How long do you see reasonable sales activity after an event?
I think that's beside the point. When I shot baseball this spring, the season was over by the middle of June, but orders were still trickling in in late August, and even a couple in September.
I'd like to give people incentive to order quickly, but I imagine some people would simply space out and miss a 2 week deadline and then not want to pay full price afterwards. On the other hand, with a 30 day deadline, I wonder if the urgency is so much less that people put off ordering and then the memory of the event becomes stale and the desire for photos diminished?
I *think* a 30 day deadline would be better, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with this.
-Jack
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
I think the time of year makes a difference, too. I've had several requests to leave galleries up longer because people are busy with the holidays and financially tapped out. They need a couple of months to recover.
I think that's beside the point. When I shot baseball this spring, the season was over by the middle of June, but orders were still trickling in in late August, and even a couple in September.
I'd like to give people incentive to order quickly, but I imagine some people would simply space out and miss a 2 week deadline and then not want to pay full price afterwards. On the other hand, with a 30 day deadline, I wonder if the urgency is so much less that people put off ordering and then the memory of the event becomes stale and the desire for photos diminished?
I *think* a 30 day deadline would be better, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with this.
I shoot semi pro football and the season ends around oct 31, last year my biggest sales were during Christmas which was about 2 months after my last game and picture were bought from games that were between june and October. So I guess it would depend on who your audience is.
I think that's beside the point. When I shot baseball this spring, the season was over by the middle of June, but orders were still trickling in in late August, and even a couple in September.
I'd like to give people incentive to order quickly, but I imagine some people would simply space out and miss a 2 week deadline and then not want to pay full price afterwards. On the other hand, with a 30 day deadline, I wonder if the urgency is so much less that people put off ordering and then the memory of the event becomes stale and the desire for photos diminished?
I *think* a 30 day deadline would be better, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with this.
How fast do you publish after shooting? I've found that the faster people can look at the images, the more likely they are to be enthusiastic and purchase something.
I wonder what is the optimal timeframe for a coupon to expire after a shoot or event? 2 weeks? 30 days? other? Anybody study this or have experience?
Jeff Jochum, CMO for Smugmug, talked about this at the Denver SMUG on Tuesday. His research, from a company he was at before SM, indicated that 45-60 days for an expiry yielded the best response. Much more than that and the interest waned, as it felt like a perpetual discount. He also added that, with appropriate marketing, you could further help sales by offering an additional (lesser than the original coupon) discount after the 60 days, with the spin that you are acknowledging people want the prints and didn't have time to order. You send that notice out (or publish it online, etc) the day after the original expires. Research shows that it does provide additional lift.
In the "Mind Your Business" sub-forum, I have asked a question about Print Credits and how those might be effective in the landscape photography world. Jochum (and the Denver SMUG leader) had both indicated Print Credits are pretty powerful and yield more sales in the portrait world. Hoping to hear about positive experiences in the landscape world.
I think the time of year makes a difference, too. I've had several requests to leave galleries up longer because people are busy with the holidays and financially tapped out. They need a couple of months to recover.
I don't take galleries down for precisely that reason. But I want to motivate the typical user to purchase prints sooner rather than later.
45-60 days seems long to me, but who am I to disagree with research?
I agree about the holidays, and I actually sent a coupon to my little league parents for December, and it has produced a few sales. Bonus. I think next spring I will run standard coupons for I guess 45 days, and then I will send out a holiday coupon in mid November.
I usually publish photos within 24 hours, and sometimes within just a few hours. Maximum 2 days. I also don't take galleries down.
-Jack
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
How do you guys have such quick turnaround times? I thought I was fast until I've seen these posts. What's the workflow?
Set up the camera right. Some guys do it so well they can shoot jpeg. I don't trust myself THAT much, but most of my workflow is just cropping, converting, and uploading.
This is for sports. Portraits are a different story!
-Jack
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Set up the camera right. Some guys do it so well they can shoot jpeg. I don't trust myself THAT much, but most of my workflow is just cropping, converting, and uploading.
This is for sports. Portraits are a different story!
See my reply in the above new thread. Sorry for the hijaak!
