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Today is the day - Miller's Professional Imaging is officially live on PhotoDay! We know MANY studios have been waiting patiently since we announced our partnership last September. And, now it's here. Miller's catalog of top-of-the-line products and great-looking themes are now available on PhotoDay. Too eager to read on? You can sign up for Miller's + PhotoDay right now.

What does this mean for studios?

Some of the great products you can expect from Miller's[/caption]You'll get the amazing products and personal service that make Miller's a leading lab among sports, event, and school photographers - while streamlining your workflow beyond your imagination and giving your customers a slick, one-of-a-kind ordering experience. Learn more aboutPhotoDay Sports & Events.

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New to Miller's?

Here's what you can expect:

       
• 1-day turnaround
       
• Free color correction
       
• Dedicated customer service reps
       
• Top-quality products
       
• Professional materials

Miller's Themed Collections for Custom Products[/caption]We're excited to have Miller's as part of the PhotoDay family - and look forward to helping their studios get set up in time for their Spring 2019 shoots.

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‍Get started with Miller's + PhotoDay. Let's do this!

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To say that “online” doesn’t work for volume photography is like saying a hammer doesn’t work to build a house. “Online” is a tool, like any other, that won’t do anything for your business unless you know how to direct it, how to use it. Despite this fact, some volume photographers have “tried online” and have vocally concluded (ironically, on Facebook) that it doesn’t work.

There are many industries that have had to adapt to taking their traditionally offline businesses into the online world. The music industry naturally comes to mind as musicians accustomed to selling physical albums saw their sales dry up in the late 90’s and early 00’s, being replaced by downloadable singles and then streaming services. Many of these same musicians evolved to use “online” as a tool that now helps get their music discovered, promote live performances, and ultimately make a living doing what they love.

You can draw similar parallels to retail, books, movies, transportation, news, sports... pretty much every major consumer industry has experimented with different online approaches - and it all has accelerated with the onset of mobile. The result? New, uncharted paths, unforeseen sources of revenue, significant efficiencies - and perhaps best of all, consumers who are surprised and delighted by the newfound convenience they enjoy: tapping for that first Uber ride - or carrying an entire library of books and movies on a 1-pound tablet.

Certainly, in just about every case there are growing pains during transition - but the business owners who embrace technology and are patiently open to experimentation come out the other end with businesses on stronger, more solid footing. These businesses are set up to scale up and at the same time attract the next generation of customers who are increasingly accustomed to running their lives online from their mobile devices.

NEED VALIDATION?

Nothing validates the move to take volume photography online more than last year’s Shutterfly / Lifetouch acquisition. Shutterfly has direct, online relationships with parents, and Lifetouch has the photo capture infrastructure. A perfect match, really. Together, they are driving, at a large scale, efficiency and convenience into our industry creating a new “picture day” standard for parents. They’ve fused the chasm between digital and print photo products, and this presents a tremendous opportunity for our industry.

A WAY FORWARD

For the volume photographer that has a steady business based on physical order forms or hybrid methods, there is natural concern that “going online” could disrupt reliable income. That’s why having a smart, strategic approach is essential. Careful experimentation on a controlled scale is key, especially for established businesses. As with anything, it’s important to choose the right tools and then take the time to try different approaches for engaging with customers. The way forward depends on making it frictionless for parents so they know exactly when, where, and how to view and order their photos.

THE IMPACT

For photographers who are ready to embrace technology and experiment with taking their businesses online, the impact is great:

• Less time, less cost...less stress - One of the biggest benefits to online is the elimination of time-consuming (painful!) manual processes and backend paperwork that eat into the bottom line. This opens up the possibility to take on more, and potentially varied, jobs.
• Direct customer contact - Schools, leagues, and organizations no longer have to stand between the photographer and the customer. Photographers can communicate steadily with their customers before and after picture day...and beyond.
• Sales-driving incentives - Special offers and coupons are an essential and expected part of ecommerce. These incentives can be used strategically to encourage desired buying behaviors - like creating purchase urgency and increasing order values.
• Lifetime customers - Online relationships open up opportunities for sales beyond the one-time picture day, making seasonal gift sales as well as multi-year photo products possible.
• Better business intelligence - When running business online, every single order is packed with data that can easily be analyzed. This intelligence makes businesses smarter about everything - from which products to offer to what jobs are most profitable.
• Happier customers - At the end of the day, delighted customers is what every business owner strives for. The happier the customers the more guarantee of future business. By eliminating onerous steps, photographers can focus more on capturing and creating beautiful, breath-taking images and providing top-notch service to their customers.

