Hey Girl, Nice Shot

Cook Up Something Delicious

The new Totally Rad Actions Recipe site is up and running!  I do love my Totally Rad Actions.  Check out what some other folks have made with theirs:

Totally Rad Actions Recipes

Planning for Packages

So we are going over all the data from the reader survey and it is super interesting.

This is a combination I thought was interesting!

52% of the survey takers don't offer any kind of print packages.  

And 80% have average sales under $500.

So that got me thinking about how I increased my average sales, and my highest sales.  I remember when I first started out and I would get a $150 order and do a happy dance around my home workspace.  Now I get a $1500 and I do a happy dance!

So what was one of the biggest things I changed?   My print packages! I started with fairly inexpensive packages.  And I wondered why I wasn't selling LOTS of pictures.  The bottom line is you need to use your packages as a way to guide your customers into purchasing the $$ amount that you want them to spend.  If your print package are $140, $190, and $240 you are basically telling your customers: I expect you to spend between $140-$240!

So in my case I revised my packages to include more value, but also to be MUCH more expensive.  My current packages are $495, $895, and $1195 for print packages.  For print packages my $895 is my most popular package because it includes a session album with ALL of the proofs from the session as 5x7 prints.  Everyone wants all of their photos so this is a great way for them to get it (plus prints).  My full digital package was also extremely popular at the $1195 price point.  Frequently my clients use the packages as a starting point and choose various upgrade options such as upgrading the size or finish of the prints (going from luster to gallery wrap, for example).

For me, I found it was best to have packages that were flexible.  If you say "you get 2 5x7s, 1 8x10, 1 11x14) you open yourself up to lots of "can we change it to ...." .  But if you instead say "you get 3 8x10s or smaller plus an 11x14" you can show that you are being flexible AND you get a lot fewer of those types of requests.

If you feel overwhelmed with the whole sales process you are in luck.  The fabulous Wordsmith (you may remember me gushing about her What to Wear guide and her What to Write guide) has just released her What to Sell Guide which is focused on doing online sales, guiding customers through the sale, AND how to setup your pricing to give customers incentive to buy more. Definitely check it out...Wordsmith: How to Sell Guide.  And most of her tips are worthwhile even if you are doing in-person client reviews.

Another great way to increase your sales is to help your customers determine how they are going to DISPLAY those great images.  Many customers are completely overwhelmed by the thought of putting together a wall collection.  So if you are challenged in that area or don't have the time to mess around with it, you can check out the Design Aglow templates.  If you are doing in-person sales you can get their Inspire Guides Plug-in For ProSelect which are a great way to drag and drop designs right in front of your clients.  I can tell you that my clients LOVE this!  And they buy bigger prints because it tells them exactly how to display them.  If you don't do in-person sales you could get the printable Inspire Guides and use them to give your clients a handout with sample layouts, or use the actions to place your client's images into the design and create a PDF file that you can email to your client if you are doing online sales. 

 

Here is a sample layout I did for a client.  First I laid out the design using one of the Design Aglow Inspired Guide for ProSelect layouts.  The client loved it but wanted to make sure it would work in her home.  So they took a picture of their fireplace wall and emailed it to me. 

Then, using ProSelect's ability to resize photos to scale I showed her the layout over her fireplace (which she wanted to do as gallery wraps so there was no matting or frames). We made some of the images a little smaller to fit her space better but overall it was the same pattern!  She was so excited about the design.

As it turns out we did another sample with just one family photo as a 30x40 which is what she went with but she loved this design!

The Numbers are IN!

WOW!!!! I am beyond excited by the number of readers that took our online survey.  You far exceeded our expectations.  We thought if about 100 of you took it we'd be happy because we know how busy everyone is but when we hit 300 we were jumping for joy.  That means 1 out of 5 subscribers took the survey which should give us a great cross section of readers.

We have decided to close the survey as we feel like that is a great response rate.  We set aside some time this weekend to analyze the results and we'll be posting some summary information here on the site.  If you put in your email address to get results emailed to you, you should see that this weekend too!

I took a peek at the final thoughts which were so interesting but this one caught my eye:

"Once I went into actual real professional business, I was shocked at how much work it is."

I think so many of us feel that way and it is something the customer can be a little clueless about.  Today I'm home working on my business plan for expansion, accounting, and updating my website and I know I won't be touching my camera or opening up photoshop today.  But that is the business side which for me is fun too - just different.

Who Are You?

I have so many readers of the blog now I am curious who you all are!!!  Not as in, you are Jane Smith in Kansas City (and if you are, that was totally just a guess and weird coincidence), but more about who you are as a photographer/business. 

So I put together a little survey that I'd love for you to take a few minutes to complete.  You can choose not to include any identifying information other than zipcode so your secret stalking will still be a secret...but at least I'll have a better grasp of where people are in their business.  This will help me as I continue to develop new content for the site...and also aren't you too a little but curious!?  I'll post some tidbits here on the blog, and those that participate will get the full results, so hurry on over so your voice will get heard!

So here it is: The Upstart Photography Survey for 2009!

Animoto Associate Feature

It is no secret that I love Animoto.  My customers love the videos and they have become an essential part of my sales process.  Because I feel so strongly about it, I knew that I would want to share my thoughts on it with lots of others so I signed up for an Animoto Associate account.  Well, so many of you clicked on the link that Animoto took notice too and they contacted me to ask me to be included in a feature on their associate website.  So exciting.