Hey guys, <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> I have run into another snag. I like the idea of the Discount Codes and would like to use them, however I need to restrict the discount to either Prints, Merchandise, or Downloads.
Because you allow us to set pricing separately on these three categories, I need to be able to discount them the same so that a discount doesn’t push a category under my cost.
Here is a live example:
I have my pricing set to 200% above SM defaults for Prints I have my pricing set to 50% above SM defaults for Merchandise I have my pricing set manually for Downloads
Because I shoot mostly events I want to offer the event coordinator a 50% discount for prints & downloads. The issue is that because of the 14.5% commission that you collect on all my orders, the Merchandise Category is now going to be well below wholesale?
On another note (same lines); I am not having an issue with this, but could see an issue for others and this will quickly become an issue for me as I move more of my clients from Pictage to here.
I/we have to be able to lock Discounts to a specific gallery! If I have two open galleries set with different price models, it is very possible for a discount code to be used in a different gallery causing the WHOLE order to be under wholesale.
Here is a live example: I have shot the CRE Race and because that is an event it has a short profit margin set on the price. I frequently get requests to do Family Sessions (and other work) from these events and these sessions are typically double if not triple in price. If I offer a driver from the CRE event a discount for his family and it gets used for a CRE order, I am screwed! Every item will be under wholesale and possibly a considerable amount!
Email coupons?
Sorry if I missed it but did someone come up with a practical way to email coupons to customers? Emails are entered on past orders and I would like to send coupons out to those people.
Thanks SmugMug for this great new feature!
Edit: I think I may have figured a way with this. Maybe it will help others. If someone has already done/explained this, sorry.
I created a JPEG of the coupon. Then placed it into a gallery I created. (I enlarged it so it was more readable) I opened the image in the gallery and clicked the 'share' button. I then added the customers, in my address book, and sent the email out! This sent them directly to the image. It seems to work. If anyone has a simpler or perfected method, I'm welcome to suggestions!
One rat report, I ran a 20% sale, and got 14 orders during the month/so far with 8 using the coupon code for a discount of $121 total.
A lot of the orders were from older galleries. I'm one of those who leaves event galleries online for a long time, as much as 3 years. In the future I'll use the coupon to get people ordering faster from the new ones.
I'm pretty thorough about the data I keep from events going back many years. It is my conclusion that any of my events has a certain maximum value over time and that most of the revenue from it will come very soon after I have the event posted. I do about half of it right there at the event, then it goes to about 90 or 95% of it's long term value within about a month of the event. I just feel strongly that any discounting, or couponing, of a just-produced event will only reduce the long-term revenue of that event. I know that it may feel pretty good when we put a coupon out there and we get this immediate shot of money. I just still feel that it degrades the long term value of an event to discount it like this so soon after it was produced.
What I did this season, as with every season, is to send out a message to my client list telling them that images from events in 2008 and earlier are discounted by 20%. I did get a nice slug of orders from folks way back who simply forgot, had sold the horse and now wanted to remember etc.. But the message also did serve to remind people that they had images out there from 2009. I got more new orders from 2009, at full price, than I did from old events!
So as I've said in a previous post in this thread, until the coupon feature is able to be tied to a particular subcategory, I don't plan to be using them for now. (I'm not complaining that it isn't yet! I know how many other features you must be working on!!)
What I did this season, as with every season, is to send out a message to my client list telling them that images from events in 2008 and earlier are discounted by 20%. I did get a nice slug of orders from folks way back who simply forgot, had sold the horse and now wanted to remember etc.. But the message also did serve to remind people that they had images out there from 2009. I got more new orders from 2009, at full price, than I did from old events!
This is excellent feedback. I would never have thought that the coupons helped the 2009 orders. Great info!
You do understand that I gave a discount to only 2008 and ealier, but the reminder still got them off the dime to buy 2009 at full price?
Exactly. That's the surprising part. You would've thought that it would have only helped 2008 orders. How did you limit the coupon use to only 2008 galleries?
Exactly. That's the surprising part. You would've thought that it would have only helped 2008 orders. How did you limit the coupon use to only 2008 galleries?
Just a guess, but he didn't.