All of these things, taken together, are already driving more sales and higher profits for the studios who are blazing the trail for our industry. These same studios embrace the paradigm shift that prioritizes profitability as the most important metric. By increasing profit margins, they are positioned to scale while zeroing in on the marketing levers that further increase participation and order values.

NOT TO FEAR

Sure, there are big, national players out there but that has never stopped the small and mid-sized business owner from carving out a niche in his or her own market. There’s no reason that it should now. A commoditized, mass-market approach to photography is never going to have the same appeal as the relationships that photographers cultivate with local families - and the quality of photography that can only be created with investment in skills and craft.

With the new year comes new opportunities to explore all of these facets of the future of our industry. We think there’s nothing to fear - in fact, we’re encouraged and excited to see how the most innovative photographers incorporate the latest tools into their businesses and lead us into places we haven’t yet imagined.

Photo credit: James Boatwright, SMAX Photography

MEET PAUL

Paul Duke Jr.’s  approach to photography and his dedication to simplifying the entire picture day process make him an open-minded industry trailblazer. As a full-time IT professional by day, Paul doesn’t have time for the old ways of volume photography. He’s part of a new generation of photographers who see technology as the only way forward.

THE SIDE-HUSTLE

Paul has always loved sports photography. He started years ago in action sports as a hobby turned side-hustle - with his sights set on getting into volume. Three years ago he started to make it happen. Today, his business, PdPhotography Sports, shoots gymnastics, football, volleyball, and softball throughout the York, PA area. Most photographers in his area shoot traditional style, but Paul wanted to do something different. So, he began doing manual extraction and compositing to create “Xtreme” memory mates. “Friends and friends of friends started seeing my work, and they wanted it for their own teams,” he shared. At that point, he introduced Pixnub into his workflow to streamline the process - and from then on everything changed. He started to see how he could really scale this business.

WHY HE CHOSE PHOTODAY

Paul is a part of the gig economy - supplementing his income with photography, his true passion. Because his day job is demanding he told me, “I don’t have the luxury of working on my photography jobs during the week. I need to make it fast and efficient.”He’s tried some other online methods but none of them did exactly what he wanted. Flash forward to June 2018, Paul went to Sync Sports just down the road in Manheim, PA where he first heard about PhotoDay. “I stood in the shadows of their booth just listening to Lisa talk to other photographers about PhotoDay - and I thought this sounds too good to be true. I had been trying for years to find software that does what PhotoDay does.”

ONE TOUGH CUSTOMER

Paul wanted to use PhotoDay for a local gymnastics team shoot. The stakes were high as it was his daughter’s team and his wife was the president of the booster club. “You would think I was a shoe-in but I wasn’t. I really had to sell my wife on the fact that I had a system that would make picture day completely simple. My wife was concerned that the parents weren’t that tech-savvy.” And, like so many married couple’s conversations, it came down to, “Trust me, it will work.”So, he met with the board and explained how PdPhotography Sports does picture day. This was a going to be a fundraiser - so to maximize participation he offered the organization a higher percentage for higher participation. He displayed his work and walked through the set-up and PhotoDay ordering process. He got the job!“My daughter is on the team. My wife is head of the booster club. I wanted to jump out of the gate and prove that PdPhotography Sports wasn’t selected because of these connections. With the PhotoDay system, I was able to take down all guards and just bring it.”Three weeks before picture day, Paul set up posters around the gymnastics school and made sure that the picture day information was in their weekly newsletter so that parents could begin opting in using their unique PhotoDay access code.

THE BIG DAY

“I knew going in that the parents were accustomed to sitting there for 3 to 4 hours waiting for their kids to have their individual and team photos taken. With my green screen method for team shots, we didn’t have to drag out risers, we didn’t have to line up 95 gymnasts. We didn’t have to make sure no one was blinking or making inappropriate gestures.”

“The kids checked in at a table where we collected $10, and parents texted in the access code. I had three stations set up, and was able to move the gymnasts through in record time. We took multiple poses and the kids were completely done within 15 minutes. The parents couldn’t believe it - we were getting so many kudos!”

THE RESULTS

“Picture day with PhotoDay is no comparison. Order participation was 100% and the AOV was higher than any I had seen before.”

