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.

‍

‍.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!

Here at PhotoDay we believe that technology can transform the volume photography experience. That’s why every new feature we develop is carefully designed to improve the lives of photographers, labs, and the parents they serve. We also believe in constant innovation which is why we won’t ever stop making tweaks and improvements to our product. With our first fall photo season just around the corner, we wanted to make sure that PhotoDay was 100% ready for prime time! Here’s a list of recent features that we deployed:

Creating purchase incentives

Every other industry on the planet uses special offers to drive sales. We knew we had to make coupon style offers part of the sales process for volume photography. Our offers feature is built so that photographers can set up incentives to encourage specific purchase behaviors - like higher order values and earlier ordering. These incentive offers are super flexible so the photographer can design offers that best fit their business. Offer types include: percentage and dollar-off discounts, product giveaways, and free shipping. Our most recent release includes product giveaways - BOGO (buy one, get one) and free product with a purchase.

Mobile experience for everybody

With PhotoDay, customers can access their photo galleries and make purchases right from their smartphones. Parents can go to the website gallery for an awesome experience on either their phone or computer.

Going digital

We realize that sometimes parents just want the digital files of their kids’ photos so they can save them in a folder for later or print them on their own. This most recent PhotoDay release includes a digital download product option so that parents can purchase watermark-free image files.

Gallery notifications

We love it when parents sign up for their child’s picture day in advance. When they opt in early we want to make sure they receive a notification as soon as the photographer uploads the file to let them know their photos are available for viewing and purchase. In this most recent release, we added a text notification that lets parents know as soon as their photos are ready. We thought you’d like that!

Smart cropping

PhotoDay puts the child’s professionally shot photos right into the parent’s hands. We've also given parents more control of their photos than ever. With our new smart cropping feature parents can crop and rotate photos to look exactly how they want them to look. It’s even smart enough to know the image’s orientation - so a 5x7 image will print either landscape or portrait. Parents know best!

Recognizing faces in a crowd

PhotoDay’s face recognition technology, FaceFind, uses AI technology to get smarter every day. What this means is that FaceFind delivers more accurate results to parents who are trying to find their child’s photos in a gallery with possibly dozens if not hundreds of other kids. We want to make sure that a face at any angle in any lighting can be detected. This most recent release (and probably every release from here on out!) will include refinements to FaceFind. We are always striving for perfection.

Getting started on PhotoDay

While PhotoDay is incredibly simple to use, we know that it is a radically different workflow for photographers. That’s why we’ve created these bite-sized tutorial videos to help them quickly get set up and get started using PhotoDay. We take them step-by-step through the process of setting up their studio, their storefront, their clients, their jobs, special offers, and more! If you're not already using PhotoDay, you can sign up here.

Because little details matter

The photographers already using PhotoDay give us lots of valuable feedback for ways we can tweak our product and make it better. Here are a few of the smaller feature enhancements we made with this most recent release:

• Package item quantities: Item quantities will track throughout the purchase process
• Image favoriting: Parents can “heart” their favorite images as they go through the gallery.
• Monthly sales reports: Photographers can track their sales and sales tax right from their PhotoDay studio panel.

We certainly have been busy over here at our Orlando HQ. Please keep your feedback coming so that we can continue to iterate and make your PhotoDay experience even better!

Wow! I have to share my excitement through the game “Never Have I Ever”, because it’s fitting!‍

Never have I ever been asked to write copy or had the need to think about how to present sports & school picture day directly to the customer in today’s digital world, until now.

‍Never have I ever communicated exactly what I want to say to the customer about my picture day products and offerings. For example, I’m not just presenting a photo of trading cards with a price! Now I have the ability to present trading cards, with a price and a fun description!

Never have I ever connected with a customer like everyone else. When I say everyone else I mean Amazon, Uber, Shipt and Groupon.

‍Never have I ever effectively implemented a meaningful digital marketing plan that includes push notifications and text messaging. I can send useful information and use offers to connect and engage, NOT just clog their email and sit there never to be opened among thousands of other useless emails.

Never have I ever envisioned volume photography without piles of paperwork and keeping track of which images go to which person. OH the calls. OH the digging through piles of paperwork to find that order with insufficient funds. OH the image number written down transposed, or the barcode that wasn’t scanned.

‍Never have I ever thought that I would ever be educating others and trying to change the way things are done for the evolution of our industry.