Instead, all the 2008 galleries were price adjusted down by 20% - no coupon needed.
Gallery Specific Coupons and Credits
For all of you that need to have gallery specific coupons and/or print credits, please get on over to http://smugmug.uservoice.com/forums/17723-smugmug?filter=top&page=3 and put some votes on that request. The coupon feature is nice, elegant, and utterly useless (to me anyway) without being able to restrict it to certain areas of my site.
This is the first time I have known of this Smugmug suggestion spot and that we could suggest and vote on others' suggestions, my mistake... But anyway, I could not find the particular suggestion to vote on it. The link did not seem to bring me exactly to it. How exactly is it titled?
This is the first time I have known of this Smugmug suggestion spot and that we could suggest and vote on others' suggestions, my mistake... But anyway, I could not find the particular suggestion to vote on it. The link did not seem to bring me exactly to it. How exactly is it titled?
Just made my first coupon...well the JPG I intend on printing out and handing out. I haven't created the actual coupon yet because I haven't decided on the exact amount yet, waiting to find out how many parents are willing to pay a fee upfront for me to show up and shoot.
The way I am working it is I want to charge a fee upfront to show up and shoot an event, in this case basketball games. I want to charge $20 each parent and if I get 6 or more parents then $15 each. They pay the day of the game then I hand them this coupon and the fee they paid upfront goes toward their print purchase. This way I don't get the "ohhh yes please get pics of so snd so, then never get sales". This is something new I am trying so we'll see how it works.
Any opinions, suggestions, thoughts are welcome. Please.
Comments
I think that's beside the point. When I shot baseball this spring, the season was over by the middle of June, but orders were still trickling in in late August, and even a couple in September.
I'd like to give people incentive to order quickly, but I imagine some people would simply space out and miss a 2 week deadline and then not want to pay full price afterwards. On the other hand, with a 30 day deadline, I wonder if the urgency is so much less that people put off ordering and then the memory of the event becomes stale and the desire for photos diminished?
I *think* a 30 day deadline would be better, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with this.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
I'm running a trial balloon shortly on a dance recital I finished last night.
The coupon went "live" today but the pictures won't be up for a couple days (2500 shots to cull and do some basic PP).
The people/parents can sometimes be very slow to order (I had one come in 18 months after a recital!).
I set the coupon to expire on 1/31/10 (about 40 days after they get posted) to see if it would light a fire under anyone.
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Jeff Jochum, CMO for Smugmug, talked about this at the Denver SMUG on Tuesday. His research, from a company he was at before SM, indicated that 45-60 days for an expiry yielded the best response. Much more than that and the interest waned, as it felt like a perpetual discount. He also added that, with appropriate marketing, you could further help sales by offering an additional (lesser than the original coupon) discount after the 60 days, with the spin that you are acknowledging people want the prints and didn't have time to order. You send that notice out (or publish it online, etc) the day after the original expires. Research shows that it does provide additional lift.
In the "Mind Your Business" sub-forum, I have asked a question about Print Credits and how those might be effective in the landscape photography world. Jochum (and the Denver SMUG leader) had both indicated Print Credits are pretty powerful and yield more sales in the portrait world. Hoping to hear about positive experiences in the landscape world.
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I don't take galleries down for precisely that reason. But I want to motivate the typical user to purchase prints sooner rather than later.
I agree about the holidays, and I actually sent a coupon to my little league parents for December, and it has produced a few sales. Bonus. I think next spring I will run standard coupons for I guess 45 days, and then I will send out a holiday coupon in mid November.
I usually publish photos within 24 hours, and sometimes within just a few hours. Maximum 2 days. I also don't take galleries down.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Ha, thanks. It makes for some late nights!
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Keith Tharp.com - Champion Photo
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lets take it here http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=153539
Keith Tharp.com - Champion Photo
Set up the camera right. Some guys do it so well they can shoot jpeg. I don't trust myself THAT much, but most of my workflow is just cropping, converting, and uploading.
This is for sports. Portraits are a different story!
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
I have run into another snag. I like the idea of the Discount Codes and would like to use them, however I need to restrict the discount to either Prints, Merchandise, or Downloads.
