Hello fellow OSP'ers!

There may already be a discussion on this somewhere, however I didn't seem to find anything, so figured I'd get some feedback.

Selling prints along with other post event items has been a major form of income for us over the past couple of years (I averaged close to $12,000 worth of print sales last year alone). I know there are some of you that probably do more than this, but I've been pleased with the results. Normally, with our slideshows, we set out business cards and rely on the bride and groom to let their guests know about the online photo gallery, however I know if I really pushed it and did something more creative, I could maybe take that $12K in sales and drive it up to $20K this year, which is my goal.

Our first wedding of the extremely busy wedding season (30+ weddings for this year already) is just around the corner, and I want to make sure I have a good plan in place to really drive some additional revenue! I'm curious as to what methods people use at the wedding and with their clients to make sure they maximize their total dollars for each event? (IE: go around to each table and hand out business cards, have a sign saying all photos available online, build a message into their slideshows, etc)

I welcome and thank those that will chime in ahead of time for their feedback!

P.S. I don't want this thread to turn into a pictage war or anthying, but I stopped using them a few years ago, and my print profits have since then doubled despite a little extra work on my end (i prefer this method).... anyway, there is a photographer there that has stats of selling well over $30K in prints each year back to back... I know this can be done!!!

Don't know if you ran across this thread yet, but worth looking at:
http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...?showtopic=7237


Especially this post since Charles hasn't mentioned the details yet:
http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index...ost&p=85866

That's Pictage based buzz, however, and the OP doesn't work with Pictage, so it's something else entirely, it seems.

Well Charles mentioned that he is with Pictage, but the idea doesn't involve them, and John's idea, well he doesn't use Pictage

But he is working the thing with Pictage, or so he said. He is supposed to "disclose" it to pictage users first

It will be disclosed on a webinar with Pictage as I'm told. We are only a few weeks away from WPPI, and I will talk to the powers to be at Pictage. But you can use ANY online proofing method you choose.

I see this thread has quickly gone a different direction than I intended it to (which is fine I suppose), however I was hoping to hear more about some of the methods people used at weddings or beforehand to get the word out. I was sort of hoping Pictage never even came up, but I see it quickly has.

If anyone is interested in responding to the original question, I'm all ears and very interested

To Answer your original question:
I have cards that say that online viewing is available. As people ask me to take photos I mention they will be online the next day and say" ohh yeah heres a card. At the end of the night I give the bride the rest of the cards.
I will try and attach an image... see below. This is an old card.

Click to view attachment

Awesome - great idea! Do you spend much money to have these made up ahead of time? Also, do you find that it pays off to do so?

I buy the cards at Staples... they have beautiful textured ones. I only print about 30-50 cards... not too many. If they run out just have your regular ones as backups
here is another example. What I do is I usually put a photo of their engagement shoot.
I print it on my pwn printer usually the morning of the event right before I head out They quality is great. You can also set up a small easel like a plate easel you can buy at the dollar store and put the cards on there next to the guest sign in book... If you have more questions email me.
simplycaptivatingproductions@yahoo.com

Click to view attachment

Cool... appreciate your input!

Sorry forgot to add... the cards are under $20 for a pack of 250... I still have and I bought in Nov.
You can also order very good quality cards from WHCC.com they ship 2nday for free they just have a min. order of $12 but every 50 cards is $9. so for $18 you have 100 cards whatever is left over give to the bride to give out, shes more likely to brag and rave if shes on the card...

Again, great stuff

Guess I shouldn't have posted that, John's idea is a great oen though, oh well. Anyways, we do the same as the others, a card predesigned with their image if we did a e-shoot, or just one of our regular cards modified with "to View B & G's gorgeous photos please go to the following site: www.xxx.com" And have the images up and ready to go ASAP. We have them next to the slideshow, and with us in case anyone stops to talk with us. On a seperate note we are also now carrying cards with free engagement session offer on them incase we meet any couples to be, but haven't actually had a change to use them yet.