Look guys, when the team asked me to write the product features, description, promotional text and keywords... I felt this overwhelming sense of responsibility to make it as awesome as I could to engage customers and bring value back to what we do as volume photographers.

Then I realized, wow, never have we ever connected on this level, until PhotoDay.

We conducted a survey using SurveyMonkey and Social Media to figure out how exactly parents of school age children perceive Picture Day. There has been many times I’m with photographers and I hear one or more of the following statements:

“Parents don’t buy pictures anymore. They can just take pictures on their phones.”

“Parents don’t value photography like they used to”

“People don’t spend money on something they don’t need, and no one really needs pictures.”

“Participation is down or low. Picture Day used to be so important to leagues and schools. It just doesn’t seem like a priority.”

“Coaches don’t see the value in participating anymore. They are annoyed and Picture Day has become an inconvenience.”

“Schools just need their images for the Yearbook and ID cards. They don’t really help raise awareness for Picture Day sales as a fundraiser.”

All of the above are simply just assumptions based on circumstance. We went straight to the parents, grandparents, children, coaches, teachers--- to ask the question, "What does Picture Day mean to you?" Watch the video below to discover the answers and make moms happy by signing up for our Mother's Day promo. You can find this promo as well as many others by visiting our 2019 Promos Calendar. Make sure to set it up properly so you can gain the benefits from all the promos we offer throughout the year.

‍

AND THE RESULTS...

       
1. Out of 174 respondents, 92% female and 8% male… 87% of parents (respondents) are between the age of 26-50. There are 261 kids between the ages of 5-17. And 258 of the children are enrolled in Sports & Activities.

       
1. We included region, and while most of my following is in the southeast (58%) we did receive various responses from other parts of the country.
       
2. 75% of the parents send their children to public school, with 20% in private school and the rest being homeschooled.

       
1. Out of all families, 62% with children under the age of 6 attend daycare.

       
1. Over 65% of parents have purchased school photos in the past 6 months, 40% spent an average of $21-30 per child, and 31% spent $31-40 per child. Surprisingly, only 49% of parents have purchased sports & activities photos in the last year, with 46% spending an average of $21-30.  Around 37% have spent over $31.

       
1. For parents between the ages of 26-50 years old, 18% feel it’s very important for a photographer to offer sibling photos. 100% of parents 18-25 years feel it’s very important.

       
1. 33% of all age groups find it very important to order actual prints. 7% don’t feel it’s important at all or order prints. GOOD NEWS! 100% of young parents 18-25 find it moderately important to order prints.

       
1. Let’s talk digital files. 35% of all parents find it very important digital files are made available to them. 27% find it moderately important. That’s over half of all respondents. It’s important to note 100% of parents 18-25 find it moderately important. 50% of parents 51-65 don’t find it important at all, or could care less.

       
1. 60% of parents between 26-65 do not find it important, or are completely neutral when it comes to ordering photo gifting products. Surprisingly, younger parents 18-25, 100% find it moderately important.

       
1. A whopping 100% of the young parents find it VERY important to have multiple poses to choose from. Nearly 60% of parents 26-50 find it important. 40% of the older parents 51-65 don’t really care. Maybe it’s because they’ve never had the option presented to them.

       
1. It goes without saying, 86% of parents want the best expression from their child in a photograph. I was really surprised to see 10% of the older parents had no opinion on the matter.

       
1. Group and Team photos are important to about 50% of all parents.

       
1. 76% of parents answered graphic templates and designs are not very important in the grand scheme of things. This disappoints me, as a lot of work actually goes into the design and functionality from both labs and photographers! Maybe we should change our focus?

       
1. Only 16% of parents said they wanted to pay by cash or check via paper form. Maybe they didn’t know they could order online? Everyone else would like to order online in advance, or online after they see their photos.

       
1. Most people prefer to be reminded about picture day via text. Since we gave the ability for them to choose more than one option (text, email, paper, FaceBook)... nearly everyone selected all four! What does this mean? Well, I think it means parents just need to be reminded!

       
1. Last but not least… the perception of picture day as a fundraiser. A whopping 67% of parents had no idea their photographs are actually a fundraiser. It’s time for a change. #raiseawareness

All in all, our survey told us what a powerful tool in the volume photography market PhotoDay will become. Change is long overdue.

Make moms happy this year by signing up for our Mother's Day promo. You can find this promo as well as many others by visiting our 2019 Promos Calendar. Make sure to set it up properly so you can gain the benefits from all the promos we offer throughout the year.

