Need Help With Promotion Offer...

[fdpiech]

Hey all you marketing wizards out there...

I'm looking for you input from your past experiences.

I've been asked by a group who is running a 10k race to offer a promotional flyer to put in all of the gift bags to be given to all the racers and volunteers.

The total number of flyers given would be around 500

I could give an offer a number of ways...

1) I could wave my sitting fee ($75) and offer a special on price on a small package like 1 8x10 and 2 5x7 for $39.95 kind of deal

2) I could keep my sitting fee as it is and have the flyer worth a free 8x10 & 2 5x7 for any confirmed sittings.

What kind of promo type gigs have any of you done like this?

What kind of offer did you give besides these two?

What got you the best response back to your studio? What was your response rate?

Did one way or the other have a greater effect on the number of people who bought MORE then the package?

I need to get these flyers to the printer within the week so any and all advice in this is MOST needed!

[ssim]

It might not be a bad way to gain some exposure if you need it. Make sure that you price it so that it is still worth your time for doing it. I would definitely put an expiry date on the offer. This is a good way to gain experience when you are just starting out.

I did something similar in nature with an association where I cut my sitting fee in half and offered 1 8X10 in hopes that they would buy more. A few did and at the end of the day I would call it a moderate success. I limited it to one person sittings.

[fdpiech]

I would call it a moderate success. I limited it to one person sittings.

Thanx VERY much. This is one where I'm looking for as many peoples experiences as I can. I know I can get a few gigs out of this, but I'd like to try and learn from others as much as I can while I still have time to adjust.

[MikeMcL]

before i can offer an answer, id like to know exactly what you are going to be shooting? this would be regular studio sittings, but you have a chance to promo at a race... that is what i gather.

If this is the case, i might say to offer a "race special" type flyer, or a coupon.. people love coupons. Have a promotional price (like the $39.95) and include 2 free 5x7's and a set of 4 wallets. let them know that this regularly is an "$89.95" value or whatever. also maybe say something like "up to 5 poses". if you put together little packages for a certain price, you will normally sell more. I personally prefer bulk, as it adds to customer satisfaction.

If i am making less per shot (that they buy) but i sell more, i make theoretically the same money, and they have plenty of pictures to pass out.

another thing i have seen success with is to offer a "discounted price on the second print"... meaning sell the first 8X10 for $29.00 but they can add a second one for only $8.95... or something like that. not trying to build your price structure or anything like that, but these are things that will add profit per customer.

-always deliver the best quality and quanity you can (while still making a living) that will be the reason people send their friends to you.
-at a low (fair) price, people will get 5 times as many pictures, or much more often during the year. (make friends now for the christmas/winter holiday packages)

good luck.

[fdpiech]

before i can offer an answer, id like to know exactly what you are going to be shooting? this would be regular studio sittings, but you have a chance to promo at a race... that is what i gather.

Yes, You're right.

Thanx so much for you input, I'm taking all this stuff right to heart. Most of my business right now comes via refferal and this will be the first time I've done anything like this. I want to be sure that I'm "in the ballpark" so to speak and not blow myself out of the water from my ingorance.

[MikeMcL]

Most of my business right now comes via refferal and this will be the first time I've done anything like this.

the key here is ( i think ) to draw in folks that you would not otherwise have good access to. keep this in mind, and make sure that your "ad" really grabs a person. develop an idea and ask for help along a way. possibly even have a print shop or whatever do something professional. my big soapbox item is for people to put out max effort, and attemt to hit a homerun on the first attempt whenever doing business.

you never really get a second chance. not to put pressure on the situation, but you stand to make thousands of dollars off this one promotion. take it seriously.

if you get a 5% callback you basically hit a homerun on this type of thing.


best of luck.

[Gary_Evans]

I photo a lot of 3, 5 and 10k races and as many of the runners travel to the races (and I travel the UK to photo them) and the only way I sell photos is via the internet, my flyers have to work.

They are put inside the runners racepacks and I have a sales percentage of 30% of all runners. Bear in mind that if I sell this number of images, many more a looking without buying. And the only marketing is the flyers.

The flyers are 6 x 4 glossies done at a high street minilab.

Obviously what you offer is down to you, but if you only get a 5% takeup you have something seriously wrong whether its your product, or your prices or maybe something else.

[MikeMcL]

Obviously what you offer is down to you, but if you only get a 5% takeup you have something seriously wrong whether its your product, or your prices or maybe something else.

Nah... he isnt doing race shots... those would sell well to participants. it seems that from the conversation above that he is is promoting portrait sittings at a race.

Maybe 5% is a bit low as far as expectations, but i did not want to give false hopes to someone who has not done this before. dropping a flyer for portraits in a racepack is about equivalent to wandering a shopping center parking lot and putting flyers under the wiper blades of shoppers' cars... roughly 5%. and this is from marketing studies, not from my personal experience.

Gary is right, though, in saying that if you take a ton of shots of the participants, especially group shots and finish line shots... you will sell like mad, single prints to the people in those pictures. That is, if you can get these people to actually visit your site, and shop through the galleries for the pics of themselves. hard to yell to a racer your URL as he runs by, and have him remember it.

Just a tip... Don't promote your portraits and "race shots" on the same flyer. Choose the special you'd like to go with and try to hit it hard. It said nowhere above that you were even going to the race, just that you were asked to drop a promo flyer in the pack.

Sadly, once again, we have a poster who skims the thread, and offers his $.02 without regards to the particular situation at hand.

but what else is new?

[fdpiech]

Just a tip... Don't promote your portraits and "race shots" on the same flyer. Choose the special you'd like to go with and try to hit it hard. It said nowhere above that you were even going to the race, just that you were asked to drop a promo flyer in the pack.

Yes. You are exactly right. I'm not shooting the race itself. I'm just adding a promo flyer to the race pack.

Sadly, once again, we have a poster who skims the thread, and offers his $.02 without regards to the particular situation at hand.

but what else is new?

I understand what your saying... but come on now... let's all play nice.