PdPhotography Sports took home $950 in day-of cash deposits (this was before PhotoDay had AdvancePay).  Paul’s participation rates are typically around 60% with AOVs in the $20-range. There were a good number of orders that were over $100 - with the highest order at $166!

These higher order values were driven by parents purchasing the composited team pictures as well as multi-poses of the individuals with Paul’s signature “razzle-dazzle.”

*A couple of the orders contained siblings which is why the participation rate is 100%

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

“Constant communication and variety,” Paul told me were the keys to success. The mentions in the newsletter and the posters around the studio helped educate parents and prepare them for this new kind of picture day. And, the different poses plus the team picture pushed up the order values.

“Our process makes everything so easy. It takes the load off the league. We get the roster, we create the schedule. The organization doesn’t have to worry about anything - no collecting forms, tracking down parents, or passing out photos. I’m signing on more jobs because I look to solve each organization’s biggest challenges. In the case of this gymnastics shoot, the parents wanted wow images and less waiting time - and we nailed it!”

Who couldn’t use a few more greenbacks in their stocking this holiday. This latest version (1.5) is all about speeding up the time it takes for you to earn more $$$. Sound too good to be true? See for yourself!

QUICK CHECK

Building an online store with FaceFind technology as well as customizable price sheets and products is no small feat! Our awesome development team has been working fast to release new features to you each week. At last, we’ve reached the point where we can bring all of these features together in a dramatically faster checkout flow for your customers. We eliminated 11 clicks from the order/checkout process!!!! CHECK - it - OUT:

Here's what's new about the checkout process:

       
• We’ve simplified the process of updating and cropping the photo by combining the two. For example, when you add a photo to a product that requires more than 1 photo, you select the photo then crop it all in the same process. No need to click on a separate crop option anymore.
       
• We now intuitively crop the photo based on your initial crop so when the customer selects and adds more than one product, we do our best to auto crop the photo to the product. This saves a lot of time specifically in large orders and in packages with multiple products.
       
• Customers now have the ability to preview what product, photo, theme, and text they’ve selected. They can now accurately see how the photo will look in the product(s) they’ve purchased along with any customizations they added.
       
• This all translates into a much more seamless experience that's designed to let customers quickly and accurately checkout.

FANCIER FLYERS

Flyers are the #1 way to promote picture day to parents. That’s why we’re always looking for ways to make them better for you. With this release, you get a new post picture day flyer template as well as lots more flexibility to customize your flyers the way you want them. You can even feature multiple offers on one flyer to help drive those sales!!!

MORE-PROFIT PROMOS

If you haven’t been hibernating for the last week, you probably know about our new PROMOS feature. PROMOS lets our studios get back in front of their customers with enticing seasonal promotions. It’s a whole new source of revenue - just in time for the holiday shopping season! See for yourself.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

You know we're serious about showing you real-time business metrics, data, and results for your jobs. Keeping tabs on your business - and understanding what works and what doesn't - will make you even smarter about your business - and allow you to service your customers better. That's why we've recently added individual order numbers to your Stripe account. This will help you connect individual payments with orders.

Note: A small group of users will have to "relink" their Stripe account to see the order data- if you're one of those users, you'll get an email with more info. 

This was a big release and that was just the highlights! For a full list of everything that was part of Version 1.5, check out our version updates page.

I challenge you to find me an aunt or grandparent who doesn’t love getting photo gifts of the kids in their life. Do they even exist? Photo gifts are big business ($$$) and this holiday season, volume photographers don’t have to sit on the sidelines. PhotoDay gives you many ways to put your professional photos and gift products (back!) in front of your customers during this season of giving.

Be sure to read to the bottom of this post...because boy, do we have a SURPRISE GIFT just for you!!!

GIFTS FROM THE HEART

The only real limit to photo gifts is your imagination. High res digital downloads give customers the flexibility to take their photos to any novelty printing site to create anything they can imagine from blankets to t-shirts to aprons.

Our labs offer terrific gift-y items that you can put into a holiday price sheet filled with gift-giving favorites to make it super easy for your customers to shop and move on! You can re-promote those galleries with your new price sheet and special holiday offers. Any new sales is like extra gravy...yum! Here are some gift ideas:

• Tree ornaments make great decorations that are treasured year after year
• Mugs, water bottles, keychains, etc. make practical, personal gifts
• Posters of a team are a great stocking-stuffer for the young athlete
• Photo prints are always appreciated - especially when put into frames

You can also remind customers that PhotoDay lets them ship individual items direct to the gift recipient. A huge time saver!!!