So many great quotes that identify the danger of staying in your comfort zone and resisting change while all around you change is threatening the status quo, disrupting markets and impacting your business. History has shown that maintaining the status quo in dynamic markets can be lethal as technology enables new ways to serve customers and consumers follow into new habits and purchase propensity.

Digital has certainly had its impact on the professional market, eliminating film (and its profits), reducing proofing and printing (and their profits), introducing “iPhoneography” and social media, creating constantly connected consumers, and opening the market to millennial behaviors and their digital lifestyles and ecosystems. And we don’t need to change to serve these new cravings and satisfy this new wave of consumption! Change is inevitable and absolutely necessary to transform your business to meet the needs to today’s digitally savvy consumer.

The spoils of failing to change is seen all around us, from Blockbuster (hello Netflix) to retailers (hello Amazon) to Cable (hello cord-cutters and cord-never’s) to music downloads (hello Pandora and Spotify) and many more examples of incumbents who were run over by technology and did not (or could not) react to new ways of doing business and delivering value. In the portrait market we see reduced sittings and buy rates, lower AOV and prices, greater demand for digital files and alternatives to print and albums (canvas, wraps, wall art and décor). All of this imploring us as an industry to change our ways of doing business with mom and meeting her evolving needs for choice/convenience/control, for engaging her online and on her mobile device, and satisfying her need for both physical and digital output.

Change does work, look at Bose (superior sound from digital streaming), Garmin (services beyond basic navigation), Apple (from Mac computers to iPhones and more), and many other examples. So if change is needed, why do we put up such resistance? Basically for a few very good reasons –

       
1. Change requires us to learn new skills and capabilities and forego the legacy ways that brought us success and market leadership – there’s risk we won’t/can’t do it as well
       
2. Change resets revenues and margins and often forces us to accept lower economics and profits than our current business models – digital costs less and often sells for less
       
3. Change means going head to head with new entrants and competitors who are not encumbered by legacy methods, capital or rules – change opens the market to new business models and new players who are often better positioned to serve them

So, change is hard and understandably risky, who doesn’t long for the old ways where everyone made money and knew what to do and how to do it! But the old ways are gone and ain’t ever coming back so change is needed to compete in today's digital market to remain relevant and competitive.

Let’s face it, in spite of mobile devices and digital photography, social media and online shopping, and new consumer behaviors, the professional market has many advantages. Professional capture is differentiated through style, composition and artistry. Professional output is unique, innovative and offers far greater quality than retail alternatives. There are compelling reasons for consumers (moms!) to use professional photographers and labs to memorialize children and families and to chronicle physical maturation and the coming of age! There are quality advantages and conditioned behaviors that leverage habits and practices of even today’s millennial mom, especially with sports and school where the portrait creates a memory of participation and achievement and serves a rite of passage, something very important in today’s social currency.‍

But in spite of its advantages today’s portrait experience is in need of change. Mobile is the defacto device for all of mom’s activities and needs to be the epicenter of her portrait engagement – from immediate access of images, to socializing in Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat, to ordering and upselling, to pushing to friends and family. Online is her constant connection and Amazon her preferred shopping tool, and portraiture needs to follow into her online world and Amazon-like experience. Today’s millennial mom seeks authenticity, social causes, digital payments, experience over products, and much more.

Order envelopes, checks, paper flyers, etc are all inconsistent with the digital lifestyle of today’s target consumer.

So, what change is needed – pretty simple to identify and a bit more complex to deliver, but here’s what’s needed to win today’s portrait customer:

       
• Demonstrate the differentiation – professional quality vs iPhoneography (which by the way has demystified photos and prints, made all images equally unimportant, and led to an abundance that has overwhelmed and undervalued photography – pro content offers a distinguished and a much differentiated look!)
       
• Serve them electronically – online, via the web, and especially via their smartphones
       
• Provide both physical and digital products – and innovate the physical products to be compelling and inspirational
       
• Amp the engagement beyond picture day – and win the experience
       
• Super simplify – make it Uber simple
       
• Support and align with causes that are important to mom – leverage fundraising to support her children and their leagues and schools
       
• Leverage peer reviews and ratings – and recommend products based on popularity
       
• Deliver an experience and sell the service – it goes beyond the products

In addition to the changes aimed at adapting to new consumer behaviors there are changes needed to streamline workflows and lower operating costs, improve integration with labs, and reduce the overall stress facing today’s photographers and labs. Tools are needed to increase automation, reduce labor, enhance image and data management, and so much more!

