Visit Abby's Storefront
Instaproofs Member Since Dec 2012
Three Tips, from Abby to You
- Highlights Folder. For large events like weddings, create a folder of Highlights that goes at the very top of your gallery! Include anywhere from 50-125 photographs, the very best of the best from the event, keeping an eye out for some of those classic, gotta-get-it-printed photographs. My Highlights gallery is also what I pull from for the initial album design and for the clients' blog post, as well as for future social media posts- it's multi-purpose for my clients AND for me as a business owner.
- Create Some Urgency. Offer a sale at the beginning and end of a gallery's time online. I learned from the best, Jon Canlas, and offering a percentage off has skyrocketed our print sales by giving our clients some urgency. We all know our clients WANT to have their photographs on their walls, but getting around to picking out favorites to order and frame seems to be a sticking point- a sale helps get those photos OFF the screen and into their homes where they truly belong!
- A Personal Touch. While having print orders directly fulfilled and sent straight to my clients is convenient, I prefer to have prints sent to me first so I can proof and re-package them in branded print boxes. It shows an extra level of attention to detail, and helps make sure I'm not delivering any less-than-perfect prints to my clients!
- - Abby Grace
Visit Jonathan's Storefront
Instaproofs Member Since Feb 2005
Three Tips, from Jon to You
- Have Sales! Reward your clients for ordering early by running early-bird sales on each of their galleries. I offer 30% off all prints for the first 10 days, and then I run additional sales periodically throughout the remainder of the year to provide my clients with other opportunities to purchase their prints at a discounted rate. Creating a call to action and a sense of urgency through sales equates to print orders that wouldn’t have happened without the sales!
- Show your Best Photos First. Chronologically displaying an event does not result in the best print sales. The first image taken at an event is NOT your best image. After you’ve uploaded your images, go back through them and move the best images to the front of the line so that your clients are seeing your best work first. Don't bury your best-selling images at the bottom of the pile!
- Utilize the Invoicing System. You can easily create invoices for retainers, session fees, balances of a package and even set up payment plans all through the invoicing system provided by Instaproofs. It has really made accounting for me super simple having everything in one place. No transaction is ever outside of the invoicing system for Instaproofs. It truly has become a one stop shop for me.
- - Jonathan Canlas
Visit Laura's Storefront
Instaproofs Member Since Mar 2016
Three Tips, from Laura to You
- Elevated Customer Experience. Instaproofs allows me to create an elevated customer experience with their beautifully designed user interface. It is a breeze to deliver galleries to my clients and the wedding vendors. All of my couples receive the full resolution digital files with their photography package. I am able to program the galleries to give my couples download access as well as the full team of wedding vendors. But when the couple passes the link along to their friends and family, they only see the option to purchase the prints. I love how I can specify how my galleries will look for each different person who logs in.
- Increased Print Sales. I was blown away by the volume of print orders that came in the month after I switched to Instaproofs! My print order volume tripled the first 6 months using Instaproofs and I have had a steady stream of print orders ever since. I always offer a sale for the first 2 weeks. I scheduled emails to send through Instaproofs to remind clients when their sale ends as well as when the gallery is about to expire. I always see a bump in sales when these emails go out.
- Easy Print Fulfillment. Print fulfillment has never been easier! With Instaproofs, photographers have the choice of signing up for auto-fulfillment or sending their orders manually. I have chosen to manually send my orders because I like to exceed my customers' expectations by adding in some surprise complimentary prints. Instaproofs makes it easy to upload a few extra prints to the order and my entire fulfillment process start to finish takes less than 5 minutes.
- - Laura Murray
Visit Karen's Storefront
Instaproofs Member Since Apr 2011
Three Tips, from Karen to You
- Everybody Loves a Sale. Everybody loves a sale! Some photographers choose to offer custom-timed sales for each of their individual galleries, but I prefer to have just two big sales per year for ALL of my galleries at once: I have a midsummer sale and another sale about a month before Christmas. These big sales provide a great incentive to get my clients back to the site to order more!
- Encourage Print Purchases. There are a couple of different philosophies amongst photographers about print sales, but I prefer to encourage them. Using a service like Instaproofs to handle my print sales makes accepting and fulfilling print orders a snap. Even if most of your revenue comes from your session fees and pre-paid packages, receiving print sales on the side is simple way to add an additional revenue stream to your business.
- Password Protected Galleries. My clients' privacy is important to me, and password protecting their galleries allows me to give them control over who sees their images and who doesn’t. Occasionally people will email me for the password to their galleries, and I keep them really simple so they're super easy for me to remember for each gallery.
- - Karen Hill