PUT A BOW ON IT

You can design packages that assemble products together and build in savings. Here are a few package ideas to inspire you:

• Ornament Pack - Combine 5 ornaments together and offer a 10% discount off the individual a la carte price.
• Gift Basket Pack - Combine products together that make a great gift for one special person - a water bottle, key chain, and magnets. Again, offer a discount off the individual a la carte price.
• Digital Download Pack - If you’ve done a lot of multi-pose this season, you might want to consider combining 2 or more digital downloads together and provide a meaningful savings off the individual price.

MAKE IT SPECIAL

Seasonal offers are an excellent way to create irresistible excitement! Use recognizable coupon codes like BLACKFRIDAY or HOLIDAYS2018 or JINGLE10. Tie these codes to offers like:

• Free shipping on orders over $40
• Save 10% on orders over $60
• Save $15 on orders over $100

Of course for any of this to work you need to reach out to your customers with your holiday offers. You can always go back to the organizer with a new flyer they can share with parents. You can even promote on the organization's Facebook page, or reach out to past customers using the customer email list in your PhotoDay Studio Panel Insights page. But, we realize this isn’t always possible. So, we have a little surprise for you…

A SURPRISE GIFT JUST...FOR...YOU!

We are introducing a brand new feature called PROMOS - it's not live yet but it's coming soon. We’ll create and market your offers to your customers during a specific promotional season - and you can sit back, drink some spiked eggnog and literally watch the sales roll in. How it works:

1. Select a seasonal Promo.
2. Choose the jobs you'd like included in the Promo.
3. Create the offer you'd like to attach to the Promo.
4. We’ll send a specially crafted SMS text series to any of the customers who have opted into the jobs you selected.

We’re already working on a Black Friday / Cyber Monday Promo that you don’t want to miss. You pick the jobs. You create the offers. And, we’ll send out these texts:

‍Note - we’ve mocked in the job/offer info to give you an idea of how it could look.

‍Wednesday, November 21:

Friday, November 23:

Monday, November 26:

Stay tuned in the coming days for how you can get in on this awesome new feature just in time for the holidays!!!

Did you know that each week we release new versions of the PhotoDay product?

This is pretty typical for a technology company that's moving fast to develop product features that meet and anticipate the needs of its users. In fact, we have a backlog of hundreds of new features and updates that wait in the wings until we're ready to tackle them. Many of the things on this list come directly from the excellent suggestions we get every day from our users.

Deciding what to tackle nextcould be overwhelming if we didn't have a methodology to guide us. That's why we use a method called Agile Development. Agile Development is serious stuff - it actually has its own manifesto and 12 guiding principles. But to summarize, its highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

What this means for our users is that it allows us to quickly react to feedback and deliver more features faster. But, it's also the reason why some of the features may feel disconnected or incomplete at times. Oftentimes we make the decision to roll with a small feature that's part of something much bigger...and cooler.

HOCKEY?

I like to think of Agile Development like a hockey game. You can never predict before the game exactly where the puck is going to go or who is going to score - but you do know that lots of passes and shots and defensive plays will all come together to make up a winning game. The same goes for agile product development - we're adjusting our plays all the time but we always have our eye on the goal!

So, now that you have an idea of how we get stuff done around here, here's a list of highlights from this week's product release, version 1.4.1:

INSIGHTS AOV

Lots of studios who have tried PhotoDay this fall photo season are reporting significant increases in average order values. So, to save the step of making the calculation, we added this important stat to the Insights Sales page - so you can see the AOV for each job.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

We're constantly making updates to the entire customer ordering and checkout experience. Here are some improvements from this release:

• In the web gallery shopping cart, we're showing the individual crop with each product so that the customer can see the cropped photo exactly as it will appear on the product.
• We've also improved the way we match up photos with products that have spots for multiple images, based on each photo's orientation.

STUDIO PANEL IMPROVEMENTS

The faster you get around your Studio Panel, the better, right? So, we made a couple tweaks that we think will help.

• The Clients section now shows number of jobs for each client AND you can click on that number to go right to that client's jobs.
• The Jobs section now contains important info about each job like access code, price sheet name, and expiration date.

