they are a part of.

    I also wish something had just been added/changed in galleries. We do weddings. I currently have ours set up as Category (Weddings) > Sub category (Year) > Gallery (Bride/Groom names). I want sub galleries :(

    If I start uploading galleries named things like "getting ready" "formals" etc I do understand I can group these by the bride and groom name as an event, but only people with the link to the event will see them. Everyone else browsing my site will see a whole bunch of galleries named "getting ready" and "formals" (one for every wedding) in the 2010 sub category, won't they? I just don't get how to make this work within my existing structure...

    And, as another poster said, if you have several years of stuff, it is hard to change the way you use categories and sub cats etc.

    Anyway... just another opinion...
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
  • sellissellis Registered Users Posts: 192 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Sorry if I was a bit negative! Believe me, I loooooove the coupons and packages! I just wasn't understanding the comments about this being the best thing ever. I tested it out, although I never got the email to myself. It's cool and I'll definitely use it. As someone else above said, I wish that people could do it on their own rather than me having to set it up for them. Say the mother of a ring bearer wants to group photos of her son together so she can share them with the grandmother who wasn't at the wedding. Rather than sending me an email asking me to set this up (if she even knows about it), she could just put her information in and start doing it.

    There's no doubt that I will use this for album selection and to help clients choose the photos to use their print credit on (although the coupons will make THAT so much easier on me), I don't see this being used by guests much. When I click on the guest link, it does the same thing that having the subcategories.

    If I were shooting a motorcycle race and wanted to seperate each rider into their own gallery, this would be awesome. I just don't see the WOW factor for weddings and portraits other than a client being able to save their favorites. Good stuff for sure and certainly a nice feature. I'll keep track of this thread to see if I'm just not getting the significance yet. Now if tagged photos appeared on their facebook pages and they linked back to my SM page for them to buy them, I'd be jumping up and down!

    Thanks! I really appreciate all that SM does thumb.gif
    Sam



    Andy wrote:
    Sam: it costs you $0 to try it :) Create a sample event for John and Mary's Wedding. and send yourself and email - and visit (WHILE logged out in another browser) and go view, tag photos and more.
  • DotaDota Registered Users Posts: 258 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Maybe this has been posted but I'm not for sure, what's the lowest level an event can be created? I basically have a Proofs page that I have divided by categories (Weddings, Events, etc), then sub-categories. Can events be created at the sub-category level?


    www.pullumphotography.com/Proofs

    Galleries -> Prooofs -> Weddings -> Megan & Joseph

    I have a feeling I might have to use the Sellis approach.
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,008 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Dota wrote:
    Maybe this has been posted but I'm not for sure, what's the lowest level an event can be created? I basically have a Proofs page that I have divided by categories (Weddings, Events, etc), then sub-categories. Can events be created at the sub-category level?


    www.pullumphotography.com/Proofs

    Galleries -> Prooofs -> Weddings -> Megan & Joseph

    I have a feeling I might have to use the Sellis approach.
    I'm thinking the event is just a virtual collection of galleries, can be from
    anywhere on Smug just like a share group. There is no level relevancy.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • DotaDota Registered Users Posts: 258 Major grins
    edited March 10, 2010
    Allen wrote:
    I'm thinking the event is just a virtual collection of galleries, can be from
    anywhere on Smug just like a share group. There is no level relevancy.

    Okay, even though its not posted yet but I have a wedding that's going to be posted soon. I can chop up the collection of galleries into pre-wedding, ceremony, reception, etc. (Like sellis has his) instead of having one big gallery. Now creating an event like this, will I be able to place it in the following...


    Galleries -> Proofs -> Weddings -> Event?
  • NostalgicDadNostalgicDad Registered Users Posts: 260 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2010
    Emails going to Junk Folder
    When testing this and sending to my email address, the special event page for me went to my junk folder in Outlook while the share with friends email went to my inbox. Yes, I get all other emails from smugmug.com and mydomain.com without problem. This concerns me as I will have no idea if the participants will see the announcement or not since a good percentage of people never check the junk folder.

