Gift Certificates

[Peacefield]

Does anyone offer gift certificates? Do you get any action on them?

[beeng]

You mean as a photographer, or for equipment?

[Peacefield]

As a photographer; that the client's family can purchase for them as a way to contribute to their album purchase, etc.

[deemarie]

I do, they are really basic (from vista print) I get Mothers buying them for the bride and groom for albums.

[Peacefield]

Yeah, I'm expecting to just use VistaPrint or maybe Mpix to print them. My question is mostly on whether they sell much or not. And how do you go about selling them?

I mention them on my site and have started talking them up to couples during initial consultations, but I feel like I should be doing more to get the opportunity in front of parents and others; just not sure about how to do it effectively without coming across as pushy or salesy.

[caught14]

I would recommend giving it a try. You only need to sell one to recoup the printing costs of the certificates. The hard part is selling them to people. To your point -- how do you let people know that they are available without being pushy?

There are plenty of other people with more experience than me on this matter, but I am willing to offer up a few ideas:

1) If you post an online gallery of the wedding images, mention/highlight these as a great gift idea for the B&G when you send out an e-mail notice that the pictures are ready to view.

2) On the home page/starting page of the B&G online gallery, provide a link to purchase gift certificates for the B&G.

My experience in general is that people often don't know what they want to buy -- I need to show it to them. Offering more products doesn't require you to be a big salesman type of guy either. Just let them know what you have and people will buy what you offer. (Within reason of course)