SYSTEM STATUS 

We know that the studios who use PhotoDay are trusting us with their business. We think they deserve to know, in real-time, how our systems are functioning. That's why we added a system status page that is constantly updated to report any operational issues or service interruptions.

Believe it or not, that was just the highlights! If you'd like to see everything that was part of this release, check out our version updates page - where we keep a running list of all of the latest PhotoDay product releases.

Now that AdvancePay is officially launched, we need to get down to business and talk about how you can set it up and apply it to actual jobs.

I think we can all agree that the good thing about paper order forms was that they came with guaranteed payment. But really, how good was that? Bounced checks...eeeeeek! And, we know that many parents ordered the cheapest package when they couldn't see the photos they were ordering. (I confess, I'm one of those parents.) They probably LOVED your photos once they saw them and even wished they ordered a bunch of family gifts or a giant 20x16 to hang on the wall. All potential sales that you missed out on.

AdvancePay changes all of that. Now, parents can purchase a credit that they can apply to their purchase after they see the photos. It's a new method of selling - different (and better) than prepay, and super flexible for many situations.

SET-UP

Below are a few different ways you can set up AdvancePay:

       
• SESSION FEE You'd use this approach if you want to collect upfront payment from parents as a way for them to secure their child's spot. If it makes sense, you could use this opportunity to let them know that picture day is a fundraiser for the organization. Here's an example:         SAVE A SEAT AT PICTURE DAY! Purchase a $20 AdvancePay credit before picture day on October 31 to guarantee your child's photo session time. (A portion of proceeds will go to Fairfield Youth Lacrosse)

       
• EARLY BIRD You'd use this approach if your main goal is to drive early sales by giving your absolute best - and only - offer to parents who purchase an AdvancePay credit. Example:
  - PICTURE DAY SPECIAL! Save $5 with a purchase of a $50 AdvancePay credit. Offer expires at midnight November 10th.
  - You could go one step further and tie it in with your top-tier package: Get our best $50 Big Family package for only $45!

       
• SUPER PROMO This approach is great if you want to create an incentive for customers to buy AdvancePay credits before picture day - and motivate them to spend more after picture day. If you want to try this approach, it's really important that you think about the entire picture day experience for parents - creating one offer for those early birds, and then another type of offer to be used once the gallery is published. It's really important to remember that if you're going to have two or more offers on one job, they need to make sense together and not contradict each other. Here's how it could work:
  - Your AdvancePay offer that you promote in the weeks leading up to picture day and at picture day:
  - Get a jump on picture day and save $5 off your order when you purchase a $25 AdvancePay credit. (PhotoDay will send them the coupon code with their AdvancePay receipt)
  - Your public offers that you can promote in the weeks leading up to picture day, at picture day, and after picture day:
  - Get free shipping on orders of $50 or more. Use coupon code: FREESHIP
  - Get free shipping + 10% discount for orders of $75 or more. Use coupon code: FREESHIP10

See how these above SUPER PROMO offers don't compete with one another. What's cool is that they're incentivizing different behaviors. The AdvancePay offer motivates the early bird, while the post picture day offer promotes higher order values. Now, let's say a parent purchases the AdvancePay credit, but then decides at checkout that the $75+ offer is the best deal for them. In this situation, they'll apply their $25 AdvancePay credit, but use the FREESHIP10 coupon code.

There are really infinite ways to design your offers - I hope these ideas inspire you to get started! Check out this article: How Do I Create and Promote Picture Day with AdvancePay?

BREAKING IT DOWN

We also thought it'd be helpful if we looked at how you can use AdvancePay for different types of jobs:

‍Youth Sports

‍Because AdvancePay completely eliminates the cap on sales, your organizations have the potential to raise more funds, so it should be easy to get them on board. Also, because PhotoDay makes multi-pose so easy, you can introduce candids, buddy shots, coach + kid shots, etc. You can even go as far as creating packages to accommodate more poses too. By selling credits in advance and tying them to special offers, such as free shipping, you can boost participation, without limiting sales.

High School Sports

‍Selling credits in advance and tying them to special offers also works with high school sports teams. But AdvancePay can be used in additional ways for high schools. High schools are all about team spirit so high school teams often want to create banners for teams or individuals, or fun composite shots. You can sell AdvancePay credits as a “session fee” to be applied to a future purchase.

