5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Increase Sales and Book More Sessions
The last year or so has seen a more challenging time for many small businesses.
The mom and pop portrait studios in particular have had a rough time.
I have personally seen many privately owned studios go under in the last 18 months.
Many tried and true promotions that have worked for years, have now seen less than stellar results.
In a time where the middle class is rapidly disappearing, and the average person is having more and more difficulty providing even the basics to the their family, portraiture is not high on the list of priorities.
The purpose of this article is to bring some new bodies in and boost sales with zero to little cost, even in a tougher economic climate.
So, here we go.
Here's 5 things you can do right away with minimal cost and effort to boost sales and session count.
1) Create a re-order coupon sheet to place in with every delivered client order.
You can also mail these, or email these to all recent clients that picked up an order, say, in the last 6 months.
Make it strictly for prints already ordered.
This way, you already have the retouched file on hand, and work will be minimal to fill the new order, making it mostly profit.
From now on, always include some sort of re-order coupon in with every delivered order.
The coupons must have a very short expiration period of no more than 2 weeks.
A short expiration will create a more immediate call to action on the part of the client.
At the end of my 1st year doing this I was able to see an average of $75 more from every client that I served.
That's MANY thousands of dollars added to my bottom line with minimal effort.
The only cost involved is a single sheet of paper with the coupons printed (in house) on them for about 3 cents each.
2) Referral Cards- Take one image from your client's session and make a referral card (wallet size photo) from it.
Give every client 8 or more of these to give out, included in their finished order.
Each card should include your studio name, phone number, and web address, and perhaps a brief "Tell them (client name) sent you".
This way you can track where the new client is coming from more easily.
You can make it win-win by making the card a complimentary studio mini session for the recipient, and when the new prospect becomes and actual client, spiff the one who gave it out with, say, $50 in store credit for every new referred client that does a session.
Definitely put an expiration date on it, perhaps 30 days, so that it has a call-to-action! 3) Sampling- Ever heard of Mrs.
Field's Cookies? Debbie Fields had a very rough time of it in the cookie biz- until she took some hot fresh-baked cookies into the street and started giving out free samples.
The rest is history and she's world famous, and the ruler of a cookie empire! Krispy Kreme Doughnuts frequently gives out fresh hot samples.
One bite and you're hooked.
How can you adapt this to your studio? Well, the above Referral Cards suggestion is one way.
The next suggestion is another...
4) Free ads on craigslist.
org.
Hey, they don't cost anything except the time it takes you to write the ad.
Use it to drive traffic to your website.
Offer a complimentary session as an introduction to your services.
Have a special, very simple price list for these clients.
After the session, give them the referral cards (from #2 above).
Hey, it's all better than waiting for the phone to ring! 5) Start writing a client newsletter- Mine is 11x17 folded to make a tabloid style newsletter.
You can start off very simply like a 2 sided color flyer, 8.
5x11 inches at first if you like.
Constant contact with your happy clients is the best way to bring them back for more and have them refer friends.
Do them fairly regularly.
But not more than quarterly, or it gets redundant.
At least 2 to 3 times per year is good, quarterly is perfect.
Any more often than this an you will eventually see a large fall-off as the Law of Diminishing Returns comes into play.
This is from experience.
Response went way up when we returned to a quarterly mailing.
Have your newsletter full of human interest, perhaps a quick little blurb about a famous client, any awards your images may have won, some pretty images you made recently, and ALWAYS a game or puzzle that clients can play and win a gift certificate to your studio.
This method books me an additional 30-40 session with each mailing- at a good average sale above and beyond the complimentary session they receive for winning.
This is the only one of the 5 that I recommend that will take you any time or outlay of cash.
However, and well written newsletter can be informative and heart-warming, and it is very powerful when done right.
Adding any one of these 5 things will increase your bottom line.
Adding several of them will produce infinitely better results.
Give them a try.
The mom and pop portrait studios in particular have had a rough time.
I have personally seen many privately owned studios go under in the last 18 months.
Many tried and true promotions that have worked for years, have now seen less than stellar results.
In a time where the middle class is rapidly disappearing, and the average person is having more and more difficulty providing even the basics to the their family, portraiture is not high on the list of priorities.
The purpose of this article is to bring some new bodies in and boost sales with zero to little cost, even in a tougher economic climate.
So, here we go.
Here's 5 things you can do right away with minimal cost and effort to boost sales and session count.
1) Create a re-order coupon sheet to place in with every delivered client order.
You can also mail these, or email these to all recent clients that picked up an order, say, in the last 6 months.
Make it strictly for prints already ordered.
This way, you already have the retouched file on hand, and work will be minimal to fill the new order, making it mostly profit.
From now on, always include some sort of re-order coupon in with every delivered order.
The coupons must have a very short expiration period of no more than 2 weeks.
A short expiration will create a more immediate call to action on the part of the client.
At the end of my 1st year doing this I was able to see an average of $75 more from every client that I served.
That's MANY thousands of dollars added to my bottom line with minimal effort.
The only cost involved is a single sheet of paper with the coupons printed (in house) on them for about 3 cents each.
2) Referral Cards- Take one image from your client's session and make a referral card (wallet size photo) from it.
Give every client 8 or more of these to give out, included in their finished order.
Each card should include your studio name, phone number, and web address, and perhaps a brief "Tell them (client name) sent you".
This way you can track where the new client is coming from more easily.
You can make it win-win by making the card a complimentary studio mini session for the recipient, and when the new prospect becomes and actual client, spiff the one who gave it out with, say, $50 in store credit for every new referred client that does a session.
Definitely put an expiration date on it, perhaps 30 days, so that it has a call-to-action! 3) Sampling- Ever heard of Mrs.
Field's Cookies? Debbie Fields had a very rough time of it in the cookie biz- until she took some hot fresh-baked cookies into the street and started giving out free samples.
The rest is history and she's world famous, and the ruler of a cookie empire! Krispy Kreme Doughnuts frequently gives out fresh hot samples.
One bite and you're hooked.
How can you adapt this to your studio? Well, the above Referral Cards suggestion is one way.
The next suggestion is another...
4) Free ads on craigslist.
org.
Hey, they don't cost anything except the time it takes you to write the ad.
Use it to drive traffic to your website.
Offer a complimentary session as an introduction to your services.
Have a special, very simple price list for these clients.
After the session, give them the referral cards (from #2 above).
Hey, it's all better than waiting for the phone to ring! 5) Start writing a client newsletter- Mine is 11x17 folded to make a tabloid style newsletter.
You can start off very simply like a 2 sided color flyer, 8.
5x11 inches at first if you like.
Constant contact with your happy clients is the best way to bring them back for more and have them refer friends.
Do them fairly regularly.
But not more than quarterly, or it gets redundant.
At least 2 to 3 times per year is good, quarterly is perfect.
Any more often than this an you will eventually see a large fall-off as the Law of Diminishing Returns comes into play.
This is from experience.
Response went way up when we returned to a quarterly mailing.
Have your newsletter full of human interest, perhaps a quick little blurb about a famous client, any awards your images may have won, some pretty images you made recently, and ALWAYS a game or puzzle that clients can play and win a gift certificate to your studio.
This method books me an additional 30-40 session with each mailing- at a good average sale above and beyond the complimentary session they receive for winning.
This is the only one of the 5 that I recommend that will take you any time or outlay of cash.
However, and well written newsletter can be informative and heart-warming, and it is very powerful when done right.
Adding any one of these 5 things will increase your bottom line.
Adding several of them will produce infinitely better results.
Give them a try.
Source...