    Basically, there needs to be a way for us to globally edit the emails being delivered as they are poorly worded as others have already mentioned. Editing each email is a lot of work when there are lots of participants. Also, perhaps a "send to all" is needed since clicking 50, 100, or more participants is a bit clunky.

    If I am missing something here, I would love to be enlightened.


    **EDIT: I've been editing and sending several versions of the "For You" email in an attempt to prevent it from going to the junk folder. Of course, marking smugmug.com as a safe recipient works but my customers won't know to do this. And, changing the body text did nothing to prevent if form going to the junk folder. However, by simply removing the "For You:" from the subject line did the trick. It now goes straight to the inbox along with the share email. Hopefully the fine folks at SM will entertain changing that verbage soon.
  • Lou GonzalezLou Gonzalez Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2010
    bstrong wrote:
    The favorites list is just another gallery. You can change the settings and gallery viewing style to anything you'd like, just like any of your other galleries.

    I hope this helps and thanks for the great feedback!

    -Brian

    Thanks for answering my questions! About the gallery view of the favorites. When in Smugmug gallery view, I see the file name listed under the larger image on the right. When I change it to thumbnail view, the caption shows (so for me it shows "Rochester NY Photographer" for every image. I need to see the file name. Do you know what's going on there? Why doesn't the file name show?

    And can I style the view of the event? I really want it to look like the rest of my galleries which are 2 columns of thumbnails, instead of 4.

    Thanks again!
  • Lou GonzalezLou Gonzalez Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2010
    sellis wrote:
    Now if tagged photos appeared on their facebook pages and they linked back to my SM page for them to buy them, I'd be jumping up and down!
    Sam

    Sam,

    What a FANTASTIC idea! SMUGMUG... please make note of this suggestion! mwink.gif
  • Lou GonzalezLou Gonzalez Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2010

    **EDIT: I've been editing and sending several versions of the "For You" email in an attempt to prevent it from going to the junk folder. Of course, marking smugmug.com as a safe recipient works but my customers won't know to do this. And, changing the body text did nothing to prevent if form going to the junk folder. However, by simply removing the "For You:" from the subject line did the trick. It now goes straight to the inbox along with the share email. Hopefully the fine folks at SM will entertain changing that verbage soon.

    To build on this idea, it would be great to have an option to save the email text as the default. Maybe a check box? So any of us could go in, make the changes we want to the actual email text, then save it as the default text. Then we can make it however we want and smugmug doesn't have to worry about what it says. We'd control it.

    Also another idea to chew on. I'm a wedding photographer. I primarily market my images to the people at the reception in hopes of generating print sales. It would be great to have a way for my clients to visit my web site, enter their email address, and when the event is "released", they are notified. Wow would that be fantastic. I would of course set up the event ahead of time. I personally create a wedding web page for each of my clients (months before the wedding). I encourage all of my brides to include the URL in their program or invitations. They often do. It would be great if I could put a link on their web page that allowed guests access to this kind of notification. I envision sending them to a Smugmug page where they enter their email address and a message states "You'll automatically be notified when the event is released." Something like that. And on the event manager screen, I'd have a button that says "Release Event". And that would trigger an email to notify those who have registered to be notified.

    I can dream can't I??? :D
  • bstrongbstrong Registered Users Posts: 53 Big grins
    edited March 11, 2010
    sellis wrote:
    Sorry if I seem underwhelmed :D The packages and coupons were definitely a bigger deal to me unless I'm just not getting something. I definitely think this will be useful for album selections.
    Sellis,

    A lot of pros need this functionality as a means of communication between themselves and their clients when picking photos that will ultimately go into a printed album. Previous to this release, clients would have to manually compile a list of file names to email to their pro.

    Although this initial release may seem somewhat simple, that was actually our goal. Solve the immediate need for picking favorites, and lay the groundwork for a bigger event marketing solution.

    We value this feedback, so keep it coming!