‍Schools

‍From preschools and daycares through high schools, fundraising is a top priority for most educational institutions. Especially at the younger ages when parents are responsible for almost all of the fundraising, finding easy, low-effort ways to raise money is a top priority. Pointing out how AdvancePay can help raise more money for schools than the old way is a natural fit. With all school groups, tying credits to special offers is a great way to increase participation and help schools raise more funds.

‍Dance Classes

‍As with schools, AdvancePay will hopefully be a great boost to fundraising efforts for dance groups.

Similar to the way you can use AdvancePay as a sitting fee for composite shots, with these groups, you can use AdvancePay as a session fee to ensure that all costumes are photographed. Parents can then apply their credits to future purchases.

‍Miscellaneous Events

‍Being asked to photograph a conference, gala, or other one-time event can be a great change of pace for a volume photographer. Professional organizations often offer professionally taken headshots as an incentive for attendees. These spots fill up fast. AdvancePay can be used in this situation to hold a spot or appointment for a headshot.

Similarly, galas and charity events often set up a fun “photo booth” like areas for guests. AdvancePay can be used as an incentive to make an appointment at the photo booth with friends.

In both of these cases, AdvancePay will bring attendees to the gallery to claim their posed picture, but FaceFind can be used to alert the buyer to candid shots taken during the event, boosting those sales!

Phew! We covered a lot - but I hope you're feeling more ready than ever to dive into AdvancePay!

Creating photo packages for online sales is the same as creating them for paper order forms, right? Wrong! Selling photo packages for an online environment is different. It’s all about keeping packages simple and intuitive so that parents can quickly find the right package and complete their order! If you use your old package methods, you won’t reach the sales levels that are possible online.

What’s in a Package

Just like in the old days, packages are made up of products, and the amount of products included in each package is determined by units. A unit is an 8x10, or 2 5x7s, 4 3x5s or 8 wallets. All make up a "sheet.”Over the years, I’ve seen so many parents order the smallest package possible because they had no idea what the photo would look like. I’m guilty - I’ve done this with my own kids’ photos. With PhotoDay, parents can see the photos before ordering and choose more than one photo for a package. For example, a mother might choose a sibling photo for the 8x10 she’s giving to Grandma, a 5x7 of an individual shot for her office, and wallets of a buddy photo so that her daughter can share them with her friend. This variety will potentially lead to bigger sales.You should keep your PhotoDay packages as clear and easy to understand as possible. It may be tempting to get creative with package names, but we have discovered that clarity trumps creativity when it comes to sales.

Package Examples

You probably already know that most grandparents want an 8x10 that they can easily see, and most parents who are inundated with pictures of their kids want a 3x5. Those giving photos as gifts to aunts and uncles usually want 5x7s. You should structure your packages based on the way your customers actually use their photos. Here are four basic packages you might want to consider.

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‍.Large Family Pack

• Memory Mate
• Magazine Cover
• 2 5x7
• 4 3x5
• 2 3x5
• 2 3x5 Magnets
• Digital Download

Perfect Pack

• Memory Mate
• 2 5x7
• 2 3x5
• 8 Wallets
• Digital Download

Economy Pack

• Memory Mate
• 1 5x7
• 2 3x5
• 4 Wallets
• Digital Download

Basic Pack

• Memory Mate
• 1 5x7
• 2 3x5

For someone to purchase a package they must feel like they’re getting a better deal than if they purchased the prints separately. Make it clear how much of a savings your customer is getting by spelling out the percentage discount over buying the prints separately.

Maximizing Your Profit

It used to be that photographers loaded packages up with things like Rookie Cards and other speciality items. With PhotoDay, packages should be limited to the print combinations that give you the highest profit. Speciality items can always be included as add-ons. Digital downloads are a big seller with parents who want to share photos via email or social media. Making it more cost effective to buy a package with a digital download, instead of the digital download on its own is a great way to increase package sales.

A Premium for Convenience

People are willing to pay for convenience, so the environment you sell your product in matters. Think about it, a glass of wine at a restaurant can sometimes cost as much as the same bottle of wine at the liquor store. Why? Because of the convenience of being able to order wine by the glass with your dinner.PhotoDay gives your customer more options (poses & design templates), more flexibility (products & photo editing), and more control (data entry and timing). They can preview their purchases and customize their products like never before. Perhaps most convenient of all, they can ship orders directly to specific destinations. All of this brings added value to your the parents and organizations you serve. It’s important that you make that value obvious to your customers - and the way you structure packages is key to doing just that.

