How to generate additional sales...

MT Stringer

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

I shot a 23 team softball tournament a couple of weeks ago. Out of over 200 players, I have got 20 orders. They range from a couple of 4x6's to as many as 71 4x6's - all of one kid, the pitcher, and her dad (the coach). Others varied from 4x6's to 8x10's (only a few). I also sold several personal download images.

Sales have tapered off and I'm trying to figure out if I should offer a DVD of all the game pics (at a resolution of 1200x 1800) for any team. Some teams played 2 games, others 3 or more. I guess I'm trying to figure out if It would make the previous customers mad by making an offer now that they might have taken advantage of if offered earlier.

By selling the dvd, they could print their own pictures as they see fit. I would use either Paypal or Google Checkout to collect the money, then produce the DVD and ship it to the customer.

Is this good or bad business? I've run out of ideas.

You can check out the game pics of the 2008 GHYSA Metro Championship here:
http://mtstringer.smugmug.com/?preview=1

Thanks
Mike

LUCKYSHOT

Mike
Sometimes it takes orders awhile to tricke in. Why dont you E mail a few of the coachs kids pics to him, thank him for his order and ask him to tell his team about the pics he received, A heads up about the pics from the coach usually will generate more sales.
All the best
Chris

mercphoto

MT Stringer wrote:

I shot a 23 team softball tournament a couple of weeks ago. Out of over 200 players, I have got 20 orders.... Sales have tapered off and I'm trying to figure out if I should offer a DVD of all the game pics (at a resolution of 1200x 1800) for any team.... By selling the dvd, they could print their own pictures as they see fit.

Excuse the deep editing of your post I made above. First off, why offer a reduced resolution image if your intent is to allow them to make their own print? Just give them the full-res image. I don't see the point in down-sizing the images before you give them to them.

Secondly, how did you promote yourself at the tournament? Do people know you were there, how to find your photos, etc?

I haven't done any type of sports in over a year now, but I do remember that most event photographers who do tournaments say that without an on-site presence to show photos and take orders and money your orders will be low. The desire to buy is high while there, and trickles off fast once they get home.

MT Stringer

Thanks for the replies.

About the reduced resolution sizes, according to Smugmug, they are still large enough to make prints up to 11x14 or larger. That's what I was going by.

I had a display set up at the tournament with a photo album of recent work, several framed prints showing examples of my work, business cards and flyers. The girls from the host team passed out cards and flyers while the teams were playing and we (me and a friend) were on the field shooting.

Yeah, I was short on help. My wife had a previous commitment and my 20 yr old daughter couldn't make it either. It would have helped if I had more help. As it was, we took several requests on the fly as the games were being played and all but one have placed orders.

I don't have the gear (or experienced help) to print on site. I guess that's part of the problem. The other problem is I can't do it all myself. There were games being played on 4 back-to-back fields at the same time.

I like the idea of sending out emails. I sent one to all of the coaches to let them know all of the pics had been uploaded. And I sent each of the seven coaches a team picture of their team with their trophy so they could use it on their team's website or the kids myspace websites.

Here's a couple of pics of my display. It was the best I could do at the time.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Mike

My spot next to the T-Shirt guy and adjacent to the concession stand.


Close up of the display table.