Are you ready to make your gallery sales soar? Taking your volume photography business online will save you countless hours of tedious paperwork, but it still requires some work. Our goal at PhotoDay is to help streamline your workflow so you can focus more on what you love—taking photos—and let us handle the rest.
Here are 5 tips to boost your gallery sales and provide an amazing customer experience!
1. Customer Opt-Ins
Communication is key when it comes to online selling! Simply put, customers must know how to access their gallery before they can order their photos—making opt-ins the most important part of boosting your gallery sales.PhotoDay’s smart text marketing feature is the perfect way to ensure your customers have access to their gallery, know exactly when the photos are published, and are reminded to place their order. The best part? It’s a totally free, automatic feature. All you have to do is instruct your customers on how to opt-in. We make this easy with our built-in email and printable marketing flyers, video templates, and numerous resources for creating your own branded banners, postcards, and more. Customers can opt-in to a gallery by texting their access code to 90738 and/or by clicking “Subscribe” in the gallery when viewing on a mobile or desktop web browser. We recommend creating a QR code for your posters so customers can snap and go! Once you publish the gallery, customers receive a text message with a link to view their photos and order products.
2. Creating Urgency
One of the more familiar ways to increase sales is through offers and promotions. Think about the last time you swiped up on an Instagram story ad or bought strawberries at the grocery store simply because they were on sale. Before you create and advertise an offer, think about the end goal—offers are used to incentivize your customers to spend more, sooner. You can create urgency by offering early bird specials, expiring offers, using our Custom Promos feature for flash sales, and more! PhotoDay also supports custom gallery-wide promotions and launch sales like “Get a FREE Social Sharing Download with any package purchase for 48 hours only.” Learn more about how to offer this effective incentive in our blog post How to Transition to Online Sales.
3. Image is Everything
Transitioning from paper order forms to online selling requires a mindset shift and the recognition that image truly is everything. One of the biggest changes is that now images sell first, and the products are secondary. With image-first-selling, customers have the option to see before they buy and purchase only what they love. That means your images should be WOW-worthy!It also means that you can offer a wider range of options and poses for your customers. Decide how many images you want to create for each individual and group. The options are endless: smiling, serious, full-body, headshot, black and white, vertical and horizontal crops, buddy photos, etc. More quality options equal more products purchased.
4. Price Sheets Matter
Forget everything you know about creating packages and products on paper forms! For the past 3 years, we have gained valuable insight into what customers are looking for when it comes to professional volume photography. With traditional paper forms, products and packages were chosen based on savings and the assumption that the photos would be worth ordering. With online selling, customers no longer have to hope the poses turn out well or try to imagine what their final graphic products will look like.When it’s time to design your price sheet, start by pricing all of your items in a la carte, then begin adding different products into packages for extra savings—no coupons needed! We recommend stating the savings in dollar amounts or percentages as part of your package descriptions so customers can clearly see what the overall value is for each package.
5. AdvancePay
Well, what if you still want to qualify your serious buyers and collect pre-payment before picture day? Enter: AdvancePay. AdvancePay (or AP for short) gives photographers the benefit of getting paid before picture day without limiting sales after picture day. We’ve also found that AP significantly boosts your Average Order Value (AOV).Here’s how it works:
- The studio sets up AdvancePay credits and special offers that make purchasing an AP credit simply irresistible. Here’s an example: Hey early birds! Get free shipping on your order when you purchase a $35 AdvancePay credit before picture day.
- Customers opt-in to the gallery and purchase the credit to use when the photos are published. It’s like buying a gift card for themselves to use in the future.
- When the photos are uploaded and the gallery is published, the customer receives a notification that it’s time to redeem their credit and take advantage of their special offer.
All of PhotoDay’s features are designed to work together beautifully and easily. From the simple versatility of our text and email communication to the ease of creating offers and selling AdvancePay credits—it’s a winning combination that will not only qualify potential buyers, but also incentivize them to spend more, sooner.
PhotoDay is totally free to get started, so what are you waiting for? Sign up and see what it’s all about.