We're hoping to sign up with Pickpic for fullfilment soon, so they'll go to the site to view the slideshow, then after its over or if they click a link it'll go to the order page.

overnightprints.com, you can order 100 for 9.99 (often there are $10 coupons out there), or up to 100. Very cheep, they make them and ship them the next day, can be double sided or single, Glossy UV coating on single or both sides (or none), rounded corners or not etc. They have a PSD dile to download on the site

I make wallet prints of the engagement pictures of the client with my studio logo and the web address for where the pictres will be available online. Many pro labs will give discounted prices on bulk wallet orders as packages. I usually do another method to save some money since I'm not a afraid of a few minutes of work...

I print 4x6 prints at discount labs (once I trust their quality of course hehe) and then use a large cutter I have at my shop to cut two wallets out of each 4x6. Five quick cuts saves a decent amount over ordering separate wallets depending on where you get them. I usually bring 75-100 wallets with me and have them laid out on the tables at the reception before the guests arrive.

Once I was even crazy enough, I grabbed a formal shot from the wedding, stopped by a lab, had them whip out 75 4x6 prints and passed them out at the reception a few minutes later, and laid them out next to the slideshow... talk about shocked people, it was great *grins*

--Dan Dawson

i also do the custom "business card" thing (from overnightprints.com). I get 100 biz cards, double sided. I custom make the biz cards (w/ the couple's pix on them - assuming I did their engagements).

Hey Matt... we make about $15,000 in sales each year from Printroom.com. I do not know where all of that comes from, but one thing that we do is to offer brides custom thank-you notes at cost. (Now on PEARL paper!) Of course the front has a nice message and photo from the wedding. And the back, a nice message from ME!
I cannot think of better "advertising" than have the bride send out mailings to her 500 of her closest friends and family!

Another method that we use to sell prints is to offer the bridal coulple a chance to invite their families to come view the photos on our bigscreen TV in our viewing room. Of course, print package plans are on hand in case they want to order a large number of prints!

Carrie...

Congrats on the sales, and that's a fantastic idea, thanks! I just ordered another batch of business cards, but this time double sided with the event location to set near my slideshow. I will leave the cards face down so that the event information shows, and then hopefully when they get it home and flip it around, they'll realize it's also a normal business card to drive even more clients to the website in addition to ordering a few prints. I'm pretty excited about all this, and am setting a personal goal to double my print sales this year. Thanks for your suggestions... I may just have to try that - that's awesome! (and obviously working well for you!)

Thanks again!

All of my extra print sales come through the Preview Website that the client, all their family and friends have access to for the sole purpose of ordering prints after the shoot. It is my most powerful sales tool and is very successful for me.

Just one side note from someone who isn't so impressed by numbers at the retail end as I am the numbers at the end of the year based on profit. It could well be and quite often is the case that one person may generate $10,000 (using these numbers that haven't been used above, so that no one is singled out) per year in print sales and may only be charging marinally over the cost of those prints so realizes little of that amount of money. Others may sell $4000 in prints in a year and as a result of a high resale per print price and low cost per print price - may have more substantial profit from those print sales at the end of the year (which is the money you can spend). There of course is also all of the other costs and overhead to make that money. Each business situation is unique and so the numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. I once sat in the boardroom of a man who had a very large carpet cleaning business that generated 2 and a half million dollars for the year prior and had virtually no profit from that and was now in bankruptcy. Sorry to sidetrack - but may be important to newer photographers who go WOW when they see financial numbers that they would dream of having - - - or they may become discouraged when they relialize they don't or can't get anything close to that.

Stoked to see a thread in true OSP fashion sharing information without any buzz crap holding out.

I know that I'm about to start doing "event cards" of sorts from overnight prints and handing those out to guests so that I can drive up print orders.

I'm also going to be copying Pictage's 2-for-1 sales at the start of all my online events and run those for about 5 days or so... (that's just a random number, anyone else doing something like this with success?)

Can't wait to hear what others have to say!

Oh... side-note. I did try the whole collecting emails and then email blasting clients through pictage (switching away from pictage right now...) and this did not result in any extra print sales at all. I know that personally when a large business blasts me with a sales email I just throw it away. Apple included, and I LOVE apple!