Smart Package Pricing

I recommend levels of pricing in increments of $10-15. So, a basic package might be $32.99 (don’t forget about charm pricing) and the next biggest package would be $49.99. One of the great things about our system is that the photographer is not locked into any specific price or package. If you want to test a different pricing structure or package for one client, you can. If you want to adjust your packages season to season, you can. You can entice parents to choose specific packages by creating special offer incentives.

Digital Downloads in a Multi-Pose World

If you're offering multiple poses, you want to give parents who want digital downloads that little extra incentive to purchase digital downloads of every pose. For example, you can make up a Digital 3 Pack and knock 20% off the list price for the individual downloads. Each single high res photo could sell for $37 while the Digital 3 Pack could sell for $90.For you advanced users, you can duplicate a price sheet and add a low-res download to EACH package. Value the low-res at $10., run a special: Buy a package within the first 24 hours and get a free low res download!After 24 hours of posting, simply swap price sheets to the one without the downloads.The Online DifferenceSelling online is an interactive, step-by-step process that is very different for parents than staring at a static order form. The benefits are endless for photographers - no more hard-to-read customer data, boxes of order forms cluttering up your office, tedious record keeping...I know you know what I’m talking about. For today’s busy parents, the online experience is quick and often on-the-go, so you need to structure your packages to meet their needs.We can’t wait to see the packages you create and to hear about how they’re working for you. Please share your package strategies in our PhotoDay user group!

Introducing the PhotoDay Marketing Kit‍

PhotoDay is a brand new concept in volume photography. You’re taking your business 100% online - and that requires a new kind of marketing - one where you drive your customers to their phones (where they already spend most of their time).

Online marketing is powerful - it enables you to connect with customers on their devices and engage them for longer periods of time. It allows you to give them incentives to purchase from you sooner and at higher order values. But, we know this doesn’t magically happen!

That’s why we’ve created a Marketing Kit right in the PhotoDay studio panel. It contains lots of customizable marketing tools to help drive customers to their online galleries where they can conveniently browse photos, customize products and place orders. The better your marketing, the better your sales!

Common marketing wisdom says that someone has to see a message seven times in order for the message to make a lasting impression.

Because the concept of texting a code to obtain access to pictures is new to many of your customers, it’s important that you share that concept and the code with them several times at multiple touch points (both online AND offline)!

The PhotoDay Marketing Kit is available only to our users and contains banners, posters, business cards, and social media graphics that will help you get the highest participation from each picture day. Each item can be customized with your brand and picture day specifics - the date of the picture day, special offers, and of course the unique access code that brings them right into their gallery!

‍Personalize the Templates

‍All of the templates in our marketing kit have been created by a professional designer. The intent is for you to personalize them with your own logo and access codes. We recommend using Adobe Acrobat or Photoshop to insert your logo and codes. As a photographer, you know that appearances are important. Make sure to double check your template before printing. If sending the files to a professional printer, make sure to discuss getting the best print quality for your budget.

‍Banners & Posters

We recommend using the banners and posters in several places.Place posters and banners inside the school, rink, studio or field house as soon as possible after setting the date. Remember, it takes seven times for a message to fully be absorbed, so the more time parents see the picture day date and access info, the better!

Bring posters and banners to your picture day. Make sure to place the posters in highly visible locations and train your staff to encourage parents and each kid as they are photographed to text the access code so they are alerted as soon as the gallery is available.

‍Reminder Cards

At some types of picture days, when no parents are present and you have to rely on the kids to tell their parents how to access the gallery, these cards come in handy. You can pass them out to every child after their photo is taken. Also, sometimes nannies, grandparents or other caregivers are responsible for bringing children to and from a picture day - you can make sure that they get a card to bring home. And, even when parents are present the cards can be a great reminder! You get it...the cards are a really easy, low-cost way to get the gallery information where it needs to be. 

Social Media Graphics

‍The social media graphic templates included can be used on your own page, on the organization’s page - or both! It really depends on where parents are most likely to see it. These customizable graphics are a great way to get the word out to parents about an upcoming picture day, to alert them when their galleries are published, and to encourage them to take advantage of limited time special offers. You can sync up with the person who runs social media for the organization and ask them to share these graphic posts before, during, and after the event! They’re a great way to create the buzz that everyone desires.

We want to help studios adapt to a new kind of marketing for a new kind of picture day. The tools in the PhotoDay Marketing Kit are a great place to start!