    -Brian
  • Lou GonzalezLou Gonzalez Registered Users Posts: 413 Major grins
    edited March 11, 2010
    bstrong wrote:
    Sellis,

    A lot of pros need this functionality as a means of communication between themselves and their clients when picking photos that will ultimately go into a printed album. Previous to this release, clients would have to manually compile a list of file names to email to their pro.

    Although this initial release may seem somewhat simple, that was actually our goal. Solve the immediate need for picking favorites, and lay the groundwork for a bigger event marketing solution.

    We value this feedback, so keep it coming!

    -Brian

    Brian,

    I just wanted to state for the record that this new feature does exactly what pros like me need. I ask my clients to select their 30 favorite photos from their wedding so I can add them to their album. Last year it was painful collecting their favorites. This year will be great! :D

    Thanks so much for all your hard work on this! I will be using this feature for everyone of my clients this year. thumb.gif
  • wslamwslam Registered Users Posts: 277 Major grins
    edited March 12, 2010
    Under the Event view, is there a way I can arrange the order of the galleries?
  • MalteMalte Registered Users Posts: 1,181 Major grins
    edited March 13, 2010
    Strange behaviour
    A link I have on my homepage: http://malte.smugmug.com/Family/Kade/Kade-pictures/7031912_mdUPb still takes you to the correct gallery, but the breadcrumbs have changed to: "Test event > Kade pictures" since I made that gallery a part of a test event.

    Is that supposed to happen? It's as if the gallery has been moved, not linked to.

    Malte
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 13, 2010
    Malte wrote:
    A link I have on my homepage: http://malte.smugmug.com/Family/Kade/Kade-pictures/7031912_mdUPb still takes you to the correct gallery, but the breadcrumbs have changed to: "Test event > Kade pictures" since I made that gallery a part of a test event.

    Is that supposed to happen? It's as if the gallery has been moved, not linked to.

    Malte
    You're cookied for the sharegroup - like a visitor would be.

    Clear your cookie and see the difference.
  • MalteMalte Registered Users Posts: 1,181 Major grins
    edited March 13, 2010
    Andy wrote:
    You're cookied for the sharegroup - like a visitor would be.

    Clear your cookie and see the difference.

    Any visitor of my site or a participant/visitor of the event?

    Malte
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,008 Major grins
    edited March 13, 2010
    Malte wrote:
    Any visitor of my site or a participant/visitor of the event?

    Malte
    Anyone using the direct sharegroup link will be cookied and the thumb (visited
    sharegroups) will remain on their homepage for a set number of days.
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • Purple StarPurple Star Registered Users Posts: 5 Beginner grinner
    edited March 15, 2010
    I love the possibilities of this new feature. I gave it a shot right away, but I ran into a few problems I was hoping you could help me with.
    It's great to be able to break down a large event into multiple galleries - way more manageable. Is there a way to set pricing for all of the new galleries at the same time? When I tried, it only allowed me to choose the Favorites galleries for each user I've assigned. I wasn't sure how this was going to work, so I went through each individual gallery and set the pricing that way. It's not that I can't always do this, I just wasn't sure if there was an easier way that I was missing.

    Also, I have a gallery on my main page named "Proof Gallery".
    Within that gallery, I list each photo shoot for clients to proof.
    With large events, the ability to separate the event into separate galleries is awesome...however, when separated and added to this new event, they all show in my original Proof Gallery as separate galleries...not so good.
    Is there a way for that single event to show, rather than each subcategory I've created? I hope that makes sense.

    clap.gif I want to thank all of you for always working so hard on things. You've integrated a bunch of features that make my life a lot easier:ivar...even though it takes me a little while to figure it all out.
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited March 15, 2010
    With large events, the ability to separate the event into separate galleries is awesome...however, when separated and added to this new event, they all show in my original Proof Gallery as separate galleries...not so good.
    Is there a way for that single event to show, rather than each subcategory I've created? I hope that makes sense.