Because you allow us to set pricing separately on these three categories, I need to be able to discount them the same so that a discount doesn’t push a category under my cost.
Here is a live example:
I have my pricing set to 200% above SM defaults for Prints
I have my pricing set to 50% above SM defaults for Merchandise
I have my pricing set manually for Downloads
Because I shoot mostly events I want to offer the event coordinator a 50% discount for prints & downloads.
The issue is that because of the 14.5% commission that you collect on all my orders, the Merchandise Category is now going to be well below wholesale?
On another note (same lines); I am not having an issue with this, but could see an issue for others and this will quickly become an issue for me as I move more of my clients from Pictage to here.
I/we have to be able to lock Discounts to a specific gallery!
If I have two open galleries set with different price models, it is very possible for a discount code to be used in a different gallery causing the WHOLE order to be under wholesale.
Here is a live example: I have shot the CRE Race and because that is an event it has a short profit margin set on the price.
I frequently get requests to do Family Sessions (and other work) from these events and these sessions are typically double if not triple in price.
If I offer a driver from the CRE event a discount for his family and it gets used for a CRE order, I am screwed! Every item will be under wholesale and possibly a considerable amount!
Please help me with these issues…
Chris Sgaraglino
http://www.outdoorstudios.net
Sorry if I missed it but did someone come up with a practical way to email coupons to customers? Emails are entered on past orders and I would like to send coupons out to those people.
Thanks SmugMug for this great new feature!
Edit: I think I may have figured a way with this. Maybe it will help others. If someone has already done/explained this, sorry.
I created a JPEG of the coupon. Then placed it into a gallery I created. (I enlarged it so it was more readable) I opened the image in the gallery and clicked the 'share' button. I then added the customers, in my address book, and sent the email out! This sent them directly to the image. It seems to work. If anyone has a simpler or perfected method, I'm welcome to suggestions!
Thanks
A lot of the orders were from older galleries. I'm one of those who leaves event galleries online for a long time, as much as 3 years. In the future I'll use the coupon to get people ordering faster from the new ones.
Hope to hear how it is going for others.
Galleries here Upcoming Ranch/Horse Workshop
What I did this season, as with every season, is to send out a message to my client list telling them that images from events in 2008 and earlier are discounted by 20%. I did get a nice slug of orders from folks way back who simply forgot, had sold the horse and now wanted to remember etc.. But the message also did serve to remind people that they had images out there from 2009. I got more new orders from 2009, at full price, than I did from old events!
So as I've said in a previous post in this thread, until the coupon feature is able to be tied to a particular subcategory, I don't plan to be using them for now. (I'm not complaining that it isn't yet! I know how many other features you must be working on!!)
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
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You do understand that I gave a discount to only 2008 and ealier, but the reminder still got them off the dime to buy 2009 at full price?
www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
Just a guess, but he didn't.
Instead, all the 2008 galleries were price adjusted down by 20% - no coupon needed.
Want faster uploading? Vote for FTP!
For all of you that need to have gallery specific coupons and/or print credits, please get on over to http://smugmug.uservoice.com/forums/17723-smugmug?filter=top&page=3 and put some votes on that request. The coupon feature is nice, elegant, and utterly useless (to me anyway) without being able to restrict it to certain areas of my site.
Thanks.
jon
http://www.takeflightphoto.com
http://www.usdgcphotos.com
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www.HoofClix.com / Personal Facebook / Facebook Page
and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
http://smugmug.uservoice.com/pages/17723-smugmug/suggestions/407487-thank-you-for-coupons-what-i-really-need-is-catagory-gallery-client-or-event-specific-coupons-?ref=title
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The way I am working it is I want to charge a fee upfront to show up and shoot an event, in this case basketball games. I want to charge $20 each parent and if I get 6 or more parents then $15 each. They pay the day of the game then I hand them this coupon and the fee they paid upfront goes toward their print purchase. This way I don't get the "ohhh yes please get pics of so snd so, then never get sales". This is something new I am trying so we'll see how it works.
Any opinions, suggestions, thoughts are welcome. Please.
http://dynamicsportsimages.com/