The genesis for this idea started with both the book Guerrilla Marketing and Tero Sade. I attended one of Tero's seminars last year where he shared his marketing strategies. This isn't an exact copy of what he does, but he sparked the idea. Guerrilla Marketing also gave me a ton of ideas on co-marketing — that is, two businesses marketing together in a way that both benefit.
I first wanted a business to co-market with. I ended up settling on a new scrapbooking store for a couple of reasons. One — I figured that scrapbookers appreciate photography. They may be used to their own snapshots, but hopefully will recognize the value of professional photography. I'm specifically marketing lifestyle family portrait photography with this, and I assume that family is very important to scrapbookers — that's why they scrapbook. Scrapbooking is also a pretty expensive hobby — people who scrapbook are already used to spending money on photography, and might be likely to spend more money on professional photography. All of these are, of course assumptions, and I haven't yet determined whether all of them are right or not. The second reason I chose this store is that I know the owner, and thus figured it would be easier to try out this marketing strategy for the first time.
We timed this to match the week of the store's one year anniversary, which already had a lot of events and sales scheduled. The store's regular patrons were aware of this, and many were planning to come in specifically during that week.
We set up two different co-promotions within the store. The first is located next to my display. On the back counter in the store (which is a high traffic area, and clearly visible from the entrance) I set up a 30x40 gallery wrap on an easel. Flanked by this were a 20x24 framed watercolor print and a 20x24 framed canvas print. Off to the side was a framed wall collage. In front of these prints was a sign announcing a giveaway - a complimentary session from me and a complimentary 30x40 gallery wrap. The value of the giveaway was clearly stated. A stack of entry forms was next to that. On the entry forms I included an opt-in spot for my email newsletter. On the entry form and on the sign was the statement that the winning gallery wrap will be displayed in the store for a week before it's delivered. We'll be doing the drawing tonight, but when I looked in the middle of last week, the jar of entry forms was really full. At least some of those will include the email addresses of people who like my work that I can add to my newsletter list.
The second part of the promotion was another sign that stated that with any $x purchase from the store, the buyer will receive a complimentary session with me, valued at $3x. If they make a purchase of $2x, they will receive the session and $3x toward their final portraits.
I sold this to the store owner by emphasizing the value this will add to her business. We set the dollar amount the client needed to spend at a little bit over what many customers pay, to encourage them to spend more than they otherwise might have in order to get a session with me. It worked! Several customers spent money just to save on the portrait session with me. I don't yet know how many spent the higher amount (which is a pretty high sale for the store) to get a session and a print credit, but I know of at least one lady who came in to spend that amount because she liked my work so much.
The scrapbooking store owner benefits because some of her customers spent more than they otherwise would have. Her customers feel like her store gave them a great deal, which might translate to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. The customer benefits because they got the excuse to buy something they wanted and in return got a risk-free session with me. If they've never heard of me before and are cautious, that could be a big benefit to them.
I benefit because I get several new customers who were willing to spend money to get me as their photographer, and the majority, if not all of them, really appreciate my work. There might be some who spent the money without thought to the reward they got, and if they're not interested in having me as their photographer, I'll encourage them to pass it on to someone else who is. The majority of these new clients will spend money with me, but that's not the end goal. If I can wow these new clients with my photography and customer service, they'll become part of my referral base. I'll make it easy for them by presenting every client with a customized set of rep cards with two of their images and a link to their slideshow.
The owner of the store loved this idea, and all week long told everyone who came in about what we were doing. When a customer spent the money required to get a session, she and her employees took down the customer's information and let them know they'd be receiving a certificate in the mail from me. I'll be ordering the certificates tonight as soon as I find out from the owner how many I need. She'll be writing a letter introducing me to her clients and thanking them for their business, and I'll include it with the certificate. The certificates won't expire, but will state that they need to call within a certain time to reserve their session.
Anyway, I know my thoughts are a bit disjointed here, but I hope that wasn't too difficult to read! Hopefully someone can take something from it to implement in their own business. If you have any comments or suggestions/critiques, please share!
I'll update you on how this goes. If it works well (it seems to be so far), I'll be looking for another business to do something similar with. If you have an idea for types of businesses that this kind of marketing works with, please tell!
Oh yeah — post 300 — Lovecat! w00t!!!!