Let’s face it, change is hard and change is scary. It’s risky and it’s highly uncertain. But its absolutely necessary to remain current in today’s ever changing and volatile market. People who fear change are crippled by its paralyzing grip and are run over by disruption. People who embrace change are rewarded with opportunities to ride disruption and succeed in the new frontiers.

Change opens opportunities and can lead to real competitive advantage as others fail to change with you. The market is well served with tools and platforms that enable the changes needed, but it’s up to you to embrace change and to make it work.

Maintaining status quo may feel good in the moment, but it risks your future and sets you up to fall further behind in the market. Embrace change, follow into new ways to serve your customers and deliver value, and remember you do for mom what she can’t do for herself, both with capture and output – do it in the ways she wants you to and win her business!

Making Tacos

There are many deciding factors as to what makes a great taco. You see, tacos are all about amazing architecture. The tortilla, meat, and toppings must balance perfectly. One cannot overpower the other. Then there’s the ambiance surrounding you---The music... That bass 4 measure drum beat. The smell of freshly fried corn tortillas.The muffled sound of everyone’s dinner conversation while sitting in a corner booth in dim lighting.And an ice-cold beverage to wash it all away.That, my friends, is what makes an amazing taco. It’s an experience. So what in the heck do tacos have to do with PhotoDay? I’ll start from the very beginning…

‍It was at the Southeast Photo Convention on January 26th, 2017. There were only a few vendors there. When I say few, I mean two of us on the second day. Reedy Photo and Snapshots. We were in the basement of the Aloft downtown Orlando. While the class was going on, we just hung out and did our own work. Jon and Brian walked over and introduced themselves to Deb and me. Brian said he had been a customer of Reedy Photo in the past. Jon asked what exactly we did. I answered, “we’re a local pro lab!”.

The conversation went back and forth, then we decided to get together with just the two of us to talk some more. At this point, I don’t think either one of us knew what was going to happen, but we had some time to kill so, why not? I’m not even sure what got me on the topic, but it was most likely one of my clients texting/emailing me about designing their order form for spring. I vented to Jon a little. I’ve been designing forms for 15 years, I’m so tired of this. He says, why? Why don’t they just all order online? I immediately laughed, and it was an obnoxious laugh. I said, “there is no way any of my photographers would abandon this paper envelope”.

Jon wanted to know more. He was knowledgeable in the portrait and wedding industry, but not so much in the volume market. The volume market is where I started and where I have stayed through thick and thin my entire career. Whether it was production, shooting, sales, template creation, designing marketing collateral, websites, campaigning, reporting, lab sales, equipment sales, support, sales directing, general managing... I’ve done ALL OF IT. I gave Jon a basic overview of what our workflow is from Photographer to Lab to Consumer and watched his jaw hit the floor. He said, “you know, technology can do all of that for you”. He told me about the technology he had access to. About things he has seen and some of his ideas he felt could be implemented to help solve so many of the pain points. I went home that weekend with my mind in a whirlwind.

Then, I called a few photographers. I pitched them the idea of…What if I told you, that you’d never have to record another image number again? That all of your sales could be automated? That consumers could verify and select products and send them directly to the lab? That all communication at that point could be between the consumer, and a piece of software… and alleviate customer service? That fundraising for a league or school could be an interactive experience among a community and extended to scattered and transient families?THEY LOVED IT. And I quote...

“This industry needs change. It needs something disruptive”

So… I blew up Jon’s phone via text and he told me he’d get back to me Monday. That was a long 24 hours. I had no idea what would happen but I just decided (with the support of my best buds) that I had to do SOMETHING. For the next few days, we talked a lot. A LOT. Like hours. I pitched it to my boss, Stan Reedy, and he loved it. It was time to introduce Stan to Jon.

After the introduction, Jon told me if I was serious about executing this idea, to meet him in Vegas at WPPI. So, I booked a ticket a few days before the event. I’m still not convinced he thought I’d actually show up, but I did.I met the team at Snapshots… most of them. I found that they have a solid, equal foundation. Each person compliments the next. It’s a perfect balance. The ambiance of the office environment is unlike anything I’ve seen. It is straight out of Silicon Valley. Even Stan had to write on the whiteboard-lined walls at some point.

That is how PhotoDay was born. The architecture is solid, the team is balanced and our future is limitless.