    This is exactly what I don't like about it... ne_nau.gif
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
  • sellissellis Registered Users Posts: 192 Major grins
    edited March 15, 2010
    bstrong wrote:
    Sellis,

    A lot of pros need this functionality as a means of communication between themselves and their clients when picking photos that will ultimately go into a printed album. Previous to this release, clients would have to manually compile a list of file names to email to their pro.

    Although this initial release may seem somewhat simple, that was actually our goal. Solve the immediate need for picking favorites, and lay the groundwork for a bigger event marketing solution.

    We value this feedback, so keep it coming!

    -Brian

    Thanks Brian. Again, I apoligze if I came off as unappreciative for all your hard work. That's certainly not the case. I understand that it will make album selections easier for clients and will definitely use it for that. Perhaps since I provide my clients with a proof book and I explain it can be used for choosing photos for the album and print credit by circling or making notes in it, I didn't feel the importance of this release. I can definitely see this as easier for the client to simply click and choose the ones they want for the album and will implement it with my first wedding in a few weeks.

    One thing I did use it for so far was to compile all the weddings I shot at my favorite venue last year into a group and shared that with the owner. I will continue to do that for the weddings I have this year and will make a disc of her favorites she can use on her website.

    I will also set up a group for other venues and vendors (florists, cakes) so they can link directly to their favorites on my site. They'll be sending their clients to my site mwink.gif

    I'm understanding it more now. I just didn't quite grasp the potential before.

    Kudos,
    Sam
  • ryanmillerphotoryanmillerphoto Registered Users Posts: 16 Big grins
    edited March 16, 2010
    Almost there...
    I love the ability to mark favorites as that has been a pain point for me in the past. But I wish it was executed differently.

    I want people to be able to browse my site and find events rather than needing a link sent to them. Really what I'm looking for is an extra level of structure to the Galleries, so it could look like this:

    Clients > Bob and Jane > Bob and Jane's wedding (EVENT) > Multiple galleries
    Clients > Bob and Jane > Jane's maternity session (EVENT) > Proofs gallery, post processed gallery, etc.
    Clients > Bob and Jane > Kids photos (EVENT) > Alan 1 yr gallery, Tiffany new born gallery, etc.

    It's really the lack of "levels" that are available that causes me headaches and to have to compromise. If someone is browsing my site or doesn't have the link handy and wants to view a wedding event, they can't. All they see is a ton of galleries with no structure.

    What I would like is more levels of hierarchy and the ability for someone to add favorites to ANY gallery OR event (if it exists as my structure above). Often times I will have a single gallery with 100+ photos that I'm asking my client to select their favorites. It's not really an event, so sharing it as an event seems kind of funny, but I would like them to be able to mark favorites.

    I suppose adding a single gallery to an event isn't the end of the world and adds that great favorites feature, but it would be nicer if I could select an email address to send off so they can mark favorites right from within a gallery.
  • xcitantxcitant Registered Users Posts: 13 Big grins
    edited March 16, 2010
    Album Titles
    Luvin this update! Smugmug Wizards keep up the great work! thumb.gif

    Small niggle, the album titles get choped off. Any chance of extending it?
    I noticed that the event galleries are slightly different - each gallery is not contained in a minibox class as on the standard gallery pages...
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited March 16, 2010
    I want people to be able to browse my site and find events rather than needing a link sent to them. Really what I'm looking for is an extra level of structure to the Galleries, so it could look like this:

    Clients > Bob and Jane > Bob and Jane's wedding (EVENT) > Multiple galleries
    Clients > Bob and Jane > Jane's maternity session (EVENT) > Proofs gallery, post processed gallery, etc.
    Clients > Bob and Jane > Kids photos (EVENT) > Alan 1 yr gallery, Tiffany new born gallery, etc.

    It's really the lack of "levels" that are available that causes me headaches and to have to compromise. If someone is browsing my site or doesn't have the link handy and wants to view a wedding event, they can't. All they see is a ton of galleries with no structure.
    thumb.gif
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
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